Head start

With four big budget films crossing the Rs 100 crore ($15 million) mark in box-office earnings in the first quarter of 2017, Bollywood is off to a “good” start this year — but it continues to battle the growing menace of piracy, say trade gurus.

Hopes are thus high from the upcoming slate of movies, starting with filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli’s southern magnum opus Baahubali 2: The Conclusion.

Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees, Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil, Akshay Kumar’s Jolly LLB 2 and Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt starrer Badrinath Ki Dulhania are the four films which have done well in terms of earnings so far.

According to a report prepared by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and management consultants KPMG, 2016 was a “mixed bag” for Bollywood, where films had a “disappointing year with a near-flat performance”.

So, the Hindi film industry has heaved a collective sigh of relief with the first quarter of 2017.

The clash of Kaabil and Raees was much talked about, yet the films ended up minting Rs 103.84 crore and Rs 137.51 crore, respectively.

With Aamir Khan’s Dangal releasing in late-December, its success story spilled over into 2017, giving the film earnings of Rs 387.38 crore, according to trade insiders.

Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Roy Kapur’s Ok Jaanu minted Rs 23.64 crore and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer Haraamkhor made Rs 1.34 crore in early January.

“This is a very good and exceptional start. We hope that the trends don’t change,” says film and trade business expert Girish Johar said. —IANS