By Aman Basha
Stray thoughts on Hindi cinema’s biggest disaster year and case for its biggest star at the moment
Recently, the trade website Koimoi published a tentative version of its annual box office verdict, and it was shocking to say the least. It has become a habit to hear of a new Bollywood flop every week, so much so that even sure shot material (or so you’d presume) like Vikram Vedha not even getting an opening doesn’t astonish one any more but to see the comprehensive list does create an element of surprise. One, that out of the 35 or so big releases this year, only two, yes two have been Super hits, while the rest have ranged from averages to flops to all time disasters. Two, that Karan Johar is so abreast of anything happening on the Internet that Brahmastra, initially listed as ‘losing’, is quickly reclassified as ‘average’.
In all of documented box office history, there is only one year that can be called as bad as this, and even that year had Raaz, Devdas, Aankhen and Kaante (and also gave birth to the sex and SRK tagline) along with a few other minor successes. The same cannot be said of 2022, where the industry was looking for a reprieve from a long pandemic imposed shutdown of two years and faces fresh competition from both the West and the South, most of whose movies have done better than Hindi films this year.
Reflection on this past year’s box office may confuse more than enlighten, but I shall persist. What is most evident (and thus will be mostly ignored) is the truth that the South Indian industries are making their films with a lot more conviction and greater creative freedom. The latter is perhaps impossible in an industry where one is left to wonder about the lack of any young big name directors who could even do wonders with that creative freedom. Like them or not, the likes of Lokesh Kanagaraj or Rakshit Shetty or Hanu Raghavapudi have distinctive styles, concerns and visions which is appallingly absent in Hindi directors whose films released this year, except Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
There is also the confusion over politics. All art is inherently political, yet the audience’s politics itself seems to be a bit of a cipher, or is perhaps being misread by the film makers. This is most apparent in the disastrous release of Samrat Prithviraj which was perhaps the first big star film to follow such an openly political promotional campaign. This is a stupid misinterpretation of the historic success of the Kashmir Files. A counter to this would be that any film deemed inappropriate by certain ideologies like Laal Singh Chaddha, Shamshera etc have all flopped this year.
Most important is the incredible death of Bollywood’s promotional talent. Of all Indian industries, Bollywood used to have the best promotions, managing to market mediocre products well enough to get some astounding openings. Apart from Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Brahmastra, one cannot think of one well marketed film, even with offerings from big production houses like YRF. What can possibly explain the badly cut trailer of Laal Singh Chaddha that killed the entire hype for the film 2 months in advance to its release?
Even more alarming is the evaporation of Bollywood star power. Bachchan Pandey’s 13 crore opening can be explained as the effect of the Kashmir Files wave and its own substandard content. But what of Samrat Prithviraj, a 230 crore budget film barely opening at double digits? At least Akshay Kumar still can open, unlike Ayushmann Khurrana whose Anek opened at a shocking 1.7 crore, lower than even Vicky Donor. Ayushmann’s woke Govinda act may have finally scored a success in Doctor G but it needed to be retired or reinvented before it comes to a Govinda like fate. There is a lot of chatter about pre pandemic and post pandemic, but only Jhund would have done better with a different release date, where it didn’t have Gangubai, Radhe Shyam and the Kashmir Files along with it. The same could be said for Brahmastra which deserved at least one holiday, while much has been wasted by the likes of Heropanti 2.
It is hard to choose which was a worse opening for Yash Raj Films, Jayeshbhai Jordaaar’s 3 crore or Shamshera at 10 crore, either way it raised serious questions on the star quality of the two most promising stars of the next generation. Dharma, as mentioned earlier, fared much better with Jug Jug Jeeyo and the highly debated collections of Brahmastra (which, IMO, would be a zero sum project without Ranbir’s fee involved). Amitabh Bachchan may be described as irrelevant after Jhund and GoodBye opened at 1 crore, but what of Ajay Devgn’s Runway 34 with the same Bachchan in a major role? Is Aamir Khan a bigger star than Hrithik Roshan for opening Laal Singh Chaddha at the same level as Vikram Vedha?
This current year has, like my article, thrown up more questions than any answers. These questions were a few that I asked to someone who I consider the most diligent and honest Hindi film reporter today, Himesh Mankad of Pinkvilla. There was quite a lot we covered, from the debate around Brahmastra to Amitabh Bachchan’s box office record to the problems plaguing Bollywood to the most exciting lineup today and more. The questions naturally wrote themselves.
(The cover of the video explains my idea of Hindi film history FWIW)
But there are two definite answers. One, that the monopoly over Hindi film music has become toxic, with people running out of songs to remix and immensely damaging the film (Note: Gangubai, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and Brahmastra had hit songs in common). A better album could have pushed Jug Jug Jeeyo to a hit status. It is shocking that even Telugu films have far, far better melodies than Hindi films even in the mass films like Sarkaru Vaari Paata.
The second is that Alia Bhatt is the biggest star in the Hindi film industry today. She boasts an incredible success rate of 90% with only Shandaar, Kalank and Sadak 2 as the failures. It isn’t even as though she has inconsequential roles, all her films except RRR have her in major parts that have earned the most praise. Two films, Gangubai and Raazi had no other star lead except her. This may be hyperbole but one would have to go back to Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit to find such a dominant female star. Her better half and her Sakhi may have had bigger openings and better hits, but they have been highly inconsistent so far. 2022 has been a spectacular year so far, and one wishes she begins 2023 with an adorable baby that breaks the internet and ends it with even more success that break the box office.
Baradwaj Rangan 
abishekspeare
October 17, 2022
Some thoughts on this from me:
1. Bollywood is more and more making ‘projects’ for money than creative movies. Every decision seems to be taken ‘because this works’, which sucks off all originality
2. The whole SSR-nepotism phase was a huge dent, lots of people have now started hating the industry
3. The 3 khans are failing – because of their movie choices, political background, etc. Akshay kumar and Ayushman both took their success for granted and are churning out movies like a factory with none of them being great
4. The music doesn’t kick the way it used to, and songs were the USPs of the movies
5. YRF makes movies and expects audience to come to the theatre without any proper marketing campaign
6. Dharma markets it’s movies too much, with the end product being underwhelming
7.. Everything and everyone is taking a political side, inadvertently alienating half the audience depending on whichever side they take
8. OTT and Rajamoulies and KGFs have shown them South is making a lot of stuff that the audience actually want. And when Bollywood tries to replicate it in movies like Shamshera(once again, ‘because this works’, they end up losing their signature)
9.. So many movies on nationalism, but none of them have a script. Just putting the words Jai shri ram or tiranga won’t make someone watch the movie. Even Pathaan teaser was something along the lines of “India this India that”
10. Trailers are for 3 whole minutes, telling every beat of the story. Who thought it is a good idea? It’s people without brains making all decisions , assuming all people don’t have brains
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Madan
October 17, 2022
Patiently heard the interview hoping he would explain exactly how Brahmastra is a ‘hit’ (big grosser I can understand and that’s different) but I guess it’s adharma to go against dharma now. Komal Nahta even did a nearly hour long video along the lines of management lessons from Brahmastra, LOL.
