A month of hits, again: Big movies set to keep the Bollywood show running

April is set to be as exciting as March was for Bollywood, going by advance booking of tickets for movies such as ‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’. The movie will release on April 14, the day India celebrates Baisakhi, and has already seen advance bookings cross Rs 10 crore since Thursday.

‘K.G.F.2’, like ‘RRR’, is a regional film, featuring a mix of south and Bollywood stars. It will release across the country in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam apart from overseas markets.

RRR, last month, got advance bookings of Rs 5 crore, said multiplex industry sources, implying the excitement for ‘K.G.F.2’ is greater than RRR, which had helped Bollywood cross Rs 500 crore in box office collections in March. Besides RRR, movies such as ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘Bachchan Pandey’, ‘Radhe Shyam’ and ‘Jhund’ helped Bollywood cross the Rs 500-crore mark in collections in March.

“April could see the trend of strong ticket sales continue for Bollywood, if you go by the buzz and rush for advance bookings for blockbusters such as K.G.F: Chapter 2. I will not be surprised if the box collections cross Rs 500 crore for the second month in a row,” said Devang Sampat, chief executive officer, Cinepolis India, a multiplex chain.

April will also see movies such as ‘Jersey‘, featuring Shahid Kapoor, ‘Runway 34′, featuring Ajay Devgn and Amitabh Bachchan, and Heropanti 2, featuring Tiger Shroff, release in theatres. Multiplex operators said that Jersey could turn out to be a sleeper hit like ‘Kabir Singh’, which had Shahid in the lead role, in 2019. ‘Runway 34’ and ‘Heropanti 2’, on the other hand, are also much-awaited films.

Devgn was last seen in ‘Sooryavanshi’, ‘Gangubhai Kathiawadi’ and ‘RRR’, which released in November 2021, February 2022 and March 2022. While Bachchan’s last film ‘Jhund’ saw him play the role of a retired sports teacher and Shroff will act as vigilante in ‘Heropanti 2’.

Film exhibitors and distributors say that the industry is witnessing “revenge consumption” after months of Covid-19 restrictions.

“For two years, the industry bore the brunt of Covid-19 restrictions,” said Shyam Shroff, chairman, Shringar Films, a film distribution company based in Mumbai. “Now, as restrictions have been eased and life has returned to normal, people want to go back to theatres to watch their favourite films. At the same time, there is a good pipeline of movies, which is fueling this trend of revenge consumption,” he said.

Rahul Kadbet, vice president, programming, Carnival Cinemas, another multiplex chain, said May and June also promise to be strong for the Indian film industry in general.

“April-June period has a strong line-up due to a backlog of movies. For instance, Hollywood films Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Jurassic World: Dominion will release in May and June respectively. These films will release in Hindi, English and regional languages for a wider audience. At the same time, there are movies in Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi and the south languages that will release over the next two months.

In addition, there are good Hindi movies such as Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (starring Kartik Aryan) and Dhaakad (featuring Kangana Ranuat) in May and Maidaan (starring Ajay Devgn) and Prithviraj (starring Akshay Kumar) in June. In short, there is no dearth of content across segments,” Kadbet said.

Experts said that financial year 2022-23 (FY23) could see most quarters doing well for cinemas due to pent-up demand and a stream of good content. Ticket prices do not appear to be a hindrance with select exhibitors in the south and west quoting figures such as Rs 1,500-2,000 per person for tickets of blockbusters such as ‘K.G.F.2’.