Gully Boy v Total Dhamaal: European Directors Box Office Records

Thursday 28 February 2019 11.30 IST

Box Office India Trade Network

Gully Boy has come and has actually succeeded due to reasonable costs coupled with the the Valentines Day holiday on day one and as usual with these European Art House inspired directors the appreciation is very little. The film has collected well in the metros but collections are dropping fast even there now.

These directors have managed to direct 45 films between them and some of these are even with stars which has been one of the problems in thsi industry over the last decade or so. It can be seen the only time that these directors have got some viewers is with some stars or super hit music in the case of Love Aaj Kal. But the number of viewers are never as much as stars should get. Basically if these directors who are said to be content directors get some numbers with stars only but for the stars these numbers are hardly anything. Gully Boy will get similar footfalls to a Raazi released last year and this pretty much tells the story.

This Gully Boy has been called the best thing sliced bread and even created a so called superstar but in reality its a film which has not even been liked let alone loved to create a superstar. The media PR for this film and the hero seems to be at another level but more on that side next week. The release this week Total Dhamaal has got the opposite treatment when the appreciation of this film is more than Gully Boy and the film is sure to last post its theatrical release with big television viewership while thats it for Gully Boy which has more or less exhausted its audience after a two week run in the cinemas.

The directors listed below are not the only Europeans and there are some more who mainly have branched off these guys for same sort of results but these are the ones who have done a number of films each. The facts and figures speak more than words these directors have around 16.5 crore footfalls in 45 films between them while the director of Total Dhamaal has a similar number from just 15 films. You have one director like Zoya Akhtar who has the friends in the media also needs them to stay afloat and then another like Indra Kumar who does not care about them and expects the results to speak and they have. Total Dhamaal with a lesser cast due to the Alia Bhatt factor has been liked more than Gully Boy and will get far more viewers and that is talking theatrically only, forget about television and digital. there are two type of directors, ones that try and create cinema and others give create entertainment and there are some who can combine the two and these generally give the biggest HITS. The Europeans do neither as they do not create cinema and what entertainment is they probably have no clue. If one of these director tried to create cinema it was Anurag Basu with Kites but that film went wrong big time which meant back to the Life In A Metro cinema. The box office record of these directors is below. They are the footfalls and when the film is a HIT it has been noted although there are not many of them.

Zoya Akhtar

1. Lucky By Chance - 19 lk

2. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - 1.15 crore (HIT)

3. Dil Dhadakne Do - 70 lk

4. Gully Boy - 1 crore (expected) (HIT)

Imtiaz Ali

1. Socha Na Tha - 7.19 lk

2. Jab We Met - 62 lk (HIT)

3. Love Aaj Kal - 1.05 crore (HIT)

4. Rockstar - 86 lk

5. Tamasha - 67 lk

6. Jab Harry Met Sejal - 55 lk