Year in review: Many blockbusters, sleeper hits in 2023

Another year has passed by, and in Hindi cinema, superstar comebacks, expanding budgets and an abundance of hits were the highlights.

The biggest of them all

With the 100-crore club turning redundant thanks to ever-escalating production budgets and ticket rates, we have an incredible 500-crore club as the new milestone! It began with ‘Pathaan’, and was followed by ‘Gadar 2’, ‘Jawan’ and ‘Animal’. Never mind if ‘Gadar 2’ is the biggest hit by time-tested parameters (return on investment or ROI) as its budget was only Rs 60 crore. And never mind whispers that the other films’ figures are doctored.

But truth be told, ‘The Kerala Story’, a non-star-cast film, was actually the leader, ROI-wise, for it collected a worldwide gross of Rs 300 crore on a paltry production cost of Rs 20 crore. 

The sparklers

‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’ saw director Karan Johar self-admittedly returning to classic form, while its co-release, ‘OMG 2’ was among the most thought-provoking films, incredibly looking at sex-education in a ‘universal’ way. Among other highs were ‘12th Fail’, an incisive showcase of dogged determination to move up in life. ‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway’, on a mother’s fight against an entire nation to get her children’s custody, and ‘Mission Raniganj’, an elevating real-life story of a man fighting the system to rescue trapped miners. 

Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhat in 'Rocky AUr Rani Kii Prem Kahani'.

In 2023, OTT releases thrived, with standouts like ‘Mission Majnu’, a spy drama where intelligence dominated action. ‘Jaane Jaan’ was a terrific mystery thriller, ‘Kathal’, a pithy satire on politics, the introspective ‘Bawaal’ and ‘Tumse Na Ho Payega’ and that chilling saga of a cornered woman turning wounded tigress — ‘Apurva’.

The ‘forgettables’

As always, we had films that should not have been green-lit at all! Heading the dubious ones were, ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan’, ‘Ganapath’, ‘Tejas’ and the execrable sequel to an iconic TV serial— ‘Khichdi 2: Mission Panthukistan’. And the dubbed caricature of Ramayan that was ‘Adipurush’.

The OTT highs

Web series kept flourishing. ‘City of Dreams 3’, ‘Dahaad’, ‘Jubilee’, ‘Scam 2003’ and ‘The Railway Men’ (Yash Raj’s first foray into the Web) effortlessly towered. ‘Farzi’, ‘Guns & Gulaabs’ and films on OTT like ‘Gulmohar’, ‘Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai’ were overrated.

Comebacks 

After a four-year hiatus, Shah Rukh Khan made a spectacular comeback with ‘Pathaan’, ‘Jawan’ and ‘Dunki’. Dharmendra, Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol scored high with ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, ‘Gadar 2’ and ‘Animal’.

Performers par excellence

Dharmendra, Shabana Azmi, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh (‘Rocky…’), Ranbir Kapoor and Bobby Deol (‘Animal’), Vicky Kaushal (‘Sam Bahadur’), Nana Patekar (‘The Vaccine War’), Pankaj Tripathi (‘OMG2’), Jaideep Ahlawat (‘Jaane Jaan’), Vikrant Massey (‘12th Fail’) and Rani Mukerji (‘Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway’) were by leaps and bounds the standout performers this year. Ranbir Kapoor for the first time was introduced as superstar in ‘Animal’. This is also Ranbir’s third consecutive hit after the pandemic — ‘Brahmastra’ and ‘Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar’ being the former two. 

Vikrant Massey in '12th Fail'. 

Alizeh, Agastya and nepotism

Alizeh Agnihotri (Farrey) and Agastya Nanda (‘The Archies’) unmistakably topped the new finds of the year and critics of ‘nepotism’ had a field year with Suhana Khan, Khushi Kapoor, Namashi Chakraborty, Rajveer Deol and Paloma also joining in.