Here Are Just 4 Simple Yet Solid Signs That A Bollywood Movie Is Going To Bomb!

There’s a film critic hidden inside every Indian person. Accept it or not, Indians don’t need a degree to judge a film by its trailer or teaser and we don’t take a minute to declare a film hit or flop. We’ve got that sixth sense. Especially in 2017, nothing can save a film from a debacle at the box office if the janta, the masses don’t say good things about it. Their first reaction on the trailer to audience reactions on first day first show decide the fate of the biggest films which are touted as blockbusters but fall flat on their face after the release.

Only once in a lifetime do you see films like Sholay which were declared flopped on the release but later became a cult classic.

So what exactly are the signs of a bad film? How can you judge a film by its trailer? Let’s decode it.

If the trailer reveals the entire story of the movie that can really backfire on the makers.

People are born curious. A certain sense of abstraction or say cliff hangers or even suspense in the most romantic and comic movies is essential. You tell it all, you lose it all. At least leave something for the audience to see when they spend their money, now with GST implemented across the country. For instance, even for the biggest of Imtiaz Ali fans, there’s a certain fear silently brewing right now, that Jab Harry Met Sejal might just bomb. Why? Because initially we were still uninformed about the storyline and there were only speculations. Now, with the Mini Trail 5, we all know the story that Anushka loses her ring on her Eurotrip and comes back to find it with her guide SRK, only to fall in love. Bonus points to KRK who leaked this plot way before this trailer!

Or, with an upcoming movie like Toilet Ek Prem Katha where we all know the central plot, the audience wants to see the execution of the storyline. This movie too is in muddy waters because of the angle of stalking that is coming out of the promos quite strongly, but viewers might give it a chance to see if Akshay yet again justifies the social issues and real life stories that he takes up.

Music and Songs

Indians will never get out of the hangover of singing and dancing to Bollywood music. We can’t! The first thing people expect from a big movie is good music. If the music disappoints, then no matter how good the story and the performances are, the footfall automatically decreases and people call it names on social media.

source Twitter

Sometimes, makers only focus on good music! Like a classic example is Befikre. Excellent music and chartbuster songs like Nashe Si Chadh Gayi and Je Taime, but nothing could save it from the rants of public after they wasted their money on the movie.  So if it doesn’t get your foot tapping, it’s not worth tapping your money in a lot of cases, because that’s our psyche.

Too many trailers, teasers and takes

How is this different from a trailer that reveals the entire story? It is! Films like Dear Zindagi were one of the first to experiment with take 1, take 2 etc and they rolled out the concept of the movie in segments. It worked for Gauri Shinde and SRK, but it doesn’t work every time. When you see your timelines flooded with promos of an upcoming movie again and again, then you lose interest. Sometimes you just don’t watch the movie out of annoyance. For example Prem Ratan Dhan Payo made many years bleed because of its perpetually viral title song where ‘payo payo’ comes uncountable times to irritate people. A lot of people who would have rather watched this movie, didn’t because they were fed up of the publicity and re-plugging of promos and songs.

Even if they don’t reveal the story, you lose interest. When you're not confident about your product, you keep making variants. Not everyone can be Maggi right?

Too much reality show hopping

If you see the cast of a movie on every single channel while switching channels on your Television set, it’s a big sign that the movie makers are trying really hard to market the movie. Sometimes, when the cast is anyway not promising or the trailers haven’t got a good feedback, even the comedians and hosts fail on TV to make people laugh and engage with the guests from the movie.

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Moreover, if the cast is being escorted by a Bollywood biggies who isn’t even in the movie, say in the case of Athiya Shetty and Sooraj Pancholi’s Hero, its ring-o-bells for a death knell for the movie.

The biggest sign that the film will bomb is…

When big Bollywood celebs including Big B, Karan Johar and sometime SRK start promoting links and tweets of an upcoming film with clear chances of a debacle, you know it’s going to bomb. Many times Karan has even expressed how he has walked out of a premiere and tweeted good things or felt the pressure to congratulate industry-men for their movies when he knows they’re going to tank.

Recently even Deepika Padukone joined the bandwagon to promote Pooja Batra and Parvin Dabas’s movie The Mirror Games which had flop written all over it.

So what we perceive from the promos and publicity is our perception, but sometimes, perception, is reality.