Thalapathy Vijay's Jana Nayagan & Hollywood Films Dominate At The Indian Box Office

Three factors—Gen Z protests, Thalapathy Vijay and The Odyssey dictated the Indian box-office this week; each in a different way. With the youngsters’ angst and the roaches dominating our mind space, cinema-halls ran empty. Naturally, many films underperformed. Underperformed bhi nahin, new releases were a washoutA newcomer romance called Tera Yaar Hoon Main, with Aman Indra Kumar and Akansha Sharma collected a pitiful 31 lakhs over the opening weekend. The India Story with Kajal Aggarwal Kitchlu and Shreyas Talpade got 63 lakhs, Max, Min and Meowzaki got fabulous reviews but managed only 14 lakhs. And, like it is said, misery loves company. To keep these poor collections company, a film called Uttar Da Puttar with veteran Annu Kapoor, took home 28 lakhs. In short, between four films, they couldn’t collectively notch up even 1.5 crore. Now you know how the flop story unfolds.The Odyssey continued its marchChristopher Nolan’s trip to promote The Odyssey in India paid dividends. The epic, action-fantasy ate big-time into the collections of Indian releases. So far, the film has taken home around 113.25 crore in 10 days. The first week got 82.24 crore and the second weekend brought in 31.01 crore. What’s more, with the protests at Jantar Mantar being called off, there’s a renewed interest in Nolan fans to restudy his latest cinema offering. So, The Odyssey got good numbers even over the second weekend.Thalapathy Vijay countered everyoneThe leak, censorship battle, the long delay and the travails of Jana Nayagan (Tamil)/Jan Neta (Hindi) are fodder for an altogether new script. Yet, Thalapathy Vijay, the CM of Tamil Nadu’s much-awaited swan song, got good numbers.The reviews for this, one-solitary-man-against-the-system drama were polarised. However, the box-office stayed faithful to Vijay to a large extent. The film has taken home nearly 106 crore in 4 days, across languages that include Tamil, Kanada, Telugu and Hindi.Dhamaal 4 is still aroundDebutant Aman Indra Kumar (Tera Yaar Hoon Main) found no takers for his romantic offering. However, his veteran, father-filmmaker, Indra Kumar’s Dhamaal 4 has managed good numbers at the end of 17 days. The film’s right tally reportedly stands at 142.21 crore. The first week ended at around 91.12 crore, the second week stood at 38.87 crore and the third weekend brought in 12.22 crore.Hollywood is digging its heels deeper into the Indian cinema groundSpidey will not be here till July 30. But his shadow looms large. The Hindi film, Amit Rai’s Oh My Dog that was scheduled for a July 30 release has been postponed to August 7. Coming back to the ticket-sales for the Marvel super-hero film with Tom Holland playing the masked man, 2.60 lakh tickets had already been sold at multiplexes across India when advances opened. That amounts to around 25 crore! Honestly, at this point, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is signalling a brand-new day at the Indian box office for English films. Again, Tom Holland’s trip to our country for promotions (The Odyssey and Spiderman) keeps him on top of the mind.August is already telling a new storyt is the Ides of March that is used as a metaphor for an impending doom. Currently, Bollywood is feeling the Ides of August! Hindi cinema releases are running helter-skelter; everyone is afraid of being eaten up by either regional releases or by Hollywood.Earlier, August looked like a full-release calendar month. But two important Bollywood biopics, coincidentally produced by Maddock Films, are reportedly postponed. As of now, Prahaar, the biopic of legal-eagle, Ujjwal Nikam with Rajkummar Rao and Eetha, the biopic of Lavani and Tamasha icon, Vithabai Narayangaonkar with Shraddha Kapoor will find new release dates. Two biggies, Batwara 1947 with Sunny Deol and Toxic with Yash, the pan-India, KGF-craze, will keep their dates at the marquee. Batwara 1947 will come on the Independence Day weekend, while Toxic will come on the Raksha Bandhan weekend. Hopefully, these films will bring big numbers with them. Some of our heroes need to counter the foreign invasion. We are after all flag-bearers of the aatmnirbhar Bharat abhiyan.Disclaimer: (FPJ has referred to leading trade portals and its own reliable trade sources for the box-office figures mentioned above. We maintain that these are authentic, estimated figures, collected without bias. FPJ leaves a margin for correction because off late, Bollywood cinema collections have reportedly become “ambiguous”. Filmmakers/exhibitors/distributors reportedly depend on corporate bookings, their own “ticket-purchases” and augmented sales through paid mediums. All collections are India nett in INR.)