Tollywood first quarter report 2023: Box office disaster of 5 much-hyped films

There were high expectations from the first quarter of 2023. With most of the films failing at the box office, the first three months of 2023 haven’t fared well for Tollywood. The scenario is clearly disappointing with most films failed to recover even the base cost of making. Here’s a quick look at 5 Bengali films which despite creating so much hype failed miserably at the box office.

Suchitra Sen, the reclusive star's extremely rare pictures

Despite being the first big release of 2023 and an ensemble cast poet Srijato’s directorial debut tanked at the box office. The film fails to deliver on some key basics despite a near-perfect cast including Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Priyanka Sarkar, Paran Bandopadhyay, Kharaj Mukherjee and others in key roles. Sanket, a banker and Kuhu, an NGO owner, want to build a school in a rural area. But they fail to get a grant and Sanket’s loan application gets rejected. They try to convince an elderly Baren babu but again fail to drum up money. The story had a lot of potential but it couldn’t live up to the expectation.

The lives of eight individuals change when they are matched with each other on an app, triggering a series of events that they didn’t see coming. Rahool Mukherjee’s film is a rushed look at love in times of digital bloom and dating apps. Despite being a modern-day relationship tale the film rushes through the drama too much to highlight certain important moments. There are also some wildly unbelievable sequences that make one question the entire premise. Even the powerhouse experienced actors like Aparajita Adhya, Kharaj Mukheree, Paran Bandyopadhyay and Anashua Majumdar can’t save the film.

Anjan Dutt’s film offers a unique and real sleuth, especially making of a sleuth, but the box office numbers again were on the negative side. Perhaps Bengalis are more comfortable in watching slick, suave, and stoic detectives and that’s why Subrata Sharma (Suprobhat Das) might not went down that well with Bengalis who love to see their Byomkeshes, Feludas, Shabars, Ekens, and the latest entrant, Sonada — all confident individuals loaded with super-charged grey matter.

Rupsa, a girl from a noble family, tries various drugs with her college senior Trina. Suddenly, as Rupsas marriage gets fixed, she contacts her college friend for the L.S.D trip. While under the influence, they have an epiphany. Will she ever quit drugs? That’s what forms the crux of this Sayantan Ghosal directorial but the plot despite looking intense, has many loopholes in execution. Perhaps, the casting also didn’t work for the comic thriller. Soham Chakraborty, Saayoni Ghosh, Laboni Sarkar all shine in patches and this leads to a poor box office outing. Even the unique promotional campaign couldn’t save the film.

With a powerful cast of Ishaa Saha, Anirban Bhattacharya and Arjun Chakrabarty and having all the elements for an intense musical love story this Paroma Neotia directorial failed to create any box office impact. People were all excited to see Anirban in a unique avatar of a rockstar and expectations were high. Still, melancholic love story failed at the box office. The film introduced Anirban in an out-and-out romantic role. He plays Avik, an independent musician and songwriter while Arjun plays Aditya, a classical singer. Meanwhile, Ishaa was seen as Anwesha, a journalist.