Floppywood... : Box Office Analysis for the year gone so far...
Do you remember the last Hit Hindi movie (new movie) you saw? Let me help you recall. Well, to be honest, even I don't remember. I think it was Guru, but even Guru was not a universal hit. It fared well with the classes but can't say the same about the masses. The point I am trying to convey is that we are into the last week of the first quarter of 2007 and yet no "HIT" Hindi movie this year. And going by the coming Fri releases, it's highly probable we'll have to wait for the next quarter. Big Brother, Delhii Heights, Gumnaam - The Unknown, Khanna & Iyer, Say Salaam India, and Zamaanat are slated for release on Mar 30 but none of them excites me except may be Delhii Heights.
I would not have been so worried had our men in blue not packed their bags off the Caribbeans so early. At least they could have provided the entertainment which our Bollywood dream merchants are failing to. Alas, that was not to be. Coming back to movies, what went wrong this year when we had so many HITS just last year? Films are falling faster than a pack of cards. Take a look at the list below for the movies released so far in 2007.
| Namastey London (Mar 23) The Namesake (Mar 23) Hattrick (Mar 16) Just Married (Mar 16) Sarhad Paar (Mar 9) Red (Mar 9) Water (Mar 9) 1971 (Mar 9) Nehlle Pe Dehlla (Mar 2) Nishabd (Mar 2) Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. (Feb 23) Eklavya - The Royal Guard (Feb 16) Undertrial (Feb 9) Black Friday (Feb 9) Traffic Signal (Feb 2) Parzania (Jan 27) Salaam-E-Ishq (Jan 257) Risk (Jan 19) Anwar (Jan 12) Guru (Jan 12) Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana (Jan 5) |
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It won't be very difficult to analyze the major reasons for the disastrous run of mishaps.
- One, majority of these were "BAD" movies. I do not want to elaborate more on that. They were bad movies. Period.
- Two, our producers and distributors continue to make the same mistake of releasing multiple movies in a single week. C'mon they are testing our patience and intelligence to the hilt by these "bad" movies and on top of that they want us to watch 3-4 such movies in one week.
- Three, some of these movies came without any proper promotion. Perhaps they should take some lessons from Farhan Don Akhtar and SRK on how to market a bad movie! At least you will get a decent opening. 20%-30% initial is not going to help anyone.
- Four, who is interested in watching "Dabba-bandh" movies lying in cans for ages?
And, there could be some more reasons, which I want you to post your comments with.
Still, not all is lost. We did have some good movies in Guru, Black Friday, Eklavya, Honeymoon Travels and Namesake. I have not watched Namastey London so can't comment on it yet. All said and done, I am hopeful that this tide will change soon with some good movies in line this summer.
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Re: Floppywood... : Box Office Analysis for the year gone so far
Well, first of all was it not enough to just have a "Bollywood", "Tollywood", "Mollywood", "Kollywood"........etc etc to justify our existence as slaves of "Hollywood"?
What was the need for this new term "Floppywood"? - to enslave ourselves more to the whims and fancies of the western world?
Guru is a film by Mani Ratnam, who has given so many wonderful hits like MOUNA RAAGAM, NAYAGAN, ANJALI, THALPATI, GEETANJALI, THIRUDA THIRUDA, ROJA, DIL SE, BOMBAY. But GURU does not feel like a Mani Ratnam film at all.
The reason is simple our Indian Film Industry is being controlled by the foreigners. The way our music, culture is being suppressed, our folk traditions completely ignored. Our many diverse regional culture is sidelined. And every new film is being shot in foreign locations, highlighting the architectural achievements of those countries.
To top it films like FANAA propagate the Pakistani viewpoint about Kashmir. Films like RANG DE BASANTI showing the brutality of police force with background music of independence songs, equating our police force under the control of the democratically elected government (which can be toppled any time by the public) to that of the British Police Force (which was forced upon us). The films like KANK shamelessly propagate extra-marital affairs, what was the problem of RANI with ABHISHEK? What is the guarantee that RANI will not find someone else after marrying SHAHRUKH KHAN?
This and various other examples show that our film industry is not in our control anymore. I sincerely wish that there should be more patriotic producers like Manoj Kumar (Bharat)
Re: Floppywood... : Box Office Analysis for the year gone so far
Agnipankh maybe its the western influence or maybe its the changing times you never know.....but films are always mirrors of a society and an integral part of democracy - freedom of expression.....if someone wants to express the way they view the society (by showing extra marital affairs) they have every right.......however India is not a democracy in true sense......directly or indirectly the things are policed on the whims of politicians and other people who manipulate the crowd.....
people burning down theatres over a movie called Fire? Basically they were saying its immoral? what century do these people live in? Someone needs to do a census on gay and lesbian population in India and I am sure it'll shock the world when they find out there are actually many more people like that then they thought.....
Also what part of India do you live in or grew up in where you have not seen a corrupt police officer that seeing something against them makes you so mad about Rang De Basanti.....I would love to live there:-)
btw Floppywood was more of a sarcastic tone than anything serious.....
Re: Floppywood... : Box Office Analysis for the year gone so far
Agnipankh, you did not get it right. Floppywood is not another one in the lines of Bollywood, Tollywood, etal. With so many flops this year, Floppywood is the only word that came to my mind...
As for Guru, I disagree to your comment that it does not look like a Mani Ratnam film. On the contrary, it's very much a Mani Ratnam movie. In fact it's just an extension in his series of biopic movies like Nayagan and Iruvar. Perhaps not at the same level. But his attempt was very much sincere. The whole movie was excellent but for the ending, which lacked the power punch.
Your view points on Fanaa, KANK, RDB need to be revisited. And leave Manoj Kumar alone. Barring some movies, he always went overboard. Remember Kranti, Clerk and the rest of his "patriotic" flicks which came later. Yes, he did make some good ones like Upkar, Purab Aur Paschim, Shahid...but after that he overdid.
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