Marvel Studios
broke all-time
records of a film
business with brow-sweating collection of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ in billions, but
would it change the narrative of figures for Bollywood films? The Bollywood
film business is a different race to edge a previous record, raise the bar of
reclaim of an actor, a corporate, a multiplex chain and nevertheless, the
publicity manager.
None would name ‘Hum
Apke Hain Kaun’ or ‘Karan Arjun’ as frontrunners of Rs 100 crore collection of
a film there were no way to set the records right. There were no multiplexes
and corporates were far-sighted about film business in India. There were 13
distributors who used to buy out the films from the distributor and make
business in their respective regions for say, six months. Both the films showed
huge potential to draw audiences so every distributor made each of them have
silver jubilee runs in their area. In 2008, when multiplexes started
proliferating and a corporate house took charge of releasing the film strategically
with full control in every circuit, ‘Ghazni’ earned Rs 108 core and officially
set a milestone of Rs100 crore business of a film. Aamir Khan-starrer had all
aspects of entertainment— emotion, action, thriller—and it was a Christmas
release and the film crossed the Rs 100 crore collection in two weeks.
In 2009, ‘3-idiots’
followed suit. A wider release by another corporate house, touted to be the
first Rs 200 crore film, had actually missed the mark by just Rs 2 crore. Rs
198 crore theatrical collection was rounded up by the makers and the
distributors brought the new high. It set a fad that big heroes would live up
to the mark and a cold star war is waged on who has the whip hand.
Fellow foe Salman
Khan got into the fray. His ‘Dabang’ in 2010 and ‘Ready’ in 2011 passed the
acid test making Rs 100 crore each. Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Ra.One’ claimed to have
made Rs 118 crore when the collection was far below Rs 100 crore. In ‘Jab Tak
Hain Jaan’ the makers fudged around Rs 25 crore to show that it has made Rs122
crore. This claim game grows bigger as none could afford to fall short of their
image. SRK’s ‘Chennai Express’ made almost Rs 60 crore less than Rs 230 crore,
Salman Khan’s ‘Sultan’ was almost Rs 90 crore short of claimed Rs 300 crore and
Aamir Khan’s ‘Dangal’ was far from making Rs 300 crore when it was touted to be
one of the biggest grossers with Rs 375 crore.
The whole fight on
film collection was still rife when a new challenge was churned in on first day
collections of a film and the actors purported them as one of the principal
players in the game and started charging equal to the first day collection of
their previous film. ‘Bodyguard’ first day was Rs 20 crore, Hrithik Roshan
starrer ‘Agneepath’ made Rs 21 crore and the trio-actor-director-corporate
distributor—brings in the bout on who brings in better first day collection.
Salman Khan declared his ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ opened with Rs 31 crore. He had the
benefit of doubt—it was an Eid release and was released on August 15—so it was
believable.
The bar was raised
and started bragging bigger numbers. Aamir Khan in superseding spree stated
that his ‘Thugs of Hindustan’ that languished far before making Rs 100 core had
made whopping Rs 52 crore on the opening day when it didn’t cross even Rs 35
crore on the day.
It’s no rocket
science to foul this fudging numbers. When ‘Baahubali’ was released no one was
able to buy its first Sunday ticket through a ticket booking portal like
BookMyShow. Same happened close to the release day of Avengers: End Game. This
implies that the tickets were already sold and some were even kept aside to
sell in black, closing the online booking. It should have been the same for
‘The Thugs of Hindustan’ but incidentally tickets were available for every show
in every theatre including the single screens in the remotest corners of the
country. But this year, the supposed small films are having stupendous return.
‘URI: The Surgical Strike’ that apparently made Rs 7 crore on the opening day
has earned Rs 242 core and still counting. Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Badla’
that made Rs 5 crore opening earned Rs 85 crore.
This faking numbers
impose an adverse effect on the film budgets. While signing upon his next film,
the protagonist or the star of the film hardball a negotiation to get Rs 30 crore
to Rs 40 crore as his remunerations showing the first day business of his last
film, the budget swells and the multiplexes are asked to raise the ticket price
to yield profit from public’s pocket.
The
stakes are getting higher as films started being made in an assuming budget!
