Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s ambitious historical Samrat Prithviraj has proved to be a box office disaster. The costly film, said to be budgeted at Rs 230 crores, has underperformed drastically: its collections were a meagre Rs 39 crores over the opening weekend.

In contrast, Anees Bazmee's comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is going from strength to strength even three weeks after release.

Trade guru Taran Adarsh attributes this phenomenon to the post-pandemic scenario. “Post pandemic, if you observe the business of Hindi movies, the audience has shifted towards larger-than-life, well-made entertainers. Films like Sooryavanshi, Pushpa, RRR and KGF 2 are prime examples of this .”

Taran compares the current trends at the box office to past trends. “This was the trend in 1970s and 80s, when larger-than-life entertainers fronted by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Shashi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor were ruling the box office. Unfortunately, the focus shifted to metro-centric films with the advent of multiplexes and we started making films catering to the Bandra-to-Versova (Mumbai) audience. The PAN-India audience was thirsting for entertainers, but we didn't give them ample entertainers. Meanwhile, Telugu and Tamil films, in particular, continued providing them entertainment and the respective stars, over a period of time, became household names.”

As for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Taran attributes the success to its family orientation. “Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is a success story because it provides wholesome entertainment to the audience. Kartik Aaryan's popularity coupled with his fresh pairing with Kiara Advani and also the combination of horror, comedy and music has worked wonders. The audience loved the combo of horror and laughter.”

Taran has a logical explanation for why Samrat Prthiviraj has flopped. “Although a well-made film, Samrat Prithviraj suffered at the box-office for various reasons, the prime reason being the audience started comparing it with the historicals or larger-than-life entertainers made earlier. Also, the biggest issue was that it failed to fetch an electrifying start at the box office. A big-budget film produced by Yashraj and starring Akshay Kumar should have embarked on a huge start at the ticket windows, but it did not. The interest of the moviegoers was clearly lacking this time.”

Producer and trade analyst Girish Johar blames the post-pandemic production delays for the Prithviraj fiasco. “If we go by timelines, then Samrat Prithviraj was initiated for shooting around three years ago. Due to the pandemic, this humongous-budgeted film not only got delayed, adding heavy costs to its budget, but it also released when the audiences’ tastes had changed drastically.”

Girish feels the audience is in the mood to surprise itself. “The content consumption pattern has become very volatile and dynamic. Further, as per the word of mouth and feedback, the story and its making was not upto to the present standards. Also, the casting of Akshay Kumar as a 26-year warrior was probably a mistake. Diehard fans and historical experts felt cheated. Music was not upto the mark either. So many departments in the film could not deliver. All this came across on the screen and we all know that audiences smell a product, hence a poor start and below box office.”

As for Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Girish Johar feels it was a win-win situation from the word go. “For Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2… right from the promos, trailer, music and entire team ...it was bulls-eye. It was bang-on with Kartik Aryan leading the pack. The extremely talented Tabu became the surprise package and Anees Bazmee’s direction navigated the film brilliantly into the hearts of the audiences. Despite being in its third weekend it’s drawing audiences to cinemas as people are finding Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 very entertaining and a complete paisa vasool.”

Trade analyst Atul Mohan feels that attempts to pump up the audiences’ curiosity failed with Samrat Prithviraj. “The buzz and hype around Samrat Prithviraj was low before its release but just a day before when special screenings for the bigwigs of ruling parties started happening and state after state started announcing tax-free status for the film everybody in the trade started getting excited. But all this exercise failed to convert to desired box office numbers. The film was not as bad as panned by some reviewers. But yes, when compared to some of the big historicals we have seen in past it was a weak film. Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 continues to weave its magic even after entering third week and proves that audience wants to come to cinema halls provided they are entertained and get the value for their money.”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.