The dry spell in Bollywood does not seem to end as the industry scored only one big hit at the box office in August.
The first seven months of the year were bad for Bollywood filmmakers as most of the big-ticket films failed to live up to expectations. The people in the industry were hoping that their prospects would change in August as there were some much-awaited releases.
Bollywood released over 10 movies in August and among them, four were big-ticket and highly-anticipated movies. However, the month started with a big disappointment with the failure of superstar Shah Rukh Khan's Jab Harry Met Sejal, which was one of the most-hyped Hindi movies of the year.
Jab Harry Met Sejal, also starring Anushka Sharma, was made with a whopping budget of Rs 80 crore and its theatrical rights were sold for a record price of Rs 125 crore. But the Imtiaz Ali-directed romance drama could not recover even 50 percent of its distributors' investments.
Jab Harry Met Sejal has become the worst performer for Shah Rukh Khan. It also incurred huge losses to its distributors, who have demanded the superstar to compensate the losses.
The second week of the month brought back the jubilations with the success of the Akshay Kumar-starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. Made a medium budget of Rs 18 crore, it went on to collect over Rs 125 crore nett at the domestic box office. It has become the first blockbuster success for Bollywood.
The industry released three movies in the third week and one of them was a medium budget. While two films bombed, Bareilly Ki Barfi, which was made with Rs 20 crore, has gone on to rake in Rs 40+ crore gross at the box office. The film is still doing well and expected to fetch profit to its makers.
Bollywood had five releases in the fourth week and A Gentleman was the only big ticket movie among them. The Sidharth Malhotra-starrer was made with a whopping budget of Rs 50 crore and has collected Rs 30 crore at the box office in four days. Its current trend trends show that the movie will not be able to recover the investments of its distributors in the coming days.
On the other hand, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, which is another hyped movie of the movie, is working wonders at the ticket counters. Made on a budget of Rs 3 crore, the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer has collected Rs 10 crore gross at the box office and is set to be another profitable venture of the month.
Qaidi Band, which is produced and distributed by Yash Raj Films, was one of the five releases and it has failed to make noise at the box office. It has become a flop film along with Yadvi - The Dignified Princess.
On the whole, Bollywood filmmakers have approximately spent around Rs 200 crore on the production and promotion of 10 films released in this month and the theatrical rights of these movies fetched them nearly Rs 300 crore. They are estimated to have recovered around Rs 210 crore for its distributors.
Since some of them are still faring well at the box office, they are expected to earn another Rs 40 crore in the coming days. But overall, the film industry is likely to suffer around Rs 50 crore from the August releases.
