Comedy has definitely been the genre of the year as far as Bollywood is concerned. Despite the release of multi starrer films like RGV ki Aag, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, it was films like Dhamaal, Partner, Heyy Babyy, Dhol, Bhool Bhulaiyaa that had filmmakers laughing all the way to the bank.
David Dhawan's Partner made close to 40 crores in its opening week alone while the small budgeted Bheja Fry was the biggest hit of in the first half of the year for Bollywood. 2007 also saw a large number of stars adding comedy to their portfolio of work. Starting from stars like Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar, Arshad Warsi and Javed Jaffrey to Riteish, Ashish Chaudhary and Tusshar Kapoor all tried their hand at comedy and succeeded! And it is probably the success of comedy this year that has prompted the directors to begin work on their sequels. From Partner to Golmaal, all of these have found sequels for themselves.
Arshad Warsi, who won huge acclaim for his role of circuit in the Munnabhai series, continued with his lucky phase this year as well. "I enjoy comedy and considering the number of comedy films that were made this year we do get a lot more offered to us. Fans love the films we are putting forth but I also believe it's not about the genre more than the story line itself. I don't think a fan goes in saying I will watch a sports film or a romantic film. They will watch the film as long as it is good," opines Arshad.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh agrees that this year has definitely belonged to all the comedies. "If you look at it almost all comedies have done well. And I think the main reason is that they provide non stop entertainment for the viewer. For 2-3 hours you can pretty much forget all about your every day hassles."
"In today's Bollywood it's all about competition and every film is a surprise. There is no guarantee any more of any film doing well and so when you see films like Partner and Heyy Babyy doing well you might think that its because of its stars but if you look at films like Dhol which had lesser known stars, the film still did well. And so I think its all about providing entertainment for the viewer," he adds.
Adarsh also says that another reason why comedies have done this well is because the equation of determining a hit has changed. "First it was about how long the film stayed at the box office but now it's about making more money than what you put in. And comedies don't cost as much to make as say an action or romantic film and so they have managed to make a lot more than it cost to make."
2007's Top 5 Comedy Films in India (in rupees)
Partner 30,88,09,568
Heyy Babyy 24,54,82,732
Bhool Bhulaiyaa 24,39,47,770
Namastey London 15,19,20,378
Dhamaal 15,18,56,178
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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