Bollywood's 100 crore club: aggiornamento

Ce la farà Chennai Express ad infrangere un altro record, quello di entrare in soli tre giorni nel sempre meno elitario 100 crore club? In attesa di verificarlo, ne approfitto per aggiornare il testo dedicato all'argomento che avevo pubblicato l'anno scorso (clicca qui) grazie alle nuove classifiche stilate da Bollywood Hungama, classifiche che allargano la definizione di 100 crore club, includendo non solo le star di sesso maschile i cui film hanno incassato, nella sola India, 100 crore (1 crore = 10 milioni) al botteghino al netto delle imposte (quindi net collection e non gross collection), ma anche le attrici, i registi e le pellicole. Si scopre così che Rohit Shetty è il regista col maggior numero di titoli in classifica (Golmaal 3, Bol Bachchan e Singham), che anzi è l'unico a vantare più di un film in classifica, e che presto si distaccherà di un'altra lunghezza grazie proprio a Chennai Express. L'attore col maggior numero di pellicole è la macchina da guerra Salman Khan (Ek Tha Tiger, Dabangg 2, Bodyguard, Dabangg e Ready; tutte nelle prime nove posizioni), tallonato da Ajay Devgan (e presto, sempre grazie a Chennai Express, anche da Shah Rukh Khan). L'anno col maggior numero di titoli in classifica è il 2012: ben nove film su ventuno totali. È stato Ghajini ad aprire le danze nel 2008. Questo già si sapeva: 3 idiots guida la classifica in virtù del suo stratosferico incasso, 202 crore, ed è l'unica pellicola ad aver superato la soglia dei 200. Ek Tha Tiger, saldamente in seconda posizione, vanta un incasso di quasi 199 crore, conseguito nel periodo in assoluto più breve: cinque giorni. Al terzo posto l'ultimo lavoro di una futura superstar: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, con Ranbir Kapoor. Ed è sempre Ranbir ad interpretare uno dei due titoli meno di genere presenti in classifica, ossia Barfi! (13esima posizione). L'altro è Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, in 18esima posizione (ma il film è ancora nelle sale). Quanto alle attrici, con l'esclusione di Priyanka Chopra in Barfi!, tutti gli altri nominativi sono in classifica grazie a pellicole prepotentemente trainate dai protagonisti maschili, con ruoli femminili piuttosto deboli o comunque poco stimolanti.

Bollywood alla conquista del Giappone

Il 7 marzo 2013 Ek Tha Tiger è stato distribuito a Tokyo col titolo Thaiga Densetsu No Supai. Il regista Kabir Khan, presente alla prima, ha dichiarato che la pellicola è pronta a conquistare il Giappone: si parte con 30 copie in diverse città del Paese, fra cui Osaka e Kyoto, per raggiungere successivamente le 70 copie.

Sempre in Giappone, il 16 marzo 2013 verrà distribuita in 15 sale la versione sottotitolata di Om Shanti Om, col titolo Koi Suru Rinne Om Shanti Om. La regista Farah Khan presenzierà alla prima.

Vi segnalo anche le locandine giapponesi di 3 Idiots e di Don 2. Pare siano stati raggiunti degli accordi per la distribuzione di Jab Tak Hai Jaan e di Dhoom:3. Vi ricordo che Enthiran (tamil) in Giappone aveva generato un certo clamore fra i fan locali.

 

Om Shanti Om

 

Om Shanti Om

  

 

Steven Spielberg a Mumbai

Reliance Entertainment ha organizzato un evento imperdibile, svoltosi ieri sera a Mumbai, che ha riunito sotto lo stesso tetto in un colpo solo un nutrito numero di registi indiani, accorsi ad ascoltare la conversazione fra Amitabh Bachchan e Steven Spielberg. Ne cito alcuni: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Shyam Benegal, Rajkumar Hirani, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anurag Kashyap, Ashutosh Gowariker, Kunal Kohli, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sudhir Mishra, Zoya Akhtar, R. Balki e Vikramaditya Motwane. 

Vi segnalo l'articolo Steven Spielberg’s close encounter with Bollywood, di Nyay Bhushan, pubblicato ieri da The Hollywood Reporter:

'Bachchan then asked Spielberg if he had any questions for the Indian film fraternity present. Spielberg took the chance to do a spot poll and asked how many directors present did action movies (not too many hands went up), comedies (some hands) and musicals (the hall erupted in laughter given Bollywood is driven by song and dance). “I’d like to know what kind of movies are made, not just Bollywood. Is there freedom here for different genres?” asked Spielberg. “It is getting better,” replied Sudhir Mishra. “Audiences are also changing and there is a new breed of directors, and many of them are in this room. And even mainstream cinema is changing.” As Mishra pointed to director Raju Hirani, known for the superhit comedy 3 Idiots, Spielberg said, “Yes, I saw it - I loved it”.' 