Anyway, this Business Standard article does a good job of explaining what numbers the film would have had to notch up to be certified a hit.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/entertainment/brahmastra-makes-it-big-at-the-box-office-but-is-there-any-profit-122091100627_1.html
Distributor share is 55%. So Disney and Dharma would get only 45% of net India collections.
I quote:
“But irrespective of the interest bill, even if net box office collections hit Rs 300 crore, the producers and distributors (Star Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) will get only a 45 per cent share, ie around Rs 135 crore, as the rest will go to the exhibitors.
Even at Rs 410 crore, they have to make another Rs 275 crore to break even from OTT, satellite rights, music, and overseas income. It seems a tough task,” said a top production house executive.”
As per these numbers, Brahma’s net India tally is 269 cr so distributors got nearly 148 cr while the producers get 121 cr. At this point, it is running in very few theaters so whatever it earns from here is gravy.
https://www.sacnilk.com/articles/entertainment/box_office/Brahmastra_Box_Office_Collection_Day_Wise_Worldwide?hl=en
Overseas is mentioned as 113 cr. That gets us to 234 cr. On wiki, the OTT right fetch is mentioned at 80 cr but the Business Standard article pegs it at 150 cr. I doubt the satellite rights plus music will be much beyond 50 cr.
So that gets us to 434 cr. Even if we assume the pure production budget of pt1 as 300 cr (since nobody is telling us what exactly that number is), if you add promotional budget plus interest, yeah, the film barely breaks even.
Don’t know if the distributors made money from the film – can’t find the price at which they bought the rights from Dharma and Disney. But given that it released over a massive 6000 screens in India, the price could not have been on the lower side. I would peg it at average at best in Hindi (domestic) and maybe a surprise hit in Telugu.
For a quicker comparison, PS has already passed Brahmastra lifetime worldwide just after its third weekend. And it got a much smaller release than Brahmastra and still made up this money in less time. Sure, PS got the advantage of the festive season and is running in plenty of theaters still in TN (which means a decent fetch in the Diwali season too). But PS also had to compete with quite a few big/biggish films be it Naane Varuven, Vikram Vedha or Godfather. So the ‘intensity’ of audience engagement was much higher in PS. As it was for RRR, KGF2, Vikram. I think it’s a bit of a question just how much of a hit RRR was given its gargantuan budget (and it still made less in current rupees than Baahubali 2) but KGF2, Vikram, PS are genuine hits. Brahmastra is not.
The fact that forget KGF and RRR, even PS and Vikram did better than Brahmastra should be a wake up call to Bollywood. They got breathing room from it, yes, but the film behind which they put all their might got dwarfed not only by big Telugu and Kannada vehicles (both known devils) but also by Tamil blockbusters.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
Patiently heard the interview hoping he would explain exactly how Brahmastra is a ‘hit’ (big grosser I can understand and that’s different) but I guess it’s adharma to go against dharma now. Komal Nahta even did a nearly hour long video along the lines of management lessons from Brahmastra, LOL.
Anyway, this Business Standard article does a good job of explaining what numbers the film would have had to notch up to be certified a hit.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/entertainment/brahmastra-makes-it-big-at-the-box-office-but-is-there-any-profit-122091100627_1.html
Distributor share is 55%. So Disney and Dharma would get only 45% of net India collections.
I quote:
“But irrespective of the interest bill, even if net box office collections hit Rs 300 crore, the producers and distributors (Star Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures) will get only a 45 per cent share, ie around Rs 135 crore, as the rest will go to the exhibitors.
Even at Rs 410 crore, they have to make another Rs 275 crore to break even from OTT, satellite rights, music, and overseas income. It seems a tough task,” said a top production house executive.”
As per latest-ish numbers, Brahma’s net India tally is 269 cr so distributors got nearly 148 cr while the producers get 121 cr. At this point, it is running in very few theaters so whatever it earns from here is gravy.
Overseas is mentioned as 113 cr. That gets us to 234 cr. On wiki, the OTT right fetch is mentioned at 80 cr but the Business Standard article pegs it at 150 cr. I doubt the satellite rights plus music will be much beyond 50 cr.
So that gets us to 434 cr. Even if we assume the pure production budget of pt1 as 300 cr (since nobody is telling us what exactly that number is), if you add promotional budget plus interest, yeah, the film barely breaks even.
Don’t know if the distributors made money from the film – can’t find the price at which they bought the rights from Dharma and Disney. But given that it released over a massive 6000 screens in India, the price could not have been on the lower side. I would peg it at average at best in Hindi (domestic) and maybe a surprise hit in Telugu.
For a quicker comparison, PS has already passed Brahmastra lifetime worldwide just after its third weekend. And it got a much smaller release than Brahmastra and still made up this money in less time. Sure, PS got the advantage of the festive season and is running in plenty of theaters still in TN (which means a decent fetch in the Diwali season too). But PS also had to compete with quite a few big/biggish films be it Naane Varuven, Vikram Vedha or Godfather. So the ‘intensity’ of audience engagement was much higher in PS. As it was for RRR, KGF2, Vikram. I think it’s a bit of a question just how much of a hit RRR was given its gargantuan budget (and it still made less in current rupees than Baahubali 2) but KGF2, Vikram, PS are genuine hits. Brahmastra is not.
The fact that forget KGF and RRR, even PS and Vikram did better than Brahmastra should be a wake up call to Bollywood. They got breathing room from it, yes, but the film behind which they put all their might got dwarfed not only by big Telugu and Kannada vehicles (both known devils) but also by Tamil blockbusters.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
abhishekspeare: I wanted to individually quote your points and say I agree but I found I agree with almost everything, lol, so I will simply say ‘amen’. The nail on the head is the ‘this works so let’s do it’ syndrome. It’s not that South films are immune to this but if Bolly want to learn anything from South, they will find the films that did work bigly worked because of the sheer conviction of the people involved in the project, be it the director or producer or the actors.
Also: ” So many movies on nationalism, but none of them have a script.” – This so much. It almost feels like Bolly producers nervously listen to Iam Buddha episodes or read the comments of angry righties here and decide they need to lean saffron because, again, that’s what will work. Meanwhile Sita Ramam successfully pulled off an inter-faith (that too Hindu-Muslim with Nizam ki beti, no less) love heist of sorts. And in contrast to Bolly’s lifeless remix soundtracks, the songs just kept coming in Sita Ramam with each one being a treat for the ears.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
“The latter is perhaps impossible in an industry where one is left to wonder about the lack of any young big name directors who could even do wonders with that creative freedom. Like them or not, the likes of Lokesh Kanagaraj or Rakshit Shetty or Hanu Raghavapudi have distinctive styles, concerns and visions which is appallingly absent in Hindi directors whose films released this year, except Sanjay Leela Bhansali. ” – In fact, as such, who in Bolly does have a distinctive style anymore other than SLB? The Hirani mould has been appropriated by others and may not, I am afraid, feel that fresh when Dhunki comes out (though I have to respect his track record and hope he will deliver again). Maybe they can persuade Sriram Raghavan to come out of hibernation again and show ’em how it’s done. But he is an eccentric wildcard and, again, Bolly hates that. They want to know beforehand that this works even though, in public, they will tell people that nobody can predict what works in the film industry.
