Bollywood Set For A Dull Season Ahead Due To IPL, Would Struggle To Get Even 10 Crore Opening Till Race 3!

Just a few days back I spoke about how Bollywood has seen some really 'achche din' with back to back super successes of Tiger Zinda Hai, Padmaavat, Raid , Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Baaghi 2 . I also mentioned that the next big films are going to be Race 3 and Sanjay Dutt biopic featuring Ranbir Kapoor . 

However, it seems like the interim season would stay on to be pretty dull, what with IPL kick-starting and a couple of prominent films [Blackmail, October ] already failing to get the desired results. 

Blackmail was expected to do at least decent business in the range of 30-40 crore. However, the Irrfan Khan starrer was rejected in its opening weekend itself and is struggling to reach even the 20 crore mark. On the other hand, October was expected to bring in 50 crores even in the worst case scenario while accounting for its offbeat and unconventional theme. However, it would be nothing short of a miracle for the Varun Dhawan film to even come close to that mark, considering its start is now making it difficult to even touch the 40 crore mark.

That said, had it just been the scenario revolving around these two films, one would still have coped with that since the law of averages had to catch up sooner or later in Bollywood. However, trouble lies in the fact that weeks to come don't really have the inflow of such films which would be mega openers at the Box Office. The advent of IPL means that all big films are shying away from releasing during April and May, as a result of which small or mid-budget films with no real star value are hitting the screens one after another.

This Friday would see the release of Nanu Ki Jaanu, Daas Dev and Omerta. With Abhay Deol, Rahul Bhat and Rajkummar Rao as the main leads, it would all eventually boil down to the word of mouth. 27th April would actually see no Bollywood film releasing at all.

4th May has 102 Not Out arriving and though it features Amitabh Bachchan and Rishi Kapoor in the lead roles, the unconventional set up means it would turn out to be a Saturday and Sunday film where audience reviews would attract footfalls more than the first-day first show numbers. There are also talks of John Abraham 's Parmanu - The Story of Pokhran arriving on the same day but the promotional and marketing plans need to be much more visible to entice confidence in its eventual arrival on this date.

11th May sees the arrival of Alia Bhatt 's Raazi and while the promo has met with a good response and Karan Johar will pitch the film well, at the end of the day it would all boil down to the kind of content that Meghna Gulzar has put together for the film. That would be the deciding factor for how the weekend shapes up. As for the next Friday, 18th May, there is no release. However, on 25th May arrives Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. Just the teaser of this Vikramaditya Motwane film has managed to create a good impression and now all eyes are on the promo. Harshvardhan Kapoor is being seen in an altogether different avtar when compared to Mirzya and in this vigilante set up, he is bound to bring something truly exciting on screen.

The film which could end up taking some sort of an opening is Veere Di Wedding which releases on 1st June. However, one waits to see how audiences warm up to the promo of this Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor starrer. The week later is again vacant with no release on 8th June.

This is what makes the wait much longer for 15th June since Salman Khan 's mega flick Race 3 arrives on this date. While an opening in the excess of 30 crore is given for the Remo D'Souza directed film, one expects bigger frontiers to be crossed by the franchise.

Still, this date is almost two months away and before that, it is quite clear that Bollywood will struggle to get even a single release to its name which would manage even a 10 crore opening day. Considering the fact that the first quarter of 2018 had been the best ever in last so many years, it is rather sad that the wait would be much longer for the 'achche din' to truly resume!