Update of Bengali Movies in the Second Quarter of 2016

The second quarter of 2016 was much better than the first quarter. In this quarter we got the biggest hit of the year so far.
Let's have a month wise recap of the Bengali movies in Q2 2016.

April

This was the month of Poila Boishakh so it was obvious to have big releases. This year too two big movies were released during Poila Boishakh. One was #Power and another one was #Sankhachil. Both were totally different movies for different set of audience so both did well without hampering each other's business.

#Sankhachil was an Indo-Bangladesh joint venture about the painful effects of partition. It

had been directed by very talented Gautam Ghosh. In the lead cast there was Prasenjit Chatterjee along with Bangladeshi actress Kusum Sikder and a young girl Saanjhbati. There were many other actors from both side of Bengal. The story was very emotional and heart touching about the struggle of a parent to save their daughter from a fatal disease. It was full with nostalgic moments regarding the pain of partition of Bengal. Moreover the powerful performances by all , specially by Prasenjit Chatterjee was another highlight of the film. The film connected very fast with the audiences and it showed in the box office collections. The film was well received by critics, audience and in film festivals too.

#Power was a south Indian remake from Shree Venkatesh films production house directed by Rajiv. It was out an out commercial film to cash on the star power of Jeet that too in a double role. One Police officer and another one as his look alike who later take the position of the police officer. Jeet was accompanied by two lovely ladies Nusrat and Sayantika who were much enough to add glamour quotient. Then there were lovely song and dance sequences too with the catchy music of Jeet Ganguly which helped it make more popular among the masses. As expected it get good response at the small centers. Once again Jeet proved his star power in commercial cinema with #Power.

May

The month of may have two big releases one was festival favorite #Cinemawala another one was the biggest hit of this year so far #Praktan.

#Cinemawala was a Venkatesh Films production, directed by master storyteller Kaushik

Ganguly. This was Kaushik Ganguly's attempt to bring attention to the poor condition of single screen theaters. Day by day such theaters are loosing their existence. The film tried to protest against piracy with a story of a father and son and their collision, the battle between single screen theater owner and pirated CD seller. In the lead roles Paran Bandopadhyay and Parambrata Chatterjee were extra ordinary. They were able supported by Arun Guhathakurta and Sohini Sarkar. Although it was a film for the sake of single screen theater owners but the subject was too classy to be a single screen theater favorite. Even in multiplexes it got mixed response, the slow pace of the film worked against the film and in spite of getting a good opening it remained an average earner at the ticket windows.

#Praktan was a film for which there was a sky-high expectation since the film was

announced. There were two main reasons for that, one was director duo Shiboprasad Mujherjee and Nandita Roy, whose last film #Belasheshe was the biggest hit of last year, another reason was after long 14 years one of the most loved on screen couple of Bengali cinema, Prasenjit Chatterjee and Rituparna Sengupta were coming back together.  When the film released it got bumper opening and after watching it people find it has satisfied all the expectations. People had only went to see Prasenjit and Rituparna together but they got in addition superb performance from Aparijita Addhya, a heart touching story and soulful music. All these worked as magic for the film and it created history at the box office. Another benefit it got because of the worldwide release on same day which was first time for any Bengali movie. It is still running successfully at theaters and most probably it will keep running till the end of the year.

June

There was not a single big release to mention, in the month of June.

So the second quarter was good on overall and we are even more hopeful from the third quarter as there are too many big releases in queue including two big Eid releases Jeet starer #BadshahTheDon , Dev and Jishu starer #KelorKirti. Also there is Prasenjit Chjatterjee's erotic thriller #Khwato. Then in August there will be , second part of Shabor series #EaglerChokh, Anjan Dutta's remake of Hamlet, #Hemanto , Pratim D Gupta directed thriller #SahebBibiGolaam.

Best Film of Quarter 2 2016

• Shankhachil
• Cinemawala
• Praktan

Best Directors of Quarter 2 2016

• Gautam Ghosh - Shankhachil
• Kaushik Ganguly - Cinemawala
• Shiboprasad Mukherjee, Nandita Roy - Praktan

 Best Actors of Quarter 2 2016

• Prasenjit Chatterjee - Shankhachil
• Paran Bandopadhyay - Cinemawala
• Prsenjit Chatterjee - Praktan
• Parambrata Chatterjee - Cinemawala
• Arun Guhathakurta - Cinemawala

Best Actresses of Quarter 2 2016

• Kusum Sikder - Shankhachil
• Rituparna Sengupta - Praktan
• Sohini Sarkar - Cinemawala
• Aparajita Addhya - Praktan

Update of Bollywood Movies in the 2nd Quarter of 2016

The second quarter of 2016 was average for Bollywood movies, there was one 100cr hit, few surprise hits , one big surprising flop. Apart from that one significant trend was that Hollywood movies kept doing superb business and gave tough competition to Bollywood releases.