This reckoning has been in the making for some time because Bolly has one way or the other crushed every directorial wave starting with Guru Dutt. They always want it so the directors are merely servile puppies bowing to the stars’ whims. It got even worse with stars producing and thus taking complete control of the project.
There will surely have to be a massive correction now. If a ‘star’ cannot open a film anymore, he is not really a star anymore. As you have said, the real star of Bollywood now appears to be Alia Bhatt (though I’d say this also has to do with her script sense – and full credit to her for that – through which she has largely avoided getting stuck in disasters barring the odd Shandar).
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New
October 17, 2022
@madan you need to stop spamming this forum. You literally respond to EVERY comment made, constantly telling people how their argument is wrong, how they SHOULD’ve made the argument (presumably for your acceptance) and how they should think. It’s grating beyond measure. STFU for some time.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
“You literally respond to EVERY comment made, constantly telling people how their argument is wrong, how they SHOULD’ve made the argument” – I agreed with abhishekspeare and Aman Basha. LOL. Where’s this even coming from? Are you hakimo’s second account?
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lurker
October 17, 2022
@new if you are posting in a public forum, you need to be prepared for counters and the odd brickbat too. This blog space works something like a subreddit of reddit, with certain users more regular than the others (and many just lurk, like moi.) That’s just how Internet forums work, and it’s disingenuous to suggest that a regular user is ‘spamming’ the forum. On the contrary, the forum would be dormant without its regular posters.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
lurker: That dude/dudette could be somebody I rubbed the wrong way in my orkut days. But that was 2007-08 so that’s a super-long time to hold a grudge. Must be a cuz of Trump then. I mean I don’t remember getting into it with this ‘New’ poster.
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hari prasad
October 17, 2022
Madan is someone who regularly comments in this blog right , you can’t just ask him to STFU , if you don’t like his comments , either counter him or just pretend you didn’t see his comments at all , simple.
Don’t get pressed for these things , man.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
hari/lurker: Thanks for the support. But he/she is free to ask me to STFU. Unfortunately his/her wish is not going to be granted unless BR bans me from the blog. In which case I will simply be hanging around more on tennis forum/Talk Tennis, lol.
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Anand Raghavan
October 17, 2022
Madan, wanted to know about your view on Sita Ramam songs and score. It seemed there was distinct Raja influence in a few songs and BGM had ARR influence in many places.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
Anand Raghavan: I don’t remember the BGM distinctly but I would say, yes, the songs were Raja-ish without really imitating them. This has been going on for sometime in both Telugu and Malayalam – a kind of new wave of gorgeous and distinctly Indian melody. I liked some of the songs in Arjun Reddy too, come to think.
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madhusudhan194
October 17, 2022
“In fact, as such, who in Bolly does have a distinctive style anymore other than SLB? The Hirani mould has been appropriated by others and may not, I am afraid, feel that fresh when Dhunki comes out (though I have to respect his track record and hope he will deliver again).”
@Madan: I’d say Imtiaz Ali, Anurag Kashyap, Anurag Basu and Anand L Rai are some of the other filmmakers who have a distinctive style and voice. Imtiaz collaborated with YRF on Jab Harry Met Sejal and we all know how that turned out. He has since been in some kind of discovery mode where he’s been trying out other things but hasn’t done anything great. His 2010 – 2015 phase when he made Rockstar, Highway and Tamasha is the last time I can recollect Bollywood showing promise of promoting unique content. But post-covid, these films would be considered suitable only for OTT. Anurag Kashyap has been eternally struggling to find mainstream acceptance despite making solid films. Anurag Basu and Anand L Rai’s films haven’t exactly stood out in terms of BO collections or WOM.
None of them are hit machines like a Lokesh or Rajamouli so Bollywood doesn’t benefit much from what they bring to the table.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
madhusudhan19: Agreed on both counts. All those four filmmakers do bring a distinct brand and, yes, all four are in a kind of box office funk. OTOH SLB was patchy in the 00s but is now on a sort of juggernaut. The closest they have now to Lokesh or SSR. SSR is almost unparalleled that way. Hasn’t had a flop in years and years!
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Yossarian
October 17, 2022
Talking of regulars, where is MANK?? Don’t recall seeing any of his comments since Brahmastra. Is he still boycotting BR’s blog for the comments format change? 🙂
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hari prasad
October 17, 2022
Bollywood is still thinking that only movies with big budgets , grand visuals and over the top action sequences would work , their thinking got much stronger post the triple gigantic successes of Pushpa , RRR and KGF2.
Despite their big budget movies like Shamshera , Liger , Prithiviraj failing badly in the box office and movies like Sita Ramam , Thiruchitrambalam making big bucks , they’re still believing that.
They think that the pleasant , wholesome and soft movies won’t work at all , just cause the big extravagant movies work gangbusters.
They should stop doing this.
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Akhilan
October 17, 2022
Agree with all your points abishekspeare. Um would perhaps also like to add (maybe it has been covered already) the Hindi film industry’s obsession with remakes, which off-late, hasn’t particularly yielded fruitful results.
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Pirhaksar
October 17, 2022
@Madan do you comment on TTW!? I lurk there but tired of the big 3 wars -:)
I thought Sita Raman songs the couple I liked has more of an ARR touch with the arrangements and the Sufi-ish interludes. I got to revisit. I liked a lot of that film but end product was a bit underwhelming.
Meanwhile watched kanatra in kanada on the big screen, was blown away. Movie has predictable cliches and saga a bit in the middle but what a clever bit of writing and packaging a typical masala story into something that embraces the elements. The technical finesse blew me away and Rishab can’t figure out which of his 3 roles he nailed more than the other….great writing, acting and directing. This reminded me of a more organic and raw version of Rangasthalam and the folklore/mysticism of Tumbad(weirdly).
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Madan
October 17, 2022
pirahksar: I am Dolgopolov85 on TTW. Yeah, likewise, tired of the endless Big 3 fights there and also the endless toxicity towards the WTA. Just today, somebody was claiming Swiatek reads books and solves crosswords during breaks (between every two games) to intimidate her opponents! I am like that 3 Idiots professor, “Aakhir kehna kya chahte ho?”
Bunch of us folks there who are all equally bored of the forum participate in a chat thread there. I would love to introduce our friend ‘New’ here to the guy who started that chat – NonP. If I triggered you so much, man you would die of exhaustion reading NonP’s never-ending (but endlessly informative) posts. 😉
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Aman Basha
October 17, 2022
About remakes, I think Kabir Singh’s shock success led a lot of Bollywood producers down this path. Arjun Reddy was a huge blockbuster, but Kabir Singh did even more insane business and that compelled Hindi film makers to stand in a queue for South remakes. Unfortunately for them, people stuck at home during lockdown ended up watching a lot of these movies which were now dubbed in Hindi and on YouTube. By the time people could figure out what was happening, a lot of these movies were already made and ready for release.
