'Hichki' Gets Tepid $2M Opening, As Bollywood Films Continue To Underperform

At a time when Bollywood is being criticized for its long-standing lack of content-driven films, Siddharth P. Malhotra’s much anticipated Hichki, although reviews have been mixed, is a notable victory. Inspired by the story of American educator Brad Cohen, the film tells a story about a teacher with neurological disorder, played by Rani Mukerji, and attempts to take on the class divides that underline Indian society.

But when it comes to the box office, Hichki didn’t attract a huge audience, grossing $2 million domestically in its opening weekend. Competing against Ajay Devgn's Raid, which is in its third weekend earned just over $8 million, Hichki's first day gross was a meagre $507,540, which is substantially below expectations. However, a positive word-of-mouth helped Mukerji's film to make up some ground over the weekend.

Bankrolled by high-profile Yash Raj Films, Hichki will easily recover its $3 million budget, and some more, this week if it keeps up the momentum, but highly unlikely to join the ranks of Padmavaat and Pad Man. Having said that, Raid, supposedly based on the longest tax raid in India, and Hichki reflect a little-noticed change. Audience want something different, and the industry, although not entirely successfully, is trying to give it to them.

In recent times, low theater attendance and profits dwindling has become practically de rigueur in Bollywood. The numbers reinforce the logic: Just take a gander at the past three months: With nearly two dozen films released, only three — Padmaavat ($90 million), Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety ($21 million), and Pad Man ($18 million) — crossed the Rs100 crore ($15 million) mark, a number quantifying an Indian box office hit. A glut of new movies, including Aiyaary ($4.5 million), Pari ($5.8 million) and 1921 ($3.6 million), underperformed this year. That’s a worrying trend.

In comparison, Bollywood had at least six good films by now in 2017. Four films were box office hits — Badrinath Ki Dulhania ($31 million), Jolly LLB 2 ($30 million), Kaabil ($27 million), and Raees ($47 million), and two mid-budget films that major studios have abandoned in favor of blockbuster romcoms were successful too. Naam Shabana grossed $9 million against a production budget of $3.8 million and Phillauri that cost $3 million to make, earned $7.6 million at the box office.

The first three months in 2016 had a decent line-up, too, with some great performances seen in Aligarh and Neerja, while Kapoor And Sons grossed over $23 million, and Airlift earned about $34 million.