Lets have a month wise recap of the 2nd quarter of 2016.

April

The month of April was the month full of surprises where one of the most awaited films from big production house having big star failed at the box office, on the other hand two comparatively smaller films with lesser expectations perform really well at the box office.

The month started with Director R.Balki's  #KiAndKa featuring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan. It was a movie about the role reversal of two genders male and female where a woman can be the working member of a family and his husband can happily accept the role of a homemaker. The different concept of the film was the main highlight and it got clicked with the audiences. As a result it did well enough business and earned more than 50cr which was not at all expected from this movie. On final run its box office results were good enough to be called an average hit at the box office.

It was followed by the highly expected #Fan where Shahrukh Khan was playing a double role of a super star and his lookalike fan. There were sky high expectations from this film. Trade analysts were looking for a 200cr club member but surprisingly the film became the biggest flop of Shahrukh in last one decade. It got big opening which was expected but after watching the film both critics and audiences were highly disappointed. As a result its collection kept dropping from the first Monday and its lifetime collection limited to only 85cr which was even lower than 100cr. No matter how bad it performed at the box office but everyone was flattered by Shahrukh Khan's brilliant acting, specially as the fan Gaurav.


Finally came yet another surprise hit of the year #Baaghi. It was a

remake of a South Indian film featuring one film old Tiger Shroff along with Shraddha Kapoor. It was just an average film with an ordinary storyline but what worked in favour of the movie was its high voltage action sequences featuring a mix of different martial art forms. The way Tiger Shroff had executed all the deadly action sequences that were a treat for the eyes. It got a huge opening weekend collection followed by a whopping 60cr in first week. Its life time collection was 76cr, which was good enough to call it a big hit.
There was another small release in the last week of April which was #NilBatteySannata , it was an wonderful film about following your dreams. This mother daughter story had touched everyone’s heart but due to limited release and marketing it could not make it big at box office. Swara Bhaskar had done highly commendable job along with the child artist Ria Shukla

Apart from that another highlight of the month was Hollywood biggie #TheJungleBook, this 3D animation film created history becoming the biggest earning Hollywood film in India with a tremendous box office collection of around 184cr, which was much more than many Bollywood film's lifetime collection. It was clearly an indication that Hollywood movies are here to be tough competition for Bollywood releases in near future.

May

The month of May was less significant compared to April in terms of Box office business. This month have several small releases including two back to back biopic but none of these movies was able to gain popularity.

The month started with #Traffic a thriller based on real life incident. It has a different storyline with some good moral lessons about humanity. People who had watched the film had liked it but due to weaker publicity and lack of star power the film reached to very limited audience. 

The second significant release of this month was #Azhar a film based on the controversial life of former Indian skipper Md Azharuddin. The film was not as authentic and interesting as expected rather it was a movie where few facts had been merged with more fictional stories to add entertainment value. The movie got average response with only 33cr box office collection in its lifetime business, but people liked Emraan Hashmi in the title role.

Then came yet another movie based on the real life incident of Sarbjit’s imprisonment in

Pakistan Jail. The movie was #Sarbjit and it was directed by Omung Kumar. The film had been promoted quite well as a comeback vehicle of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan but the real show stealer was Randeep Hooda who performed brilliantly in the title role. From his superb acting to his physical transformation for the character was appreciated by each and all. People also liked Aishwarya as Dalbir Kaur and Richa Chaddha as Sarbjit Kaur’s wife. The film got average opening and did a limited business of around 29cr only which was not good enough, but compared to the small budget of the film it can be called an average earner.

The last week of May witnessed three small releases on same Friday. The movies were #Veerappan, #Waiting and #Phobia. None of the movie could bring audience to theatres. But the performances of Naseeruddin Shah and Kalki Koechlin in #Waiting and Radhika Apte in #Phobia were highly appreciated.

June

The month of June was a better one from May. It got a wonderful opening with a 100cr hit

#Houseful3. It was the third part of #Houseful series featuring old favourites Akshay Kumar , Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez and Boman Irani along with the new entrants Abhishek Bachchan, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakri. Just like the earlier movies of this series, #Houseful3 too was a mindless comedy revolving around one father, his three daughters, their three boyfriends and some confused identities. Honestly speaking this was the worst film of this series but surprisingly with Akshay Kumar’s immense popularity it got a huge opening and recorded highest opening weekend collection of 2016 so far, with around 53cr. It kept doing well because of its mass appeal , catchy songs and presence of Akshay Kumar, which helped it too earn 80cr in its first week and a lifetime business of 108cr(as of now).

It was followed by gripping thriller #TE3N. It was a decent thriller with superb acting by Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan. But sadly it did not receive that much positive response from the audiences and went quite unnoticed with a very low box office collection of around 18cr only.

