The statistics of the last five years of film’s earnings worldwide show that the audience’s interest in biopic cinema is steadily decreasing. People may watch the success stories of others with fervor on OTT, but fewer viewers are now trying to go to the theaters to see these films. In Hindi cinema too, in the last five years, more than two dozen films have been made which tell the saga of some personality, but so far only five films have crossed the Rs 100 crore mark at the box office. . Of these, only three have got the title of hit films according to the cost of making the film. Not a single film released under this category this year was a box office success.
first sign five years ago
The effect of the worldwide boom of biopic cinema on Hindi cinema in the last five years has been very interesting. Although the films released under Biopic Cinema in the year 2017 were ‘Poorna’, ‘Indu Sarkar’, ‘Daddy’ and ‘Haseena Parkar’. The failure of ‘Daddy’ and ‘Haseena Parkar’ disillusioned Hindi cinema with the stories of the underworld, while the failure of ‘Indu Sarkar’, based on the alleged story of Indira Gandhi, dealt a blow to its director Madhur Bhandarkar. The film ‘Poorna’ was the first indication that the interest of the people of Hindi cinema is negligible in sports or adventure based films. None of these films could even earn Rs 10 crore at the box office.
‘Sanju’ biggest hit biopic
The year 2018 was the best year of the last five years for biopic cinema. This year Sanjay Dutt’s Ranbir Kapoor starrer biopic ‘Sanju’ created a new record by earning Rs 342.53 crore at the box office. In the same year, Alia Bhatt’s film ‘Raazi’ also earned a whopping Rs 123.84 crore at the box office. In the same year, Akshay Kumar’s film ‘Gold’ also earned Rs 104.72 crore, but according to the cost of the film, the film was considered to be an average success. Akshay Kumar’s another film ‘Padman’ did not earn much at the box office and gasped by earning only Rs 81.82 crore. Taapsee Pannu entered the biopic cinema this year with the film ‘Soorma’, but the total gross of this film was only 32.42 crores at the box office.
Political films were rejected by the audience
In 2019, the year just before the Corona transition period, there was a line of biopic in Hindi cinema. But, this year’s three films also gave clear indications about the success of the biopic made on political characters. After the failure of ‘Indu Sarkar’ in 2017, none of the films ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, ‘Thackeray’ and ‘PM Narendra Modi’ were successful at the box office this year. ‘Super 30’, the biopic of Anand Kumar, who runs a coaching center for poor students in Bihar, was the only successful biopic of the year. It earned Rs 146.94 crore at the ticket window. Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, a biopic on the Rani of Jhansi, also earned Rs 92.19 crore but according to the budget of the film, the film was not a profitable deal. ‘Gumnami’, ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ and ‘Panipat’ were the other failed biopics of this year.
Deepika Padukone’s glow faded
In the year 2020, three biopic films ‘Chhapaak’, ‘Gul Makai’ and ‘Shakeela’ were released. Out of these, the film ‘Chhapaak’ earned only Rs 34.08 crore. The rest of the two films were multilingual films and their Hindi versions could not earn even fifty lakh rupees at the box office. The failure of the film ‘Chhapaak’ was a big sign of biopic cinema that no matter how big the star of the film, the audience’s interest in the stories of others’ struggle has diminished.
