Posted:
Thursday 04 October 2018
Box Office India Trade Network
There have been a few articles here on this website about European directors who are a disease to the Hindi film industry or should we say were a disease as the industry is finally seeing the worth by moing away. Actaully even WERE a disease is not actaully correct as there are some major films to come from this lot and it is after these that it can actually be said that they were a disease.
The end is so close but will have to wait just a bit longer. So we will re visit again middle of next year and see if its actually the end or has one or two managed to survive. The other articles can be read from links below
The duds have continued from this group with Mukkabaaz, Manmarziyan, Bhavesh Joshi and Pataakha and then there is super disaster Sacred Games on digital which is actually claimed to be a huge success but like that the above films were also huge successes as its never about what is said but what are the results.
The big change today from the time of the above articles is the support from the major actors has gone and this really makes it hard for projects to happen as investors are hard to find without the stars. Obviously you can make smaller films where you can find buyers as risk is low but with the box office going worse each time even these investors will eventually run.
Its difficult to say why some major actors supported these directors as just watching from the outside you can tell its going to flop and that is a best case scenario. Maybe sensibilities matched and some of these actors also thought that the Europeans will change the face of Hindi cinema but how that was going to happen without the support of the audience only god will know. You can have all the ideas in the world and get inspiration from cinema which is said to be great by the West but if it does not match the sensibilities of the Hindi film audience then they will kick you in the teeth.
What has to remembered its not the duty of the public to buy a ticket for whatever you dish them even if you get your four and five stars a few days before release as these stars mean nothing when the public has seen the trailer and judges themselves. This does not apply just for films but in general as most prefer to believe what they see and not what is heard or said.
This cinema started way back in the 70's but it was in 1989 with Parinda that a bigger film with stars came. At that time it was taken seriously by the media who went on and went about this so called masterpiece (it was a flop of course) but the industry just took it in its stride and carried on as normal as then it was all about results and one bad result could have you out on the street. This film was showing in a cinema called Kumar in Delhi and on the Sunday evening show it sold 642 tickets which was 65% occupancy but by the end of the show only 375 people were left which meant around 300 people had walked out on a Sunday evening show. This was happening in a metro like Delhi so the story in a Dhanbad or Dewas can be imagined.
The momentum picked up in 2001 with Dil Chahta Hai where for some reason a section of the industry saw this film as the new light going forward. At that time the corporates were starting to enter also and they also liked this cinema and invested in it but after 10-12 years of duds they also felt the weight and a few years back most of them stopped investing in Hindi cinema. There are always reports in media that this film Dil Chahta Hai should be remade today as it was ahead of its times but its all talk, you can get a bigger cast comparatively today of say Ranbir, Ranveer and Varun and still the results will be no better. Dil Chahta Hai had 1.02 crore footfalls (which actually seems pretty good today a bad Mela from Aamir Khan had 1.13 crore in comparison at the time) and it even with these three young stars today it may not hit 1 crore footfalls as the cinema and storytelling style still will have limited takes 17 years later.
Then towards the end of the 2000 decade the multiplex revolution was there with smaller theatres and big a section of the industry did think these directors were the way forward and they were said to be among the top directors even though the track records said something else. They managed to actors from Shahrukh Khan to Aamir Khan to Ranbir Kapoor to Hrithik Roshan and even lesser ones like Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh but most of them failed even with the stars. There were some exceptions like a Barfi but a fluke or two will always happen as its the rule of averages. It does not change the fact that even Barfi had very limited appreciation which results after release confirm
Then complete end of these European directors and this European cinema will be when the stars do the complete vanishing act and in twelve months we will see has it happened or are there some stars out there who still want punishment from the audience. Without the stars it will go out of mainstream and this cinema is fine like the NFDC movement in the 70's but problem is when it comes into mainstream as even with the biggest stars the audience will still not be there and with stars the budgets and investments are up manifold. Maybe in a year or so if this phase is totally out we can do the numbers of actually how big a disaster these guys these were.
But if one side there is this European cinema story telling then there is also a Thugs of Hindustan which is pure HINDI mass cinema with inspiration coming from our cinema rather than others but more on that at another time.
Anupamaa
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