Bollywood still not learning from its mistakes, poor content, manipulated collections, paid reviews, veteran trade analyst decodes

Narendra Gupta

There was a time when Diwali use to be the biggest occasion for biggies to release their highly awaited films. Super stars like Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan were considered to be the ‘King’ at box office during Diwali – SRK’s ‘Om Shanti Om’, ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’, Ajay Devgn’s ‘Golmaal’ series etc, ‘Son Of Sardaar’ etc. these releases gave hope to industry and filled the audience with joy when they entered the theatres and got their money’s worth.

The so called ‘star power’ started diminishing and big names during Diwali like Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Jackie Shroff, Ajay Devgn. Ranveer Singh in Rohit Shetty’s ‘Sooryavanshi’ (2021) earned 297 cores against an investment of 160 crores. In no ways ‘Sooryavanshi’ can be called a blockbuster.

‘Singham Again’ (2024) earned 390 at a budget of 350 crores. Kartik Aaryan starrer ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ made hey and collected around 400 crores at a budget of around 150 crores.

Mr. Narendra Gupta points out that Bollywood is repeatedly doing the same mistakes again and again. The content is not suited for the Hindi theater going audience and they are repeatedly making such content and then indulge in this wicked practice of paid reviews and showing manipulated and fake collections. the list is long, for example Dinesh Vijiyan’s Maddock is said to be the culprit for repeatedly doing this practice. ‘Munjya’, ‘Stree 2’, ‘Sky Force’, ‘Chhaava’, ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’, ‘Param Sundari’ and the latest ‘Thamma’, it is alleged that the collections are manipulated, boosted. ‘Saiyaara’ also faced the same allegation same is the case of ‘Pathan’, Jawan’ ‘Animal’ etc etc the list goes on and on.

The Ott platforms like Netflix has stopped believing in the fake collections claim by producers and reduced prices. It is alleged that Netflix which bought the rights of Vicky Kaushal starrer ‘Chhaava’ made by Maddock shockingly had very disappointing viewership. It is alleged that Netflix felt cheated as they paid a huge price for Chaava’ and wet by thefigures claimed by the makers.

Though ‘Chaava’ is a big hit, it is still alleged that the collections are rigged.

Sanjay Leela Bhansali made huge claims for his ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ but was Netflix smelled the rat and Bhansali has to settle on the price decided by Netflix.

Vashu Bhganani three films – ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’, ‘Ganapath’ and the one more name I don’t remember got sold at around 43 crores on OTT.

OTT giants Netflix, Prime have stopped buying films without theatre release and now they have also understood the game of such producers who manipulate collections and get paid reviews to increase their price.

It is shameful that Bollywood had started believing in such anarchy, the so-called superstars who charge huge exuberant amounts around 80 to 100 crores in reality don’t even have the capacity to draw a ten-core opening on Friday. Plus, the makers fall to their tantrums of multiple vans, staff expenses. Imagine separate OB vans only for the star to have his food and for music.

October is ending and Bollywood has only two big hits – ‘Chhava’ and ‘Saiyaara’ they are good earners in spite of its alleged boosted collections.

So, what is the solution

The star tantrum should be stopped, Bollywood should make content more relatable to is theatre going audience, theatre owners should reduce price and make movie watching more affordable to the ‘aam junta’– an average cinegoer goes to theatre to watch a movie, not to eat a burger. Its high time the filmmaker and distributor start caring about the target audience – the people who make and break stars. If they still get ignored, they will completely ignore them and…