By Hindustan Times
New Delhi, April 6 -- This quarter, content is the undisputed king in Bollywood. The box-office report for the year's first three months shows that of the 30 films that released between January and March, Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar, made on a shoe-string budget, became superhits, much sooner than starry films comparable to Agneepath, Agent Vinod and Players.
"The first quarter of 2012 was certainly not good for Bollywood. Out of the 30 films, there have been only three hits - Kahaani, Paan Singh Tomar and Agneepath. While Agneepath was only an ordinary hit, Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar were superhits and made greater than thrice their investments," says distributor Joginder Mahajan.
The year started with Abbas Mustan's big-budget film Players, starring the likes of Bipasha Basu, Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan, but proved to be a dud. Hrithik Roshan-Priyanka Chopra starrer Agneepath, made on an estimated budget of R50-60 crore, recovered its costs with little profit. Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor's R60- crore March release, Agent Vinod, has only made around R37 crore to this point.
Trade experts say that two single-star outings winning the sport shows that the audience clearly cares most concerning the script. "Though the primary quarter hasn't beenvery fruitful, the success of Kahaani and Paan Singh Tomar has given hope to many small film makers. As a matter of fact if you happen to do not need a large hero on your film, then you definitely need to convert your story right into a hero and that appears to be working," says trade analyst Amod Mehra.
While Kahaani cost its makers R8 crores, Paan Singh's production cost R4.5 crore. The flicks made R48cr and R16cr respectively. ' "NOT JUST the content, even the presentation should be really strong in order for a movie does well. For Kahaani, we tried to maintain the visual presentation as global as possible," says Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh. Paan Singh producer Siddharth Roy Kapur says, "This has turned the sport the other way up. It proves that if the content is good, the flicks will work."
