Flop show: It’s a bleak picture

Bollywood’s half-yearly report is out. And it’s dreadful. Out of 115 films released in the first quarter of 2008, only three – Jodhaa Akbar, Race and Jannat – have done well. The rest of them have vanished without a trace.

Queer pitch

Soaring prices of multiplex tickets is one of the factors responsible for the dismal run, feels trade analyst Amod Mehra.

"It is unimaginable that the loss ratio can be so high," he said.

The last few months were dominated by cricket. The highly entertaining Indian Premier League took a majority of the audience away from the theatres resulting in some major movies having a poor turnout.

Helpful ban

This slack period saw films like Saif-Kareena’s Tashan and the Amitabh Bachchan starrer Bhootnath and Rakesh Roshan’s Krazzy 4 crash.

Jodhaa Akbar too had mixed fortunes due mainly due to the controversy surrounding Akbar’s Rajput wife. The film was not allowed to be released in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The ban which was later revoked did help the movie move up the slot.

With the cricket season in Indian on pause, analysts hope the crowds will return to the theatres.