It’s really shocking to me that Aamir Khan, someone who will look at any script without prejudice is struggling for original scripts so much that his next is a remake of a Spanish film Campeones if Himesh is to go by.
Also, for people asking about Sriram Raghavan, he has a movie coming up, starring (you are reading this right) Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif. He certainly has high expectations to fulfil with this casting twist.
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Madan
October 17, 2022
” Sriram Raghavan, he has a movie coming up, starring (you are reading this right) Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif.” – This is like Vikram-Veda (you remove the h and you get a Marathi word that means…hehehe). Ayyo kadavule! Well, if he can somehow summon up the spunk Kat showed in her infamous Ranbir interviews on Jagga Jaasoos, then he will pass the test with flying colours. Is he gonna make her say Merry Christmas Santi Claus a la Michelle Pfeiffer?
“It’s really shocking to me that Aamir Khan, someone who will look at any script without prejudice is struggling for original scripts so much that his next is a remake of a Spanish film Campeones if Himesh is to go by.” – Is it that he’s not getting scrips that excite him or is he pursuing passion projects (sounded more like the latter w.r.t LSC)? I too find it shocking if people can’t just come up with an interesting script for a star as big as him. Or maybe they just second-guess themselves too much out of their ‘fear’ of these stars’ looming presence and personality.
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Experienced Idiot
October 17, 2022
Bolly Directors with a distinct voice? Look no further than Abbas Mustaan
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gnanaozhi
October 17, 2022
Some other factors I believe contribute strongly to this decline.
The most egregious one would imo be that nepotism truly is a problem, not actors but film makers and script writers. The core of any successful movie.
The directorial clique is tight and relatively tiny, a large portion of them coming from very similar backgrounds urban, affluent, English is the dejure lingua franca given this upbringing.
What this means is they are utterly disconnected from the audience and live in their own ivory tower. Look at the Tamil industry in the past idk 10 odd years and the sheer new talent it has birthed.
P A Ranjit, Kartik Subburaj, Lokesh Kanakaraj, Ajay Gnanamuthu, Nalan Kumaraswamy, P A Ranjith (can you imagine any one in the current cohort of posh Bollywood directors making something as genius, earthy as Sarpetta Parambarai?), Thiagaran Kumaraswamy (arguably the best of this cohort but has the same production rate of Terrence Malik in the period 1973-2005 unfortunately for us) Amudhan and so many more.
Each one of them a bonafide director in their own right, exceptionally gifted, and have no big daddy that enabled their rise. Many are from tier 2 towns or a decidedly middle or lower middle class background in Chennai. They made it big PURELY on account of their talent.
This meritocracy is almost non existent in Bollywood these days and fresh, creative content is lacking leading to ripping off Tamil, Telugu movies and remaking them.
What Bollywood needs is a show like NalayaIyakunar backed by a big name studio like Dharma or YRF or even TIPS.
Without a director driven, script driven approach Bollywood has to rely heavily on star power and star salaries have reached absurd levels, leading to compromises in production values and they don’t even do back end deals (unless like Srk or Amir it’s their own Production house). A useless actor like Canada Kumar took in 60 cr of the total 180 cr budget of Prithviraj. Throw in director, and other actor salaries and you have half the production cost going into just salaries and that’s absurd. Take RDJ and the Avengers, he made $10 mn on a $350 mn budget. That’s 3% of the budget, apply it to Samraj, and you get 5.5cr. Literally no self respecting A, B or even C listers will accept this. Yet RDJ staked his reputation and his back end deals earned him $50 mn.
B’wood producers should start pushing the big name stars to start standing by their product and put the majority of their earnings in back end deals on total revenue earned at the BO.
This will leave a lot more money for things like….decent graphics.
Start pushing for script or character driven, director lead movies and not cookie cutter A Lister lead phoned in scripts.
Heck even a simple and bottom tier Masala movie like Viruman is better mounted and better acted than a AAA Bollywood product for the most part.
I would think this period is what Vijay went through in the Sura phase, and then learned, reinvented himself and found his second wind.
Bollywood has to look inward , do some soul searching and work it’s way through this period.
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sanjay
October 17, 2022
It’s not just nepotism but a combination of scheming bunch of idiots with no conviction. Weekend starts with a itch to watch a movie but 20 mins in and the drill is noticeable. Just to summarize a 2014 ‘Dragon’ is dragged endlessly to be the 2022 ‘Brahmastra’ which is representative of Bollywood decadence into opportunism and submission to irrelevancy.
Bollywood will remain out of place for a very long time till the fantasy of bhakti is admonished and true blue blood comes over and takes the bull by the horn and introduces Indians to the real adversaries to the societies rather than a stateless religious fanatic blaring similarly to our news channel day in and out. Southern movies are getting away by being under the radar and that is why a Pushpa could still be conceived unlike Hindi cinema which is full of boot lickers
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Aman Basha
October 17, 2022
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/17/when-the-hindu-right-came-for-bollywood
Something for @sanjay. The truth is also that none of the present day Hindi stars inspire a fan following strong enough to defend them from politicians, unlike say SRK who got away with a panga against Bal Thackeray himself or (controversially) Sanjay Dutt. Just look at how fans rallied around Vijay, must say the BJP definitely helped in crowning Joseph Vijay (as they constantly call him) as the TN box office king.
Also, has there even been an incident before like Padmavati where a film went through such a massive imbroglio before and after release? Why wouldn’t film makers be terrified? If something like that could happen to a Bhansali, think about smaller film makers, I think political pressure is not being discussed enough here.
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Srinivas R
October 17, 2022
I think Bollywood simply has unviable budgets on top of all other core issues of originality, rootedness, lack of connect with ground reality etc. Vikram Vedha in Tamil was a 15cr movie I guess, but somehow the Hindi version cost abt 10 times that? Unable to wrap my head around that.
Promos – except Brahmastra and to an extent Vikram Vedha, hardly a buzz abt new releases. PS-1 had a promo avalanche. Kamalahasan was giving abt 100 interviews. No one even knew Prithviraj was releasing. Or even Doctor G. No buzz at all. Can’t get viewers with that.
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vishal yogin
October 18, 2022
The only Bollywood movie I remember from the last 5 odd years that I really loved was Pari (2018)
I don’t think I have seen more than a dozen over those years.
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Madan
October 18, 2022
Srinivas R: I think the weak promo campaigns are also symptomatic of how the concentrated nature of TV programming (i.e. only towards soaps that attract a certain demographic and a lack of broad programming) and TV’s own fondness for copying Western formats (which started, ironically, with our most successful TV show ever – KBC) have made it harder for Bollywood to use TV channels to promote their movies. I mean, they do, they come on Kapil Sharma or Indian Idol but even these most popular shows actually have relatively small audiences.
