Films and fortunes, it's all in the box

When it comes to the Indian film industry, it is the box office collections that decide the success of the stars. Apart from the much talked about Rs 100-crore club, 2015 threw a few surprises, especially the game changer Baahubali that shattered records and set new benchmarks in the film industry.

While the first quarter of the year remained a slack season for the film industry with no big releases, it was after April 2015 that the movie industry slowly started picking itself up with big movies, said Rajender Singh, Vice President of Programming and Distribution at Inox.

“Baahubali: The Beginning is the first non-Hindi film that raked in over Rs 150 crore in its Hindi-dubbed version. The Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan accumulated a whopping Rs 300 crore. If you take Piku, this film too did well by minting Rs 80-odd crore,” he said.

Trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai said both the Tamil and Telugu versions of Baahubali grossed Rs 150 crore at the box office.

“When you mean net box office collection (NBOC), it is gross collection minus entertainment tax. Even small and medium films like Tanu Weds Manu Returns did good collections. The year also saw different styles of storytelling. Some directors stretched their imaginations, and stepped out of their comfort zones,” said Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Pictures. The Khans continue to be extremely powerful at the box office, he added.

The recent films that hit screens — Ranveer Singh’s Bajirao Mastani and Shah Rukh-Kajol’s Dilwale — too garnered good business at the box office. “So far, Dilwale has raked in over Rs 95 crore, followed by Bajirao Mastani at Rs 75 crore,” informed Singh.
Regional cinema finds its appeal

Apart from Baahubali, the Telugu film industry witnessed a few hits like Mahesh Babu’s Srimanthudu, and Bhale Bhale Magadivoy, among others.

“Kumari 21F too did well in Telugu. If you take Tamil films, Kaakka Muttai and Vedalam, among others, did exceptionally well,” said Gianchandani.

Though in Malayalam, more movies sank without a trace, films like Premam and Ennu Ninte Moideen did exceptionally well, and in Kannada, movies like Rangi Taranga, Uppi 2, First Rank Raju and Mythri, among others, turned out to be a massive hit at the box office.

“If you take Gujarati movies, Gujjubhai the Great came in as a surprise. The comedy film did well by collecting Rs 12.5 crore at the box office,” said Gianchandani.

The Hollywood factor

The year 2015 was the year when Hollywood movies gave Indian films a run for their money. “After a long gap, Hollywood films have re-entered the 100-crore club. The last Hollywood movie that grossed Rs 100 crore was Avatar. In 2015, movies like Fast and Furious 7, Spectre, Jurassic World, and Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation, collected huge money at the box office. There is a correlation between the budget and collections at the box office, and there is no ambiguity in this regard. If you take Baahubali or Spectre, it had huge investments and also raked in the moolah at the box office,” said Gianchandani.

Talking about Hollywood trends that are finding an echo in India, Ajay Mehta, Head of Interactive TV, part of the WPP Group, said, much like the rest of the world, franchise movies are the most successful.

“The audiences are looking for movies that Bollywood or other Indian film industries cannot offer. So, large format movies which look good on the big screen and have a lot of effects and are larger than life have been doing well. Sequels also work because of the past legacy and the fact that they are established brands, and at times, require less marketing support,” he says.

Jehil Thakkar, Partner and Head of Media and Entertainment, KPMG in India, feels for Hollywood movies, the trend has largely been the same — action, horror, superhero and disaster movies — tend to do much better than drama and comedy in India.

“Hollywood increased its market share a few years ago through dubbed versions of its movies, but will now have to find new avenues for growth. In India, Hollywood movies have increased their share from six to seven per cent, to about 10-11 per cent.

The industry has expanded its share by dubbing movies into Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. However, the acceptance of different language movies outside their core markets (Tamil in Delhi, etc) is very low and limited to the native language speaking population in that region,” said Thakkar.

Special effects are here to stay

The expensively produced movies with special effects are catching a trend. They intend to lure away moviegoers from the huge flat screen televisions at their homes to theatres. “This is a trend which has been visible for the last few years. If you look at the box office figures of Hollywood films globally, the films with special effects will be eight to nine out of the top 10 films in any given year, and it has been similar in 2015. The trend is becoming more pronounced in India as well. Even advertisers like to advertise with such films because of the excitement that they deliver for the audiences,” Mehta said.

In South India, movies with elaborate special effects are being increasingly produced and have had great success, said Thakkar.

According to him, in Hindi cinema, this trend has been sporadic at best. “As the box office revenue increases, producers will indeed invest more in these movies. Also, with SVOD, to lure audiences to the theatres will take increased innovation. Windowing in India is largely non-existent, especially with the home video market. In India, the DVD market is negligible as movies debut on TV fairly quickly. Windowing is desirable to increase the overall revenue of a film and Indian companies are now starting to demand windows and limited runs on TV from their customers,” he adds.

There is a lot of expectation in 2016 from films like Batman vs Superman, Captain America: Civil War and X-Men, and in Bollywood films like Wazir, Fan, Fitoor, and Dangal, to name a few, apart from Baahubali: The Conclusion. As far as box office collections are concerned, experts hope with big releases lined up in 2016, movies will earn a whopping amount of money at the box office.