Like it, hate it - or be indifferent to it, the 100-crore film is still very important in the scheme of things. It is discussed at FICCI-FRAMES. It is hooted at by those who cannot make it and adored by the corporate head honchos. It is a part of interview questions to everyone who has been either involved in one or not been a part of it. The film people deride it, humorously dismiss it or say it is "just a figure". But by hook or by crook, this magic figure is coveted! So what is the film that is a member of the 100 crore club? Simply, it means every film that has made a nett all-India collection of Rs 100 crore - or more. And what is nett collection? Well, that is the collection garnered after the entertainment tax (heftiest in Maharashtra, high in Bihar, Karnataka and U.P. and less elsewhere) is deducted.

This 100-crore collection is not clubbed with international moneys or even the sales of various key rights like satellite, music, DVD or - again - overseas. It is about 'desi' theatrical returns - in a milieu where tickets still can range from Rs. 50 (or less) to Rs. 750 across differently-located single-screens and multiplexes. The variables are immense: many multiplexes charge according to different days and show timings, while a 3D film may charge for the use of the glasses needed, and today, so many films also have dubbed versions released alongside in regional languages, notably Tamil and Telugu because of the significant numbers.The first grey area in this concept comes from the cost of the film for the distributor (who may be one of the producers too). Very often - at least for the corporate co-producer or distributor who acquires the film and also spends on print costs, publicity and promotion - this can be a figure that is between 75 and 90, and in that case, the films might have earned only a small profit and technically cannot be termed even hits, a tag reserved till now for films that recover twice or more of their investments from the footfalls!

And then there are those films that cost upward of Rs 100 crore, like Ra.One, which by these parameters, are 'losing' propositions. However, such films may again recover investments and even make varying profits by the other revenue streams we mentioned earlier. In most cases, depending on the arrangements and deals struck, a nett of Rs 100 crore also means that the investor may take home anything between Rs 40 to 60 crore from all-India business, so the costs again become important! Then we have the final variable: the time of release. Increasingly, Eid, Diwali and Christmas are the three seasons of the year that are considered to be bonanza-time for a big movie, subject to its stars, face value and marketing and promotion. Rates are hiked for the festival days, and instead of the normal Friday to Sunday there can be opening weekends of four (3 Idiots), five (Ek Tha Tiger) and six (Jab Tak Hai Jaan / Son Of Sardaar) days as the films can release on those special dates that may fall on Thursdays, Wednesdays or Tuesdays! With most of the business boom coming in the first weekend, it is a moot point whether a lot of the 100-crore films would have crossed that figure at all if not helped by such bumper openings!

Last but not the least is the ratio of single-screens to multiplexes, given each kind of film. The contribution of single-screens cannot be ignored at all in the 18 films that belong to this club so far, but the revenues at multiplexes obviously contribute to a whopping extent. Producers today also flood the market with a record number of prints to prevent piracy and enable maximum screens and screenings, and a film like Ek Tha Tiger released with 3400 prints in India alone and about 500 overseas! Nevertheless, such films are just the nearest we have to the Silver and Golden Jubilee of yore, when tickets were the only source of immediate revenue (as reruns and television broadcasts happened years later) and were an affordable Rs 2 to 30 per person for decades. Films then released with 200 to 400 prints, just three or four shows daily at one venue and with no fear of piracy, would be staggered in release - for example, a film would release in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai across several months, including a change in the calendar year!

In terms of footfalls, therefore, these films cannot hold a candle to all-time blockbusters like Mother India, Mughal-E-Azam, Sholay, Amar Akbar Anthony, Hum Aapke Hain Koun!..., Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge or Gadar-Ek Prem Katha, films which made far less actual revenue, but whose collections, if inflation-adjusted to present times, would be humongous! A Gadar, for example, would have crossed 400 crore! The current booking for Sholay (India's biggest hit) opened around the 75th week and the film is said to have collected a domestic Rs 15 crore, which would again translate into around Rs 750 crore! The film ran for 250 weeks at Minerva, Mumbai, 150 of them in regular (three) shows and was made then at a budget of Rs 2 crore! Films like Aradhana, Do Raaste and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan were among the many 100 week runners, while Kismet (1943!) and Hum Aapke Hain Koun!... completed 150 weeks. And though at matinee shows, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge continues its run at Marathi Mandir in Mumbai past the 17th year, nearing 900 weeks with a comfortable occupancy! On the other hand, business today rarely reaches 50 days and is oftener restricted to two or three weeks - that too for the hits!

Now that the meaning of the 100 crore film in all its aspects is clear, let us take a look at the beginning of the 100 crore era - with Ghajini (2008), a South remake actioner starring Aamir Khan released in Christmas week. At that point of time, no one knew that this would be the new benchmark for success within a few years. It took one full year (Christmas 2009) for the next such film to come, Reliance's co-production with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 3 Idiots, also starring Aamir Khan. The unique brilliance of the film made it achieve an unprecedented 200-plus crore nett within weeks. It is said that this record - officially - is unequalled, but a trade analyst scoffs at the "convenient" figure of Rs. 199.5 crore scored by Yash Raj Films' Ek Tha Tiger (2012), and says that the film did cross 200 crore, but the 'blow' was softened because of the banner's relationship with another top hero!

