Bollywood lost 70 crores in first quarter of 2012

Only three films in the first quarter of 2012 returned profits and the rest lost money or could barely break even at the box office according to an estimate based on variously reported figures.

The biggest loser of the quarter is the first release of the year 2012 – PLAYERS followed by JODI BREAKERS, GALI GALI CHOR HAI, CHAAR DIN KI CHANDNI, TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA, and a number of smaller films. AGENT VINOD too has not done well and may finally report a loss.

KAHAANI is the best over-all performer of the quarter followed by AGNEEPATH. Dharma Productions’ EK MAIN AUR EKK TU did above average business while PAAN SINGH TOMAR may just break-even. Only AGNEEPATH, among the 30 odd films released during the quarter, crossed the Rs.100 crore mark and collected about Rs.124 crores net of taxes.

According to a rough guess the industry on the whole lost about Rs.70 crores in this quarter against an extremely optimistic estimated turnover of around Rs.380 crores net.

(Rajesh Kumar Singh is Editorial Consultant for Festivals and Markets for BollywoodTrade.com. He is a filmmaker, critic and market analyst)