<p>Wounded by a long strike earlier this year, the film industry is perhaps on a self-healing path now, say trade pundits.<br /><br />The two-month-long stand-off between the producers-distributors and multiplex owners over revenue sharing, which was resolved June 5, led to a whopping Rs.300 crore (Rs.3 billion) loss to the Hindi film industry.<br /><br />The dry spell was broken by Kabir Khan's 'New York' that released June 26 followed by the other three films -- 'Kambakkht Ishq' that came July 3, 'Love Aaj Kal' July 31 and 'Kaminey' Aug 14 -- raking in a net profit close to almost half the losses so far this year.<br /><br />"These four films will do a net business of Rs.150 crore (Rs.1.5 billion) put together," revealed an industry insider.<br /><br />Said trade analyst Taran Adarsh: "The industry is definitely on a recovery path... it is getting better now, but we do need a big number of hits to follow as even an A-list movie like 'Luck' bombed.<br /><br />"Every movie has a luck of its own. For example, a small-budget film like 'A Wednesday' had a moderate release last year but proved to be a dark horse. At the end of the day it's the content that will win."<br /><br />Film critic Omar Qureshi had something similar to say.<br /><br />"The industry is healing. Everyone was deprived of movies. There was a desperation to watch films and the audiences couldn't handle it. So they took multiplexes by storm once good movies hit the screens and the result is worth watching," said Qureshi.<br /><br />"But that doesn't mean mediocre movies will win the race too... it'll only take big-budget and big-banner movies with a good story to make up for the losses and bring in footfalls," he added.<br /><br />The stand-off between producers-distributors and multiplex owners started in February over revenue-sharing. While the producers demanded a flat 50 percent share of all film revenues irrespective of the stars, budget and box-office collection, the exhibitors stressed on sharing profits based on the movie's earnings.<br /><br />As a result the producers declared a strike from April 4 onwards, which saw no big Bollywood releases in multiplexes across the country.<br /><br />Now all eyes are set on an array of big releases after the lull.<br /><br />The line-up includes Shahid Kapoor-Rani Mukerji starrer 'Dil Bole Hadippa', three movies of Salman Khan -- 'Wanted', 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna' and 'London Dreams' -- two Ranbir Kapoor-starrers 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' and 'Rocket Singh - Salesman of The Year', and Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots.<br /><br />Apart from these, there are also Hrithik Roshan's much-talked-about action thriller 'Kites', Priyanka Chopra's 'What's Your Raashee?', two movies starring Amitabh Bachchan -- 'Aladdin' and 'Pa' -- Akshay Kumar's 'De Dana Dan', Govinda's 'Hook Ya Crook' and Neil Nitin Mukesh's 'Jail'.</p>
<p>Wounded by a long strike earlier this year, the film industry is perhaps on a self-healing path now, say trade pundits.<br /><br />The two-month-long stand-off between the producers-distributors and multiplex owners over revenue sharing, which was resolved June 5, led to a whopping Rs.300 crore (Rs.3 billion) loss to the Hindi film industry.<br /><br />The dry spell was broken by Kabir Khan's 'New York' that released June 26 followed by the other three films -- 'Kambakkht Ishq' that came July 3, 'Love Aaj Kal' July 31 and 'Kaminey' Aug 14 -- raking in a net profit close to almost half the losses so far this year.<br /><br />"These four films will do a net business of Rs.150 crore (Rs.1.5 billion) put together," revealed an industry insider.<br /><br />Said trade analyst Taran Adarsh: "The industry is definitely on a recovery path... it is getting better now, but we do need a big number of hits to follow as even an A-list movie like 'Luck' bombed.<br /><br />"Every movie has a luck of its own. For example, a small-budget film like 'A Wednesday' had a moderate release last year but proved to be a dark horse. At the end of the day it's the content that will win."<br /><br />Film critic Omar Qureshi had something similar to say.<br /><br />"The industry is healing. Everyone was deprived of movies. There was a desperation to watch films and the audiences couldn't handle it. So they took multiplexes by storm once good movies hit the screens and the result is worth watching," said Qureshi.<br /><br />"But that doesn't mean mediocre movies will win the race too... it'll only take big-budget and big-banner movies with a good story to make up for the losses and bring in footfalls," he added.<br /><br />The stand-off between producers-distributors and multiplex owners started in February over revenue-sharing. While the producers demanded a flat 50 percent share of all film revenues irrespective of the stars, budget and box-office collection, the exhibitors stressed on sharing profits based on the movie's earnings.<br /><br />As a result the producers declared a strike from April 4 onwards, which saw no big Bollywood releases in multiplexes across the country.<br /><br />Now all eyes are set on an array of big releases after the lull.<br /><br />The line-up includes Shahid Kapoor-Rani Mukerji starrer 'Dil Bole Hadippa', three movies of Salman Khan -- 'Wanted', 'Main Aur Mrs Khanna' and 'London Dreams' -- two Ranbir Kapoor-starrers 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' and 'Rocket Singh - Salesman of The Year', and Aamir Khan's '3 Idiots.<br /><br />Apart from these, there are also Hrithik Roshan's much-talked-about action thriller 'Kites', Priyanka Chopra's 'What's Your Raashee?', two movies starring Amitabh Bachchan -- 'Aladdin' and 'Pa' -- Akshay Kumar's 'De Dana Dan', Govinda's 'Hook Ya Crook' and Neil Nitin Mukesh's 'Jail'.</p>
