The Big 4 of 2001: Your favourite movie? - Page 5

Gadar still gets TRPs for Zee cinema. It has low repeat value only for urban lot. Masses still like it and Sunny's most iconic work till date is Gadar and he still poses with hand pumps at even election rallies and makes crowds hoot for him. 

DCH still has a niche and urban appeal. Most popular online but not as much among Indians in real life.

K3G, Gadar and Lagaan were way more popular in real life and still are.

DCH was indeed average and not a clean hit when it released and many regular Indians found it slow or hard to understand. Akhtar siblings films have mostly urban and metropolitan appeal and not very massy. 

Disney India - Biggest Hits Ever in 2016 But Shutdown

Thursday 05 January 2017 13.00 IST

Box Office India Trade Network

Google+ Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Addthis

Follow Us Twitter logo link

The year gone by has seen Disney India (formerly UTV Motion Pictures) deliver the highest grossing Hindi film ever (probable) in Dangal and The Jungle Book which is the highest grossing Hollywood film in India ever and both films are the biggest BLOCKBUSTERS ever for Disney India but it is has shut operations in India. Not only does it have these huge grossers but there is also Baaghi which was a hit at the box office and is now running riot on television with almost 60 lakh impressions on first viewing and has hit 30 lakh plus impressions three to four times in repeat. Put into perspective these repeats are higher than the premieres of Shahrukh Khan's Fan and Akshay Kumar's Airlift and Rustom. This is no mean feat for a small film. Basically the five most popular films of the year in 2016 in India going by theatres and television are Sultan, Dangal, (this order can change in time) The Jungle Book, Housefull 3 and Baaghi and three of these of belong to Disney India. There has been a Fitoor and Mohenjo Daro but the huge popularity of the three above films more than counteract that.

It is rare to see a studio shut operations in the same year that they have delivered such hugely popular films but that is exactly what has happened to Disney India. This year the decision makers at Disney India would have seen what the audience wants as you have to be stupid not to see after such hugely successful films and on top you have also seen your content which has failed with the audience. It would give a clearer view of what Hindi cinema is all about. But this clearer view is probably too late as the American bosses have pulled the plug. The plug has been pulled because of what we call the Dil Chahta Hai syndrome which was probably there in the studio (and many others).

Dil Chahta Hai syndrome is 

1. There was a film in 2001 called Dil Chahta Hai which a section (a fairly large section) of the industry for some reason followed in its story telling and its narrative style despite it being a poor film and rejected and by most of the audience at the box office and even more on television after. More about this fiasco (for the industry) on another day.

2. You make films which you want to make (Dil Chahta Hai) which is actually correct and what everyone should do but the problem is when the audience is kicking you in the teeth again and again then there has to be some rethink. It was not just Disney (then UTV) but the whole brigade which thought Dil Chahta Hai cinema was the way forward. It was okay at the time though as it was all corporate money and table profits so the audience opinion did not matter much but it had to tell as eventually someone somewhere had to cover the losses.

Disney India (formerly UTV Motion Pictures) started in 1997 with Dil Ke Jharoke Mein (Manisha Koirala, Vikas Bhalla) which was a disaster were a part of this Dil Chahta Hai brigade post the release of the 2001 film and had their first hit in 2006 with Rang De Basanti and the same year had this Khosla Ka Ghosla which no one saw but was raved about in the media and probably this brigade in the industry also. Actually even Rang De Basanti was more talked about than what it actually achieved at the box office and after on television. The company continued with this type of cinema which was never going anywhere not in India at least but there were some huge bright spots like hugely appreciated films like Rowdy Rathore and Chennai Express and well liked acquisitions like Race and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. 

Then in late 2013 they hit the jackpot as Disney wanted its share in the Indian market and took over UTV Motion Pictures but Disney is a blockbuster studio, when someone like that comes to India they expect the blockbusters and biggest films but here what they got was Dil Chahta Hai cinema and duds like Haider, Katti Batti and Fitoor etc. which would have been a shock to their system. The Jungle Book despite being a foreign film is more Indian in its story telling and emotions than all these films. There were blockbuster acquisitions like Kick and PK but one was highly priced while the other on commission so returns were not huge as the success of those films warranted. This was more than counteracted by acquiring of poor films like Phantom, Tamasha and Mohenjo Daro at fancy prices where just the first named alone more than killed the profits on Kick and PK and this would not have gone down well in at Head Office in California.

The irony of it all is that just when a studio is coming out of some misconceptions (has to be after Dangal, The Jungle Book, Baaghi and there was also last years ABCD 2 it has to shut up shop which is sad. Actually the misconceptions could have come out earlier when a Rowdy Rathore and Chennai Express was there but there is a fluke like Barfi! in among them and that gives hope that this can be the correct road especially if the people making creative decisions believe in that road. But if you dig deeper into all the facts and figures of Barfi! everything is crystal clear that it can happen but rarely and post its theatrical run there is only rejection as though numbers came in theatres its through a minority and wider audience not interested.

The other sad part is that Disney India is a powerful distribution outfit today with a huge presence in all the circuits and now despite this clout it will not be releasing any Hindi films barring the pending Jagga Jasoos unless headquarters in California have a rethink. A rethink could actually mean a much better Disney India after what has happened in 2016 but if its still Dil Chahta Hai syndrome then there would not much hope for this industry.

