Year 2010 will go as a year of Dabangg. The movie garnered more than 140 Crores net of tax at box-office. Only movie to surpass the same is 3 Idiots. This year saw Salman Khan star-power unleashed. Another movie which joined the 100 cr. club was Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal 3. The above two movies clearly suggests that audience need entertainment, rather than preaching. Prakash Jha’s Raajneeti too came close to 100 cr. but again, was high on entertainment quotient. Houseful managed to earned a reasonably good amount of profit for its makers but was the only Hit for Akshay Kumar in 2010, out of his 4 projects. Peepli Live succeeded in making impact at box-office as well as on audience. A movie made at 6 crores succeeded in earning profit of more than its budget was a rare occasion at box office. Karan Johar’s and Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name Is Khan proved to be decent earner at Indian Box Office, but it was overseas where it did record-breaking business of 90 cr., opening new avenues for Bollywood, a feat which will be difficult to achieve in future, even for a Shah Rukh Khan starrer.
Year 2010 will again go as one where there were lots of upsets. Upsets in terms of both success as well as failure. Ace directors who have given great movies and box office successes in the past, failed miserably in the year gone by. The ace directors include Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Mani Ratnam, Farah Khan and Ashutosh Gowariker. The failure of movies like Guzaarish, Raavan, Kites, Tees Maar Khan and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se clearly suggested that the movies lacked entertainment quotient. On the other hand there were some new directors who gave Bollywood some success through their low-budget movies. Movies like Once Upon A Time In Mumbai, Peepli Live, Band Baaja Baarati, I Hate Luv Stories, Udaan are some of the movies which were lapped up by the audience.
Finally coming to the stars of 2010. It was Salman Khan with Dabangg’s record-breaking business at first weekend and first week, who proved his mettle at Box Office. Ajay Devgan had never seen before success in Golmaal 3, Raajneeti and Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. Shah Rukh Khan had a success in My Name Is Khan, where he is a solo starrer. Akshay Kumar had a rather disappointing year at box office with only one positive being Houseful. Other movies like Khatta Meetha and Action Replayy were neither accepted by audience nor succeeded at Box-office. His last venture, Tees Maar Khan too has been rejected by the audience. Abhishekh Bachchan had a disastrous year with two monumental failures Raavan and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se. Hrithik Roshan too could not save his two solo-starrers Kites and Guzaarish, movies which failed miserably.
Verdicts for the successful movies which released in 2010 –
Blockbuster – Profit in the range of 51-75 Crores.
Dabangg
Super Duper Hit – Profit in the range of 31-50 Crores.
Golmaal 3
Super Hit – Profit in the range of 16-30 Crores.
Raajneeti
Hit – Profit in the range of 6-15 Crores.
Houseful
Peepli Live
Once Upon A Time In Mumbai
Success / Average – Profit in the range of 0-5 Crores.
My Name Is Khan
Badmaash Company
Band Baaja Baarat
Love Sex And Dhokha
Tere Bin Laden
Udaan
I Hate Luv Stories
We Are Family
Year 2011 promises to be the most happening year of Bollywood, with every Superstar having a release in the year. So we can just hope that it is a best year at box-office for Bollywood after 1998 and 2006.