Bollywood made big bucks in 2006

Some of the decade's biggest Bollywood blockbusters were witnessed in 2006 with film revenue touching unprecedented heights.

It has been the year of blockbusters. Whether it is the fiery 'Rang De Basanti', the wisecracking Munnabhai in 'Lage Raho Munnabhai' or the smooth conman in 'Dhoom 2' , audiences brought unprecedented revenue for Bollywood.

The Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai starrer (Dhoom 2) from the Yashraj stable reportedly earned Rs. 110 crore within the first three weeks of its release.

The business of sequels made sense for the film industry, with second editions of 'Dhoom' (Dhoom 2), 'Koi Mil Gaya' ( Krrish ) and 'Munnabhai MBBS' (Lage Raho Munnabhai) finding great favour with audiences.

In fact, such was the popularity of these movies that they were credited for several social trends. While 'RDB' was credited with the sudden upsurge of citizen's movements in the country, Munnabhai's message of "Gandhigiri" was a phenomenon in itself.

"There has been no pattern to this year's hits. Small budget films like Omkara also found favour with the people, as did big budget ones like 'Fanaa' . This year truly has made up for all the bad years when Bollywood had only one or two big hits," trade analyst Taran Adarsh is quoted as saying.

"Dhoom 2 was the year's biggest grosser but then most Yashraj films, including 'Fanaa' and 'Kabul Express' have not really been flops because of their aggressive marketing strategy," Adarsh says.

Karan Johar's tale of extra-marital strife, 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' too got an excellent opening.

"This year, filmmakers learnt how to innovate and generate revenues through unusual sources. Music rights, TV rights, overseas collections and marketing tie-ups meant that not many films lost money in 2006," an analyst said.

While 2006 was an action-packed year for the film industry, the coming year promises even better things.