Baaghi has emerged the biggest success on television of the films released this year so far which have had a television premiere. There are a couple of big films like Sultan and Housefull 3 which have been released but are yet to have a television premiere. There are also some releases below which were 2015 releases but had television premieres this year but barring Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Baaghi is still ahead of them all. It has better ratings than Dilwale, Bajirao Mastani, Fan and Airlift. Baaghi fetched 21 crore apprx for its television rights and will be a comfortable earner which can't be said for many of the other releases.
Sanam Re which could not get an audience at the theatres managed a strong television rating thanks to the huge popularity of its title song which was a super hit across the country. Sanam Re and Ghayal Once Again are the only two films of 2016 which got more television impressions than cinema footfalls. Below are the television ratings of films shown on television this year. The rating are impressions (BARC) which is basically the number of television sets that viewed the films on their respective premieres.
1. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo - 2,51,19,000
2. Baaghi - 69,88,000
3. Dilwale - 67,61,000
4. Sanam Re - 56,66,000
5. Bajirao Mastani - 54,76,000
6. Ghayal Once Again - 38,61,000
7. Fan - 34,18,000
8. Neerja - 19,73,000
9. Airlift - 19,01,000
10. Kapoor & Sons - 12,65,000
The shocker is Airlift which is a disaster on television despite the presence of Akshay Kumar who has a line of blockbusters on television. Airlift fetched around 26 crore and most of that will be lost. Neerja was another highly rated film by writers in media who went practically mad on the film and was said to be one of the most appreciated films of recent times but figures tell a different story. After just 66 lakh footfalls and that huge hype post release, it hardly got a audience after that.
Its shows box office hits can come with correct budgets and aimed at that limited audience at high end multiplexes who are prepared to pay high ticket rates but true appreciation from viewers is a different story altogether. Baaghi is supposed to have not found appreciation and to a certain degree there is truth in that but what can't be true is that Neerja has huge appreciation and Baaghi has little appreciation. Below is a comparisons of the two films in cinema and television and the gaps tell the story. This is just not the initial story but also what has happened six months down the line.
Neerja
Cinema Footfalls - 66,23,000
TV Impressions - 19,73,000
TOTAL - 85,96,000
Baaghi
Cinema Footfalls - 95,16,000
TV Impressions - 69,88,000
TOTAL - 1,65,04,000
A couple of years back it was trying to be fed that Queen was more appreciated than Kick. This is all pretty funny looking at it from the outside and these writers / critic types can probably say anything because its probably their own opinion and done without data but should it not be about truth rather than opinion. Eventually there has to be a correlation between appreciation and viewership especially when its happening when the word on the product is out there is the public domain.
Another point to note is that Dilwale in the final count has come out ahead of Bajirao Mastani in overseas, television, music and digital and only down in India theatrical as the film was weak but even there the gap would have been hardly anything if that intolerance thing against Shahrukh Khan did not affect the film in Punjab, Haryana, UP, MP, Gujarat, Bihar and Maharashtra.
Prem Ratan Dhay Payo is the highest rated film on television since satellite television started while Bajrangi Bhaijaan is second and remains to be seen if Sultan gives Salman Khan a clean sweep with the top three on television. Earlier Doordarshan screenings will have higher numbers but there were no figures recorded at the time.
But bigger than all is that a couple of days prior to Baaghi premiere on television, one of the biggest hits of Hindi cinema Sholay featuring Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Badhuri and Amjad Khan picked up 47,21,000 impressions which is just insane for a film 41 years old. After possibly hundreds and hundreds of screenings the historic blockbuster still ranked above a new big budget cast film like Fan and many other new releases.
