Rs 400 crore riding on Bollywood's Generation Next this year

 

Aamir Khan as PK ruled the box office at the end of 2014 but the other two Khans, Shah Rukh and Salman, also exhibited their might last year.

 

With Happy New Year and Kick setting the cash registers ringing, 2014 was clearly the year when the Khans reclaimed their status as the sultans of cinema in India.

 

If 2014 belonged to the veteran Khans, 2015 may just be the year the newcomers of Bollywood make their presence felt.

 

The industry estimates almost Rs 400 crore will ride on releases featuring newcomers like Sushant Singh Rajput, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and more this year.

 

The Khans had four movies among them that cost Rs 445 crore and generated Rs 816 crore revenue.

 

 

The three leading men have thus delivered 83.4 per cent combined returns on investment on their movies in 2014. The majority of this return was due to Kick and PK, with the latter having yet another weekend at the movie halls.

 

"It has clearly been a year where the audiences have been very decisive in terms of content. It also showed you that Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan have irrefutable pull at the box office. The fact that Jai Ho performed below expectations may have shaken the trade's belief in Salman Khan for a while, but he bounced back with Kick. Film makers have to get smart now and dish out palatable content since audiences will not hesitate to reject a film, no matter the cast, as we saw with Action Jackson, Humshakals and even Jai Ho," says a box office analyst.

 

Leading the young pack in 2015 will be Ranbir Kapoor who had a quiet year with no releases in 2014. The actor will be seen four movies this year, Roy, Bombay Velvet, Jagga Jasoos and Tamashaa. While he is not exactly a newcomer, he is among the younger leading and analysts believe he will be the one to watch out for.

 

"He has a lot to redeem after the unsuccessful run of Besharam in 2013," says one such analyst.

 

Prabhat Choudhary, head of Spice, a film publicity and communication agency, says, "Year 2015 will see more monies riding on the young brigade of Bollywood because in 2014 their box office viability was proven. Sidharth Malhotra, Arjun Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt and Shraddha Kapoor had an extremely good year. While they are a long way off from the box office muscle that the Khans enjoy, a host of young stars are entering the Rs 100 crore club that was earlier the reserve of the seniors. This year will see a lot of young stars in action."

 

The year will kick off with Tevar from Eros International starring Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha.

 

The big studios will be seen backing the new stars. Fox Star will be putting its muscle behind Bombay Velvet and Yash Raj Films will produce Sushant Singh Rajput's Byomkesh Bakshi.

 

Varun Dhawan's Badlapur will be backed by Eros and his second release of the year ABCD 2 (also featuring Shraddha Kapoor) is from