Bollywood
Mumbai, October 4 - The revival of the Indian box office, especially of Bollywood post the horror of the COVID-19 pandemic has been heartening. In 2023, the box office soared to new heights and has already crossed 8000 crores gross in India with still 3 blockbuster months left in the tank.##
This year, the Hindi film industry rose from Phoenix and created new records at the domestic box office. It all began with Shah Rukh Khan's mega-blockbuster Pathaan in January and this box office juggernaut is continuing with his latest blockbuster, Jawan, starring SRK again. ##
Such has been the response from moviegoers that 2023 recorded the biggest signal month collection of all time in August when Sunny Deol's monster blockbuster, Gadar 2: The Katha Continues and Akshay Kumar's OMG 2 released. With 814 crores net collection, August is now the biggest single month ever at the Hindi box office. The following month, September is second best with 689 crores net, thanks to Jawan which became the biggest Bollywood grosser of all time.##
The Bollywood industry is hook-a-cook over the historic box office performance this year, but be rest assured, the potential biggest month of the year is yet to come. December 2023 is packed with, not one but multiple blockbusters. If there is no postponement from the current schedule, the last month of the year will potentially become the biggest ever in Hindi domestically.##
The December month carnage will begin with Ranbir Kapoor's Animal and Vicky Kaushal-starrer Sam Bahadur on December 1st. The gangster action drama, Animal, which is directed by Sandeep Reddy Vanga, is particularly having a sky-high buzz and it is expected to emerge as Ranbir's one of biggest grossers ever. ##
Sam Bahadur, which is based on the life of Sam Manekshaw who was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, is directed by Meghna Gulzar and as far as the box office is concerned, it carried the potential of turning beast as Kaushal has proved his mettle with patriotic film in the past.##
A week later, Sidharth Malhotra's aerial action thriller, Yodha and Katrina Kaif's Merry Christmas will take on each other on December 8. Originally scheduled for December 15, both movies recently advanced their release dates. Yodha vs. Merry Christmas is perhaps the lesser-hyped clash at the moment but it can generate buzz after the teaser/trailer launch and can emerge as the dark horse at the box office.##
The biggest box office clash of the year, or possibly the Indian cinema, superstar Shah Rukh Khan's Dunki and Prabhas-fronted Salaar will take place on December 22 during the Christmas weekend. SRK, after delivering two back-to-back mega-blockbusters, will look to score a hat-trick and with Rajkumar Hirani in the director's chair, Dunki is already looking like a box office volcano.##
Salaar, from the makers of the KGF franchise, can emerge as another big hit at the Hindi box office from South India. It is easily the most-awaited Pan-Indian movie and with superstar Prabhas in the lead role under the direction of Prashanth Neel, Salaar should score a big success in Hindi.##
There is enough scope for the aforementioned films to make December 2023 the biggest month of all time, and eventually the first 1000 crores net or more. Dunki and Salaar are easily looking to contribute the major chunk of the total box office collection of the month, followed by Animal and Sam Bahadur in the clash. However, all the movies released in December will have to fight out for the screens, not only with each other but also with the holdover movies. It will be interesting to see how they manage to solve this screen-sharing crisis.##
Stay tuned...
