It is boomtime once again in the movie theatres, what with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi,S S Rajamouli’s RRR and especially Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files cracking the boxoffice code. But the best is yet to come. There are many potential hits lined up for the rest of the year including, KGF 2, the Shahid Kapoor cricket based Jersey, Ranbir Kapoor’s Shamshera, Karan Johar’s costliest film to date Bramhastra , Ranveer Singh Gujju super-hero comedy Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Aamir Khan’s Lal Singh Chaddha a remake of the Tom Hanks 1994 classic Forrest Gump , and Prabhas-Saif Ali Khan’s Ram-Ravana drama in Adi Purush. Several of these purported biggies are likely to be felled by their unrealistic budgets and their compounded liabilities due to the pandemic. Subhash K Jha picks the 3 films that he thinks are sureshot winners.
1. Maidaan(Releasing on 3 June): Because it is Ajay Devgan who is to the Hindi boxoffice what Aamir Khan once used to be. A sure sign of quality-controlled storytelling. And because the director is Amit Sharma the man who helmed 2018’s surprise hit Badhai Ho. This time Amit treads into the life and sport of the legendary football coach Syed Abdul Rahim . It is an aspirational story with Devgan fielding a character that needs to be talked about.All the football matches from the worldover seen in the film feature real footballers. Amit Sharma firmly believes you can’t fake the characters in a bio-pic any longer. My prediction is yeh picture Maidaan maar jayega.
2.Liger(releasing on 25 August): While the future of Karan Johar’s costliest film remains unsure (no matter how much money Bramastra makes it would still not be enough) Liger is sureshot hit.Here’s why: it features the kind of action never seen before .And as we know well-choreographed action never fails. But the biggest USP of this knock-the-socks- off MMA(Mixed Martial Arts) special is Telugu superstar Vijay Deverakonda making the debut of the year. When you see him in action(pun intended) you know the Bollywood brigade has a lot to worry about.
3. Shehzada(Releasing 4 November): Because it is an astute devilishly impish adaptation of Allu Arjun’s 2020 Telugu blockbuster Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo.The popular Kartik Aaryan gives his own spin to the character. This performance will take Kartik to the next level of stardom. Kartik’s version of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo is radically different from its Telugu version. Shehzada will take the core idea of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo and turn it into a something completely different. But the superhit song from the original Butta Bomma is part of the Hindi remake. Kartik’s co-star in Shehzada is Kriti Sanon with whom he earlier shared superhit space in Lukka Chuppi.
