This last week saw Agneepath scale the Mount Everest of film collections, when it crossed the `100 crore mark. Of the 10 films in Bollywood history to have scaled this, eight have come since Dabangg in late 2010. The list includes even a film like Ra.One, whose performance is said to be largely below par, and one like Golmaal 3, which was panned by a large section of the audience. But in times of multi-crore satellite and overseas rights, when multiplexes routinely have more than 20 shows per film in a single day, how relevant is the figure as a yardstick of a film’s success?
Trade analyst Komal Nahata says the benchmark itself is a new one. “It is a good thing that films are routinely churning out that kind of money, although it doesn’t necessarily determine whether the film is a hit or not. As a thumb rule, we check if the film has recovered its investment or not. So if a film makes up about 60-70 per cent of its investment, it’s considered a hit. If it doubles its cost, it’s a superhit,” says Nahata, pointing out that Ra.One may have earned `100 crore, but it’s still not a hit because it invested `165 crores.
On the other hand, you have smaller films like LSD or Pyaar Ka Punchnama, which gave terrific returns, but considering that they were shot on low budgets, can you really compare them at par with these? “A good film doesn’t necessarily have to be a hit, while a bad one is not always a flop,” says Luv Ranjan, director of Pyaar Ka Punchnama. “My film didn’t make as much money as these movies did, but it was a hit nevertheless. And even though high ticket prices at multiplexes helped films earn more, one also has to consider that distribution rights have shot up through the roof. So eventually, things even out.”
Even the vastly experienced Pradeep Sarkar says the differentiation between a hit film and a flop cannot be expressed in terms of box office collections. “Hitting the `100 crore mark remains, a mark and if more films manage it, it’s a good trend. But that’s not saying much, given the fierce marketing techniques used today,” he says. “A good film, I feel needs to do well at the box office, but also has a good script. 3 Idiots was a good example of this, as was The Dirty Picture. But many others are ruled by only their box office status,” he notes sadly.
3 Idiots, in fact, made Bollywood history by raking in more than `300 crore, and several other films are greedily eyeing the `200 and `300 crore mark. We’ll argue again when the yardsticks change.