As half-yearly reports on Bollywood's box office performance surface, it's hard not to miss that 2010's big winner is not your regular rom-com or the flashy, big-budget actioner. Raajneeti -- a grim, largely grounded take on political machinations in the Hindi heartland -- has reportedly collected over Rs 80 crore ($ 17 mn), leaving biggies like Shah Rukh Khan's My Name Is Khan behind in the collection ranks. This, when two of the year's most awaited films -- Kites and Raavan -- have registered unflattering collections.
Raajneeti runs on an ensemble cast that features veterans like Naseeruddin Shah and Nana Patekar with Ajay Devgn, Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai and Katrina Kaif. While the star power, indeed, managed to fuel the film's initial run, the Prakash Jha-directed multi-starrer has, still, surprised the trade know-alls. Jha's earlier films including Gangaajal and Apharan have been critical successes but were not quite the box office whoppers.
Raajneeti Collections In US, Canada
Raajneeti, while factoring in its content that's largely unappealing to the overseas viewer, has done decent business in the US and Canada as well, with collections in the region standing at around $ 1.4 mn. Pit this against Housefull, the assembly-line Akshay Kumar comedy-hit that collected around Rs 70 crore in India and $1.1 mn in the US and Canada and there's an indication to how the political thriller has pulled in the crowds.
My Name Is Khan's Success
After running into reviews that ranged from tepid to scathing back home, Shah Rukh Khan's My Name Is Khan, helmed by Karan Johar, struck rich in the overseas market and is, easily, one of Bollywood's biggest box office successes outside of India. The film made around Rs 73 crore in India, ensuring a second place on the chart, and grossed about $ 4 mn in the US and Canada and £ 2.65 mn in the UK.
Housefull and Dipankar Banerjee's Love, Sex aur Dhokha complete the success chart for the year that has been for Bollywood. Abhishek Chaubey's Ishqiya was a sleeper success while Badmaash Company, Parmeet Sethi's big Yash Raj vehicle, managed to break even as well, according to trade reports. The cheer, however, has been clouded over by the disastrous box office performance of some of the biggies, leaving the industry with another shaky first half of the year.
Kites, Raavan Flop
Hrithik Roshan's measured breaks and choice of films had, so far, marked his run as one of India's leading actor-stars. Anurag Basu's much-hyped Kites, however, failed to get the critics or the masses. Collecting around Rs 48 crore in India and close to $ 1.6 mn in the US and Canada, Kites has fared way below expectations.
Mani Ratnam's Raavan -- starring Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Vikram and inspired by the epic Ramayana -- bombed on day one. The film's Tamil version has been noted for Vikram's standout lead performance but the collections are just a shade better. Raavan, as on June 28, has collected about Rs 23 crore in India and the film has already been dubbed a disaster in the trade. Two big Amitabh Bachchan starrers -- Teen Patti and Ram Gopal Varma's Rann -- fell at the box office, while other biggies including Salman Khan's Veer and the Shahid Kapoor musical Chance Pe Dance failed as well. The total losses for the distributors over the first six months of 2010 have been put at around Rs 200 crore.
Source:
- Bollywoodhungama.com
- En.wikipedia.org
Krishna Kumar - Senior journalist with more than 10 years' experience, on print and web. Has held senior positions in reporting and feature teams in ...
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