I noticed that the PS stars did an interview with Bhavna on Sun TV on Dussera. You can imagine the amount of eyeballs that would get in TN (the Lyca productions youtube video of that interview has 1.2 mn views). That used to be the way Bollywood could promote their movies too but now Hindi TV programming is filled with regular soaps that cannot be interrupted for a movie promotion. So this forces Bolly to piggyback on Kapil Sharma or Indian Idol and use social media instead for reach.
Of course, some films like Doctor G are very poorly promoted even so – I don’t know that Ayushmann appeared on any channel other than Bollywood Hungama.
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AnonCozAfraid
October 18, 2022
“Meanwhile Sita Ramam successfully pulled off an inter-faith (that too Hindu-Muslim with Nizam ki beti, no less) love heist of sorts”
@Madan: I don’t think the interfaith part of the love stories in Sita Ramam or Ante Sundaraniki are that impressive considering both male leads are Hindus (that too the highest of castes in AS. Don’t remember in SR). Switch their religions and right wing will be calling for blood. Case in point – Padmaavat (Rajput ki bahu with a Muslim king) and that wasn’t even a love story.
Among interfaith love stories only Kedarnath and Annayum Rasoolum come to my mind where the male lead isn’t Hindu. Is there a film where a Hindu woman marries outside her faith with a happy ending? Is it too much to want a non status quo affirming, interfaith romcom which is made like any other with no mentions of religion at all?
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Madan
October 18, 2022
“I don’t think the interfaith part of the love stories in Sita Ramam or Ante Sundaraniki are that impressive considering both male leads are Hindus ” – That’s true. I forgot that the issue is they don’t like Muslims ‘stealing’ Hindu, uh, reproducers. Still, it seems like Bollywood has frozen up and won’t even go THERE. I do agree with Aman though that the campaign against Bollywood, against national icons and even brands has been far more vicious than anything the South stars have been subjected to.
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AnonCozAfraid
October 18, 2022
“Is there a film where a Hindu woman marries outside her faith with a happy ending?” – Answering my own question. My Name is Khan – Although sadder things happen in the movie (one might argue the saddest thing being the movie’s existence), at least the love story ends well. There was a controversy around SRK during that time, but I don’t think it was related to the content of the film.
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therag
October 18, 2022
All the other film industries have made at least one “must-watch” film in the post-pandemic and even a few years “pre-pandemic”. This is not a comment on the film’s quality but on its hype and the “I have to watch this no matter how this turns out” quality. Even here among the blog-vaasis.
Tamil – PS-1, Vikram
Telugu – RRR
Kannada – KGF2, Kantara
Malayalam – Kumbalangi Nights, Jallikattu
Hindi – ????? Maybe Brahmastra?
I have only watched a few from the list above but except Brahmastra, all the others have at some point been on my watchlist. Name the Hindi film that demanded that you get off your asses and watch in the theatres.
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Doba
October 18, 2022
Are you all feeling sympathy for the same Bollywood that is rolling the red carpet out for that awful Sajid Khan? Why? I don’t get it.
It is like feeling sorry for the Guj government if (hopefully when) they get voted out for releasing the Bilkis Bano convicts.
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gnanaozhi
October 18, 2022
There seems to be some collective amnesia here on controversial movies involving Islam.
Bombs were thrown at Mani R’s house over Bombay, theatres burnt down over Gadar’s controversial dialogue where Sunny Deol applies sindoor on a Muslim character. Kamalahassan had to publicly back down and issue an apology and make changes before Viswaroopam was allowed to be released by Muslim groups.
There have also been many movies where the Male is Muslim and the woman Hindu. Pinjar, Dahek, Ishqiya, MNK, Kedarnath to name a few I can recall.
Let’s not pretend that,
(A) Bollywood doesn’t make movies that have romance that has Hindu male / Muslim female and vice versa movies. It does
(B) that Muslim groups don’t organise and literally burn down theatres if they find something to be offensive. They do.
On this whole “hindutva attacking Bollywood”, cancel culture as we know it, was invented by the leftist clique, so I fail to see why or how any person or group boycotting a movie because they want to is so controversial? It’s a free market right, my wish if I want to watch or boycott a movie.
Lastly, the Padmavat protests had nothing to do with “Hindutva”, it was organised by the Karni sena, a group that even during the protests declared support for the INC and have sincr then backed the INC in polls.
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Aman Basha
October 18, 2022
Oh boy, I shouldn’t have put that article here. But for someone’s point about a Muslim boy and Hindu girl having a normal romance that ignores their faith, I put up DUN….DUN….DUN….Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. Which, if you think about it, is the story of a Muslim boy getting rejected by and not getting over a Hindu girl and their faiths don’t matter at all. What does it mean that 70s blockbusters seem more progressive than movies today?
Also @gnanozhi, I wasn’t talking about the Karni Sena, more about Padmaavat being banned by BJP Govts in Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat. After reading about the Karni Sena as you so elegantly put out, I am happy that you concur with my point on how the BJP is a big bunch of duffers 🙂 Let’s talk about things we agree on than what we disagree about.
You and I both know that Vishwaroopam wasn’t banned because of some dumb mullahs, but Amma. Ask Kamal and he’d say the same.
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Madan
October 18, 2022
“What does it mean that 70s blockbusters seem more progressive than movies today?” – They were for the most part, though any discussion on homosexuality in the movies was years and years away at that point. But on religion, caste and even gender, they were more progressive than today in many ways. This is part of why I hate DDLJ and when you put it up side by side with QSQT, the difference is very apparent. DDLJ is like telling Aamir that had he only taken all the beatings from Thakur saab and survived, then he would have got permission to marry Juhi. DDLJ killed the very idea that love reigns supreme. Naiiii, parampara, dad, parampara!
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lurker247
October 18, 2022
@Madan
“DDLJ killed the very idea that love reigns supreme. Naiiii, parampara, dad, parampara!”
Back when the IMDB message boards existed, I used to frequent the Indian Cinema board, and there was an East-European lady (maybe Czech), who was a huge Raveena Tandon fan.
Your line about DDLJ reminds me of her. According to her , DDLJ was the most horrific film she ever saw, because of similar reasons. She just couldn’t fathom the popularity of the movie, hehe.
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Madan
October 18, 2022
lurker: Sigh, at least I have some company now. IIRC Anu Warrier doesn’t like DDLJ either. I’d sooner watch Chinna Thambi or Kizhakku Vaasal again than that particular brand of designer-traditional.
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lurker247
October 18, 2022
@Anon
“Is it too much to want a non status quo affirming, interfaith romcom which is made like any other with no mentions of religion at all?”
What’s the conflict for such a plot? Indian 20-somethings are hardly the carefree individuals just trying to figure out where they fit in in the scheme of things, unlike Hollywood. They already have so much baggage by the time they step into adulthood. The fact of even falling in love is a huge rebellion.
The compatibility issues, figuring out if they make sense as a couple, etc. etc. that drive Hollywood rom-coms don’t really fit the Indian milieu, and wouldn’t be “rooted”, which as I’ve seen is a criticism that’s hurled against Bollywood movies nowadays.
