Round One At Box Office Goes To Katrina’s ‘Phone Bhoot’, Other Releases Do So-So

It has never happened before in Bollywood. Three actresses-led films releasing simultaneously. Katrina Kaif’s Phone Bhoot was the highest scorer at the box office in last week’s release of women-centric films. Katrina’s film earned about Rs 10 crore; the other two films Janhavi Kapoor’s Mili and Huma Qureshi-Sonakshi Sinha’s Double XXL had dismal collections. According to a trade pundit, the audiences are becoming increasingly discerning and don’t enter the cinema hall unless it’s a family fare and has a fun quotient like Phone Bhoot. Mili was a remake and although Janhvi worked hard the audience didn’t want to see her in a freezer. Her last film Goodluck Jerry was appreciated but it was on OTT and people didn’t have to pay for it. Huma Qureshi and Sonakshi Sinha chose a subject close to their heart; but the subject is passe as today‘s girls are not embarrassed by their bodies and nobody wanted to spend money to watch them in cinemas. Most of the films that are now released in cinemas could’ve been released on OTT directly but the OTT platforms now want the producers to release their films in cinemas and only after that they are picking up those films at their cost. The last women-centric film that did well at the box office was Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and it was because of the songs and it was larger-than-life cinema.