December has never been so hectic! With the onset of winter in India, a section of the industry strongly feels that the business of films also starts freezing, especially towards the evening shows in North India. Naturally, with attendance at movieplexes sliding downwards, most producers feel it's better to schedule their films in January/February, for, by then, the viewer is already acclimatized to the dipping temperatures.
But this year is an exception! If you take a look at the release chart, you'd realize that the number of films slated for release in December outnumber those released in the past few months. Of course, there's a strong possibility that a few film-makers may be forced to shift their films to a latter date thanks to [i] Paucity of cinemas to screen films and [ii] Clashing with a biggie would only result in the business getting divided.
But all said and done, with a record number of films in the fray, the winter season is only going to get hotter with each passing week!
COMEDIES IN, SKIN-FLICKS OUT
2005 has been a much better year when compared to the previous years. Not only did the year witness a number of successes, even the volume of business seems to be increasing with each year. Although it's too early to analyze the year since a number of biggies are expected to hit the marquee before the year comes to a close, the one genre that dominated the charts is, without doubt, comedy.
Thanks to the super-success of MAINE PYAAR KYUN KIYA, KYAA KOOL HAI HUM, NO ENTRY and GARAM MASALA, there seems to be a mad rush to make light entertainers. Till last year, everyone was of the unanimous opinion that a generous dose of skin show is what drives moviegoers to movieplexes. Not anymore!
You may find this hard to believe, but a number of skin-flicks are finding it tough to attract buyers. Only goes to prove that no one genre is permanent in Bollywood.
THIS WEEK, LAST YEAR
[Weekend: November 12-14, 2004]
A strife-torn film industry was praying that the Diwali releases do the trick. The prayers were answered. The crowds were back… and how!
Yash Chopra's VEER-ZAARA staked claim on the No. 1 position. It was meant to take a flying start at the turnstiles and the film behaved exactly the way one expected it to… Had AITRAAZ been a solo release, the results would've been much, much better. The film had a shaky start, fetching a 50-60% opening at several cinema halls across the country. But the collections showed a jump from Saturday onwards.
Ramgopal Varma's gamble to release NAACH in the same week as VEER-ZAARA and AITRAAZ misfired bigtime. Coming from the maker of RANGEELA, SATYA, COMPANY and BHOOT, NAACH was more of an experiment. An abstract piece of work, it failed to strike a chord with the paying public… As for MUGHAL-E-AZAM, this epic also met with a mixed response. The film fared well at a few centres, but at some places, it was struggling to stand on its feet in the face of tough competition.
