Valentine's Day 2022 | Business of Bollywood in the season of love

Ranveer Singh in 'Gully Boy', which released on February 14, 2019, and made Rs 140 crore at the box office. (Image via YouTube/Excel Movies, screen grab)

Hollywood always has a Valentine's Day release - something with romance and music as its core elements. The phenomenon has surprisingly not really caught up in Bollywood even though there are many other holiday releases that are reserved. This year there are two films that have released – Gehraiyaan and Badhaai Do.

Gehraiyaan is about infidelity and the past catching up with you, and boasts of a twisted tale featuring Deepika Padukone, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey and Dhairya Karwa.

And Badhaai Do is a romantic take on an LGBT couple (Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar) who find partners of their own. Let's look at releases around Valentine’s Day over the years along with their Box Office outcome.

2022 – Gehraiyaan (just released)

Released on OTT, Gehraiyaan is already the talk of the town. It is a film about love, relationships and infidelity, but isn’t quite a quintessential romantic tale that one would expect on Valentine’s Day. That said, on the OTT medium where it has arrived, the Shakun Batra directed film is already resulting in quite a few debates around right and wrong, and other virtues of relationships. Had it released in theatres, it would have certainly done well at the multiplexes of major cities. For now, though, this Karan Johar production is trending at the top position on Amazon Prime Video.

2022 – Badhaai Do (just released)

Last year's Roohi starring Rajkummar Rao was a horror film with love story at its core. It snuck in during the brief resurgence of theatres after the first wave of Covid-19. Now after the third wave, the actor is bringing another love story of his, Badhaai Do, with Bhumi Pednekar. There is no romance between the duo here; it’s about them deciding to live under the same roof as a married couple so that they can each have a life of their own. After taking a slow start, the film is picking up well now. With two open weeks ahead of it, hopefully the film will turn out to be at least a fair success.

2020 – Love Aaj Kal (Rs 35 crore)

The film was much hyped on its release. After all, Kartik Aaryan and Sara Ali Khan were coming together for the first time in the remake of the namesake film, which had starred Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. Imtiaz Ali returned as the director as wel,l but unfortunately the film didn’t do well, despite very good performance by Kartik and superhit music by Pritam. This one was a quintessential Valentine’s Day release, though, and ensured biggest opening day ever for Kartik Aaryan.

2019 - Gully Boy (Rs 140 crore)

If not for the pairing of Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt which brought freshness to the affair, Gully Boy hinted nothing of a romantic Valentine's Day tale. After all, the core story was that of a Dharavi rapper. However, the film was picked by the youngsters, and how. Not just did it open very well, it sustained well too. Moreover, Siddhant Chaturvedi won accolades too as Ranveer’s friend.

2018 - Aiyaary (Rs 18 crore)

Aiyaary was as far away from a romantic musical as a film can get. Its core: a spy thriller. With Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee coming together, there was no romance in the midst of affairs. Yes, there was a soulful number 'Le Dooba' but that's about it. The Neeraj Pandey directed film was a major box office disaster.

2017 - Jolly LLB 2 (Rs 117 crore)

Akshay Kumar facing Anu Kapoor in a court room drama with Saurabh Shukla as the judge - now try hunting for any music or romance here! The film released in the season when love is in the air but what one saw was a light-hearted take in a court room with a serious angle of terrorism thrown in as well. The film was a hit, though, as it entered the 100 Crore Club.

2016 - Sanam Re (Rs 32 crore), Fitoor (Rs 19 crore)

Film-makers tried releasing musical affairs on Valentine's Day in 2016. Both Sanam Re and Fitoor were aimed at youngsters and were promoted accordingly. Sanam Re took a good start, owing to its hit music and ultimately settled down as an average affair. As for Fitoor, it was a disaster despite featuring Katrina Kaif with Aditya Roy Kapoor.

2015 - Roy (Rs 45 crore)

After multiple delays, Ranbir Kapoor starrer Roy ultimately settled for the Valentine's Day arrival. It made sense, too, since the songs were huge chartbusters. It later emerged that the film was mainly a psychological drama with Arjun Rampal as the driving force and Jacqueline Fernandez in a very different kind of double role. The film flopped after a good double-digit start.

2014 - Gunday (Rs 78 crore)

When the very title of the film is Gunday, one can't really assume anything romantic in there. Well, director Ali Abbas Zafar did bring in some such elements though with Priyanka Chopra bringing some entertainment with 'Tune Maari Entriyaan'. That said, the film was more of a bromance with Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor showing off their well chiselled bodies and muscles.

2013 - Murder 3 (Rs 23 crore), Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story (Rs 3 crore)

Two releases, and two flops - this is how Valentine's Day turned out to be in 2013. There was love as a central element though and the makers did promote it accordingly. Murder 3 had love and revenge going hand in hand but unfortunately flopped despite a good plot. As for Vivek Oberoi and Neha Sharma's Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story, it was a mega disaster despite good music.

2012 - Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (Rs 40 crore)

Now this was one Valentine's Day release that did emerge as a good hit for a change. Director Shakun Batra made his debut with this Kareena Kapoor Khan and Imran Khan starrer that boasted of good music and good presentation. Karan Johar ensured that there was good production, marketing, promotion and release, and audiences were happy too with what they saw.

2011 - Patiala House (Rs 30 crore)

A delayed release, this was an Akshay Kumar starrer which again had nothing at all to do with love or romance. A sports based drama with a family angle to it, there was no scope for any love story between Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma in this Nikkhil Advani directed film. This one did have good entertainment in there but sadly the audiences didn't quite root for it.

2010 - My Name Is Khan (Rs 73 crore)

With Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol coming together for a Karan Johar production, one can be rest assured that there would be romance, drama and music aplenty. Despite the central theme being terrorism, Karan Johar ensured that audiences saw Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in a good love story as well. The music worked too, and so did the film at the box office.