Bollywood asianculturevulture vibes – Romance is back with newcomers blowing away much of the competition

July was considered by industry insiders to be a slow, even dead month with not too many big star releases but then came along…

By Rodrigues C

MUMBAI is in the midst of the monsoons. Though the rains have been scanty, the lakes supplying drinking water to Mumbai are 90 per cent full (the fastest in a decade) bringing huge relief to the city.

Year after year, Mumbai keeps an eye on the daily lake levels in monsoons. If the lakes don’t fill up, it means daily water cuts. So, monsoons have brought joy to the city.’

And so has ‘Saiyaara’ to Bollywood. And it’s been like never before.
Love stories were believed to be passé in Indian cinema. In recent times, only big action movies have delivered. And then came ‘Saiyaara’, on July 18 to be precise.

The romantic drama, which is directed by Mohit Suri (‘Aashiqui 2’, ‘Ek Villain’ and ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’) and produced by Yash Raj Films (YRF), stars newcomer Ahaan Panday, whose only claim to fame is that he is the nephew of Chunky Panday.

Playing opposite him in the movie is another newcomer Aneet Padda, who is known for her work in the TV show ‘Big Girls Don’t Cry’. The rest they say is history.

As things stand, ‘Saiyaara’ is being seen as the ‘biggest romantic blockbuster in Hindi cinema’. The film opened on a Friday to a collection of ₤1.8 million taking everyone by surprise. The next day this rose to ₤2.2m, and on Sunday it further swelled to ₤3.1m. On Monday, the movie collected ₤2.08m, crossing the magic figure of ₹100 crores (₤8.6m). The momentum continued for the whole second week. Its second Friday at the box office saw the movie mint ₤1.5m. The next day, its second Saturday was 50 per cent better than Friday at ₤2.3m. On Sunday the movie made another ₤2.6m. The film’s worldwide collections now stand at ₤25m, overtaking Aamir Khan’s ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, Ajay Devgn’s ‘Raid 2’, and even Akshay Kumar’s ‘Housefull 5’ in just two weeks. Its budget is believed to be around ₤3.4m.

The film has continued to draw in big crowds registering an occupancy of just under 40 per cent on its second Saturday with 5,963 shows across the country.

Interestingly, the film’s highest occupancy was in Chennai at just over 75 per cent (64 shows), considering the city is the domain of South cinema. This was followed by Bengaluru with just over 70 per cent (306 shows), Mumbai just under 40 per cent (1,022 shows) and Delhi-NCR at a bit over 40 per cent (1,404 shows).

‘Saiyaara’ is now this year’s second highest grossing film after Vicky Kaushal’s ‘Chhaava’.

The only other Bollywood film featuring a newcomer – Hrithik Roshan — that minted money on this scale was ‘Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai’ (₤3.8m) in 2000. But then again Hrithik Roshan is the son of Rakesh Roshan, a well-known name in Bollywood.

Pawan Kalyan’s epic ‘Hari Hara Veera Mallu‘ started its box office run on July 23 with a collection of ₤1.1m. The next day, this figure rose to ₤3.02m. The film’s numbers started plunging thereafter. Its collections now stand at ₤8.6m; it’s budgeted around ₤21.7m.

Ashwin Kumar’s ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’ released on July 25 and within three days became the highest grossing animated movie in India overtaking ‘Hanuman’ (2005). While the film opened to just about ₤152,000, the following two days saw a windfall for the mythological animation; Friday ₤400,000 and Saturday ₤826,000. Monday was good as well at ₤530,000 taking its overall tally to ₤1.9m.

Somehow, the film caught the attention of Prabhas (of ‘Baahubali’ fame), who praised it on social media and even shared its poster, thereby boosting its fortunes. Well, what remains unknown if this was a marketing move by the film’s makers?

August 1 will see the release of ‘Son of Sardaar 2’ with Bollywood stars Ajay Devgn and Mrunal Thakur. The movie is likely to give some competition to the ‘Saiyaara’ juggernaut.

‘Dhadak 2’, with Siddhanth Chaturvedi and Tripti Dimri will hit theatres the same day as well.

And come August 14, big budget thrillers ‘War 2’ (Hrithik Roshan, NT Rama Rao Jr, Anil Kapoor and Kiara Advani) and ‘Coolie’ (Rajinikant, Nagarjuna and Shruti Haasan) will battle it out for eyeballs on the big screen.

July didn’t have any big releases but ‘Saiyaara’ turned out to be bigger than the big names. August indeed has some big fare but the end results will be crucial to see who makes it big in terms of box office numbers.

August 15 is Independence Day and a big bank holiday with many expected to go to the cinema.