By: Amit KumaR Agarwal
The great no show of Hindi Film Industry continues with July 15 releases - Hit and Shabash Mithu, on the face of it, both the films are top-lined by 'saleable' stars Rajkumar Rao and Taapsee Pannu respectively, but the fact is they are media-made stars both need a complete package to run! Rajkumar's biggest hit STREE was a complete package, so were Taapsee's PINK and BADLA. Shabash Mithu had a very strong subject of celebrity woman cricketer, Mithali Raj, but the way it is handled, makes it more apt for an OTT release!
Having said that the two weeks preceding saw the release of Om and Khuda Hafiz: 2 - again big failures. While Vidyut Jamwal has an audience-base, his core is action and he should stick to it. Khuda Haffiz: 1 was an OTT release and garnered a below-average response, so the question of releasing part two in cinema was always there and the box-office was bound to be what it is for the film.
Much ink has spilled over south films taking away the core Hindi-bastion from the Hindi films. The fact is for two blockbusters - Pushpa and KGF: 2, there were more than 25 flops in the corresponding period - Valimai, Vikram, Major, are some of the big names. RRR was a success, but nowhere near the mammoth expectations it had owing to the budget and the scale!
Industry has hoped that raising the window between theatrical and OTT release from 4 weeks to 8 weeks will help the films; the problem is not the window, but the content that lacks universal appeal. Today all the blockbusters do the 200-crore business in first two to three weeks, so if a film doesn't score in two or three weeks, it won;t score in fourth weeks and onward weeks.
The basic problem of Hindi films being flops is studio executives and producers refuse to acknowledge that the problem is with the basic content that is the films being produced by them. Hopefully, producers and studios will get smart sooner or later. Till that time enjoy the show whether hit or flop!