What makes a film a Success?? 100 Crores in Box Office?? 200 Crores?? If you are the type of person who breaks into a Lungi dance looking at the weekly movie box office reports of those Salman Khan films, damn you!! I can bet all the money in my empty pocket that you consider all those Anurag kashyap films to be flops. You must have considered films like Ulidavaru kandante and Gombegala Love as failures. Gomebegala Love? That was a flop, right? Tony? Did not work in Box office, right? Yes, they did not work in the Box office, So what ??!! Sometimes we should not give a damn and how I wish our media understood this!! You think I am insane?? Read on!!
Declaring that a film is a success just because it has crossed 200 crores is like calling an Elephant the most successful animal because it is so damn BIG. Here is the Good news!! There is life beyond Box Office, Yes, a film that is not a Box Office success can also be successful.
Jump back to year 1942. While we were busy with Quit India movement Hollywood released a film called Casablanca. It was a disaster in the box office. It flopped. End of story?? No. A BIG NO. Check Imdb Top 250. That film is within 50th rank 70 years after the release. Today it is universally accepted as an all time classic love story. It has full critical acclaim. There were surely many box office successes in 1942. But have you heard of them? Does anyone remember them? Do they matter? No. Forget box office. Take a bus to Domlur from Maratha Halli. Near Domlur you will see an apartment. Name of that apartment is Casablanca! That is how much a box office disaster can rise. There is something called shelf life. We also have to consider the likability. Box Office is nothing but popular opinion. Popular opinion is not always right.
There is another example called Shawshank Redemption. It was a Box Office failure. Today it is the number 1 in Imdb Top 250, It is a number 1 with 11 lakh+ votes. It is one of the most liked movies in the world today. What was the box office status of that film? Mega flop.Same can be said about Mera Nam Joker which is considered to be a classic today. Mental Manja has earned more than Muttina Haara in box office probably. Which one is better?
If we need a term to categorize these films then we can use the term "Cult Classic". In English they often have these cult classics. Some of them turn out to be classics later. A cult classic is usually a Box Office failure(Not always), Many might not have seen it. But a section of audience has seen it and that section is crazy about the film. They hail it as a great film.
Take Muttina Haara. Rajendra Singh Babu spent 1.75 crore for Muttina Haara, he lost 1 crore. It was a disaster from that POV. But even today people ask him to make another film like Muttina Haara. Recently when he went to a Petrol bunk people asked him to make another Muttina Haara. Makers want this type of praise. That is why they make films. Babu told that if he had invested that 1.75 crore in Real estate he would have got 500 crores by now. But happiness given by that praise is much greater than the happiness of 500 crores by Real estate. Makers want their films to be liked,understood,loved and appreciated.
There is an awesome film called Fightclub in Hollywood. It had earned 100 million dollars upon release. 100 million is nothing, it just earned some profit, not a Big hit in any sense. Now Fight Club is being considered as an all time great film. You are not qualified to be a movie buff if you have not seen Fight Club. Hollywood fans will laugh at you if you have not seen Fight Club. In Imdb it has the 10th rank now among the Imdb Top 250. In rotten tomatoes it has 150+ reviews and the rating is 80+. In Netflix it is one of the highly rented films even today. Compare this to Twilight Saga series. Teenage girls are crazy about these films. They earn in the range of 400 to 800 million dollars. There are many Movie buffs who will be ready to pound your laptop into thousand little pieces if it has Twilight movies . Movie buffs regularly create Twilight jokes. But every Twilight film has earned 6/7 times more than Fight Club in Box Office. So much for Box Office!!
There is a story about singer Bala Murali Krishna. One day he was sitting in an aeroplane ante. Suddenly one guy came to him and touched his feet. He asked, "Shall we take off"? That guy was the pilot!! What artists want is things like this. Nobody cares about how much money Bala Murali Krishna made.
Think of what motivates Sachin tendulkar? He was stinking rich. He made truckloads of money. But why did he still play till the age of 40? He played because he likes it. When he plays a good innings that gives the satisfaction which can not be given by hundreds of crores of money that he has. He wants people to scream, "Sachin....!! Sachin....!!!!"
Why NRN came back to Infosys in spite of having thousands of Crores in the form of Infosys shares? Because he can not tolerate if someone says that Infy is not doing well. He enjoys taking Infy to new heights. He likes being in power. He likes when people praise him, he likes it when people praise Infy. Why Deve Gowda is in politics even today? He has made thousands of crores. he can sit back and enjoy that money. But he is still in it because he likes being in politics. He can not tolerate the success of his enemies. He likes it when his children come to power, he wants people to praise him, he wants people to praise his children.
Now take the other side. What about Rohit Shetty who broke so many Box Office records? He himself confessed that he used to go to depression after reading the reviews. Those 100 crores did not stop him from going to depression. Basically you make films to get praise, to impress people, to have people say "Wow!! What creative person Rohit shetty is". Now it has become a habit for him and he has developed a thick skin and ignores the reviews.
One last example from Kannada. Sarathi was a blockbuster hit, right? But what did Dinakara Toogudeepa feel about it? Nothing much!! He even disowned the film!! He told people not to consider it as a Dinakar film and that it is purely a Darshan film. He probably got more satisfaction from a flop like Nava Graha.
I am not denying that Box Office success is important, but that is not the only criterion. There is life beyond Box Office. How do you measure the success of MTR? Is it by how much money they made or is it by how they made you smack your lips because of the kind of food they served? You don't fall for a girl based on how much money she makes, do you?? Films aren't any different.
Note: This was originally written for Nam Cinema:
http://www.namcinema.com/home/details/2/153/think-outside-the-box-office