QnA: Is the box office trend of Bollywood films changing?

Continuation of QnA

Q. Is it fair to say that trend of Bollywood films is changing? From commercial potboiler like Rowdy Rathode, Ready, Chennai Express,  Ghajini to more content driven movies like PK, Bajrangi Bhaijan, Airlift.. (Rohan)

A. Trends always change. There was a time when comedy films used to work well at the box office. Priyadarshan would churn out 2-3 films every year and this was also the time when Akshay Kumar was at the peak of his career. Then the trend shifted to south remakes, what with Ghajini going on to be the first film to earn 100 crore in India. The trend of masala entertainers with larger-than-life heroes gave a new lease of life to Salman Khan, who churned out films like Wanted, Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger.. all going on to be blockbusters.

In fact, Salman has been very smart with his film choices in the last few years. He was the first to say ‘south masala films’ will die soon and by the time they did, he had moved on to sign Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo and now Sultan. Akshay was a little late to catch the ‘south remake’ train. He did Rowdy Rathore which remains his highest grosser, but Khiladi 786 and Boss were washouts. Now, he has started mixing it up too. He has set the ‘content-driven’ trend with thrillers and films that tell a real-life story.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan somewhat lost his way trying to match upto the humongous domestic grossers of Aamir and Salman. After all, for someone who was so used to being the topmost star for most of his career, the target was definitely a huge 300 crore grosser when he signed Rohit Shetty and locked the Christmas weekend. He probably expected Bhansali and Eros to back out and thought he couldn’t go wrong with a Shetty film with such a huge star cast. Unfortunately, it did. And after a mixed response to Happy New Year, he must have also realised that he shouldn’t be playing the number game at this point in his career. It’s all about good films now, which will also ensure big grossers. Fan and Raees will be crucial for him to sustain his standing in the industry.

As for Hrithik and Aamir, they haven’t really followed any trend. They have always been doing different films and will continue to do so.

The answer was a little long, but we had to get into the actor part of it, because more often than not, it’s these actors that have set, sustained or changed trends.

Q. I have three question; 1. Is Hrithik Roshan doing Kabir Khan’s next film and Thug 2. Is it confirmed that Baadshaho will clash with Kaabil on 26 January 2017? 3. Is it confirmed that on 12 August 2016 three films i.e Mohenjo Daro, Hera Pheri 3 and Rustom will be clashing or there are chances of any movie taking back step? (Aman Kapoor)

A. One, Yes, Hrithik is doing Kabir Khan’s next film. Thug isn’t confirmed yet. To answer your second and third question, currently all those films are set to clash, but there is quite sometime to go and release dates can change. There have been reports in the media that Dangal could shift to Independence Day, but we haven’t heard anything about this from a reliable trade source or someone close to the film.

Q. Who is more successful Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty or Govinda as all three are top stars in 80s and 90s? (Naman Jain)

A. Suniel Shetty never really made it big as a solo star. Sunny Deol was huge and Govinda was very successful too. Govinda’s pairing with director David Dhawan was hugely successful at the box office, they delivered several hits.

Q. What do you mean by footfalls?

A. Footfalls means the number of people who have purchased a ticket and watched the film in theatres. This includes repeat viewers too. In short, number of tickets sold all over India.

Q. Hello Indicine! I love to visit your site often, atleast 20 times a day. I want to know how one person can manage and entire film. How does he exactly do direction, acting and producing one movie all by himself.. for example, Ajay Devgn in Shivaay?

A. First of all, thank you for visiting and your continued support.

It’s a difficult and challenging job. More so for a film like Shivaay because Ajay wanted real locations that suit the film, so the pre-production itself took a lot of time. Most people think a producer’s job is easy and all he needs to do is invest money into films. It isn’t, far from it. We’ll try to post an article on all that a producer has to do. To give you a short answer, Ajay has said producing Shivaay has been more difficult than acting and directing it.

Coming to acting and directing his own films, there are assistant directors and director of photography (cinematographer) who lead when the director is acting. It’s the first assistant director who calls the shot. Meanwhile, the main director / actor can also watch the scene on the playback monitor and decide if a retake is needed. The difficult part is the mental aspect of it, he has to visualise the scene as director, then act it out in front of the camera, then return back into director mode and take the final call on the scene.

It ain’t easy. The effort that goes into it is humongous, 1-2 years of their lives and a fortune at stake! The verdict though, is out on Friday itself. It can be inexplicably devastating for actors, directors and others involved, when a film fails at the box office. They don’t talk about it publicly, but it’s heart breaking.