Mid-year Bollywood report card: The 7 highest grossers of the year

2019 has been a good year for the Bollywood industry so far. With newcomers like Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria stepping into the fraternity and veteran actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit taking the theatres by storm, we have seen a variety of films on the silver screen. As the first half of the year draws to a close, let us take a look at the highest grossing films so far. 

The Sujoy Ghosh directorial, which was an official remake of the 2016 Spanish film 'The Invisible Guest' released on 8 March 2019 and starred Amitabh Bachchan and Tapsee Pannu in lead roles. The story followed an interview between a lawyer and a businesswoman, in which the latter insists that she is wrongfully framed for the murder of her lover. The film received positive reviews from the audience and stayed strong at the box office, earning over Rs 100 crores. 
 

Directed by Zoya Akhtar, the film was inspired from the lives of Indian street rappers Divine and Naezy, the film is a musical drama about an aspiring street rapper from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai. Starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, the film was applauded by 'Fast & Furious' star Michelle Rodriguez as well as Cameron Bailey, the art director at Toronto International Film Festival. The film premiered world wide at the Berlin Film Festival and earnt over 100 crores at the box office. It is all set to be showcased at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne in July this year. 
 

Bringing back Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit after a break of 19 years, 'Total Dhamaal' also featured Ajay Devgn, Boman Irani, Arshad Warsi, Riteish Deshmukh, Javed Jaffrey, Sanjay Mishra and Johnny Lever in lead roles. The film was released on 22 February 2019 and was a family entertainer and was directed by Indra Kumar. It earnt a total of 106 crores during its run in theatres. The movie was a sequel to the 2011 film, 'Double Dhamaal'.
 

The film follows the events leading to the Battle of Saragarhi, which was fought between the 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs of the British Indian Army and 10,000 Afridi and Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen in 1897. Starring Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra, it was released on Holi and received positive reviews from critics. With a collection of Rs 132 crores, it is the fourth highest grosser of the year so far. 
 

The movie, which is a remake of the Telugu film 'Arjun Reddy' was released on June 21, 2019 and was received extremely well by the audience as it became the biggest opener for both Shahid Kapoor and Kiara Advani. In its second week, the film collected over Rs 150 crores, becoming the third highest grosser of 2019. Still going steady in theatres, it is expected to surpass 'Bharat' and 'Uri' soon. A Tamil version of the film, 'Adithya Verma' was released around the same time. 
 

Based on the 2014 South Korean film 'Ode to My Father', Ali Abbas Zafar's 'Bharat' was released in India on June 5 2019, on the occasion of Eid. The film, which received mixed reviews from the audience was a typical Salman Khan masala film and featured an ensemble cast of Khan, Katrina Kaif, Tabu, Sunil Grover, Disha Patani and Jackie Shroff. The film ended up earning Rs 201 crores at the box office and followed a common man's journey from the time of Independence to present day India.  
 

Starting the year off with a bang, director Aditya Dhar's 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' released on January 11 2019 and became a massive hit. Based on real life events, the film was a dramatic take on India's retaliation following the 2016 terrorist attacks in Uri, Jammu & Kashmir. Starring Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam in lead roles, the film collected a whopping amount of Rs 244 crores and remains this year's highest grossing film so far. 

The second half of the year too has a series of amazing films lined up. We'll just have to wait and see if any of them can dethrone these films from their spots.