“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn’t give you what you desire – it tells you how to desire.” – Slavoj Zizek
2017 has been a year where Bollywood featured movies either made it to the box office or proved a failure. Without much ado let’s do a year-end review of them.
A few which left a mark in the box office were: “Baahubali 2”, “Golmaal Again”, “Tiger Zinda Hai”, “Raees”, “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha”, “Jolly LLB 2”, “Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Kaabil”.
“Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” whose Hindi version scoured Rs 500 crore globally, with Golmaal Again raking Rs 205 crore and “Raees” with Rs 137.51 crore.
Judwaa 2, Raees, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Tubelight, Jolly LLB 2, Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Kaabil which together fetched Rs 813.54 crore, bringing in 43% of the total fringe benefits.
The nine movies which paved way to the Rs 100-crore club were — Tiger Zinda Hai, Golmaal Again, Judwaa 2 (Rs 140 crore), Bahubali 2(Hindi), Raees (Rs 135 crore), Jolly LLB 2 (Rs 120 crore), Toilet – Ek Prem Katha (Rs 135 crore), Tubelight (Rs 120 crore) and Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya (Rs 115 crore).
Looking at the profit and loss graph, 2016 fared better with a revenue of 3700 crore compared to current 2017 where the estimated revenue is at Rs 3300 crore.
The first half of 2017 saw its fair share of surprises and disappointments, some of which had a negative impact on Bollywood in a major way. “Raabta” had exhilarating trailers but was a major failure.
The biggest disasters as per Rediff news were Raabta (Rs 27 crore), Ok Jaanu (Rs 23.6 crore), Rangoon (Rs 23 crore), Begum Jaan (Rs 20.75 crore), Sarkar 3 (Rs 9.50 Crore), Meri Pyaari Bindu (Rs 9.50 crore), Bank Chor (Rs 8 crore), Noor (Rs 7.75 crore), Machine (Rs 3.15 crore) and Aa Gaya Hero (Rs 1 crore).
According to Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahata, 2017 has been a mixed bag year. Films that were expected to do well had a flat tire while the small budget movies fared well with strong content. But then the film industry needs funding as it just cannot run on these low budget films alone as they have their own limitations and the producers need to earn bucks from the movies.
Had it not been for Baahubali 2, our film industry couldn’t have crossed the Rs 500 crore barrier. Though this movie with its gravity-defying stunts might have killed Sir Isaac Newton, this movie alone sold over 16 million tickets with Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal Again and Akshay Kumar starrer Jolly LLB 2 trailing the big bang S.S. Rajamouli film.
Another setback for the industry this year was the fact that big names too couldn’t prove their worth, for example, the SRK starrer “When Harry Met Sejal” earned only 95 crore, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif starrer “Jagga Jasoos” earned Rs 55 crore. “Simran” had good content but didn’t do as well as Kangana’s last solo film “Queen”.
After movies like “Dangal” which alone earned Rs 200 – 300 crore, the pressure on Bollywood industry is no more limited to the 100 crore club. This means the producers and directors need to produce movies more for the sake of entertainment and life lessons.
2017 also featured a good movie on lives of four ordinary women “Lipstick Under My Burkha” which portrayed the heart-tugging effects of the cruel society on women either through the abuse hurled by the husband, either by the fact a woman cannot express her sexual desires or by the fact a young woman has to steal, lie and cheat to dream big. The critic rating for this movie was four stars and as per sources of NDTV, the movie which was released on July 21 fetched Rs 15.36 crore by 01 August.
This year also featured a thought-provoking low budget movie Rajkumar Rao starrer “Newton” a story about a government clerk on election duty trying to conduct a fair voting amidst crisis. It won the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in 2017 itself for the best performance by actor Rao and best screenplay Amit Masurkar and Mayank Tewari.
To conclude this essay with “Tiger Zinda Hai” still running in the theatres, let’s hope we can make up for the loss as compared to the revenue earned in 2016.
If I have a wish for a gift from Santa Claus I would love to play in a big budget movie with me as the lead protagonist and I am sure I can leave a mark in the box office. As I know when I act in one of my favorite movies, I will tend to show more kindness to the homeless people at the traffic lights. Certain films had that impact on me this year, the best example “Lipstick Under My Burkha”.
Adieu, 2017 with the hope “Tiger Zinda Hai” roars and soars to success to sustain our Bollywood film industry.