Video Reliance Entertainment  

Per stasera è in programma un party esclusivo in onore di Spielberg, a cui parteciperanno, fra gli altri, Aishwarya Rai, Farhan e Zoya Akhtar, Preity Zinta, Sridevi, Hrithik Roshan, Anushka Sharma, Ashutosh Gowariker, Karan Johar, Kajol, Anil Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Kamal Haasan e Rajkumar Hirani. Vi ricordo che Reliance e Spielberg hanno prodotto insieme Le avventure di Tintin e Lincoln.

Rajkumar Hirani e Steven Spielberg

Madhur Bhandarkar e Steven Spielberg

Numero Unos - A survey of the top hit films: 2000s

Vi segnalo l'articolo Numero Unos - A survey of the top hit films: 2000s, di Rajiv Vijayakar, pubblicato da Bollywood Hungama il 6 agosto 2012. Parliamo degli anni che vanno dal 2000 al 2009. Difficile decretare il numero uno del decennio, dal momento che 3 idiots (2009) è sì il primo e unico - ad oggi - membro del favoloso 200 crore club (1 crore = 10.000.000), ma, sulla base di alcuni fattori (inflazione, differenza nel prezzo del biglietto, eccetera), sembra che Gadar (2001), distribuito oggi, ne avrebbe incassati 350! Comunque sia, nel 2008 Ghajini apre le danze inaugurando il 100 crore club. Anche solo dall'analisi dei titoli campioni d'incassi si ricava la caratteristica tipica della filmografia del decennio, soprattutto della seconda parte: un notevole balzo in avanti nei budget, nelle strategie, nelle ambizioni crossover e nella qualità tecnica, ma anche l'affermazione di una nuova cinematografia indipendente e d'autore che riesce persino ad influenzare molti prodotti e registi di intrattenimento. Le distinzioni si sgretolano. Le aziende si sostituiscono ai produttori singoli limitando (almeno si spera) il campo d'azione degli investimenti mafiosi. Il pubblico apprezza generi vari e non solo il tradizionale masala: l'horror Raaz è il campione d'incassi nel 2002, la pellicola fantascientifica Koi... Mil Gaya lo è nel 2003 (ex aequo con Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.), il thriller erotico Murder sbaraglia tutti nel 2004. Sono gli anni del fascinoso Hrithik Roshan (Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, 2000; Koi... Mil Gaya, 2003; Dhoom:2 - Back in Action, 2006). Ma anche Aamir Khan non scherza con Ghajini (2008) e 3 idiots (2009).

'The Top Guns

In terms of footfalls, it was a clear-cut triumph for Anil Sharma's Gadar - Ek Prem Katha (2001), a Sikh-Muslim love story set against the backdrop of Partition - its 75 crore-plus collections, inflation adjusted, would probably reach around Rs 350 crore today. It started the trend of round-the-clock shows to meet demands in Punjab! However, in terms of actual collections (as ticket rates had been hiked by multiples) Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009), a comedy with a message leads at Rs 220 crore. The millennium also saw the first-ever 100 crore film, A.R. Murugadoss' 2008 vendetta thriller Ghajini. 

Corporate companies entered the film world and gradually replaced more personalized financing, including that of the underworld. What was interesting, with big prestige involved, is the way the smaller films that had greater ROI (return on investment) ratios were sidelined due to the huge overall business of the biggies. So though Murder, an erotic thriller directed by Anurag Basu, was rightly called the biggest hit of 2004 despite Main Hoon Na and Dhoom, a year later in 2005, Kyaa Kool Hai Hum lost to No Entry (both were interestingly sex comedies, though of contrasting kinds), while in 2008, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (a rom-com) made way for Ghajini (interestingly both connected with Aamir Khan as co-producer of the first and hero of the second!) as the latter collected over 110 crore - the first-ever Hindi film to cross the 100 crore mark.

The remaining years saw the following Numero Unos:

2000: Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (KNPH), a crime drama 

[2001: Gadar]

2002: Vikram Bhatt's Raaz, a supernatural thriller

2003: Rakesh Roshan's Koi... Mil Gaya (KMG) a sci-fi story on an alien and Rajkumar Hirani's Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., a 'medical' comedy (in a tie)

[2004: Murder

2005: No Entry]

2006: Sanjay Gadhvi's Dhoom:2 - Back in Action, an action caper 

2007: Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (OSO), a reincarnation drama

[2008: Ghajini

2009: 3 idiots]

A diverse spectrum

The kind of films that topped in individual years saw a complete spectrum from original to remakes - at one end was Koi... Mil Gaya, Hindi cinema's first tryst with the sci-fi genre with aliens. Though Rakesh Roshan was clearly inspired by E.T., he adapted and Indianized it wonderfully and made the film's alien, Jadoo, a lovable creature no one would ever forget. Also a film with a pinch of inspiration and everything otherwise original and rooted was Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., India's first comedy on the medical profession - a common genre abroad. Both films jointly topped 2003 and were among the most refreshing entertainers of the millennium. Such was the excellence of the later (Rajkumar Hirani easily is the finest director to come in the entire decade) that the film was not only remade in multiple Indian languages but also the first Indian film officially licensed for a Hollywood remake, which however has yet to take off.

