In our editorial on 6th January, 2023, we had written: “So, all you exhibitors, smile! House-full boards and heavy footfalls in cinemas will once again be a reality — soon. The circus (pun for the flopping of Cirkus, released in December 2022) may have gone out of fashion, cinema won’t! You can rest assured!”
The uplifting message was written even when many in the trade had felt that the audience wouldn’t return to the cinemas, what with varied content on OTT platforms having dominated their lives all through the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020 and 2021. And while it’s time to take stock of year 2023, which is coming to a close, it would not be out of place to pat our own backs for the brave prediction made when film business was on a sticky wicket. For,…
♦♦ …Year 2023 may well go down in box-office history as one of the best in the last many years, if not the best. This is because four of the all-time Top 5 blockbusters in Hindi were released this year itself! The net all-India collections of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (Hindi dubbed) remained unbeatable for more than five years till Pathaan released in January 2023. Pathaan netted Rs. 525 crore domestically to outshine the Rs. 510 crore of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (dubbed). As if that weren’t good enough, we had two more films outdoing the dubbed blockbuster of 2017. Gadar 2 collected Rs. 1 crore more than Pathaan! Then came Jawan which netted Rs. 580 crore in Hindi and another Rs. 60 crore across South languages in the dubbed versions. Before the year drew to a close, Animal was inching closer to the Rs. 500-crore mark in Hindi alone. Since the Telugu dubbed version of Animal has done remarkably well, the total collections of all the versions (Hindi and dubbed) of the film have overtaken the total of Gadar 2, Pathaan (all versions) and Bahubali 2: The Conclusion (Hindi dubbed). Although it is still running in cinemas, it is not likely to overtake Jawan but its nearly Rs. 500 crore so far for the Hindi version alone, and the Rs. 550-plus crore for all the versions combined are indeed fabulous!
What better proof is required to underline that the audience is back in cinemas, as predicted by us a year ago?
♦♦ Alongside the four star-studded blockbusters, 2023 also saw a non-star cast The Kerala Story hitting bull’s eye. The bold film netted Rs. 242 crore to become the blockbuster with the highest return on investment (RoI)!
♦♦ A total of 260 Hindi films released in year 2023. Of these, 70 were dubbed from either Hollywood films or Indian films shot in a language other than Hindi. Of the 260 films released in the year, 32 bypassed cinemas and were premiered on OTT platforms. In other words, there were 228 Hindi films which made it to the cinemas in 2023.
♦♦ Five of the 228 theatrically released films proved blockbusters. They were Pathaan, The Kerala Story, Gadar 2, Jawan and Animal. Besides the five aforenamed films, 13 were successful at the turnstiles. They were Oh My God 2, Dunki, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, 12th Fail, Zara Hat Ke Zara Bach Ke, Dream Girl 2, Fukrey 3, 1920: Horrors Of The Heart, Satyaprem Ki Katha, Salaar (dubbed), Sam Bahadur, IB 71 and Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway. Three of the 32 OTT releases stood out for their major success. They were Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga (on Netflix), Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai (Zee5) and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (Netflix).
♦♦ There were several Hollywood films which scored in 2023, at least three of them — Oppenheimer, Fast X and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One — in a big way. The other 11 Hollywood films which brought joy in the trade were John Wick: Chapter 4, Guardians Of The Galaxy: Vol. 3, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (animation), Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, The Nun II, Insidious: The Red Door, Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, The Pope’s Exorcist, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (animation), The Flash and Meg 2: The Trench.
♦♦ Of the 228 theatrical releases, 32 films crossed the average line and proved to be earners. In other words, 14% of the films released in cinemas turned out to be earning propositions, the other 86% (196 films) proving to be average, below average, flops or disasters.
♦♦ Among the major disappointments were Shehzada, Selfiee, Dono, Ganapath, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan, Adipurush and Mission Raniganj. The Archies, which introduced three star-children, was a disappointing fare on OTT.
♦♦ After a long time, one saw repeat audience in cinemas. ‘Repeat value’ of films was threatening to become an outdated concept but RRKPK changed that as youngsters saw the film twice and even thrice. This was repeated in Animal too!
♦♦ The regional film industries delivered some phenomenal super-hits too. 3 Ekka in Gujarati, Baipan Bhari Deva in Marathi, Carry On Jatta 3 and Mastaney in Punjabi, and Sri Raghupati in Assamese brought cheer to the respective industries.
