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Komal Nahta’s half yearly box-office report 2009

But for Aditya Chopra’s New York, the first half of 2009 would’ve gone down in history as a rather dull period in which a Hollywood film’s dubbed version – Slumdog Crorepati – was the sole universal success, that too, not a runaway hit.

But New York, released in the last week of the first half, changed the scene, proving that Bollywood was not going to be the underdog. Undoubtedly, the Rs. 20 crore film, produced by Chopra, qualified to become the biggest success of the first six months of this year. Although the film is not a hit because it will not double the producer’s investment, it is, without doubt, the first universal success story of 2009 so far. Slumdog Crorepati, dubbed from Slumdog Millionaire, did work but in sheer box-office numbers, New York effortlessly whizzed past the dubbed film.

Dev D was the only other successful film of the first half but even that bold film worked only sectionally. In that sense, it wasn’t a universal success. What’s more, it was not a hugely paying proposition even though its budget was medium.

99 and Raaz – The Mystery Continues… did fair business but thier costs of production and release were higher than their net businesses.

Debacles there were aplenty. Chandni Chowk To China and 8 X 10 Tasveer topped the chart of loss-making films. Unfortunately for Akshay Kumar, both the disasters starred him. Hurman Baweja’s streak of bad luck, which began in 2008 with his debut film, Love Story 2050, continued this year when his Victory faced terrible defeat at the turnstiles. Debutante Zoya Akhtar may have been lucky as far as media support was concerned but none of that luck rubbed off on her film, Luck By Chance. In spite of the leading newspaper of the country continuing to call it a hit for reasons best known to the newspaper, Luck By Chance ran out of luck on the day of its release itself. The trade dubbed it a box-office debacle soon after release. Delhi-6, Aa Dekhen Zara and Ek – The Power Of One were among the other noteworthy flops.

The Marathi film industry performed far better than the Hindi film industry in the first half of the current year. Mi Shivajiraje Bhosle Boltoy! proved a runaway hit and gave cinemas in Maharashtra the much-needed oxygen as it was released during the time when Hindi film releases were suspended by producers and distributors. Gallit Gondhal Dillit Mujra was another Marathi film which clicked during the first half.

The face-off between the national multiplex chains and producers/distributors was the worst chapter in the six-month period under reference. For, the suspension of new film releases because of the hostility between the warring parties lasted for as long as nine weeks. Producers of small non-star cast films made the most of the situation by releasing their films during this period. But, in spite of lack of opposition from star cast films, most of the small films failed to make any mark at the ticket counters.

Of the 129 new Hindi and dubbed films released in 26 weeks, the box-office performance of just a few of them really matterred – to the audience, the cinemas and the filmmakers themselves! Hope the second half of 2009 is not as scary!