KOCHI: As the curtains have come down on the first seven months of the year, the box office data hardly gives cause for even a ripple of satisfaction in Mollywood. With the heavy monsoon showers and failure of some superstar movies taking a heavy toll on the box office collections, the industry suffers loss to the tune of Rs 60 crore, according to the data provided by the Producers Association.
A total of 47 Malayalam movies, among which four were dubbed from other languages, have had theatrical releases so far this year. Interestingly, the Producers Association has not tagged any movies released so far this year as blockbuster.
Meanwhile, the movie ‘Seniors’ has been declared a superhit. The booming package of 2011 so far has been attributed to ‘Rathinirvedam’ which bagged a distribution share of Rs 2.5 crore. The movie also bagged a satellite right for Rs 1.75 crore. Completed at a budget of Rs 1.40 crore, makes the film one of the top grossers of 2011.
“I will attribute the success of ‘Rathinirvedam’ to proper planning and team work which helped us reduce the cost. The success of ‘Rathinirvedam’ again proves that subject is the hero, not star value,” says Kerala Film Producers Association president G Sureshkumar, who is the producer of the film.
The year began on a good note with the movie ‘Traffic’ faring well at the box office. According to the available statistics, the movie has fetched a distributor’s share of nearly Rs 2 crore from theatres. Directed by Rajesh Pillai, the movie was much appreciated for its narration and totality and turned out to be a trendsetter for many directors to experiment with the theme and artists.
Shafi’s Jayaram-starrer ‘Make Up Man’ also fared well at the box office and collected Rs 3.04 crore as the distributor’s share.
The multi-starrers ‘Christian Brothers’ and ‘China Town’ also got huge initial collection. According to the Association’s data, ‘China Town’ had so far got a distributor’s share of Rs 5.5 crore. “Both ‘Christian Brothers’ and ‘China Town’ have got distributors’ share of over Rs 5 crore. But considering the huge production cost of both the films, we cannot declare them as super hits,” says Kerala Film Producers Association secretary Sabu Cheriyan.
Another movie that reportedly has got a decent collection is ‘Urumi.’ However, the collection figures for ‘Urumi’ are not available with the Association.
The movie ‘Seniors’ have so far bagged distributor’s share of Rs 4.20 crore. With good satellite right and theatre collection, the movie earned the producers a decent profit. Another movie that is heading towards a super hit status is Ashiq Abu’s ‘Salt N Pepper.’ “It was a not an exceptional season, but in comparison to the previous years, I would say it was a good first half with some small ventures like ‘Salt N Pepper’ faring well,” adds Cheriyan.
The first half of the year also saw both the leading Superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal failing to create solo hits. Mohanlal can heave a sigh of relief with two multi-starrer films faring well; Mammootty is yet to deliver a mega hit this year. However, both of them have an array of good projects ready for release in the latter half of the year.