Journalism of Courage
2017 will go down in history as a year of some of the biggest blockbusters in Indian cinema. With only five months into the year and we already have films breaking records and setting new milestones. Baahubali: The Conclusion created a storm with its record-breaking Rs 501.18 crore within a month of its release. And giving it a neck to neck competition is Aamir Khan's Dangal which released in China and won Chinese hearts instantly. Currently, Dangal's worldwide collection stands at Rs 1,802 crore. The year began with a box-office clash between Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees and Hrithik Roshan starrer Kaabil. Following these two were films like Badrinath Ki Dulhania, Jolly LLB 2, Hindi Medium, Sachin: A Billion Dreams and Half Girlfriend, among others.
Shah Rukh Khan's Raees and Hrithik Roshan's Kaabil opened on the Republic Day weekend this year. But it was SRK's gangster act which minted more money than Hrithik's blind act. While Raees collected a total of Rs 271. 63 crore worldwide, Kaabil earned Rs 147.52 crore.
Akshay Kumar too managed to give a hit in the first half of the year. His Jolly LLB 2 collected Rs 116.92 crore at the box office. The court room drama crossed the 100 crore mark in just 12 days of its release. The film became Akshay's seventh film to cross Rs 100 crore mark in the domestic market. This brought Akshay at par with Shah Rukh Khan who also has seven films that have earned more than Rs 100 crore. Jolly LLB 2, worldwide has collected Rs 200 crore approximately.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania: Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt's film was another box office hit. Their electrifying chemistry did grab everyone’s attention. This movie was released during the Holi weekend and it minted Rs. 200.61 crore worldwide.
Baahubali 2: This film actually became one of the biggest record-breaking films till date. The movie starring Prabhas and Rana Daggubati in the lead roles also tops the list as it is the highest-grossing movie in the first half of this year. The magnum opus directed by SS Rajamouli which was out in multiple languages – Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam garnered approximately Rs. 1700 crore worldwide. The movie which released on April 28 was running housefull for months.
Hindi Medium: The comedy-drama starred Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar in the lead and received good word-of-mouth publicity. On the opening day it managed to collect only Rs. 2.81 crore and it also became biggest solo opener of Irrfan Khan. The worldwide collection of Hindi Medium stands at Rs. 102.64 crore.
The films which did average business were Phillauri and Half Girlfriend.
The ones which tanked at the box office included Ok Jaanu and Rangoon.
