TFI HIT r Phat -Halfyearly Movie Report
2012 had many big films released in the first half of the year along with other interesting low and moderate budgeted films. Let’s have a look at how good or bad they did at the box office.
January
Sankranthi this year saw two B’s who later year in the year would be seen as brothers on screen. Superstar Mahesh Babu starrer Businessman and Victory Venkatesh starrer Bodyguard released with in a few days gap.
Really there was no competition between them as far as openings were considered and as expected Businessman stormed the box office in record number of theaters and went on to create opening week record. It didn’t sustain in the long run as well as the star’s previous film Dookudu and settled in as a Super hit.
Bodyguard opened decently courtesy the festival and put up record numbers beating the hero’s previous best at few centers. It ended up being an average. Tarakaratna’s Nandeeshwarudu proved to be a misnomer.
Snehitudu was the other big release of the month. It was director Shankar’s follow up film after Robo but surprisingly the film absolutely lacked any buzz probably due to the original already being a huge hit in the state. The film came and went without anybody realizing it at all.
Super hit – BusinessmanAverage – BodyguardDisaster – Snehitudu
February
February saw the releases of many low budget films to medium budget films. The noticeable among them were Prakash Raj’s directorial venture Dhoni, SMS, Siddharth’s Love Failure, Rushi, Poolarangadu, Nippu and Ishq.
Dhoni, SMS, Rushi and Nippu sank without trace at the box office. Love Failure courtesy its low budget and bilingual nature earned its actor cum producer Siddharth little profits. Poolarangadu and Ishq were major success at the box office and were termed as comeback films for the respective heroes.
Hit – Poolarangadu and IshqAverage – Love FailureAll Time Disasters – Nippu, Dhoni, SMS, Rushi
March
Low budget films continued to flood the market in the month of March with few medium budget films. But it was the very low budget film Ee Rojullo released for Ugadi that stole the show at the box office and created a sensation.
Among the moderately budgeted films only Adi’s Lovely managed to stay afloat while the rest Mr. Nookayya, Naa Ishtham and Nuvva Nena fared poorly.
Hit – Ee RojulloAbove Average – LovelyFlop – Nuvva NenaDisaster – Mr, NookayyaAll time disaster – Na Ishtham
April
With April the biggies started to arrive. First to arrive was Mega Power Star Ram Charan’s Racha which literally created Racha at the box office and lived up to its title and status as a biggie. It had the second biggest release ever. The film although poorly reviewed clicked with the audience and garnered record openings but followed it up with an ok trending.
Other big release was the most anticipated and biggest hyped release of the summer Young Tiger NTR’s Dhammu. The film being the return of the star into action genre and directed by Boyapati Sreenu created huge hype among the fans. It had bigger release than Racha but it failed to meet the expectations of the fans. It was rejected by fans while others found it to be barely passable.
Other notable releases were director Teja’s Neeku Naaku Dash Dash, RP Patnaik’s Facebook and Nikhil’s Disco. They all were washouts.
Super hit – RachaAverage – DhammuFlop – Neeku Naku Dash DashWashouts – Friendsbook, Disco
May
Only two noticeable films released in May and they were Power Star Pawan Kalyan’s Gabbar Singh and Mass Maharaja Ravi Teja’s Daruvu.
Gabbar Singh finally gave Power Star Pawan Kalyan the much needed Blockbuster in his career. He answered all his critics with this one film and showed the current generation a glimpse of Khusi. It broke the opening day and week records despite having the lowest release among the summer biggies and has now become the second biggest hit ever in Telugu Film Industry and is only behind Magadheera. It has also become the only film after Magadheera to touch 50 Cr in AP and 60 Cr worldwide.
The only other noticeable release of the month Mass Maharaja’s Daruvu opened to better numbers compared to his previous film Nippu but it dropped after the good weekend. It was expected to be better than Veera at the box office but even that hasn’t happened giving another flop to Ravi Teja.
Blockbuster – Gabbar SinghFlop – Daruvu
June
It opened with Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Adhinayakudu. Although not as bad as his previous commercial venture the film still draw poor reviews and collections. In the end it ended being another disaster for the star.June saw a release every week but none of the expected films clicked at the box office.
It opened with Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Adhinayakudu. Although not as bad as his previous commercial venture the film still draw poor reviews and collections. In the end it ended being another disaster for the star.June saw a release every week but none of the expected films clicked at the box office.
Endukante Premanta starring Ram and Tamannah came in with slight expectations courtesy its director A Karunakaram but even the film failed to capture the audience’s interest after the weekend.
Dubbed film Shakuni was the third big film of the month and it opened well riding on the success wave of its lead hero Karthi. It too followed similar trajectories of films like Daruvu. After a good initial the film has simply dropped without any sign of improvement. As the investment was big on the film courtesy successful run of Karthi looses too are expected to be heavy.
Surprise of the month was a relatively small and obscure film Oka Romantic Crime Katha. This film has turned out be a massive success among its target audience and the collections have resulted in adding more number of theaters for the film. Another Small film Mem Vayasuku Vacham too has got good word of mouth but with biggies lined up to come every week it may find it hard to show any sort of growth.
Hit –OkaRomantic Crime KathaDisasters – Adhinayakudu, Endukante Premanta, Shakuni
On the whole the first half of the year has been a really good one for the industry and can be easily termed as one of the biggest years solely on the strength of this first half.
