2022 Bollywood box office report card: Thodi khushi, zyaada gham

2022 was a litmus test for film industries across the world. We were just about getting back on our feet after the Covid pandemic, and hence needed big numbers. But nobody saw what was coming, and there were a variety of reasons for some major misses while achieving a few hits.

The OTT boom made audiences complacent, feels the trade. ‘Theatre jaane ka kya faayda? OTT pe aa jaayega’- this attitude crept in, feels trade expert Atul Mohan. And hence, it was only select films which enjoyed the audiences’ patronage.

We also cannot rule out the southern influence- called regional cinema until now. Here’s a lowdown on the hits, the misses, and everything south.

THE HITS

The industry got it’s first big, clean hit only in the second month. Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi, based on a real life brothel owner of the same name, saw big numbers, entering the 100-crore club. It was a respite for the entire industry.

And then came the storm that was The Kashmir Files. It won’t be wrong to say that it was also the most talked about film of the year as well. “People who have been sleeping will call my film a ‘sleeper hit’. Purely on commercial terms, though I don’t care about it, we revived single screens. Even other films which worked, didn’t do that. The trend of group bookings, which used to be common in India but stopped because of multiplexes, also was back,” tells us it’s director Vivek Agnihotri.

Sequels also seemed to connect with viewers. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 starring Kartik Aaryan and Tabu was a sequel to the hit 2007 film. Tabu says it is not possible to deconstruct why a film did or didn’t do well. “There are so many factors involved. I am extremely elated that the films did well,” she says, also referring to Drishyam 2. Directed by Abhishek Pathak, this sequel (yet again) managed to the hit the bulls-eye.

A mountain of expectations were riding on Ayan Mukerji’s ambitious superhero drama Brahmastra. In the making for years, it starred titans like Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor and Bhatt. And people turned up in big numbers to see this VFX spectacle. Mukerji is happy with the response, which the film fetched amidst so much uncertainty. “It was validating. There was a lot of pressure on Brahmastra, about the box office, bringing people back. It was a mammoth undertaking just to deliver it. We had seen sparks of people coming in with RRR, KGF 2 earlier this year. Then smaller yet significant ones with Gangubai.. and BB 2. I understand all that but I was playing out Brahmastra like pre-pandemic. Sure, people had not come to see some films, but they did earlier this year when films had quality,” he tells us.

THE MISSES

Disappointments were aplenty in 2022. Biggest of films, starring biggest of stars, failed to meet expectations at the box office. Shahid Kapoor’s sports drama Jersey, Tiger Shroff’s Heropanti 2, Ajay Devgn’s Runway 34, Ranveer Singh’s Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Akshay Kumar’s Samrat Prithviraj and Ram Setu, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha, Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera… the list was long.

Mohan says the reason for this was: the budgets failed, the films didn’t. Explaining, he says, “The budgets of most of these films was not controlled. And that is only because of the hefty fees charged by these stars.”

Sources say fees of big actors can actually be more than 50 percent of the entire project’s budget, and combined with average content, it is always a risk.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says 2022 saw happiness in minimal doses. “We can count films which did well on our fingers. The problem is that there were not just flops, they were big star driven films, and had a lot of money riding. I would not like to pinpoint, but films starring biggest of stars- Jayeshbhai, Shamshera, Ram Setu, Raksha Bandhan, LSC… it was disappointment after disappointment. Yes we succeeded, but that followed by many flops,” he says.

Anees Bazmee, who helmed BB 2, brings up the OTT point again when he says that people now prefer to watch films in the comfort of their homes, which is why it’s difficult to bring people to theatres. “They watch Korean, English, south content, and subtitles too are no longer a problem for them. There are dubbed versions as well. Also, theatre watching is an expensive affair. Dimaag lagake kabhi nahi dekhti audience films, voh dekhna chahti hai achhi film, pehle bhi aisa tha. Lekin abhi dimaag uss level tak jaa chuka hai, ki pehle theek-theek bhi lagta tha, toh unko samajhne mein time lagta tha. Now they are impatient,” he reasons.

THE SOUTH INFLUENCE

Yes, the correct term today for cinema is pan-Indian cinema, and not regional or Hindi. And films such as SS Rajamouli’s RRR, Yash’s KGF 2, 777 Charlie and Rishab Shetty’s Kaantara more than justified that term. Even in Hindi circuits, these films notched up massive numbers. Adarsh says, “I think the lines are blurred now, it’s all about the Indian film industry. People do compare when Hindi industry doesn’t do well, but that is not the case. Other industries don’t deliver a blockbuster every week, but this year overpowered everything. Even Pushpa- The Rise, which released towards the end of 2021, dominated the first quarter of 2022. It was a great year for those films.”

In fact, North vs South was a debate which became the rage. People were baffled as to what were Telugu, Tamil and Kannada industries getting right, and Hindi wasn’t. Shetty, basking in the success of KGF 2, had told us recently, “

BOX OFFICE

THE BIG HITS

( ALL-INDIA GROSS COLLECTIONS, ACCORDING TO BOX OFFICE INDIA)

THE KASHMIR FILES- 246 CR

GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI- 126.32 CR

BHOOL BHULAIYAA 2- 181.65 CR

DRISHYAM 2- 209.86 CR

BRAHMASTRA- 230.23 CR

THE BIG MISSES

SHAMSHERA- 41.05 CR

LAAL SINGH CHADDHA- 59.58 CR

SAMRAT PRITHVIRAJ- 68.06 CR

RAM SETU- 72.82 CR

JAYESHBHAI JORDAAR- 16.59 CR

DHAAKAD- 2.30 CR

SOUTH MAGIC

RRR- 275 CR

KGF2- 427.49 CR

KANTARA- 196.95 CR

777 CHARLIE- 99.12 CR