Kalapi Nagada of Cinekorn recalls the cinematic year of Bollywood gone by, Shares his views on the hits and misses of 2017

As we have entered the last month of the year, 2017 has almost come to an end. India’s prominent and renowned distributor, producer and founder of Cinekorn Entertainment Kalapi Nagada, shares his views on the films which were expected to do average business but turned out to be box office successes and films which failed to leave a mark at the box office.

Discussing some of the films which were surprise hits, Kalapi says, “Films like ‘Hindi Medium’, ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’ and ‘Shubh Mangal Savdhan’ which were small budget films depended heavily on word-of-mouth publicity for them to do decent business. These films fetched some really good business and turned out to be box office hits. The film ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ made on an extremely small budget with limited screens for exhibition did good business too.” He further adds, “A film like ‘Newton’ which had a very limited release due to multiple films releasing on the same day witnessed tremendous box office growth due to good reviews, word-of-mouth publicity and the fact that it was India’s official entry to the Oscar’s.”

Talking about some of the films which had a positive buzz around them with very high expectations from trade analysts and the public but eventually failed at the box office, Kalapi states, “A film like ‘Begum Jaan’ generated a lot of buzz around itself with Vidya Balan promoting and raising the bar for the film. The promos too received a positive response which eventually helped the film get decent first day collections but all of that could not help the film from failing. Also he mentions about high-end films like Tubelight, Harry met Sejal and Baadshaho which were most awaited films of the year with very popular superstars as its leading men and released on max possible screens across the country but they were failed to recover expected revenue from the box office.

Kalapi further adds, “Films like ‘Meri Pyaari Bindu’ which had limited number of screens for its release, ‘Raabta’ and ‘Jagga Jasoos’ failed to deliver due to negative reviews and word-of-mouth publicity.” When asked about his expectations from 2018, he says that the films which have recently released towards the end of the year are doing good business and will help flourish the growth of the entertainment industry and is positive about the business ahead with some good content-driven films lined up for 2018.

———–PR Mahendrra Raam