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The Bollywood 100 Crore Club - A viewpoint
- Pankaj Kumar Sinha           Let us know what you think about this article

When we studied in school, we regularly had examinations. The report card was given to us by the school to show how we had performed in the examinations. The same is the case in the corporate industry, where we have our performance review. In the case of sports also, you have statistics. In business also, you look for profit and loss. The Indian film industry has a lot of problems when critics review their movies harshly. But the critics are made the butt of jokes in award ceremonies. How do you judge the film? There has to be some barometer.

Why is a film made by production houses? They want films to do well at the box office and earn profits. Let’s accept the truth; Box office is the biggest barometer for success of any film. At the end of the day, how many people go and watch the movie makes the difference. The 100 Crore Club is one of the best things to happen to the industry as the number game always makes things more interesting and dynamic. The higher the number shows your power and standing.

I was watching an interview of Shahrukh Khan recently and he was saying how making movies was more about creativity and how he was not fascinated by the 100 Crore Club. It was the same Shahrukh, who always wanted to be no. 1 star in the industry. Why these double standards? He should be happy about these clubs. Media should encourage 100 Crore, 150 Crore and 200 Crore Clubs. Indians are fascinated by numbers. For us, it is more important how many centuries or fifties scored by our Indian cricket players then how many matches the player won for the team.

The Box office is more important than all these award ceremonies and let’s face it more than half the industry does not even value these awards. It is difficult to judge acting or a film but for the public, the movie has to be entertaining. India being a diverse country so everybody has different tastes. How can different performances be judged and compared? Every film has a different vision.

The 100 Crore Club gives a true assessment of the star value of an actor. This can help us identify the bigger star puller among actors. First day collections and first weekend collections belong to stars. It is after that that a film maker can take the credit. We need stars and will always need them. Stars are the biggest attraction for any films. Akshay Kumar films will always will be more anicipated than Manoj Bajpai film. We Indians are obsessed with Stars. Most of us don’t watch every film in theatre but we wait for our favorite star film.

Stars are face value of any film. Barfi was such a big success because of Ranbir Kapoor. Good films are appreciated but the stark reality is that stars bring higher returns for the film. Stars can make bad film also work in Box Office. Sometimes good films lose at box office because of lack of stars. With the 100 Crore Club, the film loving audience has become fascinated by these numbers. Which actor movie is having the highest first day collection and weekend collection? How many days has it taken for the movie to reach 100 Crore at the Box Office? The Industry is about power and 100 Crore Club adds more power to it.

Our country is changing and all kind of movies have started getting accepted. With so much media coverage and marketing, now we can expect smaller films also showing bigger numbers. The bigger the numbers in Box office will result in bigger budgeted films of Hollywood standards. The film fans wants bigger and better. There is a big difference in watching a film at the theatre than on television. The same difference can be seen between star and actor.

The actors have to become market savvy and work harder on their popularity. With acting, that is also part of your job in an entertainment industry. Everybody knows Om Puri and Naseerudin Shah are great actors but Amitabh Bachan is the biggest star. He has more fan following than those actors. Box Office is the only judgment for the actors. If your movie flops, you have failed as an actor. If your movie is hit, you have passed as an actor. It's become a simple equation now.


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