♦♦ Shah Rukh Khan may have written history not just by delivering two blockbusters (Jawan and Pathaan) and one successful film (Dunki) in a single year but also by staging a comeback with three success stories, two of them being phenomenal hits. This may be a world cinema record for an actor who had been written off not just by the trade but also by many among the public. He proved that his comeback was far more forceful than his setback.
♦♦ Sunny Deol staged an unimaginable comeback with Gadar 2. The Gadar sequel has brought the actor into the reckoning over again and he is reportedly being approached to headline projects by the dozen. If Sunny shone bright in Gadar 2, the year was also bountiful for dad Dharmendra (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) and younger brother Bobby (Animal).
♦♦ Films continued to be fodder for controversies in the year coming to an end. Pathaan ran into a major controversy as soon as its trailer was out. The saffron bikini of Deepika Padukone had a section of the BJP ministers asking for a boycott of the film. The controversies around Animal and The Kerala Story started after their release. There were voices against the gruesome violence in Animal, besides the portrayal of women. The Kerala Story was found too shocking by some, with two states — West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — even banning it in a bid to woo the Muslim population. The film showed Muslims converting girls of other communities to Islam and using them for illegal activities. Adipurush was yet another film which ran into a horrific controversy for its frivolous dialogues and portrayal of Lord Ram. Dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir, initially trying to justify the dialogues, had to ultimately apologise for his lapse which cost the producers dear as people rejected the film after its flying start. Oh My God 2 bore the brunt of the public ire in a small way before its release as some purists objected to its theme of masturbation juxtaposed with the character of Lord Shiva/his disciple (played by Akshay Kumar). Even Hollywood wasn’t spared as Oppenheimer came under the scanner because of the Bhagwad Gita being seen in a love-making scene in the super-hit film. Except for Adipurush, all the other controversial films scored big time at the ticket counters.
♦♦ Carnival group of multiplexes became the biggest defaulter when it failed to make payments of shares to distributors. It also defaulted in payments to landlords whose cinemas it was running. The electricity boards in various states were also at the receiving end when Carnival cinemas defaulted in payment of their electricity bills. The group’s cinemas ultimately shut down.
♦♦ Two mergers in the film industry hogged the headlines in 2023. While the merger of the two biggest multiplex chains of India — PVR and Inox — went through, that of the two big media houses — Zee and Sony — is yet to go through. Regulatory investigations and a legal case against Zee promoters Subhash Chandra and Punit Goenka have come as the proverbial spoke in the wheel, delaying the planned merger. The deadline for the merger was December 21, 2023, which Zee asked to push back, and Sony agreed.
♦♦ Actor Sooraj Pancholi finally breathed easy when he was acquitted by a special CBI court on April 28 in the decade-long Jiah Khan suicide case, due to lack of evidence. He had been charged for abetment to suicide. Actress Jiah ended her life on June 3, 2013.
♦♦ A crunch of big Hollywood releases will be felt in 2024 because of the long strike by Hollywood writers in May 2023. Actors joined the strike from July, demanding higher wages, security in the AI world, etc. Although there was no striking of work in the Hindi film industry, there will be a dearth of big-budget and big star-cast Hindi films too next year. The trade is already worried because Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh will not have a single release in 2024!
♦♦ M.M. Keeravani’s Naatu Naatu song from S.S. Rajamouli’s RRR won international acclaim by winning the Oscar as well as the Golden Globe for the best original song. Karan Johar was honoured in the UK Parliament for his contribution to the global entertainment industry.
♦♦ Singers Vani Jairam and Suman Kalyanpur were honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the former posthumously. Music director M.M. Keeravani, actress Raveena Tandon and producer (and stock market king) Rakesh Jhunjhunwala were conferred the Padma Shri.
♦♦ The trade was shocked to read a public notice issued by a nationalised bank, announcing the planned auction of Sunny Deol’s Sunny Super Sound in August. Swift action by the Deols averted the embarrassing outcome of non-repayment of a loan of Rs. 56 crore plus interest.
♦♦ Leading art director Nitin Desai committed suicide. The four times National Award winner is believed to have taken the extreme step due to his inability to service and repay the loan he had taken to make his ND Studios spread over 52 acres of land at Karjat near Bombay.
♦♦ Tamil film hero Vishal stirred a hornet’s nest when he accused employees of the Bombay office of the Central Board of Film Certification of asking for a bribe for arranging a quick screening of the Hindi dubbed version of his film, Mark Antony. It is believed that some heads in the CBFC office rolled thereafter because of this.
