A 'thanda' January for Bollywood!

The city may be celebrating the winter chill in the air, but the thanda January is giving B-Town shivers of a different kind. With five films released and no hit at the BO yet, the mood is not as upbeat in Bollywood as it was last year when January had three hits in Yamla Pagla Deewana, No One Killed Jessica and Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji. The big-budget action flick that set the ball of films rolling this year, Players, did not fare as well as was expected from the multistarrer. And despite the following week having four small-to-mid-budget releases, none of them seem to have taken an impressive opening.

Trade analysts agree that the year’s started on a thanda note, after the disappointing performance of all the five films released so far. Buzz is that industry is now banking on the last January release of this year, Agneepath starring Hrithik Roshan to bring back the smile.

“It’s been a rather bleak January, and the industry is feeling the pinch more this time around, as the last January had a rather high hit ratio. Not only that, but the last year overall had been a really good one for Bollywood with so many films crossing the Rs 100 crore mark. So, the dismal performance of the films so far has upset the mood and burst the euphoric bubble of last year,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

But this time around, it’s not the January Jinx that insiders are blaming anymore. “Last year clearly proved that a good film will work no matter what the month of release, and that January jinx just no longer exists, and even though the films have not clicked this month so far, industrywallahs are not blaming the Jan month any more,” says an insider optimistically.

Another distributor adds, “Yes, it’s not been a very happy month so far, but things may look up when Agneepath releases. Though it’s hard to predict the fate of any film at the BO, trade is rather positive about the film doing well. The film is expected to take a good opening for sure.” But till it releases, Bollywood’s wait for its first hit of the year continues.