2014: Superstars Played Safe While Youngsters Made Impact In Bollywood

NEW DELHI: Leading stars played safe in Bollywood but the young brigade cemented its position by navigating between potboilers and script-backed roles in 2014, which also heralded the arrival of female leading ladies in a big way.

It was particularly a good year for young stars like Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Siddharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Fawad Khan, Patralekha, Ali Fazal, Darshan Kumar and Alia Bhatt.

2014 had its usual share of big budget commercial fares that the dream factory of Bollywood churns out at regular intervals, often driven by superstars. The two Khans, Salman and Shah Rukh, who seem to be back on friendly terms, did not disappoint by making it to the  100 crore club with their releases Jai Ho, Kick and Happy New Year.

Salman had his first release with Jai Ho which managed to do decent business despite getting a bashing from critics.

He upped his box office collection with his Robin Hood act in Kick.

Shah Rukh was close with his multi-starrer, much hyped Happy New Year that saw him returning with director Farah Khan after their brief fallout.

Like every year, Aamir's fans will have to wait till the end of the year to watch PK. Keeping his track record of hits in mind and his pairing with Rajkumar Hirani after 3 Idiots, the film is expected to hit the bulls eye.

Hrithik Roshan, who faced personal setbacks with injuries and his divorce from wife Sussanne Khan while making Bang Bang, managed to help the film sail through despite dismal reviews.

The other young and old entrants in the 100 crore club included Arjun Kapoor-Alia Bhatt's romance saga 2 States, Siddharth Malhotra-Shraddha Kapoor's Ek Villain, Ajay Devgn's Singham Returns, Akshay Kumar's Holiday though the actors second outing Entertainment did not entertain the audience and neither did Devgn's Action Jackson.  Amid the star-driven masala entertainers, small-budget films created some elbow room for themselves.

Queen, Hansal Mehta's CityLights, Vishal Bhardwaj's Shakespearian adaptation of Hamlet in Kashmir-set Haider, Highway, Dedh Ishqiya, Finding Fanny, Ankhon Dekhi, Filmistaan and Bobby Jasoos were praised by critics though not all of them were box office hits.

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