Biggest Bollywood Hits 2012

Article by film critic and trade analyst Joginder Tuteja

2012 would go down as a year which saw the hit v/s flop ratio improve by a big margin. There was hardly any major box office disappointment; however the ones that came trumps from all quarters had everything going for them as they set new benchmarks for movies to follow. This is evident from the fact that 2012 has emerged as the year when each of the Top-5 grossers has ended up entering the 100 crore club.

(All are domestic collections and in nett)

Ek Tha Tiger (199 cr)

The Salman Khan starrer was perhaps not the best of the stories told in the year gone by but it was the most approved of them all. After a fantastic opening on Eid, it went on to create havoc for weeks in successions as one record after another was broken. For Yash Raj Films, this love story with elements of thrills and action turned out to be their hugest ever till date. As for Kabir Khan, he has entered the big league with the film’s blockbuster success. Katrina Kaif, who was waiting to gain an entry into the 100 crore club, finally made a huge jump too.

 

Dabangg 2 (Expected – 150 cr +)

Salman Khan continued to compete with himself as with ‘Dabangg 2’, he has now managed an unthinkable five super-successes in a row. The film broke opening three days record of ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and has also raced past the 100 crore mark. Arbaaz Khan had a task in hand as he had to adhere to Salman’s superstardom, the sequel factor and make his mark as a director. However he managed to do that in style and the speed at which ‘Dabangg 2’ has crossed the 100 crore mark reaffirms that it has been accepted.

 

Rowdy Rathore (135 cr)

Akshay Kumar roared big time in 2012 as ‘Rowdy Rathore’ turned out to be a blockbuster. The film took the best opening weekend ever of Akshay’s career and enjoyed one of the best word of mouth publicity in weeks to follow. That resulted in steady collections for this Prabhudheva directed affair. For Akshay, who releases an average of four films a year, ‘Rowdy Rathore’ was a reaffirmation of the fact that despite quantity, Akshay was still consistent enough to bring in audience months after months.

 

Agneepath (123 cr)

‘Agneepath’ took a record start and despite gruesome violence and several hard hitting scenes, it managed to find audience across multiplexes as well as single screens. For Hrithik Roshan, the film went a great deal ahead and re-establishing his superstardom. After a rather subtle ‘Zindagi Naa Milegi Dobara’, it was ‘Agneepath’ that gave him an opportunity to reach out to a wider audience. With debutant director Karan Malhotra bringing an ‘almost different’ version, everything was won over, be it the box office, audience’s nod of approval or the acclaim that it fetched.

 

Jab Tak Hai Jaan (122 cr)

Not many cheered the overall content that this Yash Chopra-Shahrukh Khan film had to offer. However it wasn’t rejected by the audience either which means despite massive expectations that one had from the film to be covering a much greater distance, it didn’t turn out to be the case and just stayed steady. At 122 crore, the film is now the highest grossing ever for Shahrukh Khan, hence eclipsing the 115 crore milestone set by him for ‘Ra. One’. Even for Katrina Kaif, the film ended up making it two in a row for her after ‘Ek Tha Tiger’.

 

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder