Women’s Day Special: Alia Bhatt doesn’t need a hero to give a Rs. 100 crore hit, women audience can make a film a HIT - Analyzing the trends in the SUCCESS of Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi
It’s the week of International Women’s Day and hence, we decided to analyze the success of the recently released film, Gangubai Kathiawadi. It stars Alia Bhatt in the central role and despite being a women-centric flick, it has emerged as a huge success, silencing the skeptics. That the film is unstoppable even in the second week shows that audiences have whole-heartedly accepted it. Its performance has given the much-needed hope to the industry that the box office in the near future would fire up even more. Apart from that, Gangubai Kathiawadi’s success has shown four clear trends, which we shall talk about in this article.
1. Alia Bhatt was already a star and Gangubai Kathiawadi’s box office performance has proved once and for all that she can shoulder a film on her own. Actresses often are not able to do so and need the help of a male actor to get audiences to cinemas. Alia, on the other hand, stands out and she doesn’t need any hero’s support. Without a male actor, she has managed to deliver a film that’s all set to enter the Rs. 100 crore club and that speaks volumes!
2. Initially, when cinemas began running at 50% occupancy, many in the trade felt that crossing the Rs. 100 crore mark would be difficult. They argued that the capacity of cinemas has been reduced by half and this would impact collections. However, the collections of Gangubai Kathiawadi have proved this notion wrong. Several moviegoers didn’t get tickets at their desired theatre. Instead, they chose some other multiplex to catch the Sanjay Leela Bhansali-directorial. And a section of the audience chose to watch the film on weekdays. In short, audiences managed to successfully see Gangubai Kathiawadi on the big screen despite the 50% occupancy limitation.
3. Another belief was that the cinema-going audience primarily consists of males. As a result, testosterone-driven films aimed at men would have a high chance of succeeding according to the believers of this idea. They also concluded that fairer sex can’t make a film a hit. Gangubai Kathiawadi’s box office performance, however, proves that even women audiences can take the film into the ‘hit’ or even the ‘super-hit’ zone.
4. Before the release of Gangubai Kathiawadi, many were confident that the film won’t work among the target women audience. They reasoned that the film is about a sex worker with an acidic tongue. Hence, a narrative was peddled that the females, especially the ones who frequent multiplexes, would stay miles away from the film. Funnily, this myth exploded in their face on the first day of the release of the film. From the first show, the women are coming in large numbers to watch the film. And this is happening all across the nation, from PVR Juhu to the single-screen cinemas in Jaunpur. The trailer did give a glimpse of the crude vocabulary of Gangubai but at the same time, also threw light on the underlying message in the film, and it excited viewers to head to their nearest cinema hall.
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