Year 2019 was massive for Bollywood as its films raked in over Rs 4,000 crore at the box office.
With roughly Rs 4,350 crore was collected at the box office, it was a phenomenal year for Bollywood as it topped Rs 3,600 crore haul from 2018 by a distance.
With War entering the Rs 300-crore club, Kabir Singh, Uri - The Surgical Strike, Bharat, Housefull 4, Mission Mangal and Good Newwz going past the Rs 200 crore-mark and Kesari, Total Dhamaal, Chhichhore, Dabangg 3, Saaho, Super 30, Dream Girl, Gully Boy, Bala and De De Pyaar De scoring a century each, it was indeed a dream year for the film industry.
Well, if the progress of 2020 so far is anything to go by, it would be a massive struggle for Bollywood to come anywhere close to the 2019 collection. The issue is two-pronged: quality of films and the current novel coronavirus pandemic.
While the health scare came up only in the month of March, things were hardly rosy in the first couple of months. The only film to emerge as a true bonafide success has been Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior. Releasing right at the beginning of the year, the Ajay Devgn-starrer gave an impression of the good times continuing in 2020. The period action drama grew from strength to strength and emerged as a blockbuster with collections of over Rs 280 crore.
However, no other film came even close to that in either January or February.
Malang, Shubh Mangal Zyada Savdhan and Street Dancer 3D raked in just between Rs 60-75 crore, though in all fairness, the first in the list did better than expectations. However, the other two were expected to do far better with the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer going past at least the Rs 75 crore-mark and the Varun Dhawan-Shraddha Kapoor film hitting a century. None of that happened though.
At least one of the three female-centric films like Chhapaak, Thappad and Panga was expected to be a solid hit at the box office. However, despite the presence of Deepika Padukone, Taapsee Pannu and Kangana Ranaut, neither of these films could go past even the Rs 50 crore-mark.
There were many expectations from Love Aaj Kal, but then, the film simply crashed after a good opening on Valentine's Day. As for Bhangra Paa Le, Jai Mummy Di, Sab Kushal Mangal and Shimla Mirchi, each of these were practically a delayed release and saw a token arrival with no collections whatsoever to be shown.
Just when things were looking up though with Baaghi 3 hitting the screens in the first week of March, the COVID-19 pandemic showed its ugly face and the collections were impacted in a very big way. Same holds true for Angrezi Medium too, which is not even getting the apt showcasing due to theatres shutting down.
March could have been terrific though, had Sooryavanshi arrived on schedule. But with the Akshay Kumar, Rohit Shetty and Karan Johar film getting pushed indefinitely, there would be further loss at the box office. This would have a further ripple effect on a biggie like Ranveer Singh's '83, which is backed by Baaghi 3 producer Sajid Nadiadwala, as its release could be pushed ahead as well.
All of this mean that it would be a major struggle for Bollywood to recover from the losses that it has incurred for the first few months due to multiple reasons. However, as is the saying goes — all is well that ends well. If the upcoming releases turn out to be entertaining enough, one can hope that at least some part of the losses would be recovered with greater footfalls in theatres in time to come.
(Joginder Tuteja is a trade expert and film critic. Views are personal)
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