Bollywood six-month report card: Film industry’s in a free-fall, but where’s the bottom?
On the back of dismal big-ticket star bonanzas such as Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Maidaan and Chandu Champion, the Hindi film industry faced its gloomiest six months. Only one question remains: Is Bollywood making anything that’s worth our while anymore?
The year 2023 was when Bollywood rediscovered its mojo. The buoyancy, created mainly by Pathaan, Jawan, Animal, Gadar 2, was expected to carry through into 2024. But the sad truth is that at the six-month mark, Big Bollywood is reeling under no-shows.
No boom, only bust. The Hindi film industry has seldom had it so bad. If you go by how the biggies fared at the box office, and that’s pretty much the metric that matters, each big film meant to be a blockbuster has fallen flat on its face.
Fighter. Maidaan. Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Chandu Champion, all big starry vehicles, expected to reel in the stars’ fan base at the very least, have underperformed. Which essentially means that an array of male A-list stars — Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Kartik Aryan — whose very presence green-lights projects, are experiencing turbulence. So is, resultantly, the entire industry.
