Some much anticipated Bollywood movies this year have turned out to be flops. Movies that were predicted to be winners appeared to sink without a trace. We look at some of the movies that did badly in spite of high expectations and examine why. Here are some of the many movies that have done badly and a few that did well this year:
It was a beautiful looking, lavishly scaled period film with a passionate story featuring a love triangle and some national fervor thrown in for good measure. The Vishal Bhardwaj film garnered good reviews but it flopped. The film was too long, too meandering, to exhausting and IMHO ultimately too noir for Indian tastes.
The Sonakshi Sinha starrer was meant to carry forward the success women-led films have enjoyed in recent times. Ultimately the film failed because it was trying to be too many things at the same time – a rom-com, a women’s empowerment film, bringing baddies to justice – and managed to do none of those adequately.
It was an Amitabh Bachchan starrer and previous Sarkar films had done really well. This one but flopped nevertheless. The film was a testament to Ram Gopal Varma’s fading abilities. Though it wasn’t as bad as some of this other recent offerings (remember the execrable Sholay remake Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag ?), it wasn’t very good either.
It was a good looking movie with an ambitious reincarnation story that went back and forth in time. The romance worked but much else in the film didn’t. The way the ‘past’ was portrayed was perhaps just too over the top for audiences to digest.
Bank Chor
Meant to be a comic thriller, the film with a rather disgusting pun as a title was neither. Quite simply the story about the stupid thieves was lame and most of the film just wasn’t funny enough; audiences decided they weren’t going to reward mediocrity and silliness masquerading as humor;.
Years in the making and much anticipated, this Ranbir-Katrina film also failed at the box office. The movie is described as a mystery musical adventure romantic comedy; the story of a teenaged detective searching for a missing father. Perhaps it was a film trying to be too many things, perhaps the idea of a ‘musical’ didn’t work for Indian audiences, perhaps it was a lack of chemistry between the leads or perhaps the length of the film…people were not amused.
Sheer star power is also not a foolproof way to get audiences into theaters, it would seem. Raees, was very believable and very well made; SRK’s performance was good too, but it did just above average business. As for Tubelight, people rejected Salman Khan’s shoddy performance; even his legions of fans could not ensure anything above average collections.
Hindi Medium, with its people-next-door characters, identifiable story and funny, quirky narrative was declared Super-Hit. Badrinath Ki Dulhania with its loveable lead pair, enjoyable story and humor as well as the gentle anti-patriarchy message was another film that people gave a thumbs-up to. And then there was the mega hit, Baahubali – the Conclusion, with its lavish production, top notch special effects, good old bad-versus-good saga, kings, kingdoms and just a good masala story that people hugely enjoyed. Perhaps there are lessons here for filmmakers or perhaps there is just no understanding what works with a fickle and unpredictable public!
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