In today’s time movies is the best source of entertainment. From 1939 to 2009, years that end in nine seems to have like the best movies. Let’s see if 2019 can fit into this list of highest-grossing movies. The first half of 2019 has already ended and Bollywood has made over a thousand crores of box office collection. Bollywood has faced many ups and downs during this period like Student of the Year2 and Kalank were its low points, on the other hand, movies like Manikarnika and Kesari have made a good collection. Here are the top 10 highest-grossing movies in the first half of 2019:
Badla
Directed by Sujoy Ghosh, the film’s lead cast included Amitabh Bachchan and Tapsee Pannu. One of the highest-grossing movies was an action-suspense-thrill movie which was released on 8th March 2019. The budget of the film was 24 crore and the film made a collection of 5.04 crores on its opening day. By the end of its opening weekend, the film had already collected 23.20 crores. Movie’s worldwide collection was 138.49 crores while its lifetime collection in India hit 87.99 crores. According to its collection, Badla was titled to be a superhit.
Manikarnika: the queen of Jhansi
How do you convert myth into a movie? Manikarnika or Rani of Jhansi is the stuff of legend. This legend has made it the highest-grossing movies in the first half of 2019. The brave queen fought for freedom against the British Empire. At the age of 29, she died in the battlefield like a brave soldier in 1858. Her story is engraved into every Indian’s consciousness. The movie immortalized the queen who fought with her child strapped on her back. Made with a budget of 125 crores, the period drama movie was directed by Kangana Ranaut who was also starring the film along with Atul Kulkarni and Jisshu Sengupta. With the worldwide collection on 132.95 crores, the movie collected 92.19 crores from India.
Luka Chuppi
The film was directed by Laxman Utekar. Though the movie clashed with Sonchiriya its collection was still sufficient to add it to the list of highest-grossing movies. The Bollywood romantic comedy, released on 1st March 2019, got 3.5/5 ratings. Kartik Aaryan and Kriti Sanon starrer were made on a budget of 25 crores and collected 128.86 crores worldwide. This movie indicates the upcoming change in the Bollywood industry where a new actor is collecting a huge amount. It is a two-hour six-minute film which is a long-running time. A young couple from a small town try to be in a live-in relationship to get to know each other better before marriage but then the families find out and all the mess that happens after that is the highlight of the film.
De De Pyaar De
Released on 17th May 2019, the Bollywood romantic comedy movie was directed by Akiv Ali. Written by Luv Ranjan, the story of the film was naturally expected to be good. The director’s first film made it to 2019’s highest-grossing movies. The film was provided 3100 screens in India and 650 in the overseas market. The film was earlier sought to release on 15th March 2019 but due to ongoing Ajay Devgn’s Total Dhamaal, the makers avoided a clash. Made with a budget of 75 crores, it collected 137.98 crores worldwide.
Gully Boy
With a budget of 75 crores and a collection of 238.16 crores, it was released on valentine’s day this year. Adding romance into a musical drama was a great idea to make it one of the highest-grossing movies. The film casts Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Kalki Koechlin, Vijay Verma, and Vijay Raaz who played lead and supporting roles. The story of the film is based on Indian street rappers. The film was released on 3350 screens in India and 751 screens outside India.
Total Dhamaal
The Indra Kumar production starred Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaffrey, and Anil Kapoor. The 3D comedy was released on 22 February 2019 with a budget of 100 crores making a collection of 154 crores in India. Though the film was a multi-starrer, it could not achieve the status of an A grade movie but still achieved the highest-grossing movies title. The film had a pure situational comedy and sometimes that results in a lack of character development, lack of the story and other foundational principles to making a solid film.
Kesari
Kesari is a story so astounding that if it wasn’t true, no one would believe it. In September 1892, 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikh regiment of the British army fought valiantly against more than ten thousand Afghans. The Sikh soldiers used single loading rifles to prevent the enemy from reaching the Northwestern Province. The battle of Saragarhi was one of the greatest battles fought by Indians for the British army. Director Anurag Singh gives us a fictionalized version of the events. Kesari’s main mission was to valourize the Sikh regiment. The movie earned 204 crore rupees after being released on 21st March 2019.
Kabir Singh
The intensity and the anger Shahid Kapoor shows in the movie helped him make a comeback in Bollywood with one of the highest-grossing movies. Kiara Advani’s innocent acting is also marvelous and suits the character. Kabir Singh which is a remake of the Telugu blockbuster film Arjun Reddy is an unapologetic celebration of toxic masculinity. The hero, which is played by Shahid Kapoor is an obnoxious entitled bully with anger issues. He is a ticking time bomb who can go off anywhere provoked by anything . he gets into violence craps on the football field, he has scant respect for authority and zero understanding of consent. Early on in the film while he is still a final year student of MBBS on campus, he spots a girl that he likes and immediately marks his territory warning the rest of the college that she is off the market. The girl in question, a year student Preeti, is never asked if she likes him too. She isn’t asked when he repeatedly plucks her out of class and tutors her himself. The budget of the film was 60 crores and its collection was 163 crores.
Bharat
The action-drama-patriotic movie earned 209 crores and becoming the highest-grossing movies. Bharat has been described by its makers as one man’s life story, unfolding parallel to the journey of a nation. Salman Khan plays the hero in the film and the film stretches from an 8-year-old boy to a 70-year-old aged man. The film’s most moving scene comes early on when a family is separated during partition and a young boy makes a promise to his father. The director chipped away with Salman’s larger than life screen persona and extracted a winning performance from him. But this film is an official adaptation of a Korean film ‘Ode to My Father’ masters none of the hit that it aspires for.
URI: The Surgical Strike
We all know about the surgical strike that the Indian army executed on Pakistan soil in September 2016. A film about the Indian army soldiers on a secret mission entering Pakistan and performing a surgical strike. Of course, its supposed to be patriotic but that is where Aditya Dhar’s film is different. The film begins with an attack on the Indian army in northeast India. Major Vihaan Shergill who is responsible for his troops and he goes and executes a plan eradicating the terrorists. What makes the film different and highest-grossing movies is that it does not force patriotism down your throat making it earn 245 crores only in India.
