It was a bad year for Bollywood, both in terms of creativity and box office, as big superstars failed to bring in the money and the hindi movies that clicked with the audience were based on the tried-and-tested formula of sequels and spin-offs.
Let’s have a look at the hit and flop movie list here
The Big Budget Disappointments
Originality is the lifeline of any creative industry but 2017 proved to be a year that the filmmakers would want to forget as it was populated with big-budget disappointments like Salman Khan’s ‘Tubelight’, Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ and Sanjay Dutt’s comeback ‘Bhoomi’.
Sequels/Spin-off/Franchise Formula: What worked and what didn’t?
Younger stars such as Varun Dhawan did work with the audience but the films – ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ and ‘Judwaa 2’ – were either a sequel or a spin-off.
Akshay Kumar started his year with a sequel ‘Jolly LLB 2’ and the not-so-successful ‘Baby’ spin-off in ‘Naam Shabana’.
Rohit Shetty, the master of masala entertainment, recovered from the ‘Dilwale’ setback to deliver a hit with ‘Golmaal Again’, his fourth in the franchise.
Modest success stories like “Commando” and “Fukrey” were also given their respective sequels and while “Fukrey Returns” returned the money, “Commando 2” sank without any trace.
Ram Gopal Varma is trying hard to get back to his wonder days of ‘Rangeela’, ‘Satya’ and “Bhoot”, but his third installment in the ‘Sarkar’ series proved to be a case of diminishing returns as it lacked the depth of its predecessors.
Remakes & Adaptations
Remaking films from different domestic and foreign industries is not a new trend but the very act of having a stamp of an ‘official remake’ is. Gone are the days when the industry lifted Hollywood hits without giving due credit.
‘Shubh Mangal Saavdhan’, which dealt with the condition of erectile dysfunction, was an official adaptation of the director R S Prasanna’s own Tamil hit.
So was the case with Shraddha Kapoor-Aditya Roy Kapoor starrer ‘Ok Jaanu’, an official remake of Mani Ratnam’s Tamil hit ‘O Kadhal Kanmani’. The film, however, did not do well in Hindi.
In a similar fashion, Saif Ali Khan headlined ‘Chef’, an official remake of the film of the same name by Jon Favreau, who conceptualized the story of the Hollywood film. Unlike the original, this one failed to generate any interest at the box office.
Bollywood is not new to rehashing old movies and Karan Johar’s gamble with ‘Ittefaq’, a remake of Rajesh Khanna and Nanda’s 1969 starrer, paid off.
All’s well that ends well
While ‘Tubelight’ stopped the Salman juggernaut at the box office, the actor found his groove back with ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’, a sequel to his 2012 hit ‘Ek Tha Tiger’.
The movie has ended the box office drought in Bollywood, ending the year on a good note for the actor. He can continue to believe in his box office superpowers.
Read Also: 2017’S Most Hyped Bollywood Movies That Flopped Miserably
