The hindi film industry is heading for a horrible year with only four HIT films this year which at the moment is a lower count than 2022 which was the worst year in history probably. This is not counting the pandemic years of 2020-2021 and also keeping the South films out of the picture.

If there is to be a somewhat better picture to the year then these Diwali releases have to deliver as after this there is not much left in 2024 as far as original Hindi releases go.

The expectations are huge with crazy numbers going around but the realistic target is get 500 crore nett up on the board together. This would mean a good Diwali and some sort of mini relief from the financial crunch prevailing in the industry or a better way putting it would mean a bit better mood within.

Stree 2, Khel Khel Mein and Veda delivered around 625 crore nett earlier this year while Gadar 2 and OMG 2 delivered over 650 crore nett last year and that too with in a more cluttered period with holdover Rocky Rani Ki Prem Kahaani and a Dream Girl 2 coming two weeks later. If Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 and Singham Again can get this 600 crore nett plus numbers up then it would be an excellent Diwali but these things are easier to say and much harder to do.

Till date the Diwali period has only got to around 250 crore nett with Tiger 3 last year and Golmaal Again / Secret Superstar in 2017 and now it has to double up from 250 crore nett for the industry to see it as some sort of result. The films have five weeks till Pushpa 2 so time is on there side and its just about the films being good enough to benefit from this. The capacity problems go out of the window post the weekend and thats when you can benefit content willing as consumption will be less in the weekend due to the clash.

The clash means there will be certain games prior to release to get the edge over the other but once Friday comes and the film goes out to the audience nothing really matters apart from the product and for the industrys sake the hope has to be both or at least one film is good as if not then it will be another dud holiday period as the hype and stars will not matter one bit which has been seen so many times over the last few years. 

In the past you would have clashes and other films releasing two weeks later but now with minimal releases this is not a problem so in reality the holiday clash is not as bad as before from a box office point of view as there is time to do the business if merits are there but huge insecurity within the industry now means the clashes are much more uglier with all the tricks in the book used to get the upper hand pre release be it in distribution, PR, trends and likes and what not but ground reality and the internet / digital world are two different things altogether.