Hit formula, flop collection: Bollywood, what’s going wrong?

With much hullabaloo, Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif starrer time travel romance ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ was released this Friday, and to our utmost surprise, did not create the magic that we expected it to, on its first day and weekend. The movie had everything that one could dream of in a beautiful romantic comedy; picturesque locales, two gorgeous looking people, talented supporting cast, and chartbuster music. Not only this, but the lead pair left no stone unturned as they travelled from city to city, giving interviews at a stretch, as the relentlessly promoted their movie. Even after that, if a movie which was awaited with much ardour, fails to perform well financially, it’s time to introspect a little. Where are we, the fans going wrong as a viewer, or where are the makers going wrong, as presenters of a concept?

Not too long back, something similar happened with the Tiger Shroff and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer superhero flick, ‘A Flying Jatt’. The movie had everything working in its favour and the makers and actors had created a terrific buzz with ‘Beat Pe Booty’ challenge, and also amongst the kids who were really looking forward to watching a Jatt superhero with all his adorable gimmicks. Sadly, the movie failed to take off and the superhero fell flat on his face. What was amiss, when everything seemed to be going in the favour of makers?

One thing which we think might be ‘word of mouth’. Like it works well in case of lesser-known movies, the reverse is true in case of big-budget movies too. These flicks take the expectations of viewers rocket high, and when those are not met, gradually a negative ‘word of mouth’ spreads, bringing down the collections. At least that’s what has transpired in case of ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ where critics and audience both have extremely mixed reactions. While some have loved the movie, others have hated it. Mind you, this is not a difference of mass and class audience. While people have loved the concept, they have bashed the execution. What exactly went wrong here, well the makers will have to point that out themselves. Similarly, in case of ‘A Flying Jatt’, flying expectations were what took this superhero down. Had there been a decent buzz, maybe people would have actually liked it.

There are many such examples of the past, where movies had everything going into their favour, from the trailer, to songs, to the good looks of the lead, and the anticipation of the audience. Still, they tanked. However, in case of these movies, while the makers and actors poured in their heart and soul from scratch to finish, the audience discarded them. Aishwarya Rai-Randeep Hooda starrer ‘Sarbjit’ and Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer ‘Tamasha’ are perfect examples. While ‘Sarbjit’ had viewers hooked from the trailer itself, and had the promotions going the right way, with a heart-wrenching story to tell, ‘Tamasha’ was a beautiful story woven by Imtiaz Ali, with tracks that are crooned till now, and performances that touched our heart. But alas, we feel that here, we as audience failed these two masterpieces as we were more engrossed in making the masala movies a blockbuster.

Anyway, ‘Baar Baar Dekho’ still has a long way to go before any verdict can be put on that, and we really hope that it garners at least a per cent of expected collection, if not all. ‘M.S.Dhoni: The Untold Story’, ‘Shivaay’, ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ are just some of the many movies that are coming this year, where expectations are not just huge, they are humongous enough to blow the lids off! We really hope that the movies turn out to be as good as the buzz that has been created around them. At the same time, we also hope that this time we as audience would give preference to performances and screenplay, rather than just good looks and star power, which mints money on box office, while the hard work of many talented film-makers goes wasted.

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!