Deadly Combo Of Small And Desi At Box Office
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Friday, 16th October 02:00 PM IST There are changes and new trends in Bollywood in almost every 3 to 5 years. If action dominated 80's then 90's became Khan era with romance was at the forefront. New century saw cool cinema, multiplexes and urbanization of content. Now there is new interesting trend which has come slowly but tells about changing demographic of our audience and expectation from Bollywood. Great director Yash Chopra started a kind of revolution when he shot some breathtaking films in foreign locales. Shooting in foreign became norm for big films in 90's. After 'Dil Chahta Hai' even content became urban and suddenly massy 'Gadar' sort of films look outdated. With 'Wanted' and 'Dabangg' Salman brought back desi action flicks which later adopted by Akshay Kumar in 'Rowdy Rathore', Ajay Devgn in 'Singham' and Hrithik Roshan in 'Agneepath'. This trend also expired after debacle of 'Jai Ho' and 'Action Jackson'. But then something really interesting happened this year in 2015. Film with desi flavor or settings, content oriented script and honest treatment started doing well and films with more glam look failed despite heavy budgets. If you see following table you will understand that this trend is very distinct. All of the following films have very simple Indian story line (fat wife, ailing father, crime on highways etc) but their treatment is entertaining yet very honest to the settings. These films would had been laughed at a year back if this kind business discussed for these small to medium budget films. All films have at least two exceptional performances.
Now lets talk about films which have fancier settings and higher budgets but failed despite not so bad content and interestingly had same actors who starred in hits mentioned in table above. Anushka Sharma would had expected to achieve at least 100 cr from 'Dil Dhadakane Do' but film flopped with 77 cr and 'NH 10' scored with simple rural settings. Similarly Ayushmann Khurrana flopped badly with Yash Raj Films' 'Bewakoofiyan' which managed only 13.85 cr nett despite having Sonam Kapoor and her bikni/kissing scenes. But same combo of YRF and Ayushmann delivered sleeper hit with 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' with simplest of settings. Even Deepika Padukone starrer 'Finding Fanny' which had more urban feel, managed only 31.15 cr contrary to simple heartfelt 'Piku' which did 79 cr that too with less fancy cast. Even Kangana Ranaut scores as simple Haryanavi girl in TWMR but fails in urban cool rom - com 'Katti Batti'. Sriram Raghvan learned it hard way when he delivered flop in 'Agent Vinod' which was shot across the globe and he found success only when he shot his next 'Badlapur' in outskirt of Mumbai. See the table below for these films -
And now if you are thinking that this is only restricted to some stars or genres or medium budgets, check this out. As shown in the following table all top actors are doing more desi films with rugged looks contrary to big budget international setting film because even their bigger hits in recent times were films with better content and desi settings.
And basic reason of this sudden change is demographic and exposure of cine goers. Bollywood films play in close to 800-850 multiplexes all India out of which except 250 properties in metros, rest are in mass centers or in towns. So basically any hard core multiplex urban film like 'Dil Dhadakane Do' or 'Finding Fanny' will still find it difficult to score at box office. On contrary a desi flick like 'Tanu Weds Manu Returns' or 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' can score huge numbers simply riding on huge appreciation in Delhi, East Punjab and UP due to massy yet local flavour as these areas have more screens than all India urban niche films can target. Also huge exposure to Hollywood flicks and western content on TV means that there is no craze to watch a film just due to locations or westernized styled content. When 'Fast & Furious 7' does 100 cr in India then audience is least interested in any similar film from Bollywood unless it can better the Hollywood flick. Local content resonates well with audience which showcases local dialect, local issues and local warmth. That is why 'Piku', 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha', 'Gabbar Is Back' or TWMR command repeat watch over 'Singh Is Bliing', 'Kick', 'Bang Bang' which are just weekend phenomenon despite huge budgets and foreign locales. This is welcome change as this is giving our cinema an individuality and progressive outlook as we do not look like poor clone of Hollywood or poor clone of our own 70's/80's cinema. After all audience is the king and all top stars are listening to this tune already if their line up is any indication. Hope this will pave way for the films with new stories, better cinema and also bigger bucks at box office. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||