At the other end was Roshan's own Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, which made Hrithik Roshan a mega-star with the best launch any actor's son has got since Rishi Kapoor in Bobby. The plot was, however, smartly reworked from the 1984 flop Jhutha Sach starring Dharmendra. (...) OSO was an open tribute to Subhash Ghai's Karz and its climax was recycled from Madhumati. No Entry and Ghajini were official South remakes, which have now become endemic. Murder 'adapted' a Hollywood thriller, and if Raaz, Murder, Koi... Mil Gaya, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and No Entry set off a train of sequels, Dhoom:2 - Back in Action was itself the second in its franchise.

Starry ascent

Hrithik Roshan remained the superstar discovery of the millennium, though most his super-hits were made by his father. In a dream debut, the actor played a dual role in KNPH and was cast as a physically-challenged man in Koi... Mil Gaya. But in his third film in this list, he did a 180-degree flip as the razor sharp crook of Dhoom:2, the arch criminal who is always that one step ahead of the cops.

Amisha Patel scored a unique feat by being the heroine of the biggest hits in two consecutive years, Kaho Naa... and Gadar, also her first two films. After his, thanks to a variety of factors, her career nosedived. Arshad Warsi got a new lease of life and Sanjay Dutt consolidated his comic image with Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.. The Bhatts made new talent their special forte - Dino Morea got his first hit in Raaz, which also consolidated the career of Bipasha Basu, while Emraan Hashmi and Mallika Sherawat got career-defining roles in Murder. Deepika Padukone, like Hrithik, made her debut in a dual role in OSO, where Shah Rukh was also in a double role. (...) Asin made her Hindi debut in Ghajini, the first of her now four films in the "100-crore club." Incidentally, Bipasha Basu played twin sisters in Dhoom:2. Aamir Khan was the only actor apart from Hrithik to have more than one film in the Numero Uno list. Among the heroines, Bipasha Basu scored the highest (Raaz, No Entry, Dhoom:2).

Rakesh Roshan (Kaho Naa..., Koi... Mil Gaya) narrowly missed a Numero Uno hat-trick in Krrish, which lost to Dhoom:2 that had higher global collections vis-à-vis a lesser budget. Like him, Raju Hirani also had two films in this list (Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., 3 Idiots), both produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and so did the Bhatts - Mukesh Bhatt produced and Mahesh Bhatt wrote both Raaz (...) and Murder. Reliance Entertainment was the first corporate entity to strike big - Ghajini and 3 Idiots. Eros came in with OSO. (...) It is interesting to know that except for Gadar, Raaz, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Ghajini and 3 Idiots, the other six films were home productions of at least one of the actors in their casts - Murder coming from Emraan's uncles, the Bhatts! Rajesh Roshan, by association, came into both the Roshan films, but the lead was taken by Anu Malik with Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Murder and No Entry in three consecutive years. (...)

Technically, Hindi films forged ahead by leaps and bounds. Shooting abroad became common, and whether the film was a romantic film, action-based or message-oriented, up market humour became a compulsory ingredient. Music went down in importance, but we still had good scores in most of the films. The music and lyrics of 3 Idiots stood out for their thematic perfection while KNPH and OSO had well-rounded scores.

Films suffered an identity crisis in the millennium, and three diverse schools emerged, of the dark, noir kind of European-inspired films like Dev. D and Omkara, realistic high-concept films like A Wednesday! or Taare Zameen Par and the classic Hindi film kind. But the latter clearly kept ahead in the race. As always, it was all about entertainment'.

Vedi anche:

- Numero Unos - A survey of the top hit films: 1950s. Il testo raccoglie i link a tutti gli articoli della serie.

