![ACV](http://asianculturevulture.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/acvsubsbannernaked.jpg")
As two of the year’s biggest movies bring disappointment in Bollywood, here’s what else is making news…
By Rodrigues C
IN MUMBAI, the heat is on. With temperatures touching 39.7 degrees Celsius on April 17, the hottest April day since 2009, t’s been a difficult period for India’s financial capital.
The heat is on in Bollywood as well with two of its biggest releases of the year taking a battering at the Indian box office. Both films were released during Eid, which is considered an auspicious period for movies in terms of box office numbers. In fact, the massive losses that both the films are facing has become the talk of town in Bollywood.
The big budget Akshay Kumar-Tiger Shroff starrer ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ hit screens on April 10. There were huge expectations from this £33 million thriller, one of the most expensive films ever made in Bollywood.
The film had a good opening, £1.4 million, which brought cheer to the industry.
But disaster struck the following day as collections dropped to just about £750,000. Collections rose marginally to around £800,000 during the next two days. The big downfall started from Monday onward with collections as low as £2m.
From here on its was doom for another of Aki’s much hyped films, where he reportedly charged £15.7m.
Out of 10 films post the pandemic, Aki has delivered only two hits. Also, the movie was bankrolled by filmmaker Vashu Bhagnani’s Pooja Entertainment, whose last 10 films have flopped at the box office. For Shroff, who charged about £3.8m, this is his third consecutive box office disaster. As things stand the worldwide collections of the Ali Abbas Zafar’s directorial now stand at around £10m.
The second biggest disaster of the month has been Ajay Devgn’s football drama ‘Maidaan’, which was several years in the making.
During the pandemic makers of the Amit Sharma directorial spent a huge sum for the upkeep of the sets, which were earlier destroyed when a cyclone battered Mumbai in 2019.
In fact, producer Boney Kapoor revealed that these sets stood for three-and-a-half-years. The film’s release was also repeatedly delayed, which could also be a reason for its lacklustre numbers at the box office. Due to all these reasons, the film’s budget shot to £24m.
Finally, when it released on April 10 it collected £250,000 on day one. This was followed by £430,000 the next day. During the first week the film grossed £2m plus.
From Monday, April 15 the film’s collections plummeted drastically. By the end of the second week it had made about £2.6M. Right now, its worldwide collections stand at around £5.5m.
Not only ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and ‘Maidaan’, April also saw other releases bite the dust. Vidya Balan-Pratik Gandhi-Ileana D’Cruz-Sendhil Ramamurthy rom com ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar’, which released on April 19 opened with just over £52,000. It’s so far collected about £480,000. Dibakar Banerjee’s much anticipated sequel to the 2010 hit ‘Love Sex Aur Dhokha’ ‘LSD 2’ also released on April 19. Despite all the hype the Tusshar Kapoor, Mouni Roy, Uorfi Javed starrer could only manage £85,000 at the box office.
Strangely, there was an unexpected surprise for Bollywood in the form of ‘Crew’. The Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kriti Sanon, Diljit Dosnajh and Kapil Sharma starrer has now collected well over £13.7m worldwide in its fourth week. Its first week box office run stood at £4m. In the second and third weeks it made £2m and £600,000, respectively. It’s still doing good at the box office.
Moving on, India is in the grip of election fever right now as well as the Indian Premiere League (IPL).
Many Bollywood stars are also in the fray to enter parliament. Kangana Ranaut, who is getting the maximum eyeballs, is contesting from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Rama in the TV show Ramayana years back is fighting from Meerut, UP. Both these are representing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Shatrughan Sinha is contesting from Asansol, West Bengal. Many other stars such as Govinda are also campaigning for different parties.
The Indian Premium League (IPL) cricket is also in full swing and star power is omnipresent as Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), Preity Zinta and other stars are team owners. Also, SRK usually watches matches in stadiums with his Bollywood friends.
April has been a bad month for Bollywood. May be, the IPL, which will be on till May 26, played spoilsport. We’ll know in May for sure if that’s the case. ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and ‘Maidaan’ have surely dampened the sprits in Bollywood due to the sheer number of the losses incurred by producers.
Yes, the sale of OTT (streaming) rights will surely help recover some of the losses of these two movies. But considering their poor fate at the box office they won’t fetch much. Let’s see if May can help Bollywood lift its spirits.
