The first half of 2017 is over. While 71 films have been released over the period, the success rate of Kannada films have been disappointing. The year started with release of three films on January 6. Many films that were expected to do well failed. However, the best part of first half of 2017 was “Raajakumara.” The film broke the collections of “Mr & Mrs Ramachari” to become an industry hit. Sandalwood had to wait for nearly 30 months for an industry hit.
Here is an analysis of Kannada films released month wise in 2017:
January: The year started with three releases on January 6. They were “No Ball”, “Pushpaka Vimana” and “Srikanta”. There were high expectations on Shivarajkumar starrer “Srikanta” but the film failed. It was “Pushpaka Vimana” which did decent business and was a hit venture at box office. The industry was still reeling under demonetisation effect. There were only 10 releases in the first month of 2017. Almost all films failed except “Pushpaka Vimana” and “Beautiful Manasugalu.”
February: In February, there was a rush of Kannada film releases. Nearly 15 films released in February. The month started with “Chowka” which turned out to be a super hit. With this film, Sandalwood got another talented director in form of Tarun Sudhir. The month ended with Sudeepa’s “Hebbulli” and “Srinivasa Kalyana.” Both the films were hits. Remaining films failed. However “Amaravathi” was critically acclaimed and is expected to do well in digital media.
March: In March, we had 17 releases. March can be classified into first half of March and second half of March. The first half of March was very bad, with 8 films releasing and all biting the dust. The biggest disappointment was “Eradane Sala.” The film had great content and got great reviews but the poor release plan did harm the film. The second half was very good for Sandalwood. On March 17, two woman-centric films “Urvi” and “Shuddhi” were released. Even though “Urvi”, underperformed, it was praised. “Shuddhi”, which lacked star power surprisingly turned out to be a hit at box office and completed 100 days. The month ended with Puneeth Rajkumar’s much hyped “Raajakumara”. The film broke all records in the box office and ended up as an industry hit. It is still running in packed houses.
April: In April, there were lesser number of releases. The reason for this was Kannada film “Chakravarthy” starring Darshan and Telugu film “Baahubali 2.” There were huge expectations out of “Chakravarthy”, as Darshan was seen in the role of an underworld don. Therefore many Kannada film makers decided not to release their films in April. Upon release, the film met with mixed response. After a great opening, it faltered in the coming weeks. Telugu film “Baahubali 2” had a huge impact on Kannada films, as it literally took away all the theatres. “Raaga”, which managed to get decent reviews also flopped due to poor release date.
May: Month of May had 14 releases. Unfortunately only two could get average box office collections. “Happy New Year” and “Bangara s/o Bangarada Manushya”, made decent business. They managed to break even due to less budget and non theatrical rights. Remaining films failed big time at box office. The biggest disappointment was Duniya Vijay starrer “Maastigudi.” The film had created lot of expectations due to it’s theme and Nagashekar directing the film. It however met with a low critic rating as well as poor word of mouth. Ganesh’s “Pataki” had a great marketing campaign. But audience decided to skip Ganesh in action avatar.
June: Month of June had highest number of releases in 2017. There were 17 releases. It can be called as one of the worst month of 2017 apart from April month. Almost all the films in June failed, except “Aake”, which is doing well in box office. Some of the failures in June were “Noorondu Nenapu”, “Jindaa”, “Silicon City”, “Tiger” and “Panta”.
If we compare first half of 2017 with 2016, then it is very bad. Here we have to mention that “Kirik Party”, which released on December 30, did most of its business in 2017. Successful Kannada films in 2017 were “Pushpaka Vimana”, “Beautiful Manasugalu”, “Chowka”, “Hebbuli”, “Srinivasa Kalyana”, “Shuddhi”, “Raajakumara” and “Bangara s/o Bangarada Manushya”. The big star disappointments were “Chakravarthy”, “Maastigudi”, “Pataki” and “Srikanta”.
The second half of 2017 looks promising. July started with “Ondu Motteya Kathe”, which is expected to do great business thanks to great critical receptions. There are many big star films awaiting release. “Bharjari”, “Mass Leader”, “Tagaru”, “Mufti” and “Tarak” are some of the big films, which are expected to do wonders at box office. However the biggest film will surely be “KGF.” The Yash starrer is being made reportedly on a budget of Rs 50 Crore and has Prashant Neel directing the film. The film has huge expectations mounted on it and is scheduled to release in December last week.
