Top 5 Bollywood Films: Winners and Losers at the box office

The industry is moving towards the business end of the year, with major films like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Tamasha, Dilwale, Bajirao Mastani, Singh Is Bling, Shaandaar, Welcome Back and a few other films lined up for release.

We look back at the biggest winners and losers at the box office, so far this year.

Top 5 Winners:

• Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Rs 320 crore): The Salman Khan starrer is the biggest money-spinner of the year so far. The film not only lived up to its huge pre-release expectations, but the Kabir Khan directed movie is also the most acclaimed Hindi film of the year so far. The big question is, will Bajrangi Bhaijaan remain the biggest of 2015 or will Prem Ratan Dhan Payo or Dilwale surpass its business?
• Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Rs 151 crore): Before release, Tanu Weds Manu Returns would have been considered a successful film even if it finished with lifetime business of Rs 75 crore. However, the Kangana Ranaut starrer emerged as one of the biggest medium budget grossers of all time, collecting no less than Rs 151 crore at the domestic box office and Rs 250 crore plus worldwide!
• ABCD 2: Remo D’Souza’s dance film series ‘ABCD’ is now one of the successful franchises in Bollywood. The first film did well, but the 2nd film, with a bigger star cast, took the biggest opening of the year when it released back in June.
• Piku (Rs 79 crore): A film about shit is one of the biggest hits of the year so far and continued Deepika Padukone’s dream run at the box office. Except the off-beat Finding Fanny, Deepika now has 7 back-to-back hits. The Shoojit Sircar film is also one of the most liked films of the year so far.
• Dum Laga Ke Haisha (Rs 29 crore): The Ayushman Khurana film opened to a poor response, but positive word-of-mouth ensured that the heart-warming film went on to be one of the more successful films of the year, both critically and commercially.

Top 5 Losers

• Bombay Velvet: Anurag Kashyap’s ambitious period crime drama didn’t even manage a face saving opening at the box office.
• Brothers: Expectations were high from Akshay Kumar’s first film under the Dharma Productions banner. It got a favourable release date too as Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan made way for the Karan Malhotra directed film. Unfortunately, the audience both at single-screens and multiplexes, rejected the film after a good weekend. Akshay’s costliest film, will also be his lowest grosser so far this year.
• Shamitabh: The director of films like Cheeni Kum and Paa, directed a horrendous film starring two extremely talented actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush. The film failed at the box office.
• Mr X: They said the film is targeted at children, but included underwater kissing scenes because the film featured Emraan Hashmi in the lead. The result? Both children and their parents stayed away from theatres.
• Bangistan: Excel Entertainment is a reputed banner, but they went horribly wrong with Bangistan starring Pulkit Samrat and Riteish Deshmukh in the lead. The theatrical business of the film failed to recover even its marketing costs.