The advance booking for Brahmastra, arguably the most eagerly awaited film of the third quarter of year 2022, is impressive, pretty impressive. In just two days, around 46,000-odd tickets of the Amitabh-Ranbir-Alia-Nagarjuna-Mouni starrer have been sold in just the three national multiplex chains viz. PVR, Inox and Cinepolis. Although it is too early to hazard a guess about the first day’s expected all-India net collections based on the advance booking numbers, it can safely be predicted that the costliest Hindi film will open huge.
The phenomenal advance booking has brought cheer to the trade for obvious reasons. Films have been flopping left, right and centre in the last three months, prompting producers, directors, writers and stars to almost doubt their own capabilities. It was almost like filmmakers had forgotten to make good films. The last two big films — Laal Singh Chaddha and Raksha Bandhan — opened to such poor houses (in relation to their budgets, star cast, etc.) that people had started losing faith in anything Bollywood. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the entire Hindi film industry has been praying for a hit. Of course, it is still too early to predict how Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra would work at the box-office but the fact that its plans have opened to such tremendous response gives hope that after all, all is not lost, as was being feared.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the entire Hindi film industry has been praying for a hit.
Another reason why the fantastic advance booking numbers of Brahmastra have brought so much joy in the trade is because they have conclusively proved that the impact of the Boycott Bollywood brigade, which raised its ugly and frustrated head with renewed vigour four to five weeks back, is zilch. After calling for the boycott of Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan, the same people turned their ire towards Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, demanding the boycott of Brahmastra. But look at what happened! The advance booking figures of Brahmastra prove that the call to boycott the film has fallen on deaf ears. Just like the call for boycott of the earlier films must also, in reality, not have had much of an impact. For, those films failed to bring in the crowds to the cinemas because their content was disliked. But the brigade went around town, taking credit for the failure of those films. The fact, of course, was that the films had flopped because of their content rather than due to the call for their boycott.
The advance booking figures of BRAHMASTRA prove that the call to boycott the film has fallen on deaf ears.
Believe it or faint, several people in the trade had also begun to feel that the call for boycott was adversely affecting box-office collections of Hindi films. Call it complete lack of understanding or simply the inability to admit that our content was bad, these people in the trade saw their confidence level drop to an all-time low because of the Boycott Bollywood brigade. For them as for the entire trade, the advance booking of Brahmastra has come like a shot in the arm and a reaffirmation that Bollywood even today stands like a rock-solid pillar.
The Boycott brigade as well as those who believed in the brigade’s (non-existent) power to influence the thought process of people, forgot to appreciate the fact that the brigade is a faceless entity and, therefore, its importance and relevance is bound to be almost zilch. They did not appreciate the fact that there is nothing sacrosanct about the boycott call or that there is no accountability involved. They also overlooked the importance of entertainment in people’s lives. Agreed, entertainment is available on OTT platforms too but where films steal a march over OTT content is in their music. The joy which Hindi film songs bring to music lovers cannot be over-emphasised. Of course, there is the additional point of community viewing in theatres, which cannot be replicated in home-viewing.
The Boycott brigade as well as those who believed in the brigade’s (non-existent) power to influence the thought process of people, forgot to appreciate the fact that the brigade is a faceless entity and, therefore, its importance and relevance is bound to be almost zilch.
In sum total, the sensational advance booking is the best thing to have happened to Bollywood in the last three months. While pumping the Hindi film industry with renewed energy, it has also written the obituary of the paper tiger, the faceless Boycott Bollywood brigade. Does anyone know when and where’s the funeral? Oh, did you just say, “Who cares?”