Bollywood And The 100 Crore Club Fascination

In the last few years, Bollywood filmmakers have become incredibly fascinated with the ‘100 crore club’. But shouldn’t there be a benchmark that signifies whether or not a film is a success? Although the 100 crore club is a benchmark and a huge achievement for filmmakers, it is not the only measure of a film’s success.

Well, it seems that when one movie enters the 100 crore club, other movies too adopt the same formula. So the central question the filmmaker grapples with is whether to enter the 100 crore club or simply make meaningful movies, without worrying about the budget. When you notice all the 100 crore club movies they have one thing in common; either they have been marketed and promoted well, or they have the alluring power of the stars.

Well, you may ask why a good film may not reach the 100 crore club. The reality is that those films had not been marketed properly. Earlier, people wanted movies to be stress busters and so they were easily satisfied with routinised, run-of-the-mill movies. But that seems to be a thing of the past; the good news is people’s tastes have become more sophisticated in recent years, and even good movies with little star appeal have made it big in the box office. Also, nowadays it’s enough if the movie runs for just one week in the theatres provided that it generates enough profit for the filmmakers. Further, regardless of the movie’s content, movies in which popular and established stars perform get more screens and thus earn more. Moreover, if the movie is mired in any controversy, a ripple effect is created, with such movies capturing more audiences. The bottom line is that a movie should be marketed properly so that it reaches the audience. If not, the audience may not get to know about the movie at all.