A new wave: Bollywood's box-office report card of first half of 2014

With the first half of the year now getting over itrsquos perhaps time to look at how Bollywood has fared so far And if the box office returns are anything to go by a new trend seems to have emerged as films with younger stars have done better than ever before Prabhat Choudhary of Spice a marketing communication agency says ldquoThe openings of Gunday 2 States and Heropanti show a definitive change in the way young names are now perceived There has been considerable excitement around the new brigade for a while now but in the last six months they have started showing their box office viabilityrsquorsquoThis trend seems to have started with Ram Leela in 2013 and it has continued into the first half of this year Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media says ldquoGunday and 2 States took the trend forward Ek Villain could get a huge opening for a film with a relatively young and fresh star castrsquorsquoFor the last 10 years box office openings have been big for only those films that starred Shah Rukh Khan Salman Khan Aamir Khan Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan Last year with Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani Ranbir Kapoor proved that he can get a huge openingApart from Priyanka Chopra right Gundayrsquos star cast was headlined by newcomers Ranveer Singh left and Arjun Kapoor But this didnrsquot come in the way of the filmrsquos performance at the box officeThis year we have seen that a fresh star cast along with a good concept and trailer can fetch a R10 crore opening If this continues we will see many big budget films featuring young stars like Ranveer Singh Alia Bhatt Sidharth Malhotra and Arjun Kapoorrsquorsquo adds Shailesh KapoorDespite Alia Bhatt and Arjun Kapoor being relatively new in the industry their film 2 States has crossed the Rs 100 crore markGoing against the grainWhile Highway featured Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda 2 States had Alia and Arjun Kapoor and Heropanti was a launchpad for Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon Divya Kumarrsquos Yaariyan too had just a bunch of newcomers but the film was a hit Sidharth Malhotra did a lsquofun filmrsquo like Hasee Toh Phasee but his role in Ek Villain has negative shades to it Taran Adarsh says ldquoThe younger lot is heavily into experimentationrsquorsquoFrom collecting just Rs 2 crore on its first day Queen went on to become a hit due to wordofmouthMahesh Bhatt stresses on the importance of deconstructing onersquos brand ldquoThatrsquos what we did with CityLights If you keep making the same kind of cinema that has worked at the BO you will not find enduring successrdquoSunny Leonestarrer Ragini MMS2 did well at the box officeWomenoriented filmsShailesh Kapoor says that Kangna Ranautstarrer Queenrsquos first day collection at the box office was less than Rs 2 crore but it has now collected around Rs 60 crore ldquoSuch a high conversion from first day to lifetime has not happened in the last five yearsrsquorsquo Adarsh says that the success of Queen and Ragini MMS2 shut up those who believed that womenoriented films canrsquot get the numbers ldquoBoth Kangna and Sunny Leone carried the film on their shouldersrdquo he saysCityLights has won critical acclaim and has done decent businessDocus got their dueWith Gulabi Gang getting a big theatrical release thanks to Sohum Shah the road for other documentaries is now riddled with fewer problems A recent example is Nisha Pahujarsquos film The World Before Her that managed to release in several cinemas across the countryDebutants Kirti Sanon and Tiger Shroff in Heropanti that fared well at the box officeBig films in second halfTrade analyst Komal Nahata points out that since the second half has many festivals plus national and public holidays it is natural for producers and top stars to slot their releases accordingly ldquoWe have Salman Khanrsquos Kick releasing on Eid Ajay Devganrsquos Singham Returns is out on August 15 whereas Shah Rukh Khanrsquos Happy New Year will hit the big screen on Diwali and Aamir Khanrsquos PK will release on December 19 just a week before Christmasrsquorsquo he says