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19 March 2024

Top 5 'worst' Bollywood films: Salman vs Shah Rukh face-off

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By Bindu Rai

As ‘Happy New Year’ opens globally today, much to the delight of the loyal fan base that Bollywood’s King Khan commands, the moment also sends a green light to critics sharpening their pencils – and their wits – for a gleeful dissection of one of the year’s most marketed films.

Farah Khan’s multi-starrer musical, which held its world premiere in Dubai on October 22 with star cast Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and Abhishek Bachchan in tow, is already being touted to cross Rs200 crores or Rs2 billion (Dh120m) at the global box office.   

The movie is releasing across 4,500 screens globally, with 75 locations showcasing ‘Happy New Year’ across the UAE and GCC.

Industry pundits are predicting a positive response will garner it lifetime earnings of approximately Rs2.75bn, while mixed reviews will average off a Rs2bn box office booty.

So far, the early reviews of the heist film have been mixed. But that does not mean the movie still won’t break the barrier to emerge as one of the biggest hits of the year.

Shah Rukh’s arch rival and fellow actor Salman Khan pulled off his own heist when he looted the global box office with this year’s Eid release, ‘Kick’.

It’s critical panning seemed moot in the face the Khan-do attitude with collections.

Can Shah Rukh ring in his own celebration with ‘Happy New Year’? Only time will really tell.

Meanwhile, Emirates 24|7 looks at the top five Bollywood films of 2014 that are also contending for the worst of the year:

Kick

USP: A shirtless Salman Khan

Box Office: 378-crores


Currently, Salman Khan has ‘Kick’-ed his way to the top of the year’s box office collection, garnering Rs2.33 billion in India, while the action film’s global earnings stand at Rs3.78bn.

The film has already rewritten history, taking the position of being Bollywood’s fourth-highest worldwide grosser ever, according to trade website Koimoi’s figures, behind ‘3 Idiots’ (Rs3.95bn), ‘Chennai Express’ (Rs4.22bn) and ‘Dhoom 3’ (Rs5.42bn).

What had the film going for it, you ask? Aside from a shirtless Salman running around in a mask and singing ‘Jumme Ki Raat’, not much else.

While one reviewer called it “the plot, as befits a Salman Khan spectacle, is completely and delightfully cuckoo”, another stated, “we know that a Salman film is created solely to display his popular quirks and his one-liners, all of which are designed to send his fans into a swoon.”

Bang Bang

USP: Hrithik-Katrina chemistry

Box Office: 176-crores


“Every opinion matters to me personally. Whichever films have crossed Rs100 crore in Indian cinema has got mixed reviews, so I respect them,” said Hrithik Roshan, in response to his action film’s not so favourable reviews, in an interview with NDTV.

But this Sidharth Anand’s directorial venture, which has been produced by Fox Star Studios at a budget of Rs140 crore, scored big to become the industry second biggest grosser of the year.

How does it matter that one critic called all else in this film an ‘extra’, or “an accessory either to complete the scenery that frames Hrithik, or an item for Hrithik to grab and kiss, or shoot and kill.”

The official remake of Hollywood’s ‘Knight and Day’ sees the lead actor jet set across continents in two hours, with arm candy Katrina Kaif in tow.

They also sing, dance and kiss at intervals. The end.

Jai Ho

USP: A shirtless Salman Khan (again)

Box Office: 111-crores


It was released in time of India’s Republic Day, with the story of a common man trying to change the world by ‘paying it forward’ with good deeds.

Where the plot has been tried and tested in a number of films in the past, and failed in quite a few of them too, ‘Jai Ho’ proved a tough cookie to break due to a juggernaut on screen called Salman Khan.

And yes, he even takes off his shirt.

The movie, which also hosted its world premiere in Dubai, was critically panned by all and sundry. But when it's a Khan at the helm, more often than not, a movie will cross the Rs100-crore barrier in India.

As for the acting, you ask? What’s that?

Singham Returns

USP: Ajay Devgn as a killer cop

Box Office: 141-crores


We like Ajay Devgn. We really do. But screaming incessantly at the screen and flexing muscles does to do justice to the talent this National Award winning actor has stored away of late.

However, the sequel to ‘Singham’ got something right, so even if critics called the film “long and occasionally plodding” and “offers nothing in terms of a groundbreaking script”, the movie still lapped up Rs1.41bn at the box office.

Entertainment

USP: Akshay Kumar comedy

Box Office: 72.5 crores


The mindless comedy sees Akshay Kumar scream incessantly in the name of slapstick comedy, while wearing a fat suit at intervals to breastfeed a baby.

Yes, that summarises how the might have indeed fallen in this hackneyed plot where a pooch grabs the starring role in ‘Entertainment’ as the sole heir of a $3 billion empire after his rich owner (Dalip Tahil) dies.

If animals could speak, he would probably scoff at the sheer ludicrousness of a plot that sees his owner’s illegitimate son and his best mate bumble about in attempts to kill him off so they could usurp the riches in the bank; all this before Kumar turns into a good guy to save the mutt and his money from evil family invaders possessing more melodrama than Rakhee’s obsessive motherly turn in ‘Karan Arjun’.

The movie still grossed Rs725 million at the box office. Go figure.