Even though 2019 turned out to be a good year for Bollywood with a record count of films in the Rs 100 crore club -- there's an average of at least one major success every month -- quite a few films emerged were big disappointments commercially.
Joginder Tuteja looks at 10 such films.
Kalank
Box office collection: Rs 81 crore
With a stellar cast of Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha and Aditya Roy Kapoor and a bottomless budget to boast of, Kalank was meant to be a vintage style multi-starrer.
With the kind of promotional and marketing push that the film received, it opened quite well.
The downfall came soon after when the subject and content was rejected by audiences.
Pagalpanti
Box office collection: Rs 33.01 crore
Pagalpanti was expected to be a laugh-a-minute affair.
Even though it catered to family audiences, they weren't enticed enough to step in theatres.
Panipat
Box office collection: Rs 32.62 crore
Ashutosh Gowariker returned to theatres with a film on the third battle of Panipat.
Made on a large scale with a grand canvas to boast of, the film received reasonably good reviews. But audiences gave it a thumbs down.
Jabariya Jodi
Box office collection: Rs 16.33 crore
A decent entertainer that deserved better, Jabariya Jodi saw a change in its release date just when it was about to hit the screens.
Besides, it opened too close to the release of Mission Mangal and Batla House.
Audiences had a lot of choices available to them and that made Jabariya Jodi a casualty.
Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas
Box office collection: Rs 7.95 crore
With Sunny Deol launching his son Karan Deol, there were a lot expectations from this romantic musical drama.
There were too many delays in its release and by the time it hit the screens, there were many other films that impacted its visibility.
Sonchiriya
Box office collections: Rs 6.60 crore
Poor marketing and a poor release strategy went against Sonchiriya, making it slide unnoticed.
Besides, this Abhishek Chaubey directorial was not even in Hindi.
No wonder Sushant Singh Rajput cried foul when the film met with a disastrous response.
Prasthanam
Box office collection: Rs 4.75 crore
It was poor luck for Sanjay Dutt, as Prasthanam, which boasted of a very good performance from him, wasn't even promoted properly.
Ironically, the film was produced by Dutt himself.
This one deserved better.
Khaandaani Shafakhaana
Box office collection: Rs 3.83 crore
With Sonakshi Sinha and Baadshah leading the show here, Khaandaani Shafakhaana did boast of certain credentials.
But audiences were not impressed.
The result? Totally rejected.
The Body
Box office collection: Rs 3.44 crore
Another delayed film, The Body could have turned out to be an impressive suspense thriller after Badla.
But there was no buzz around this Emraan Hashmi-Rishi Kapoor starrer.
With the content not finding favour amongst critics as well as audiences, The Body disappeared without a trace.
Laal Kaptaan
Box office collection: Rs 2.36 crore
A delayed film, Lal Kaptaan could as well have seen a straight-to-digital release.
Though Saif Ali Khan led the show in this period drama backed by Aanand L Rai, the film did not didn't carry *any* buzz on route to its release.
Joginder Tuteja is a film critic, trade expert and an influencer.
Joginder can be contacted at movies@rediff-inc.com
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