Such a movie would be like a foreign fantasy film, which I guess, you can have, but what’s the point?
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Ravi K
October 18, 2022
I thought “Badhaai Do” was really good. It deftly turned what could have become a tired farce into a funny and moving film. Other than that I have hardly seen any post-pandemic Hindi films.
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Madan
October 18, 2022
I saw Gangubai the other day at last. It was good but it was good in spite of the script and because of Alia.
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Jayram
October 18, 2022
@lurker247, I remember that IMDB comment by that Eastern European Raveena Tandon fan.
Do you remember on the DDLJ IMDB message forum board where two ladies argued long and hard over the topic that DDLJ promoted patriarchy? The person who argued that DDLJ was not regressive was a SRK fanatic named SRani (who later changed her username to HeadleyLamarr)! You should have seen her comments on Amitabh; she absolutely loathed him!
Glad I never participated in the Indian Cinema Board; those people were vicious. I spent the majority of my time in the Movie Awards Board educating myself on films and participating in polls like Best Performance Not Nominated for an Oscar in a particular year, Best Ensemble, etc.
And you know what? I’m not at all nostalgic for those IMDB message forum days and I’m glad I’m here.
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Yajiv
October 18, 2022
Surprised to see “Kedarnath” trotted out as an example of Hindutva not attacking a “Muslim boy meets Hindu girl” plotline in modern Bollywood. Weren’t there protests and FIRs (against the makers) with accusations of ‘love jihad’ prior to the release of that movie?
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AnonCozAfraid
October 18, 2022
“But for someone’s point about a Muslim boy and Hindu girl having a normal romance that ignores their faith, I put up DUN….DUN….DUN….Muqaddar Ka Sikandar. Which, if you think about it, is the story of a Muslim boy getting rejected by and not getting over a Hindu girl and their faiths don’t matter at all.”
@Aman Basha: But I want a happy ending 🙂 I agree though that their faiths are immaterial.
@Lurker247: The is no dearth of rooted love stories and we are not going to stop making them any time soon. Make the conflict same as any love story except featuring an inter faith couple without making religion into a plot point. Like MKS as Aman Basha mentioned, but may be more lighthearted.
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Rajesh A
October 19, 2022
In my opinion, Bahubali, RRR, KGF, (perhaps/hopefully PS-1 after OTT release and TV premiere), now Kantara have given the taste (of movies which are connected to the ethnic roots) to the main stream Hindi audiences. They have also given the taste of quality movies. The quality comes because the money is pumped into essential production values not for stardom, luxury, hotels, promotions etc. Just see Vikram Vedhaa which was made in 11 crore in Tamil was made in 175 crore in Hindi. I am sure the directors Pushkar Gayathri would not have been the reason for it.
Even in south those fancy indoor set songs, item songs don’t sell anymore (some exceptions like O Solriya are there) . But Bollywood is still depended on Nora Fatehi, Katrina Kaif, Kiara Advani. I wonder how Kareena Kapoor still having a market? Why they think that a Madhuri Dixit / Kajol movie will be watched just because it is a Madhuri Dixit / Kajol movie? If they come with a good content, I don’t mind. But, these celebrities’ who should have retired long ago have no reason to be seen on the screen unless they can give something for the audience.
and Ekta kapoor was recently questioned by high courts for giving such bad content/choices to the younger generation.
So people are upset. Difficult for Bollywood to bounce back in next 5 years.
One year or one month or one star or one director can revive the industry over night. That is the truth.
For a sustaining and good growth, it would only be a slow revival. But that revival has to come from meaningful content , good presentation. No gimmicks. No promotions. No cost on your luxury etc
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brangan
October 19, 2022
Random points based on comments above (below?):
Every industry has bad years / bad phases. The Malayalam industry we celebrate so much today had a horrible phase where they were trying to mimic Tamil / Telugu mass movies. It just takes a new generation of filmmakers to come and change it all — and it will take some time.
BRAHMASTRA is like PS-1. The cost of the film is divided among several (hopeful) sequels. Whether it is a bad investment or not, only time will tell. But a Rs 200 crore+ gross means the film got a lot people to the theatres, which is more than can be said of many other films.
The success of a film today is decided in two ways. One, did it make money for the producer? Taken this way, almost every movie is a “hit”, because of OTT, satellite, overseas, etc. If Aamir has forgone his salary or minimised it for LSC, even that is a hit for the producer. Even the very expensive GANGUBAI is a hit. It’s not like the old days, where a film needed to recover everything from theatres and satellite. For many films, theatrical revenue is just gravy.
Two, did it make money for the food chain — i.e., exhibitors and distributors, i.e. did the film bring people to theatres? Taken this way, every industry is facing a problem (to various degrees).
None of the non-star films are working in Tamil — even a supposedly “small” film like THIRUCHITTRAMBALAM has Dhanush. The Tamil industry is in a dire crisis, too — only nobody talks about it because of the focus on Bollywood. Hero salaries are insane. An actor whose biggest share-earner is around Rs. 25 crore is demanding (and getting) Rs. 35-40 crores. And OTTs are not willing to touch many Tamil films unless they “prove” themselves theatrically. (I don’t know about other industries.) We hear only about success stories like VIKRAM and PS-1, but there is a ton of films in a pipeline that people are not willing to touch (including those with some major stars.)
Imagine: let’s say PS-1 brings Rs 200 crore to the food chain, but Rs. 120 crore of that goes to Vijay’s salary. Now, I hear Rajini has signed a Rs. 300-crore deal with Sun Pictures. This is all very scary for the food chain.
Which is why many distributors are not “buying” films anymore. They are signing agreements with producers saying, “We’ll release the film, and whatever it makes, we will take x per cent and give the rest to you.” This is a complete reversal of the old MG system, because now films have to “prove” themselves in theatres.
Only when smaller films with relative unknowns become hits (like UPPENA and JATHI RATHNALU) on a regular basis can we call an industry “back on its feet” (theatrically speaking).
It is my feeling that very few big films — in any industry — are going to do enough business to get back their investment through theatrical business alone. If — taking a random example — PS-1 had not been sold to OTT for RS 125 crore, it might have begun to make money only from the sequel.
But yes, Bollywood is in a rut. These things are cyclical, and the industry will get out of it just like other industries did. It’s like Clemenza’s line in THE GODFATHER, when Michael kills the cop and flees, and the Mafia is subjected to a major crackdown by the cops.
“These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood. Been ten years since the last one. You know, you gotta stop them at the beginning.” 🙂
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Anand Raghavan
October 19, 2022
BR, how do you see phenomenal success of Kantara at all India level? A movie that was so rooted in local culture is now celebrated everywhere.
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Madan
October 19, 2022
“And OTTs are not willing to touch many Tamil films unless they “prove” themselves theatrically. (I don’t know about other industries.)” – So Gargi didn’t get a good fetch on Amazon, I guess? Because it had a short theatrical run. I was surprised that even Thiruchitrambalam went to Sun Nxt after a successful run when a Hotstar or Amazon would have given it much better reach.
