Baahubali 2 is mission impossible for others

Bahubali - The Conclusion is coming to the end of its run and it will be a 508 crore nett (705 GROSS) finish and it has probably stopped the trend where all time records are broken every few years. This is because films like PK and Dangal were doing phenomenally well but they were not those great ALL TIME BLOCKBUSTERS which got 5 crore people to the theatres like a Sholay, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun or Gadar which led to these films holding records for years. There will be so many huge films in the next 2-3 years that will be expected to challenge Bahubali - The Conclusion but the sort of cinema being made by our industry means Bahubali - The Conclusion is a safe bet until the ticket rates get high enough for a 525 crore nett figure to come with 3.5-4 crore footfalls. The new GST tax may help a little if that is the only tax but then the comparison becomes GROSS as the box office dynamics have changed and 700 crore GROSS won't be there.

There will be talk about if the content is great then the records will be smashed but its not exactly about CONTENT here but CONVICTION. There is a type of storytelling which delivers huge numbers which we have seen with Dangal or Bajrangi Bhaijaan and then you add the formula cinema with melodrama which Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Dangal have but subtly. A Bahubali - The Conclusion celebrates this cinema unabashedly without subtly and thats the difference. The content of Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Dangal cannot be faulted in any. Bahubali 2 is basically on the lines of a Suraj (1966) or a Dharam Veer (1977) and many others where a prince goes to a neighboring area and falls in love with a princess who is loved by a joker prince. The prince proves to be the hero and wins the girl and brings her back but his family members have stirred up trouble and he looses his crown which he has to get back. Its a simple story done many times in the history of our cinema.

This sort of cinema today needs conviction more than at any other time as there is a very fine line of it falling flat on its face and being ridiculed or becoming Bahubali - The Conclusion and the fact is that no filmmaker in the Hindi film industry will have this conviction as won't believe in this cinema, and if you don't believe in it then you can't make the audience believe. The great filmmakers of Hindi cinema like Mehboob Khan, Raj Kapoor, Raj Khosla, Manmohan Desai and Manoj Kumar had this conviction and that is why they had such huge blockbusters similar to Bahubali 2 - The Conclusion. These guys must have around 10-12 films between doing 4-5 crore footfalls or even more. There were no other forms to watch films then like television or video but this is equaled up by the fact that the population has doubled since then.

At the time these legends made films it was an audience and today this audience has become single screen audience, multiplex audience, big city audience, small city audience, evolved audience, leave your brains behind audience and what not. When an audience is divided in such a way where will the conviction come as everybody may say they stay true to the script but the fact that this audience may not accept that or that audience may not accept this is there no matter what anyone says. When the thinking is that the audience is one these things become secondary. This is actually what Bahubali - The Conclusion proves that its still just an audience and a good film will work with all. In fact not just Bahubali - The Conclusion but any blockbuster proves this but at varying levels. The level of Bahubali - The Conclusion will only come if makers believe in this type of cinema, the audience does as can be seen in the results but its pretty certain that no big Hindi film director will green light a story like Bahubali - The Conclusion.

There will be people in our industry that will see the grandeur and scale of the film as the reason for its huge success and if one attempts to replicate on this belief it will lead to disaster as in our cinema the story and the way its told holds much more importance. Simply put the Bahubali - The Conclusion numbers are here to stay for a long time, in time its 508 crore nett will be crossed but those 5.25 crore footfalls is another mission altogether.

Although its a long shot, the hope is that one of our Hindi filmmakers pulls in over 5 crore people into the theatres and gives that historic blockbuster as this will change Hindi cinema for sure and for the better. At the moment, the industry sees S.S. Rajamouli at another level and playing in a different league in a different industry so it does not change much but when one of your own guy goes and does the unthinkable then the picture does changes as others believe we can also achieve that. .