January 04, 2009

2008 was the Bollywood year of flop films

After a successful 2007, 2008 turned out to be the Year of Disappointment for Bollywood as one film after another flopped at the box office. More than the films themselves, the actors generated publicity for their much-hyped romances, catfights and unbelievably high performance fees.

The mood in Bollywood was very buoyant when it stepped into the year 2008, exactly 12 months ago. After a pretty successful 2007 and with the booming economy of the country aided by the worldwide phenomenal rise in the market, our desi star fee skyrocketed as well; overseas film distribution prices rose and many Hollywood studios were ready to strike a deal with Indian production houses.

But within two months into the New Year, the mood did a complete U-turn when one after another film – big and small – started tanking at the box office. This was before the meltdown in the market had started, and way before the terror strike in Mumbai that paralysed the entire country. Every major film production house incurred losses. In fact, one of the biggest production houses, Yash Raj Films, is reported to have incurred a whopping loss of Rs 100 crore.

Out of the 120 or so films made last year, those riding the successful chart barely numbered six or seven. These too were not conventional super star-studded films. The films termed as succfull were Race, Jannat, Golmal Returns and Rock On!!. None of these films had any of the super Khans or the beauty queens. Films which made good business were Dostaana, Fashion, Singh is King, Aamir, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and very few others.

A lot was expected at the beginning of the year from Ashutosh Gowarikar with his film Jodhaa Akbar starring one of the most beautiful screen couple, Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. It is said that the period film was made at a whopping amount of Rs 45-50 crore. No doubt UTV productions got back the amount, but they really had to slog for it. It took them a pretty long time to recover the cost and announce the profit.

The fate of this film laid the foundation for the rest of the films of last year. A lot of hype was created for Sarkar 2 as it was the first family film made after Ashwariya Rai became the touted bahu of the Bachchan parivar. The father-son duo Amitabh and Abhishek along with Aishwarya just couldn’t ignite the magic that the first Sarkar film had. The acting was great, Abhishek surpassed himself but the trio couldn’t crack the box office.

Then came the film Drona by Goldie Behl starring Abhishek Bachchan and Priyanka Chopra. A huge amount was spent on getting a Matrix film kind of fight scene. But it couldn’t even make the first week gate collection. What stabilised Bachchan Jr’s career was the film Dostaana released in the last quarter of 2008. The film from Dharma production became successful in all of the major metropolitan cities of India and in fact, it was the first successful film after a spate of flop movies from the industry. In a way, every one heaved a sigh of relief and felt that everything was still not lost.

 

The year ended with the bare-all competition between Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Fortunately for the news-hungry journos both films of the mega stars released in December. A successful verdict on Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi of Shah Rukh has already been declared. To counter that, Aamir went all out to promote his film Ghajini in a never-before-heard gimmick – he even stooped to giving Ghajini style haircuts to small boys on the streets!

 

Film after film from Yash Raj productions made on huge budgets crashed out: Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic with Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan couldn’t even survive the first week. Then came the film Tashan. Even reams of print media reports about Kareena Kapoor, her zero-size figure, swim suit scene and her affair with Saif Ali Khan failed to attract viewers. The presence of Akshay Kumar touted to upstage King Khan and the versatile Anil Kapoor didn’t do anything for the film.

Then it was the turn of Krazzy 4. Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan stepped in and danced and danced the K-R-A-Z-Z-Y, to save the film but nothing helped. The only solace was that Rakesh Roshan, the producer hadn’t spent his entire savings on the film and though it must have created a dent in them, it didn’t wipe them off entirely.

The problem with the reasonably successful 2007 was that the established actors thought that their name alone could propel a film to a hit and so increased their fee to amounts that were previously never heard of. It is believed that Shah Rukh Khan charged Rs 15 crore plus a percentage in the profit of the films. Saif Ali Khan charged Rs 20 crore. Salman, Akshay and Aamir allegedly charged much more than this. Salman Khan was a real disappointment. All his films – Yuvvraaj, Hello, God Tussi Great Ho – turned out to be duds.

Among the female brigade it is said that Kareena and Katrina, went up to Rs 4 crore; and Priyanka and Bipasha weren’t far behind. Added to these were the other costs of making a film, so naturally it became difficult for film makers to generate profits despite having a new market overseas.

But no one thought of rethinking the star fees, even when the Akshay Kumar-starrer Singh is King, though declared a hit, couldn’t rake in the kind of profit it would have if the budget was limited. The film was distributed at such a high price that the returns couldn’t technically be called ‘profitable’.

The debutant Imraan Khan of Jaane Tu Yaa Jane Na is supposed to have commented in one of his interviews that he was surprised at the amount he was being paid even to make an appearance at some events. In fact as said in an earlier article it was the debut films, small films and the unconventional films which were successful at the box office. This does not imply that all small-level films were hits: Sorry Bhai!, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye, Maharathi, Dasvidaniya and Dil Kabadd fared badly. The only consolation was that with a minimal investment, the profit on the films could be reared from satellite sales.

More than the box office making news, it was the affairs of the actors in the industry that hit the headlines and kept the electronic and print media happy for days. First it was the zero-size of Kareena Kapoor, then the maha-fight of Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, followed by Salman and Katrina Kaif’s on and off romance.

The year ended with the bare-all competition between Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan. Fortunately for the news-hungry journos both films of the mega stars released in December. A successful verdict on Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi of Shah Rukh has already been declared. To counter that Aamir went all out to promote his film Ghajini in a never heard gimmick – he even stooped to giving Ghajini style haircuts to small boys on the streets!

Hopefully the year 2009 will bring in a lot of happiness and peace not only to the film industry but to all of us.