Chronologically, the third and fourth films (in the 100 crore category) were Dabangg and Golmaal 3, both in 2010, and that's when people first began talking about 100 crore films, because Dabangg remains a game-changer in many ways, and the other film the first Part III in Hindi cinema! The 100-crore movies increased in geometric progression: 2011 saw five members: Ready, Singham, Bodyguard, Ra.One and Don2, while 2012 saw, besides …Tiger, eight more films - Agneepath, Housefull 2, Rowdy Rathore, Bol Bachchan, Barfi!, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Son Of Sardaar and Dabangg 2. Missing the benchmark narrowly were The Dirty Picture (2011), which neared the 90 cr. mark, Talaash (2012), which stopped at a lifetime net collection of 94 cr. or so and Race 2 (2013), which ended its run around 96 cr. So despite all the incongruities and inconsistencies, the 100-crore club has its relevance today, apart from being a prestige issue. Film budgets are being designed accordingly, and releases also timed to hit the mark. Sometime back, even the powers-that-be had taken (greedy) note and have mooted a proposal where the tax pie on tickets sold in excess of a certain figure would exceed the current slab of (already high) entertainment tax!Films like Aradhana, Do Raaste and Roti Kapada Aur Makaan were among the many 100 week runners, while Kismet (1943!) and Hum Aapke Hain Koun!... completed 150 weeks. And though at matinee shows, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge continues its run at Marathi Mandir in Mumbai past the 17th year, nearing 900 weeks with a comfortable occupancy! On the other hand, business today rarely reaches 50 days and is oftener restricted to two or three weeks - that too for the hits!

Now that the meaning of the 100 crore film in all its aspects is clear, let us take a look at the beginning of the 100 crore era - with Ghajini (2008), a South remake actioner starring Aamir Khan released in Christmas week. At that point of time, no one knew that this would be the new benchmark for success within a few years. It took one full year (Christmas 2009) for the next such film to come, Reliance's co-production with Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 3 Idiots, also starring Aamir Khan. The unique brilliance of the film made it achieve an unprecedented 200-plus crore nett within weeks. It is said that this record - officially - is unequalled, but a trade analyst scoffs at the "convenient" figure of Rs. 199.5 crore scored by Yash Raj Films' Ek Tha Tiger (2012), and says that the film did cross 200 crore, but the 'blow' was softened because of the banner's relationship with another top hero! Chronologically, the third and fourth films (in the 100 crore category) were Dabangg and Golmaal 3, both in 2010, and that's when people first began talking about 100 crore films, because Dabangg remains a game-changer in many ways, and the other film the first Part III in Hindi cinema! The 100-crore movies increased in geometric progression: 2011 saw five members: Ready, Singham, Bodyguard, Ra.One and Don2, while 2012 saw, besides …Tiger, eight more films - Agneepath, Housefull 2, Rowdy Rathore, Bol Bachchan, Barfi!, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Son Of Sardaar and Dabangg 2.

Missing the benchmark narrowly were The Dirty Picture (2011), which neared the 90 cr. mark, Talaash (2012), which stopped at a lifetime net collection of 94 cr. or so and Race 2 (2013), which ended its run around 96 cr. Now let us look at the content of such films: admittedly Ghajini, Ready, Singham, Bodyguard, Rowdy Rathore and Son Of Sardaar have all been South remakes, and Dabangg and its sequel also had the same unapologetic masala of stars, action, emotions, comedy and music. Golmaal 3, Bol Bachchan and Housefull 2 were comedies. But Agneepath (with its dark and violent aura) and Barfi! (a sweet, music-rich tale of handicapped protagonists) also achieved this end, as did the three Shah Rukh films that also made it - the sci-fi RA.One, the slick Don2 and the mushy Jab Tak Hai Jaan.However, for all their success, high-content films like Kahaani (Rs. 59 crore) or OMG - Oh My God! (Rs 80 crore despite Akshay Kumar) could never reach this mark, showing that A-list stars needed to be combined with mass entertainment as the key to achieve such big moneys.It is often lamented that this concept has taken away the magic of watching movies for their own sake. A noted critic has stated how Jab Tak Hai Jaan (in Diwali 2012) become more of a mathematician's assessment (whether it would cross 100 crore or not) rather than be evaluated as a great filmmaker (Yash Chopra)'s last film after his sudden death before release. The critic argued that no one bothered about the merits or demerits of the film and its team, and that only b-o. figures, hitherto restricted to trade publications, were bandied about in dailies.

Films, opine a section of the movie community, are not IPOs whose market values have to be noted on a daily basis. They state that appreciation by audiences is the key rather than collections, yet there is the counter-argument that with budgets spiralling and corporate companies having to satisfy investors, figures have become important enough to be publicly discussed and even manipulated in a 'credible' way. Such 'exciting' figures, they maintain, may promote the desire to watch a film as with any other 'super-selling' consumer product.However, whichever way one looks at it, the consumer remains King. After all, how many such films pick up only after the figures are bandied around? It is the eternal lethal combo of the right promotion and face value that get the opening numbers, and - finally and vitally - content that does the trick each time. Nothing will make Bodyguard or Rowdy Rathore reach the magic figure other than solid and sustained word-of-mouth. And those savvy about their market ropes know this well enough to realize that till new benchmarks come in - even the 1000 crore blockbuster debated about at FICCI-FRAMES 2013! - the 100 crore club will remain relevant. Because at the end of the day, for want of a more accurate gauge, the 100-crore-plus businesses done by these films are the indices of appreciation by audiences who have taken the trouble to go visit a theatre rather than watch a pirated print at home.