2021 round-up: Bollywood's commercial hits and superhits in the year gone by

Akshay Kumar in 'Sooryavanshi'.

Two Hindi films emerged as clear successes in an otherwise lacklustre year for big-screen cinema: Sooryavanshi and Pushpa: The Rise. Not only did they recover the initial investment, they also made a fair bit of money over and above. Moreover, these pictures brought the audiences in after months of lockdowns and restrictions on occupancy, providing cinema halls a momentum that carried them through much of November and December.

Other than these two big films, Antim: The Final Truth did okay business while Tadap and Roohi managed to cover some distance.

Let's talk about Sooryavanshi first. The film release was postponed by 20 months, as director Rohit Shetty wanted to bring it in theatres first before taking the OTT route. There were lucrative offers right through this duration, but he stuck to his stance. The rest was taken care of by the super stardom that Akshay Kumar enjoys, and the response was seen in theatres once the action entertainer arrived on Diwali. The film not just opened quite well but also went on to enjoy a 50-day theatrical run, accumulating Rs197 crore in the process.

Second in line, Pushpa: The Rise (Hindi), was a complete surprise. While it was a given that the film would open well in Telugu, there was no real expectation from the Hindi version of the film. Its arrival alongside Hollywood film Spider-Man: No Way Home further quashed expectations from its box office run. However, the Hindi version of the Allu Arjun-starrer has breached the Rs50 crore-mark in quick time - and now, a box-office collection of Rs75-80 crore over its total run seems achievable.

There were high expectations from director Mahesh Manjrekar's Antim: The Final Truth, since it features Salman Khan. However, it was primarily pitched as an Aayush Sharma starrer - a tough choice to market the film appropriately. The film, though, managed to sail through to a decent collection of Rs 39.06 crore. This isn't big, of course. But consider that many other releases of 2021 have failed to hit even Rs10 crore.

As for Tadap, Sajid Nadiadwala and Fox Star Studios must be thanking their stars that they chose to release the film at the time when audiences had started frequenting theatres. After all, certain states have again started putting restrictions around opening/occupancy of theatres. The film managed to earn Rs27 crore, which is fair for a film featuring a newcomer (Ahan Shetty) as lead, and now one awaits its OTT and satellite response.

Lastly, let's not forget the only release which managed to make money in the first ten months of 2021, Roohi. A horror comedy, it had arrived at the time when the first wave had almost subsided. The Dinesh Vijan production marked the reopening of theatres, and while audiences were quite sceptical to step back in to begin with, slowly and steadily they started warming up to the movie-watching experience on the big screen again. Not that the film turned out to be a major grosser, but it raked in Rs26 crore at a time when people were still reluctant to go into enclosed public spaces like movie theatres.

2021 could well have concluded on a high, with the release of Jersey - but with the Delhi government announcing the closing down of cinemas, the film was pushed ahead. While there is uncertainty around when new Hindi films will start to release again, one just hopes that it is sooner than later and the momentum that was set by Sooryavanshi and Pushpa [Hindi] in particular doesn't die down.

Top box office grossers of 2021 - India collections

Sooryavanshi - Rs197 crore

Pushpa [Hindi] - Rs55 crore (and counting)

Antim: The Final Truth - Rs39.06 crore

Tadap - Rs27 crore

Roohi - Rs26 crore