Bollywood: Few silver linings at box office in 2003
31st Dec 2003
22.06 IST
By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Year 2003 saw a little respite for the cash-starved Bollywood with only a few hit movies to compensate for many flops.
The year began on a promising note when Bipasha Basu starrer Jism had a fair good run at the marquee. The movie helped its producer Pooja Bhatt in getting a firm foothold in her new role behind the camera. It also boosted Bipasha's image as Bollywood's most desired sensuous belle, a fact that could easily be gauged by the instances of her ardent fans chasing her after the film's release.
But the real money cruncher of the year came later when filmmaker Rakesh Roshan repeated the success story of his earlier hit Kaho Na Pyar Hai (2000) with sonny Hrithik Rohsan in superhit Koi Mil Gaya.
The movie, based on an entirely new theme of a retarded boy coming in contact with an alien from outer space, caught viewers' fancy and turned out to be a rage among teenagers and kids. The credit for the film's success goes partly to Hrithik's extraordinary performance and Preity Zinta's effervescing screen presence.
Another silver lining for the hit-starved industry came at the fag end of the year with Shah Rukh Khan starrer Kal Ho Na Ho. The movie, also starring Preity Zinta and Saif Ali Khan collected 160,832 dollars from 43 theatres in three weeks in the United States and crossed the million pound mark at the box office in UK, registering collections of 1,73,073 pounds in 36 cinemas there.
And as the year draws to a close there is hope for the film industry with the good response J.P. Dutta's megastarrer ' LoC ' has got so far in its first week run. 2003 was a year that began with optimism and is also ending with a good note.
Year 2003 saw a little respite for the cash-starved Bollywood with only a few hit movies to compensate for many flops. 