- 2005-2010: successi del cinema hindi contemporaneo

Bollywood's 100 crore club

Vi segnalo l'articolo Bollywood's 100 crore club, di Komal Nahta, pubblicato oggi da Brunch. L'articolo illustra il favoloso 100 crore club, ossia il ristretto gruppo di star di sesso maschile i cui film hanno incassato, nella sola India, 100 crore (1 crore = 10 milioni) al botteghino al netto delle imposte. Aamir Khan è stato il fondatore, nel 2008, grazie a Ghajini (115 crore), e nel 2009 superò se stesso con 3 idiots (202 crore) - non è stato ancora istituito il 200 crore club perché nessun  altro titolo si è neppure avvicinato a quel vertiginoso successo. Salman Khan è il membro col maggior numero di trofei: entrò nel club nel 2010 con Dabangg (143 crore), e replicò nel 2011 con Ready (122 crore) e Bodyguard (145 crore). Inoltre Salman ha raggiunto i 100 crore più velocemente degli altri: Bodyguard li incassò in una settimana. Nel 2010 fece il suo ingresso anche Ajay Devgan: Golmaal 3 (108 crore). La star consolidò la sua posizione nel 2011 con Singham (100 crore). Nel 2011 toccò a Shah Rukh Khan: Ra.One (115 crore) e Don 2 (110). Nel 2012 è la volta di Hrithik Roshan con Agneepath (122 crore) e di Akshay Kumar con Housefull 2 (112 crore).

'Getting into the 100-crore club is not as simple as being in a movie that has rung up Rs 100 crore. To be considered for entry, a film must have made that gigantic amount in net collections, not gross. For the uninitiated, gross collection of a film is the sum total of the money which is collected at all the ticket counters of cinemas across the country screening that film. Net collection is what remains in the film industry’s hands after paying off the entertainment tax to the different state governments. 

Membership can’t come on the strength of a film’s overseas success either. Otherwise Shah Rukh Khan would’ve been the club’s founder member. 

The public may have its own definition of hits and flops, but the film industry has always gone by the cost-versus-revenue analysis to determine success (it is also the only objective way of defining hits and flops). A number of avenues of revenue now exist for a producer in addition to a theatre screening. But it is a generally accepted principle in the film trade that income from most of the other sources like satellite television, home video, etc depends largely on the earnings from the theatrical business of a film. 

The 100-crore club does not take into account the cost of a film as it goes solely by revenue. It is for this reason that Shah Rukh Khan, with Ra.One (total cost Rs 150 crore approx) [e soli 115 di incasso], (...) is as entitled to club membership as Aamir Khan, with a blockbuster like 3 idiots (total cost Rs 55 crore approx). (...)

Some basic club rules: 

You must be a star to be eligible for membership. The club does not recognise any other community - neither producers and directors nor distributors.

You must be saleable, since only stars whose films collect Rs 100 crore or more can join the club. (These are net collections, not gross. Net collections are defined as total box-office collections - that is, gross collections minus the entertainment tax). Their saleability is of paramount importance. It is measured in terms of how much money their films make. (...) 

No woman no cry

Only male stars are members of the club so far. To understand why no actress is a member, it must be understood that the club has, after all, been ‘formed’ by the trade and the media. And excluding women from the group is characteristic of an industry which exercises gender discrimination more than other industries. You may have heard of producers paying Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan fees of Rs 20 or Rs 25 crore but have you ever heard of an Aishwarya Rai or a Kareena Kapoor getting that kind of remuneration? Frankly, the industry can’t be wholly blamed for the gender bias because it is the audience which gives male actors far more importance than female stars, the occasional Vidya Balan film notwithstanding. 

In commercial potboilers (which are the only films capable of catapulting their heroes into the club), heroines get far less scope than the heroes, which is the reason why the club membership has so far been restricted to male actors. (...)

An interesting aside: Kareena Kapoor has the maximum number of 100-crore films under her belt, more than even Salman Khan. Kareena’s report card reads: 3 idiots, Golmaal 3, Bodyguard and Ra.One. Unfortunately, as the club is not open to heroines, Kareena is a non-member despite her enviable score.

Even among the male stars, it is only the main leads who are considered worthy of membership. (...)

Star power

Interestingly, although it is the film which touches the 100-crore mark, it is the star who gets membership of the club. This is another indicator of how stars are worshipped by the industry. Bollywood has always been a star-driven enterprise and it is not uncommon for stars to hog the limelight for a hit. (...)

Most of the Rs 100-crore films have worked equally well in multiplexes and single-screen cinemas. Perhaps Don 2 is the only exception because it scored largely in the cineplexes. But unlike most other 100-crore-films, Don 2 had the brand advantage since it was a sequel. Golmaal 3 had a similar brand value even though the previous two films were not half as big or successful. Agneepath had tremendous recall value because of the 1990 version of Agneepath starring Amitabh Bachchan (despite the fact that the first one was a box office debacle and became a cult classic only much later on TV and DVD).

Although there is no time frame, films normally touch the 100-crore figure in two to four weeks. Today, the business of films has become touch-and-go. Most hits have a run of only four to six weeks. Among the stars who are members of the club, Salman Khan holds the distinction of touching the 100-crore mark in the shortest possible time (Bodyguard, one week!)'.

Vedi anche Bollywood's 100 crore club: aggiornamento, 11 agosto 2013