Haiwaan, Priyadarshan’s 98th film as director, has ended its theatrical run with Rs 9 crore in lifetime collections, according to MensXP.com. Starring Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar, the thriller now becomes one of the major disasters in his Hindi career outside comedy.
The number matters because it turns an isolated disappointment into the latest entry in a long pattern.
A ledger dominated by failures
For many Hindi film watchers, Priyadarshan is principally a comedy director. But Haiwaan is not his first serious Hindi film. Before this, he had directed 10 non-comedy Hindi titles across three decades. Only two found commercial success.
- Gardish (1993) — Hit
- Virasat (1997) — Hit
- Saat Rang Ke Sapne (1998) — Disaster
- Kabhi Na Kabhi (1998) — Disaster
- Doli Saja Ke Rakhna (1998) — Disaster
- Kyon Ki (2005) — Flop
- Bumm Bumm Bole (2010) — Disaster
- Aakrosh (2010) — Disaster
- Tezz (2012) — Disaster
- Rangrezz (2013) — Disaster
With Haiwaan added, the balance becomes nine flops or disasters from 11 non-comedy Hindi releases. Only Gardish and Virasat bucked the trend.
The comedy contrast
That record stands apart from the reputation he has built in Hindi cinema. Priyadarshan’s 2003 film Hungama was a Hindi remake of his 1984 Malayalam debut Poochakkoru Mookkuthi, and he has largely been received as a comedy specialist. His most recent release, the horror-comedy Bhooth Bangla, was a major success earlier this year.
Why the pattern matters
The divide is not only about craft. It suggests that Hindi audiences have slotted Priyadarshan into a genre, and have repeatedly stayed away when he moves out of it. A filmmaker can be versatile, but the market often rewards the version of the filmmaker it already trusts.
Call it genre typecasting. Audiences reward a filmmaker in one lane and ignore their work outside it. Priyadarshan’s case is an extreme version: the same director can make a successful horror-comedy and a struggling thriller in the same year, because the first matches his perceived identity and the second does not.
For an industry that reads a director’s commercial value from box office verdicts, this track record makes genre positioning as important as casting or execution. Haiwaan is a reminder that a film’s fate can be shaped before the first show by the audience’s expectations of a name.
Source: MensXP.com
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