While Aamir Khanโs โLaal Singh Chaddhaโ and โRaksha Bandhanโ, which released last week, sank without a trace, a small Telugu movie โ โKarthikeya 2โ โ is making waves in Hindi circuits. Nikhil Siddhartha, the main lead of the movie, is fairly popular in Telugu-speaking regions but is not a known name for the Hindi audience. Hence, expectedly, the movieโs Hindi dubbed version netted merely Rs 7 lakh on Day 1.
But while the collections of other two big films started plummeting, โKarthikeya 2โ began to gain momentum sans any publicity or brouhaha. On its second Friday, โKarthikeya 2โ (Hindi dubbed) clocked up Rs 2.46 crore net which are better than the combined collections of โLaal Singh Chaddhaโ and โRaksha Bandhanโ. Till now, this Nikhil Siddhartha has garnered Rs 8.21 crore net and is expected to soar further.
โKarthikeya 2โ is a mystery movie which has roots in Indian mythology. It is yet another example of a film rooted in Indian culture or history storming the box-office. Earlier this year, SS Rajamouliโs โRRRโ and Vivek Agnihotriโs โThe Kashmir Filesโ turned out to be monumental money-spinners. While โRRRโ celebrated Indian cultural heritage, โThe Kashmir Filesโ depicted a brutal chapter in Indiaโs history. A few years ago, โBaahubaliโ series had slayed the box-office by becoming the biggest blockbuster in the annals of Indian cinema.
Now the success of โKarthikeya 2โ has made many experts sit up and introspect. Are Indian audiences more interested in movies which either celebrate the glorious Indian culture or are rooted in history? The abject debacle of a string of regular potboilers has fortified this perception. The New Indian talked to a few trade experts about the subject. Hereโs what they have to say:
Komal Nahta (Veteran trade analyst): I donโt completely subscribe to this notion. While it is true that โRRRโ, โThe Kashmir Filesโ and โKarthikeya 2โ are rooted in either Indian history or mythology, this isnโt the only reason why they are successful. What would you say about โBhool Bhulaiyaa 2โ which was an out-and-out potboiler but became a blockbuster?
Iโve been in the trade for many years. People talk about โtrendsโ and โflavour of the seasonโ but Iโve seen that movies of all genres work wonders at the ticket-counters in all decades. It all boils down to the content. A movie of any genre can be a hit if it engages people.
Though I must add here our audience have certainly become โcontent-consciousโ. They want splendiferous content, not run-of-the-mill movies. This has happened because they are now exposed to world-class content which is available on OTT platforms. People have become fastidious and demanding. Our makers and stars must realize this pronto rather than just licking their wounds.
Raj Bansal (Prominent exhibitor and distributor): Our family has been in this business for more than five decades. My father always told me that only those movies which are rooted in Indian soil find favours with the audience. His advice has stood me in good stead. See, the audience have become wiser and want better content but they havenโt restricted themselves to a particular genre. They want to watch all kinds of films if theyโre entertaining.
So many people, including my representatives, have told me to watch โKarthikeya 2โ. Everyone who has seen it is raving about it and thatโs why it is doing well. Nothing works like peopleโs word-of-mouth. On the other hand, those who have watched โLaal Singh Chaddhaโ are dissuading others from going to cinema halls. No ersatz social-media trends and publicity can alter the fate of a movie. The paying public is pretty perceptive.
My request to filmmakers is to mount entertaining movies, be it of any genre, rather than making projects. I am sanguine that Bollywood will sally back with a thunder.