The filmography of Disney India (formerly UTV Motion Pictures) can be seen here

Note - Some films in the list will be acquisitions released as a distribution concern

The Fiasco Of Dil Chahta Hai

Thursday 12 January 2016 11.30 IST

Box Office India Trade Network

Google+ Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Addthis

Follow Us Twitter logo link

Dil Chahta Hai was a film released in 2001 and was a mediocre success at the box office (loosing in all circuits barring Mumbai and South. Delhi / UP just about covered). The fiasco with this film was not the box office but how a section of the industry followed the story telling style and narrative of this film despite rejection so instead of the tradition rooted desi Hindi film, this western style urban (so called cool) film which was not relatable to most was being attempted by many. Most of these films fell flat on their faces barring a few exceptions but even here the appreciation and recovery was not so high that so many had to be made week in week out. The corporates were just coming to India when the film released and they backed this cinema allowing it to be made as independent distributors were never going to touch unless at very low prices which held no attraction to producers as then the losses will be in their books. Even Dil Chahta Hai had MG's cut on release by many distributors and this was despite it having stars like Aamir Khan and Preity Zinta.

Around 4-5 years back this Dil Chahta Hai cinema was still in control as far as budgets were concerned and the losses were not back breaking but in the last few years these so called urban cool niche films are budgeted so high that they have to be liked by the majority to cover and that is where 20 or 30 crore and even 40 and 50 crore losses led to the corporates pulling the plug on Hindi cinema. What is hard to understand is why a section of the industry went this was, was it because of the corporate world backing who were mainly Hollywood studios and maybe this more western cinema appealed to them and they thought it was the way forward (though obviously wrongly) at the expense of the real Hindi cinema or was it that the media ranted and raved about Dil Chahta Hai and some believed there was something in this and don't want to miss the bus.

The same ranting and raving had happened many times before but generally for small films. But in 1989, a film named Parinda released and the media just went bonkers over it although it was like a leftover NFDC film and a sleep fest which the audiences rightly rejected. The difference Parinda had a from an NFDC film was a cast and a budget so the media basically got to see an art film with better production values and a cast but you can't fool the audience. If its a sleep fest then you will get results of a sleep fest. The other filmmakers ignored the fuss and went on with business as usual and rightly so. The team of Parinda obviously though different and probably thought they were unlucky in some way and the media was correct and made a bigger budgeted 1942 - A Love Story (1994) and here at least the songs were not forced like a Parinda and Tax Exemption in Maharashtra meant some numbers but still an inevitable flop.

If a Parinda can be ignored and seen for what it is then surely a Dil Chahta Hai can also for a better industry. There can be two reasons for this, one is that in 2001 there were younger film makers and they were inexperienced like their counterparts in 1989 or it was the coming of multiplexes which they thought were more likely to accept western type cinema rather than the more desi Hindi cinema. The first reason you cant do anything about but second one is just common sense, cinemas are changing but its still the same people going to those cinemas or has this multiplex audience just come out of thin air. The misjudgment was probably because all multiplexes were in metros and up market areas and that was probably seen as multiplex cinema when actually it was South Mumbai or South Delhi cinema. A point to note is that a Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham which released a few months after Dil Chahta Hai did more than double the numbers in these same multiplexes. But what happens then filmmakers who believe in Dil Chahta Hai cinema put it down to huge cast but in those days the numbers were not about 3 days or 7 days where a cast can do the job but about 10-12 weeks and films did not run that long just on cast.

The film industry is probably the only one across the world which has held out from the challenge from Hollywood but now in India its only regional cinema for which Hollywood holds no fear while for Hindi films many filmmakers have to look at the calendar for Hollywood releases as someone of them can actually take out the Dil Chahta Hai type Hindi films at the box office. This was unthinkable earlier as Hindi films ruled but now many films are just Hindi in language whereas treatment is foreign. Regional cinema has no such issues and so there is no outside threat. 

The funniest thing is that you get to read reports in newspapers that how great a Dil Chahta Hai remake or sequel will be which is just crazy. The film had Aamir Khan as main lead and lesser actors like Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khan, these two can today be replaced by superstars Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan and the results would not be better. Dil Chahta Hai got 1 crore footfalls at the time and even with the three Khans you are not getting much more than 1.5 crore because its still not going to work outside the few cities that it did in 2001 even though expectations will be for the highest ever (at least highest in multiplex era) 

Just for the record putting aside the box office failure in most parts, the bigger failure as a film for Dil Chahta Hai was post release which makes it clear for all. In the decade of its release, repeat runs were still happening though business was not like earlier. In 2006, Dil Chahta Hai had a repeat run at just 12 theatres across India through the year and Gadar also released in 2001 had repeat run in 205 theatres and this is not counting very small centres where repeats are tough to track. This shows the insane gap five years after release and if we go to 2011 then the trp rating of a screening of Dil Chahta Hai was 0.18 and Gadar was 75% higher in one screening and 65% higher in another while Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was 55% higher in one 60% higher in another and 70% in another. Not only where the blockbusters of 2001 screened more times but each time rated far higher and this was ten years after release. So after ten years the actual results were no different but the a section of the industry was going totally into Dil Chahta Hai type cinema. Something had to give and it did