2011 Bollywood Rediscovered Heroes
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 30 December 2011, 20:35 IST
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2011 Bollywood Rediscovered Heroes
Bangalore: The lackluster box office was shinning as gold in 2011, as all the leading men in the industry took control and persuaded the audiences back to cinemas after the 2011 dismal. This year four movies crossed the billion rupee milestone and domestic revenues hit 19.25 billion ($363.2 million). Salman became the leading man as he gave two blockbusters for this year. "Audiences and filmmakers have gone back and discovered stories that are close to our Indian roots," said Sanjeev Lamba, Chief Executive of Reliance Entertainment, which produced two of the year's biggest blockbusters -- "Bodyguard" and "Singham", as quoted by Economic Times. Khan plays a personal security guard to a rich man's daughter in "Bodyguard", and ends up falling in love with her. It ranked in more than Rs 1.5 billion ($28 million) at domestic box offices. On the other hand, "Singham" narrated the story of a police officer who stands against a corrupt politician and was accompanied by romance, drama and action. Lamba said, "Audiences have always loved the dilemmas of the hero, a little bit of action, some drama and some romance. We had a lot of that this year." Amongst all the hungama, an offbeat film, "The Dirty Picture", burned the silver screen. Based on the story of porn star, Silk Smitha, it took the industry by surprise. Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media, a firm that specialises in film market research, said, "It is not that more people are watching movies, but that the same audience is watching more movies." But super hero movies like Ra.One let the expectations down. Despite of all the wide publicity, the movie earned around Rs 1.2 billion ($22 million) in net box office, whereas the overall cost put behind the movie was over Rs 1.5 billion. Vajir Singh, industry analyst, said, "The Dirty Picture made by Balaji Motion Pictures made at a budget of less than Rs 300 million have chosen themes and subjects which are interesting and (they) publicized their films so well that audiences have felt compelled to watch them." Indian audiences also looked up to Hollywood blockbusters including " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" and "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn." Sunil Punjabi, Chief Executive of the Cinemax chains of multiplexes, said, "These days, the box office collections of good Hollywood films can rival those of a Bollywood film." "The Adventures of Tintin," that released along with Ranbir Kapoor's "Rockstar" in November, made more than 70 million in its opening weekend.

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