Ayushmann Khurrana is having a great month. Within a span of a few weeks, the 34-year-old actor has had two major hits, the biggest of his ten-film career. Andhadhun , now in its third week in cinemas has dropped slightly, but is still going steady. So far, it has collected ₹57.42 crore net on a budget of ₹22 crore with a screen count of approximately 900. While Khurrana’s black comedy thriller is still selling tickets, Badhaai Ho too has released, opening at an impressive ₹7.25 crore net. Within six days — and the benefit of a holiday weekend plus an earlier release date — the latter has made ₹56 crore net on a budget of ₹30 crore, released to 2,000 screens. “It’s just been [these] two films that have done well in the last four weeks and both have been tightly budgeted,” says Shailesh Kapoor of Ormax Media, a firm specialising in trade insights.
With successes like Vicky Donor (2012), Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017) and Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017), it’s evident Khurrana has been discerning with his choice of films. After all he’s portrayed the role of a sperm donor along with someone suffering from premature ejaculation. And Andhadhun has been starkly different from what he’s previously portrayed. “It will build him a fan base and in a sense it does put him in the next league of stars,” says Kapoor talking about Khurrana’s trajectory. “One has to see if he will get bigger films. He’s someone who’s seen as being more accessible so stardom will build over time.”
Then there’s the case of the other releases during the month, namely Helicopter Eela (₹4.19 crore net) and Namaste England (₹7.06 crore net). Despite both films having bigger stars, their collections have been dismal. While Kajol’s film vanished from cinemas in a week, the Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor-starrer is also expected to go the same way. “The biggest disappointment has been Namaste England which was a proper commercial film,” says Kapoor. “People are now able to separate new content from what is stale. It tells us that the commercial routine may not work.” In the same month, the low-budgeted Tumbbad released, managing ₹4.99 crore net, while Jalebi and Fryday ’s collections have been negligible.
Khurrana’s October success and Namaste England ’s failure has highlighted an important trend in Bollywood. “The the quality of scripts have been much better [in the past year] and people are investing in scriptwriting,” says Kapoor. “These films are driven by stories with fresh characters [even the supporting ones].” Kapoor says that the classic masala film format that is no longer working as well since film are now more driven by their content. Most of 2018’s biggest hits so far have been such films. Take for instance, Raazi (₹122 crore net), Veere Di Wedding (₹80.27 crore net) and Stree (₹124.44 crore net).
With the Jio MAMI 20th Mumbai Film Festival with Star set to begin today, this Friday has hardly any competition for Khurrana’s films. In fact, Andhadhun might even continue trickling in some revenue. Badhaai Ho , on the other hand, is quite likely to give the actor his first ₹100-crore film.
