It has been an eventful first half of 2017 so far. While Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (Hindi) has all by itself contributed to practically one third of the moolah that has been generated at the box office so far, as many as five other films have scored a century as well. Moreover, there have been three other half centuries, which makes for a decent enough report card at the midpoint of 2017.
Baahubali 2 The Conclusion (Hindi)
515 crore (expected lifetime)
The baap of all movies in 2017 has been Baahubali 2: The Conclusion. Just its Hindi version has gone way past the `500 crore mark and that has taken the game to a different league altogether. The film has set the kind of benchmark that would be almost impossible to achieve, at least by any other Hindi film this year. One now waits to see which release in 2018 comes anywhere close to this level of audience engagement.
Raees
137.51 crore
Earlier this year, Shah Rukh Khan brought out Raees with much fanfare. The film was delayed and had a few release dates floating around last year. However, when it eventually arrived around the weekend of Republic Day, there was quite some bad blood that spilled over, courtesy the film’s clash with Kaabil. The film wasn’t the best of the entertainers either and Shah Rukh Khan had to settle for lesser moolah.
Tubelight
105 crore* (and counting)
This was supposed to be one of the biggest grossers of the year. However, it hasn’t really hit the roof. One would have thought that the festivities of Eid would elevate the prospects of the Salman Khan-Kabir Khan combo. Well, the collections have gone past the `100 crore mark but all said and done, Salman and Kabir have seen better days.
Jolly LLB 2
117 crore
Akshay Kumar has managed to form a market of his own and out there he ensures that films are made in quick time, at less costs and eventually manage to be safe enough by going past the `100 crore mark. He did that last year too, and in 2017, he has started off well with Jolly LLB 2. The film managed to collect four times what Jolly LLB had generated at the box office and emerged as a good success for all involved.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania
116.60 crore
With Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt coming together for Karan Johar and Shashank Khaitan’s next after Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, it was pretty much a given that Badrinath Ki Dulhania would do well too. The film opened well, got good reviews, saw good patronage from youth as well as family audiences, and the result was a good run at the BO that made it go past the `100 crore mark.
Kaabil
103.84 crore
The film boasted of a good premise and set-up, while the promotion was right as well. However, it was more in news due to the clash with Raees than the inherent content that it boasted of. Though from the opening perspective it was the Shah Rukh Khan starrer that took the lead, eventually it was the content and execution by Sanjay Gupta that did the talking. Hrithik and Rakesh Roshan scored a century!
Hindi Medium
62 crore
The surprise superhit of the year, Hindi Medium managed to rise from the opening day of `2.81 crore to a lifetime that exceeded the `60 crore mark. It did well on the basis of sheer word-of-mouth publicity, the Saket Chaudhary directed affair proved that good content will always work. Irrfan showed all over again that he has it in him to be commercially viable, too.
Half Girlfriend
60.25 crore
Half Girlfriend isn’t a bonafide hit, but it got an opening and managed to go past the `60 crore mark, that allows it an entry into the Top-10 grossers of the year so far. It’s not a patch on what Mohit Suri has made in the past (Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain). However, good music and the pairing of Arjun Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor managed to entice the youth.
Sachin — A Billion Dreams
52 crore
Surprise success of the year, Sachin — A Billion Dreams was hardly a film that one would have expected to feature in this list. Still, there were surprises galore when it actually managed to take a start and then hold on during its 10-day good run at the least, Brand Sachin Tendulkar ensured that even an experimental docudrama affair like this managed to pull audience to theaters.
Naam Shabana
37.25 crore
When it was announced that Neeraj Pandey and Taapsee Pannu would come together for the prequel of Baby, there were good expectations from the film. Well, Naam Shabana didn’t quite fully meet those expectations since the final product was not as well-polished and the audience interest too was mixed prior to release. Still, it managed to hold on well and eventually emerged as a decent runner in the long run.
The Ghazi Attack
20.50 crore
Arriving with minimal publicity, The Ghazi Attack didn’t really see a great opening for itself. However, the content of the film was appreciated and the word of mouth, too, caught up slowly, but steadily. The Rana Daggubati-starrer held on well decently to go past the `20 crore mark in its eventual run. Given the fact that the film was a trilingual with Telugu as its prime language, it did fairly well.
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