IndicineFBO Update: Toilet, A Gentleman, Baadshaho

The industry has had very little to recover from multiple shocks when the biggest of them all – ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ – came and has almost gone away in less than a week. The film started at 15 crore on Friday, well below expectations from a Shah Rukh Khan starrer – but has already come down to less than 3 crore business, 5 days after its theatrical release.

Only ‘Mubarakan’ has survived in the last couple of months and it was probably the only ‘desi entertainer’ that we’ve had in recent times.

The outright rejection of ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ has shaken the industry which now looks to one of the more promising films in recent times – Toilet Ek Prem Katha. If nothing else, it has Akshay Kumar who has been in top form recently. The perception around him has changed in the last two years, the multiplex audience now expect good films out of him. The trailer received a decent response too and the film has received political support.

The success of ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’ is what the industry desperately needs to build hope for future films. But if the Akshay Kumar film fails, we’d have to wait for another two months before the next big film ‘Judwaa 2’ arrives in theatres.

In between we have films like ‘A Gentleman’ and ‘Baadshaho’. The Sidharth Malhotra starrer has action and youth appeal, which should help the film take a decent opening at multiplexes. The trailer of the film received a decent response, but it’s been downhill since. The songs have not worked, they haven’t really shown the action sequences either with the film looking more like a romantic comedy, a genre that the audience seem to dislike today.

‘Baadshaho’ is massy, it should open well at single-screens and mass centres – but it’s impossible in today’s times for a film to perform without the support of multiplexes. High costs and multiplex rejection were the reasons why Ajay Devgn’s last film, Shivaay, failed at the box office. It’s at multiplexes in those top 10-15 cities where ‘Baadshaho’ will face its biggest test.

The remaining films will be content and word-of-mouth dependent. ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and ‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’ seem to be the most promising films, while ‘Qaidi Band’ has received the worst response amongst upcoming films, dead on arrival unless content surprises.