The fall of Varun Dhawan on Christmas summed up many thoughts gathered over the year.

While one cannot agree with most of the unprincipled verdicts of trade pundits, an observation by Taran Adarsh was pertinent.

What was common between Pushpa: The Rise (December 17, 2021), Pushpa 2: The Rule (December 5, 2024), Animal (December 1, 2023) and Jawan (September 7, 2023) was that all of them were released on regular days — nothing festive about any of those dates except the revelry over their collections.

So, the clash and clamour for a release date on Pongal, Republic Day, Eid, Independence Day, Dussehra, Diwali and Christmas is not backed by figures that guarantee impressive collections on an important date. It is true the same Jawan star’s Pathaan (January 25, 2023) was believed to have benefited from its Republic Day release. But neither Deepika Padukone’s much-viewed saffron bikini nor the ISI-aided hunt for an Indian officer-turned-killer had anything to do with what January 26 symbolised. In fact, Hrithik Roshan’s Fighter that featured the same heroine and was released on the same day next year had a patriotic flavour but nosedived.

One could cite Gadar 2 (August 11, 2023) as an example of a nationalistic film gaining from an Independence Day release. But three different genres — Akshay Kumar’s Khel Khel Mein, John Abraham’s Vedaa and Rajkummar Rao’s Stree 2 — were this year’s Independence Day releases with curious results. Akshay and John continued to have a bad run at the box office while Stree 2 was the biggest winner of the year. Costing barely ₹60 crore, the Rajkummar film grossed over ₹800 crore. It may have been toppled from its place by Pushpa 2, which crossed ₹1,500 crore in its worldwide collections and is still counting. But with a price tag of ₹450 crore, it will have to make over ₹4,000 crore (which it won’t), to beat the ratio-wise ROI of Rao’s horror-comedy.

To return to the hysteria over a festive release, Stree 2’s performance had no connection with Independence Day nor did it stir nationalistic feelings. The same producer’s small ₹30 crore film Munjya (June 7, 2024) that didn’t seek a festive release also collected ₹130 crore.

In contrast, the carefully calculated Eid release Bade Miya Chhote Miyan (April 11, 2024) brought neither miya nor kafir in droves. Boney Kapoor’s Maidaan, featuring football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, also flopped on the same festive day. And Diwali was no better when a star-laden Singham Again barely recovered its cost.

The failure of an expensive ₹180 crore Baby John, which had a solo opening on Christmas, further pokes holes in the belief that the audience will throng theatres on a festive holiday.

Baby John is a wrap-up call for David Dhawan’s son whose Citadel: Honey Bunny also created no ripple when it was streamed on Amazon. Even Varun’s butt show in it didn’t spark off any discussion. It was the same with Manoj Bajpayee who went nude for no valid reason in Despatch.

The lessons, therefore, are that neither budget nor stars, controversy or nudity, or indeed a festive release entice the audience. Content retains the crown.

There is one more parting shot from 2024. Yashraj Films and Dharma need to pull up their socks. Operating out of beautiful, spacious offices, Dinesh Vijan’s Maddock Films (Munjya and Stree in 2024, with more like Chhaava, Param Sundari, Thama lined up), Nikkhil Advani’s Emmay Entertainment (Vedaa flopped but Freedom At Midnight attracted viewership and there’s plenty rolling out from there including FAM Season 2 and a film with Rahul Dholakia), Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment (which backed Kunal Khemu’s directorial debut Madgaon Express) and Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series (with Ajay Devgn’s De De Pyaar De 2 and Raid 2, Border 2 and more under production) are the busiest production houses of the day. Game of Thrones 2025 for the place at the top will be bloody.