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therag
October 19, 2022
@Madan, Thiruchitrambalam was a Sun Pictures venture. Their business model is to get viewers to Sun Nxt. They probably were happy it did well in theatres but couldn’t care less.
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Madan
October 19, 2022
therag: Thanks, that makes it sense. Viacom did offload LSC to Netflix but yeah, I guess there they badly needed to make some money from the OTT fetch.
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brangan
October 19, 2022
Anand Raghavan: A lot of people seem to think I did not like KANTARA. I did. Quite a lot. It’s just that the middle portions have major issues. Kishore’s change of heart, the fact that the villains could be spotted from a mile away, the love angle — all of this was written weakly. (For instance, the second Shiva’s brother gets into the Jeep, you know he is a dead duck.)
And yet, why does it work?
Because the basic skeleton is the much-used “ordinary man refuses to accept his destiny until shaken out of his stupor”. This Chosen One narrative is familiar to us, whether from KARNAN or STAR WARS. This is a template that has worked across the years. Even BRAHMASTRA has this template — only, it looks towards Marvel / Avengers than our own folklore.
This is a template that is familiar to masala-movie-loving audiences, plus we have always been partial to films that deal with the supernatural. This factor cannot be underestimated — we just love ghost stories / supernatural stories / stories about possession.
I think the success of KANTARA is because it uses this structure so well — in the beginning , and of course, in the stupendous last half-hour. The success of KANTARA is due to the revitalisation of a familiar template using unfamiliar cultural symbolism / local colours.
After watching the film, I wondered if KARNAN would have done equally well if dubbed in other languages. Because it, too, is the story of an oppressed people and land and a reluctant saviour. It, too, riffs on folklore (the Mahabharata, the siru-deivangal, or ‘smaller deities’, worshipped in villages).
Audiences always flock to stories that they are used to, but told in refreshingly new ways. (They may not get all the layers in a KARNAN or a KANTARA, but the superstructure or the template keeps them hooked to the “basic story”.) And I hope the success of KANTARA inspires other masala filmmakers to look inwards and find new ways of telling old stories.
PS: I personally think the super-amazing GARUDA GAMANA VRISHABA VAHANA is a better film, and a better revitalisation of an old plotline (“friends who become enemies”) with folklore-ish touches. (The friends, for instance, are named Shiva and Hari.) It’s possibly the most classy and sophisticated masala movie I have seen in any language in the last ten years.
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lurker
October 19, 2022
“An actor whose biggest share-earner is around Rs. 25 crore is demanding (and getting) Rs. 35-40 crores.”
I’m curious why this happens. I would have thought that someone with enough wherewithal to produce a film would have better financial sense than accede to an unreasonable demand like this.
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Srinivas R
October 19, 2022
@BR – Have the same question as lurker, why would producers/production houses pay a salary far higher than a star’s proven potential? The star salaries in Tamil cinema never make sense to me. Surely. producers can’t be so dumb. 300Cr deal for Rajini is insane. With due respect to Rajini, he is probably second or third in pecking order in Tamil cinema now, so this deal makes zero sense. This will in turn push Vijay & Ajith’s salary to 200Cr levels. Madness to spend so much on one star. You shoot any chances of a good movie if 70% of your budget is one guy’s salary.
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Aman Basha
October 19, 2022
I have finally found the Muslim boy-Hindu girl love story that doesn’t involve their faiths and has a happily ever after, and it is DUNN….DUNNN..DUNN. Coolie, where Rishi Kapoor’s Sunny falls for his childhood friend, Deepa and they have a happy ending. The same movie even has a Muslim male-Christian female love story with Amitabh and Rati. It was also the second biggest hit after Sholay for quite a while.
Also @Madan, I think Bollywood pushes for Homosexuality so much because it’s not as big an issue as it was in the West. This is not to say we are not extremely homophobic, but when inter faith heterosexual marriages are not accepted and people are killed for this, it’s not surprising that homosexuals are in great danger. But it isn’t a great danger to make films about them now, unlike the 90s where Fire saw huge protests. Today’s Hindi directors lack the courage to touch risky important issues.
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sanjay
October 19, 2022
@lurker – “An actor whose biggest share-earner is around Rs. 25 crore is demanding (and getting) Rs. 35-40 crores.”
I’m curious why this happens. I would have thought that someone with enough wherewithal to produce a film would have better financial sense than accede to an unreasonable demand like this.”
The budgeting and actors’ salaries have never made sense to me unless the digital avenues are phenomenal and box office does not matter much. Overseas has lost its mojo recently unlike before where it was an upward trend but running costs must be much higher aboard. Critics rightly point out the box office earning sometimes don’t even justify electricity and ac bill of theatres.
Its probably the actors know more than meets the eye and that’s why such obnoxious figures are quoted. There are producers connected with mafia like T-series late Gulshan Kumar and now his son where they keep making movies endlessly with tremendous losses with not even 5% acceptance rate by audience that it’s clear this seems like an outlet for money laundering among the power corridors. Being in business and watching Dubai closely I think major part of all the shine in Dubai and its neutrality stems from the accumulation and hoarding of black money from politicians and money launderers from India- Pakistan- Bangladesh and other poor southeast Asians who rip their own people. Sad but true and mysteriously it never gets investigated or comes under any scrutiny of news media.
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hari
October 19, 2022
Holocaust deniers are frowned upon in the west. They are called as anti-Semitics . But the same west through their portals (like newyorker) give spaces to the Kashmiri genocide deniers like Samanth Subramanian. Yeah, criticize all you want of BJP but to talk about Kashmiri genocide as some sort of armed invasion, even for a Bharatiya Patrakar is too damn low and cringeworthy. Ironically, he quotes Govt data to make his point.
For all the ballsy talk by Dibakar, let him make a movie about a man who cut off his friend’s (of 16 years) head. Let him delve into the psyche of the man. He will get all funding from the RSS liaison. But will his head remain intact. Thala dhaana mukkiyam.
Earlied B’wood was controlled by the D-gang, now by another. Oru mayirum change aala.
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Madan
October 19, 2022
“Critics rightly point out the box office earning sometimes don’t even justify electricity and ac bill of theatres.” – If this is so, how come the leading chains INOX and PVR are profitable? I mean as of right now they aren’t because multiplexes had to deal with covid restrictions for much, much longer but for the year ended March 2019, they were both comfortably profitable. PVR had a 272 cr PBT and INOX 68 cr. Don’t forget it takes one KGF2 to make a killing for exhibitors too. And there’s a whole bunch of films this year that made way, way over the budget – Kashmir Files, Charlie, Kartikeya2 and now Kantara. Last year’s wildcard was Pushpa, again an incredibly profitable film for all.
You can’t ask for every film to make money for the whole chain, that simply doesn’t happen, has never happened in the history of cinema. This doesn’t mean everything is hunky dory right now because there is a genuine problem now of getting the audience excited to watch smaller films in theater but (a) that is a problem that has to do with lockdown-induced behavioural change which was expected and (b) that doesn’t mean multiplexes are on the verge of shuttering down.
