A quick update of Bollywood in 1st quarter of 2015

The first quarter of 2015 was not so good for Bollywood as per box office business. There was not a single 100cr film only few movies fared well at the box office that too because of their low budget. Very few big budget movies were released specially from the second half of February and the month of March because of the world cup cricket season. But quality wise it was not so bad ,there were some movies which were not made with big stars or big budget but the movies were very well made and got appreciated by both critics as well as audiences.

Lets have a quick month wise recap of the Hindi movies in first quarter of 2015.

January

The first big release of the year 2015 was Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha starer "Tevar". It was a full on commercial south Indian remake and trade analysts were hopeful with this

movie considering the box office success of Arjun Kapoor's last few releases and the pre-release buzz of the film but in spite of getting a good opening weekend collection it became flop on the final run. It was followed by Bipasha Basu starer "Alone" which did average business due to the onscreen as well as off screen sizzling chemistry of Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover but it also could not be a successful film. There were some other flops too like Sonam Kapoor starer "Dolly Ki Doli" , Ayushmana Khurranna starer "Haawaizada" and Bhatt camps horex (horror + sex) movie "Khamoshiyan". The only successful movie of this month was "Baby". The successful combination of director Neeraj Pandey and actor Akshay Kumar got a good response from both classes and masses. It was an action thriller about the secret agents and their fight against terrorism. This movie was released in the long weekend of Republic day and got an advantage of that too. Also the good word of mouth publicity and good reviews helped the movie to continue good revenues till 3rd -4th week. Though it could not make it to 100cr club but so far it is the highest grossing film of year 2015 with a collection of around 95cr.

February

The month of February started with Big B starer "Shamitabh". Trade analyst and Big B fans were very much hopeful with the combination of director R. Balki and Amitabh Bachchan but this combination did not work this time. Although the performance by

Amitabh Bachchan and Dhanush was very much appreciated but the story did not worked in favor of this duo. The next release was the valentine day special "Roy". It got the biggest opening of 2015 so far considering it was a Ranbir Kapoor starer after a gap of almost one and half years and also for the superhit music of the film. But in actual, Ranbir Kapoor was just in an extended cameo in the movie and leading man was Arjun Rampal. Very soon people realized the fact that it is not a Ranbir Kapoor film and its collections kept dropping rapidly. On the final run it became just an average earner that too because of the big opening weekend collection. Next big release of this month was Sriram Raghavan directed revenge drama "Badlapur" featuring Varun Dhawan in a character ,totally opposite to his screen image. It was

a well made engaging thriller with good story and wonderful performances specially by Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Huma Qureishi. The music was also a big hit. It got a good opening for the presence of Varun Dhawan and later it continued the good business at box office because of the good reviews as well as good word of mouth publicity. Finally it earned more than 50 cr at the box office and became a hit. The last release of this month was "Dum Laga Ke Haisha" a small budget film from a big banner, Yashraaj films. Aditya Chopra was very much sure that the heart touching story will work for the movie so he kept its promotions in very low profile.Even it was released in comparatively smaller scale. As a result it got a poor opening but due to the positive reviews and feedback, the film did good business later and finally became a surprise hit considering its small budget. A thing that should be mentioned about the business of this movie is its lifetime box office collection was three times than its opening week collection which is very rare in today's times.The sequel to "Ab Tak Chhappan" also came in the last week of February but could not repeat the magic of the first part and went unnoticed. 

March

The month of March saw so many small budget movies which was neither have star

power nor have a good content, like "The Dirty Politics" featuring Mallika Shehrawat, "Dilliwaili Zaalim Girlfriend", "Hey Bro", "Badmaashiyaan" etc. As expected all these movies flopped badly at the ticket windows. The only film which shines perfectly in this month was "NH10", a well made thriller in a limited budget. But for a good movie, its content works more than its marketing and same happened for "NH10". It was an edge of the seat thriller with brilliant acting lead by Anushka Sharma. It got an average opening and later for its wonderful reviews and feedback it did a good business and became a hit with around 28 cr collections. Later another movie came in March which got some good reviews and an average collection and it was "Hunterr", the directorial debut of Harshvardhan Kulkrani.  It was an adult comedy about a sex addict person which stars no big star and have almost zero publicity but still it manages to earn more than 10cr because of its good content. No matter how vulgar  the subject was but the treatment was very nice and the actors lead by Gulshan Deveiah and Radhika Apte had done a wonderful job.

On a whole the first quarter have provided some good movies but did not provided good amount of money at the box office. We are hopeful about the next quarter which have some big releases lined up to release specially in the month of May and June.

Best Films of Q1 2015

• Baby
• Badlapur-Dont Miss The Beginning
• Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• NH10

Top Performers of Q1 2015:

Actors:

• Akshay Kumar - Baby
• Amitabh Bachchan - Shamitabh 
• Dhanush - Shamitabh
• Varun Dhawan - Badlapur
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui - Badlapur 
• Ayushmann Khurrana -Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• Raj Kumar Rao  - Dolly Ki Doli
• Sanjay Mishra - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• Gulshan Deveiah - Hunterr

Actresses:

• Bhumi Pednekar - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• Anushka Sharma - NH10
• Huma Qureishi - Badlapur
• Radhika Apte - Badlapur
• Sheeba Chaddha - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• Seema Pahwa - Dum Laga Ke Haisha
• Sonam Kapoor - Dolly Ki Doli
• Radhika Apte - Hunterr

Top Songs of Q1 2015:

• Khamoshiyaan, Batein Ye Kabhi Na - Khamoshiyaan
• Suraj Dooba Hai, Tu Hai Ki Nahin,Chitiyaan Kalaiyaan - Roy
• Jee Karda, Jeena, Judaai - Badlapur
• Chheel Gaye Naina - NH10