2023 Round-Up: The Year of Blockbusters and Comebacks
Mumbai, January 1 - The year 2023 started with the hope of continuing the winning streak of 2022 but it ended like a dream for the Indian film industry. After the COVID scare for almost 2 years, Indian cinema found its footing in 2022. Still, it had little idea what it would deliver in the following year which has now become the best year in Indian cinema history.
2023 was the year when Indian cinema delivered more than it promised with back-to-back blockbusters and at the same time, it also marked the comeback of some of its before 21st-century era superstars who used to rule the box office and the hearts of audiences with their sheer dominance.
In 2022, the Indian film industry found its lost mojo and had a few big successes in the form of RRR, KGF 2, Vikram, Kantara, and The Kashmir Files, among others, but things went a notch higher in 2023 in which Indian cinema delivered blockbuster after blockbusters across languages which was the highlight of the year. It all began with superstar Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan in January as it became the first film of the actor to gross 1000+ crores at the worldwide box office.
SRK carried the mega-blockbuster success of Pathaan to another monstrous blockbuster in the form of Jawan in September. It was an even bigger hit and made SRK the only Indian actor with two films in a 1000 crores club, that too in a single year. In between King Khan's roaring comeback, Sunny Deol's Gadar 2 hit the ball out of the park and grossed close to 700 crores worldwide. The trade believes that Gadar 2 was the biggest box office break out of 2023.
As 2023 was approaching its end, it witnessed one of the rare Indian talents, Ranbir Kapoor making his entry into the elite league of Bollywood superstars with an adult-rated film like Animal which is nearing 900 crores worldwide. It not only emerged as Ranbir's biggest blockbuster but also one of the biggest of all time in the history of Indian cinema, and to think that it was A-rated, this performance of the film looks nothing short of unimaginable.
It was not only big stars who were delivering at the box office, filmmaker Vipul Shah's Tha Kerala Story was one of the films with the highest returns. Despite facing backlash from a section of society, the movie made the most of its unusual subject to gross over 300 crores worldwide against a budget of just around 15 crores.
Tamil cinema too had major success in 2023 with a few blockbuster successes. The trade had expected Thalapathy Vijay's Leo and superstar Rajini's Jailer to emerge as blockbusters, but there were a few low to mid-budget films that stunned everyone with their performances. Actor Vishal and SJ Suryah's Mark Antony was one of the biggest success stories of Tamil cinema in 2023, along with Dada.
Tollywood cinema didn't have major success in 2023 but a couple of films gave high returns to the producers. The romantic drama Baby was the biggest success story of Telugu cinema in 2023, along with Balagam which emerged as a big blockbuster. Towards the end of the year, Prabhas-fronted Salaar finished as the highest-grossing Telugu movie of 2023.
The Malayalam cinema finally had its industry hit after many years as Tovino Thomas-led survival drama, "2018" emerged as the all-time highest-grossing Malayalam film. Megastar Mammootty too delivered a big blockbuster in the form of Kannur Squad. The other big blockbusters which lighted up the Mollywood box office included Romancham and RDX, and the year concluded with superstar Mohanlal making a comeback with blockbuster Neru.
The Regional cinema too joined the blockbuster spree as the Marathi film Baipan Bhari Deva emerged as an all-time blockbuster, along with the Punjabi comedy Carry on Jatta 3 and the historical drama, Mastaney, and Kali Jotta. Gujarati cinema also had a big blockbuster in the form of 3 EKKA.
Stay tuned...