Cold wave, cricket and high ticket prices: Usual excuses go for a toss as Bollywood enjoys 6 hits in 8 weeks

Uri Image- Twitter.com @vickykaushal09

Joginder Tuteja

"Oh, it's too cold up North, how can you expect people to venture into theatres? Even in Mumbai, there is currently a cold wave."

"People stayed at home as there was this exciting India v/s Australia cricket series on. Later, series with New Zealand began too."

"Ticket and popcorn prices are so high at multiplexes. How can you expect a family of four to shell out 2,000 bucks on films week after week."

"There are so many event releases lined up right through 2019. Audiences would rather stay at home and then venture out only for star driven films."

"There is entertainment right at home with the likes of Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar etc. providing so much interesting content online. Who would go to theatres now?"

Sounds familiar, isn't it? At least till the end of 2017, this was a common refrain among industry insiders and audiences alike when films were not doing so well in theatres. This noise subsided a bit in 2018 and now that 2019 has started on a winning note, the aforementioned excuses hopefully would not be repeated by those who were finding faults in everything but content.

Not that they can be blamed for time and again coming up with this refrain. Whenever films flopped, especially during the winter season, it was climate that was blamed. However, the months of December and January have turned out to be quite bountiful during this winning season.

It all started with Kedarnath that turned out to be the surprise success in the month of December. The film's release was advanced by a fortnight so that Zero could have a clean run. The Shah Rukh Khan starrer proved to be a disaster but the Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan starrer worked well to bring in over Rs 70 crore.

This was also the time when the historic cricket series between India and Australia was on. As a matter of fact, India even won the series, but Bollywood did not see any impact of that whatsoever. In fact, the audiences chose to make even KGF: Chapter 1 a success and now its Hindi version has netted around Rs 45 crore already. Yet another excuse, this time around cricket, went for a toss.

Meanwhile, there was another major blockbuster waiting to happen -- Simmba. For those who put their money on event films, the Rohit Shetty and Ranveer Singh entertainer was the one waiting to be grabbed with both hands. Families of four members each did not mind shelling out Rs 2,000 and more on the film and the results were there to be seen as the film's super success went on from December right till mid-January, hence coming close to Rs 240 crore already.

In a regular week, month and year, the next big release would have been straight into the Republic Day weekend. However, Bollywood had other plans this time around. Ronnie Screwvala, producer of Kedarnath, chose to bring his Uri - The Surgical Strike on the second Friday of the first month of the year -- the period supposed to be jinxed in industry parlance.

What happened was something on the contrary as 'families of four' braved the 'cold wave', chose to follow movie entertainment as well other than 'cricket series' and gladly accepted this Vicky Kaushal starrer that was never meant to be 'an event affair'. The patriotic action drama has already brought in Rs 150 crore and is still counting.

Of course, there is digital entertainment right at home and hence films like The Accidental Prime Minister and Thackeray are automatically delegated to being 'TV ki picture'. However, that excuse has been left behind as well, what with former bringing in around Rs 25 crore already and latter set for a lifetime of over Rs 40 crore in the Hindi and Marathi versions.

So is there space for more films? After all one notable film, Why Cheat India, has already proven to be a disaster. Well, the film is a disaster because audience chose to totally ignore it, and not because they were not watching films in general. After all, in the week when the Emraan Hashmi starrer was rejected, Uri - The Surgical Strike was still doing great business.

As for back-to-back biggies arriving in quick succession, Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi has now already scored the biggest weekend of 2019.

With Kedarnath, Simmba, Uri - the Surgical Strike, Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi, Thackeray and The Accidental Prime Minister turning out to be six good successes in a matter of just eight weeks, guess a firm lid can well be placed on all the usual excuses.