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'Laal Singh Chaddha' & 'Raksha Bandhan' see total wipeout. Can these SRK, Hrithik, Salman movies revive Bollywood?

Synopsis

Following the latest box-office debacle, movie producers and distributors are now a worried lot.

Image - 2022-08-18T180012.632Agencies
For Bollywood‘s starry bunch of A-listers - Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan - the next few months will be crucial as their big-ticket releases make it to the theatres.
The box-office debacle of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ and ‘Raksha Bandhan’ have come as a rude jolt for most of B-town. Both films, boasting of Bollywood male superstars in the form of Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar respectively, came and crashed, miserably.

Consequently movie producers and distributors are now a worried lot.

But they are not the only ones. For Bollywood‘s starry bunch of A-listers - Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn and Shah Rukh Khan - the next few months will be crucial as their big-ticket releases make it to the theatres.

Divine Intervention For ‘Brahmastra
Call it the eight-year-itch if you will! ‘Brahmastra’ was announced in July 2014 but was delayed inordinately by many years. So much so that the lead pair of Ranbir & Alia Bhatt met (again professionally), fell in love, courted, got married, and are now having a baby. All this while the movie has been in the works. Karan Johar, the producer, can heave a sigh of relief as the film is finally headed for a September 9 release as ‘Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva’ in the theatres.

Director Ayan Mukerji’s mammoth labour of love has been shot across latitudes in Bulgaria, London, New York, Edinburgh, and Varanasi back home. The first film to be produced under the Star Studios banner following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney, the first part of the trilogy has been produced on an estimated budget of Rs 300 cr upwards (some say it is close to Rs 500 cr), making it one of the most expensive Indian films to date.
Kapoor’s last outing on the big screen was the unforgettable ‘Shamshera’ that sank at the box-office without a trace when it was released in mid-July. With wife Alia, Amitabh Bachchan and Nagarjuna Akkineni for company, Kapoor has his hopes pinned on this fantasy adventure film coming from the Dharma Productions stable.

V For ‘Vikram Vedha
Hrithik Roshan was last seen on the big screen in the 2019 hit film ‘War’. A runaway hit that also starred Tiger Shroff, the action thriller clocked close to Rs 320 cr. The film had Roshan reappearing under the Yash Raj Films banner after 16 years - he was last seen in ‘Dhoom 2’ in 2006.

The build-up to this film that also stars Saif Ali Khan seems to be on track, at least virtually! Roshan fans went into an overdrive when his first-look from the film was out, gushing about his ‘Greek God’ looks leading to likes and memes.
This neo-noir action thriller film has been written and directed by the duo, Pushkar–Gayathri, from a screenplay by Neeraj Pandey. A remake of the hit Tamil film of the same name, the Hindi version is expected to hit the theatres in September-end.

While the original Tamil film was made on a modest budget of Rs 11 cr, this one has gone through the roof with industry insiders saying that the film’s budget has hit close to Rs 200 cr. After Roshan refused to shoot parts of the film in Uttar Pradesh, Pushkar-Gayathri had to recreate the locales via lavish sets in Dubai, which has allegedly shot up the film's budget by double.

More Divine Blessings?
Akshay Kumar’s charm at the box-office has not worked of late. The pandemic report card has not been too good with ‘Khiladi’ Kumar’s last few encounters - ‘Bachchhan Paandey’, ‘Samrat Prithviraj’, and ‘Raksha Bandhan’ - having performed miserably, sinking without a trace.

With ‘Ram Setu’, the 54-year-old is looking at correcting these duds, and striking gold when it releases around Diwali. Directed by Abhishek Sharma, it is based on the historical Rama Setu bridge that connects Rameswaram Island on the southeast coast of Tamil Nadu to Mannar Island on the northwest coast of Sri Lanka.
The film, also starring Nushrat Bharucha and Jacqueline Fernandez, is rumoured to be made on a budget of Rs 85 cr upwards. Kumar plays Raman Kumar, an archaeologist whose mission is to determine whether the mythical Ram Setu exists. For the ‘Housefull’ star, a lot rides on the box-office success of this drama.

Not A ‘Zero’ Redux!
Shah Rukh Khan’s last hit film was ‘Raees’ which was released in 2017. A year later, he was seen in the lead role of Bauaa Singh in Himanshu Sharma’s ‘Zero’ that failed to click commercially. Since then he has been seen on the big screen only in a few cameos in ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, ‘Rocketry etc.

‘Pathan’ naturally is an important film for King Khan. It will see him return in a lead role after a gap of almost six years following the debacle of ‘Zero’. If rumour mills are to be believed, the film’s budget has climbed close to Rs 250 cr. Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Siddharth Anand, this is another expensive film from the Yash Raj stable in queue.
While SRK is reportedly getting paid Rs 100 cr plus his share of profits, the female lead Deepika Padukone is rumoured to be charging Rs 15 cr for her presence. John Abraham who plays the film’s antagonist is being paid Rs 20 cr.

Will The 'Tiger' Roar?
Come April 2023, and Salman Khan is set to return as a super-sleuth in the third instalment of the spy thriller series. And this is a film that many have their eyes on. The Maneesh Sharma-directorial has Khan returning in the lead role - his last hit film as a hero was ‘Dabangg 3’ in 2019. The actor had no releases in 2020, the year of the pandemic. ‘Radhe’ which hit the screens in 2021 was a dud.

Khan pairs up again with Katrina Kaif who played his on-screen love interest, Zoya, in the earlier films.This film also has Emraan Hashmi playing the villain.
Rumoured to be made on a budget of Rs 250 cr, the film has been shot across Russia and Turkey. Apparently Khan has charged around Rs 100 cr for the project.

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