Then came one of the most controversial film of this year, #UdtaPunjab. This Abhishek

Chaubey directed film tried to trace the root cause and effect of Drug addiction in the state of Punjab. This movie got too many objections from Censor board especially because of its name as they claimed it will defame the state and it’s Government. Finally the producers had to take this case to High court to get the film released that too without changing the name. It was a very hard hitting film with authentic representation of the current situation in Punjab. The negative publicity worked in favour of the film and it got a very good opening. Also the subject, the superb acting by Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Punjabi actor Diljit Dosanjh got clicked really well with the audiences, which turned into a good box office collection with around 48cr in its first week.

Along with #UdtaPunjab another movie was released on the same day it was #Dhanak. It had been directed by very talented director Nagesh Kukunoor. This fairytale story of two young siblings from a remote village of Rajashthan was really wonderful. Both the child actors had done awesome job. This was a small movie with big heart but sadly due to very limited publicity and also because of the shifted limelight to #UdtaPunjab, the movie went totally unnoticed by people.

The final release of this month was a dark psychological thriller #RamanRaghav2.0, directed by Anurag Kashyap. This was a thriller about one serial killer and one crazy cop and their cat and mouse chase. The main highlight of this movie was realistic direction of Anurag Kashyap and the superb acting by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The movie was just okay and it was from a genre where a very low percentage of theatre going audiences shows interest, so this movie neither got a good opening nor its collections improved later. As expected it was just appreciated by few critics only, at box office it was a flop show.

Overall the first quarter was okay with not much big releases. There are some biggies in the next quarter including Salman Khan's Eid release #Sultan, Hrithik Roshan's periodic drama #MohenjoDaro, Akshya Kumar's #Rustam. We are hoping for even better Q3.

Best Film of Q2 2016

• Nil Battey Sannata
• Sarbjit
• Udta Punjab
• Dhanak

Best Director of Q2 2016

• Aswiny Iyer Tiwari - Nil Battey Sannata
• Omung Kumar - Sarbjit
• Abhishek Chaubey - Udta Punjab
• Anurag Kashyap - Raman Raghav 2.0

Best Actor of Q2 2016

• Shahrukh Khan - Fan
• Randeep Hooda - Sarbjit
• Shahid Kapoor - Udta Punjab
• Emraan Hashmi - Azhar
• Manoj Bajpayee - Traffic
• Diljit Dosanjh - Udta Punjab
• Naseeruddin Shah - Waiting
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui - TE3N/Raman Raghav 2.0
• Amitabh Bachchan - TE3N
• Vicky Kaushal - Raman Raghav 2.0

Best Actress of Q2 2016

• Swara Bhaskar - Nil Battey Sannata
• Aishwarya Rai Bachchan - Sarbjit
• Radhika Apte - Phobia
• Alia Bhatt - Udta Punjab
• Kalki Koechlin - Waiting
• Lara Dutta - Azhar
• Prachi Desai - Azhar
• Richa Chadhdha - Sarbjit
• Kareena Kapoor Khan - Udta Punjab
• Vidya Balan - TE3N

Top Songs of Q2 2016

• High Heel - Ki & Ka
• Jabra Fan - Fan
• Sab Tera - Baaghi
• Itni Si Baat Hai - Azhar
• Pyaar Ki Ma Ki, Taang Utha Ke - Houseful3
• Chitta Ve, Ik Kudi - Udta Punjab

Mahanayak Paying Tribute To Mahanayak

For the first time in Indian Television Industry a TV series has been made to pay tribute to Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. This will be a 100 episode TV series named #Mahanayak. It has been produced by Shree Venkatesh Films and will be aired on Bengali entertainment channel, Star Jalsha starting from this 27^th June, every evening at 7PM.

This idea has been conceptualised by director Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and has been directed by Birsha Dasgupta. As it is not a biopic rather a fictional story loosely based on the professional and personal life of Mahanayak Uttam Kumar, so the name of the characters has been changed.

The story is obviously something to watch out for but another highlight of this series is the star cast. Mahanayak of today’s times Prasenjit Chatterjee is making his television debut in Fiction series with playing the title role of a superstar named Arun Kumar. Paoli Dam will be seen playing the most popular heroine of that time Suchorita which is obviously based on Suchitra Sen. Also it will feature Tanushree as  Priya and Priyanaka as Gayitri which are based on the characters of Supriya Devi and Savitri Chatterjee respectively. Apart from these actors there will be Sabyasachi Chakraborty playing a character based on Satyajit Ray , Shantilal Mukherjee playing a character based on Hemanta, Bishwanath Basu playing a character based on Bhanu.

We all are looking forward to see one Mahanayak playing another Mahanayak , on our TV screens. Best of luck to the whole team, hope the series will create history on Television world.