Year In Review 2016: Bollywoods Epic Fails This Year

Year In Review 2016: Bollywood's Epic Fails This Year

Honey Mehta

8 December 2016

As in most years, Bollywood had its fair share of hits and misses in 2016.

But amid the brilliant and the not so good, there were some terrible movies that made us question our sanity.

Also of interest is that, this year:

-Films with superstars failed to break even ('Fan')
-Films with big budgets tanked ('Mohenjo daro')
-Films with acclaimed directors were unsuccessful ('Mirzya') and
-Films with a good plot, good music, and good-looking actors were disastrous ('Baar Baar Dekho').
Looks like Bollywood will just have to try harder next year!

Here's a list of 2016's most unsuccessful Bollywood films, based on the budget versus the box office returns.

Source for numbers (All figures in rupees)
https://www.bollywoodcat.com/bollywood-movies-box-office-collection/

https://www.koimoi.com/box-office/hits-flops/verdict-2016/

Worst films of 2016

10. Azhar (Budget 38 crore, Return 33 crore) Another sports film from Bollywood in a year during which the genre seemed to be the flavor of the season. 'Azhar' played it safe - not the cricketer, the movie. With all the controversies surrounding Mohammed Azharuddin's eventful life, the makers of the film did not want to land in any disputes. This made for an unexciting film. The audience came in with a lot of expectations from the biopic, what they got instead was a justification of why Azhar did what he did. Even a fine actor such as Emraan Hashmi couldn't save it.

9. Fan (Budget 105 crore, Return 84 crore) In this a Bollywood actor's fan takes 'fangiri' to another level of creepiness. The movie received mixed reviews, and was mostly disliked for some highly improbable feats that were depicted on screen. The film made you question reason and logic at so many points that it was difficult to like it. It was also unnecessary elongated, and the climax was predictable. Shah Rukh Khan, however, was lauded for his performance. 'Fan', while appreciated by some, failed to set the turnstiles on fire.

8. A Flying Jatt (Budget 50 crore, Return 38.6 crore) These days, we all need a superhero to save ourselves from pollution (especially in Delhi), except that we cannot trust our lives with 'A Flying Jatt'. A superhero with acrophobia and who obeys traffic rules, the movie is cute and could've been a hit with the kids. However it became too tiring to sit through. Even as a parody of superhero films, director Remo D'Souza should've tried harder.

7. Freaky Ali (Budget 19 crore, Return 14.67 crore) A light-hearted movie that didn't succeed. A lot sport films have been released in Bollywood and this is probably the first one on golf. Golf has always been elitist sport so to have a poor man play the game and win makes a good story. The movie has a simple message: never underestimate the power of a common man. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is awesome as always. What disadvantaged the film are the clichs, too much of good over evil lessons and probably even the lack of a mainstream hero. Moreover, the movie wasn't promoted enough and opened with 'Baar Baar Dekho'.

6. Baar Baar Dekho (Budget 50 crore, Return 31.2 crore) Baar Baar Mat Dekho. A cute rom com from Dharma productions, starring Bollywood's young and good looking hanging out in Thailand and London in the most fashionable of clothes " this movie was quite an eye pleaser. Except, a story that must've rocked on paper was disastrous on screen. Siddharth Malhotra's acting was like the male version of Kirsten Stewart in 'Twilight'. While initially people thronged the theatres, after word spread about the lackluster performances and meandering storyline, ticket sales dropped sharply and helped make this one to the list of the worst films of 2016.

5. Saala Khadoos (Budget 29, Returns 14.79) Another sports drama churned out of Bollywood. This time: Boxing. A retired boxer trains his protge win the championship and live his dream. The movie saw R. Madhavan transform completely for the role and his performance was heavily praised. The movie received mixed reviews and unfortunately could not break even at the box office.

4. Mohenjo-daro (Budget 115 crore, Return 58 crore) Ouch! This would have hurt the producers. That crocodile must have cost a lot and all in vain. Critics enjoyed this movie the most: it gave them a lot to comment on and rip apart. The rich girl-poor boy love story is the oldest formula in the Bollywood book of hits, and yet it failed spectacularly in 'Mohenjo-daro'. The director raised hopes by marketing the film as an epic saga set in the oldest civilization of India. But all we got was a golden Hrithik Roshan, a feathered Pooja Hegde, and a pretty cool crocodile.

3. Great Grand Maasti (Budget 35 crore, Return 13.4 crore) This movie bombed because of three reasons: Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani and Urvashi Rautela. There were also genuine contributions to the disaster from a weak script, unnecessary sexual references, and lame humor. This film had to fail. Even the makers probably knew it. It appears as though the movie was made to exclusively entertain whistling frontbenchers and perverts. Only goes to show that no amount of marketing or skin show can save a lazily-made sex comedy.

2. Mirzya (Budget 35 crore, Return 10.43 crore) A lovely folk tale was marred by making it into a movie with newbie actors. How could a script written by Gulzar, directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and with music from Shankaar-Ehsaan-Loy bomb at the box office? Well, blame it on the effort-less (read: no effort) acting, songs almost every other scene, and way too much Rajasthan Tourism. Juxtaposing the fable with a present-day love story was a good idea, except the poetry ate up the plot.

1. Banjo (Budget 30 crore, Return 8.8 crore) 'Banjo' was just about average: a case of good concept, bad execution. Riteish Deshmukh excelled at playing the Marathi manoos. He managed to shed his sophistication to convincingly play the guy from the streets of Mumbai, and Nargis Fakhri contributed the glam factor. The story of a poor yet talented hero who becomes successful has been done way too frequently. However, the movie does create an honest picture of Mumbai. Unfortunately, this attempt of Bollywood to create a musical fell on deaf ears.