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Madan
October 19, 2022
I will add here that the numbers I posted are from their audited accounts as both are listed companies. Before somebody says these numbers are full doglapan. They can be partially doglapan but maybe 20% at most. A listed company’s numbers that too for an exhibitor whose numbers are much more easily verified esp with bookmyshow, cannot be off by a long way.
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lurker
October 19, 2022
” If this is so, how come the leading chains INOX and PVR are profitable?”
Multiplexes have the cushion of absorbing several box office flops as long as they keep getting the occasional blockbuster or festive star vehicle that keeps pumping in crowds (and the accompanying ticket fares and popcorn bills.)
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Madan
October 19, 2022
lurker: Sure but that’s what I am saying too – in the exhibitor biz, they only need a few big blockbusters to wipe out the losses from the flops. It is a different situation for the single screens but, again, the economics for them are unfavourable in many ways which may not have to do only with the price charged by the distributors/producers to sell the film. Add to that in TN you have the irrational price cap (if that is still a thing?) which makes it harder for cinemas to cash in when a film IS doing well and running to full houses, as PS did.
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pirhaksar
October 20, 2022
@BR…wow thanks for the call out to GARUDA GAMANA VRISHABA VAHANA. I thoroughly enjoyed this one as well, especially the cop character changing things around with brains rather than brawn was very enjoyable.
On Kantara, I read your review and not sure I see the three main issues the same way. I feel Rishab the writer/director was going for a plot twist with the landlord. I did not think that part of the plan or design which explains why the so called reveal was almost nonchalant. I actually think Kishore was shown from the perspective of the villagers and Rishab, he was always the guy protecting the animals and the forest land from exploitation and blames the villagers for their callous ways but when he realizes it is the other dude who is more destructive and taking advantage of the things he cares about, was an easy switch for him. Coming to the half baked romance, was it not implied that there was some history between the two already by the banter from the friends informing she is back and the infamous pinch scene points to that as well.
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Nappinai (@Nappinai2)
October 21, 2022
“BRAHMASTRA is like PS-1. The cost of the film is divided among several (hopeful) sequels. Whether it is a bad investment or not, only time will tell.” – I am not sold on this comparison. One cannot conflate expense with investment cost because KJO’s PR has decided to declare the film a hit retrospectively to dispel talks on the film’s large budget.
PS-1 & 2 were shot together and the first part is a hit leading to a reasonable probability that the second one will also do good business. So, it’s ok to distribute the cost and treat PS-2 as an investment given the shorter horizon.
For Brahmastra, we don’t have the sequels or even the outline of one. Moreover, this film itself hasn’t recovered its ROI so there’s no way for us to know if subsequent sequels will if everything stays the same. In fact, what we should be doing is adding the compounded interest rate for the portion of the budget that’s supposedly being earmarked as distributed costs till the time sequels release. Further, Ayan/Ranbir/Vfx team/PVR are all co-producers of this film, so for a fair industry comparison, their fees should also be added to the film’s budget. This will only further reduce Brahmastra’s ROI.
My guess is that the 410 Cr budget includes sunk cost due to the number of reshoots which later got an image makeover as an investment. This is why these talks of budget being spread over started doing the rounds after 1-2 weeks of the film’s release. KJo has spoken about the film in 2019 where he says no one expects to make money from this venture and its a passion project blah blah. So, the makers were aware from the start.
Also, as others have pointed out, Bwood threw its entire might and PR machinery behind the film. PS-1 that came just few weeks later with supposedly a smaller market share did more business. This reiterates the fact that Bwood’s problem is more acute than the issues plaguing other film industries.
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Madan
October 21, 2022
Nappinai: Exactly. The point is why is the Brahmastra budget such a black box if it’s a success? Does anybody think KJ wouldn’t chaati-thokofy about how much money it made if it made back more than the budget for part 1? And yeah, BS got a much bigger release, like 30% more theaters, than PS-1. And while it didn’t have the benefit of releasing during Dussera – which, mind you, is not such a good window up North and in Gujarat – it also had hardly any competition during its run. And it’s still been handily overtaken by PS – already. I am sure PS will get a decent lift during the upcoming weekend and through Diwali season as well. In Ayan Mukherji’s own words, they basically have some property they can reuse for part-2. But part-2 has to be shot and will take a couple of years just for that while only post-production is pending for PS-2.
I don’t have the exact figures of how much each territory cost for PS-1 but with a 200 cr gross in Tamil Nadu alone, I believe the film is profitable in that territory and in Tamil version in general. Hindi version is probably also profitable because Hindi net is 21 cr, more than Hindi version of any recent Tamil film (i.e. not counting Vishwaroop or Endhiran-2). Whereas I am not sure BS in Hindi is more than average at best and a hit in Telugu (but that’s ‘hit’ off a low base so it didn’t make that much money – 15 cr – in absolute terms).
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gnanaozhi
October 21, 2022
@aman – the point is not whether the movie was banned by amma or not, but did Muslim bodies launch protests, forcing our “brave” kamalji to backdown entirely, film the movie to select Muslim groups, get their blessings and then only move onto screening.
On Padmavat, the Karni sena protests turned ultra VIOLENT and Haryana for one banned it as a result of these threats.
My larger point is the amnesia in this thread about Muslim and Christian bodies protesting and getting movies banned, and not just “hIndUtvA”. Heck the Da Vinci code has been banned in half a dozen states and I for one can’t think of a single reason as to how it offends JC.
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shaviswa
October 22, 2022
@Aman
“A better album could have pushed Jug Jug Jeeyo to a hit status. It is shocking that even Telugu films have far, far better melodies than Hindi films even in the mass films like Sarkaru Vaari Paata.”
Huh? Seriously?
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Kaushik Bhattacharya
December 10, 2022
Catching up with a bunch of stuff on the blog only recently hence the late comment. A few things I don’t quite understand –
1) All industries (and in particular film industries) go through cycles of ups and downs in terms of creative and commercial success so why all the excessive handwringing about a crisis?
2) To me at least (and I’m hoping I’m not alone), lack of box office success does not equate to the fact that there isn’t interesting stuff being made, whether in terms of form/content/narrative style or in terms of touching upon relevant social issues. Just from the films I’ve watched this year, I thought all of Badhaai Do, Gangubai Kathiawadi, Toolsidas jr, Jalsa, Thar, Anek, and Dobaaraa had something interesting enough to make them watchable even if they were not all uniformly outstanding. I’ve also read/heard good things about Sherdil, Jogi, Phone Bhoot, Chup and Monica O My Darling.
3) Why is everything so comparative? We should be celebrating the fact that the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada industries are all seeing such a resurgence shouldn’t we? To me that means that more of Indian cinema gets more widely appreciated, in the country and outside which is surely what we all want? Maybe it’s the decades of living away from India but I find this constant culture of comparison and financial success really off-putting.
Rant over 😃
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