Bollywood's big hope on Republic Day: Padmaavat must win

The first big movie of the year typically comes on or around the January 26 weekend and this year is no different. What could have been one of the biggest hits of 2017 will now set the tone for the Box Office in 2018.

Republic Day this year will see Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmaavat debut across movie screens in the country. The movie has seen its release delayed by a couple of months and has been embroiled in controversies.

“Online ticketing platforms show a lot of shows on the Republic Day weekend as fully booked. We are hopeful Padmaavat will bring in the numbers that we are looking for. The Republic Day week has been a curtain raiser of sorts for the box office and we hope and pray this year is no different,” said film trade Analyst Atul Mohan.

For years, Republic Day has been bringing home the first big cheque of the year for Bollywood. Here’s how.

Half a decade ago, when Race 2 hit the theaters with its grand cast and peppy numbers, the audience applauded the movie to their heart’s content. Of what could be called one of the last few hit films that featured Saif Ali Khan, Race 2 released on a Republic Day weekend and made close to Rs 70 crore in its first week.

Although the movie didn’t run for a long time in movie halls, it came within touching distance of joining Bollywood’s Rs 100 crore crore club. The cash clock for Race 2 stopped ticking at Rs 93.5 crore, giving the year a good kick start.

The following year, however, Bollywood got smarter and decided to have a movie based on a patriotic theme. An incorruptible man, Jai, fought a solitary war against injustice and corruption. The character was played by Salman Khan and made all those who live in the whim of having a corruption-free nation someday, walk into theatres to watch Jai Ho. Sohail Khan’s Jai Ho made the box office richer by a good Rs 110 crore, having released on January 24.

In 2015, Neeraj Pandey stole the Republic Day weekend his movie Baby. Traversing a well-travelled path, Pandey produced a movie based on the country’s favourite theme – terrorism. Akshay Kumar, in his role as a brave intelligence officer, attracted a lot of people to movie halls, adding Rs 90 crore to the Box Office’s coffers and giving the year a start to remember.

The success of Baby seemed to hang low in the run-up to Republic Day next year and, probably having foreseen that, Akshay Kumar did not want to give up the weekend. In 2016, the actor put up a well-received performance as Ranjit Katyal in the movie Airlift. The film collected around Rs 124 crore at the Box Office.

In 2017, Bollywood decided to truly test the popularity of the Republic Day weekend and pitted two stars – Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan – against each other. The competition turned out to be both healthy and wealthy, with Khan’s Raees making close to Rs 130 crore at the Box Office and Hrithik’s Kaabil collecting Rs 87 crore.

Although the story seems different this year, especially due to the absence of the whole patriotic theme, it all comes down to the Rs 180 crore at stake for stakeholders of the movie Padmaavat.

Film trade analyst and critique Taran Adarsh gave the film a four and half star rating and called it an outstanding effort. But the fate of the much-hyped movie, which went from being called Padmavati to Padmaavat, solely depends on whether movie watchers walk into theatres this Republic Day weekend despite certain factions of society protesting the release of the film.

Will Bollywood get the start it is looking for this year? Maybe. Maybe not!