Hear the box-office go boom

Merry ChristmasMerry Christmas follows two strangers who meet on Christmas Eve and their new romance suddenly takes a dramatic turn After the resounding success of AndhaDhun 2018 this sounds like another twisted thriller from filmmaker Sriram Raghavan Add Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi to the mix and yoursquove got the perfect start to the yearrsquos Bollywood binge with the January 12 releasePushpa 2 The RuleAfter the monstrous success of Pushpa The Rise 2021 and Allu Arjunrsquos National Award win the stakes are high for Pushpa 2 The Rule Director Sukumar has upped the ante reportedly mounting the sequel on a Rs 500crore budget The Telugu action drama also starring Fahadh Faasil will delve deeper into the life of the red sandalwood smuggler Pushpa as he faces new enemiesKalki 2898 ADWith Savitri 2018 Nag Ashwin took us into the past Now he will transport us to the future Kalki 2898 AD has been one of the most anticipated projects and for good reason The bilingual epicmdashto be released in Hindi and Telugumdashbrings together heavyweights Amitabh Bachchan Kamal Haasan Prabhas and Deepika Padukone Plus the scifi dystopian epic promises to be a visual spectacle Wersquore soldJigraCan you blame us for being excited about Jigra Alia Bhatt who is at an alltime career high after backtoback hits and a National Award teams up with director Vasan Bala of Monica O My Darling 2022 fame The two are dishing out a prisonbreak thriller also starring The Archiesrsquo find Vedang Raina and Sobhita DhulipalaMetroIn DinoAlmost 17 years after Life in a Metro 2007 director Anurag Basu gives us a sequel showcasing bittersweet tales of love loss and relationships He has brought together a fine ensemble comprising Aditya Roy Kapur Sara Ali Khan Neena Gupta Pankaj Tripathi Konkona Sen Sharma and many more Therersquos just one thing missingmdashIrrfan Khan who was our favourite from the earlier editionEmergencyWill Kangana Ranaut score a hit after 11 consecutive flops Her best bet is Emergency which sees her step into the shoes of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi Given the powerful material the actor has also taken charge as the director lending her vision to the biographical dramaSingham AgainRohit Shetty has called upon his most trusted aide from the cop universemdashBajirao Singham Ajay Devgn reprises his role in the third instalment of the Singham franchise And hersquos got company Besides Akshay Kumar and Ranveer Singh the Independence Day release will see Deepika Padukone and Tiger Shroff join the copverseFighterHrithik Roshan Deepika Padukone and Anil Kapoorrsquos Fighter is touted as Indiarsquos answer to Top Gun Director Siddharth Anand offers a heady mix of action style and more with this aerial action thriller Will the January 25 offering repeat the magic of last yearrsquos Republic Day release Pathaan Herersquos hopingIndian 2Kamal Haasanrsquos popular character Senapathy showed us that yoursquore never too old to take on the system And now the megastar is showing us that itrsquos never too late for a sequel Almost 28 years after his hit vigilante actioner Indian 1996 he reprises his role under S Shankarrsquos able direction Popular musician Anirudh Ravichander has composed the Tamil offeringrsquos musicChandu ChampionKartik Aaryan and Kabir Khan come from different schools of cinema But the uplifting story of Murlikant Petkar Indiarsquos first Paralympic gold medalist has brought them together With Chandu Champion Aaryan attempts his first biopic and arguably his toughest role to dateChhaavaVicky Kaushal seems to be dominating the subgenre of historical biopics After Sardar Udham 2021 and Sam Bahadur 2023 the actor will play Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajrsquos son Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj in Chhaava The film reunites him with director Laxman Utekar after their sleeper hit Zara Hatke Zara Bachke 2023 Kaushal also has Mere Mehboob Mere Sanam lined upThe Buckingham MurdersWe want to see more of Kareena Kapoor Khan after her mature act in her OTT debut Jaane Jaan 2023 In the same vein is her next Hansal Mehtarsquos The Buckingham Murders in which Kapoor plays a grieving detective assigned a murder case The moody thriller which premiegravered at The BFI London Film Festival last year marks the actorrsquos debut as a producerYodhaPicture this an airplane a soldier and a battle for survival in the face of a hijack Sidharth Malhotra is on a high after enjoying successes in Shershaah 2021 and Mission Majnu He hopes to continue his hot streak with the action thriller backed by Karan Johar At the helm are director duo Sagar Ambre and Pushkar OjhaMain Atal HoonIndira Gandhi isnrsquot the only Indian Prime Minister whose life wersquoll take a deep dive into this year With Main Atal Hoon Pankaj Tripathi will play the beloved statesman Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ravi Jadhavrsquos directorial offering is layered with untold stories of Vajpayeersquos life giving us a glimpse of the talented poet behind the astute politicianDevaraJr NTR returns to the big screen two years after RRR 2022 Much has changed for the Telugu actor in the interim as he became a panIndia star with SS Rajamoulirsquos blockbusterHe hopes to maintain the momentum with director Koratala Sivarsquos action drama that marks Janhvi Kapoorrsquos Telugu debut and sees Saif Ali Khan as the antagonistPhir Aayi Hasseen DillrubaTaapsee Pannursquos Rani isnrsquot done with her escapades yet Three years after the success of Haseen Dillruba 2021 Pannu and Vikrant Massey return with another thriller revolving around desire and deceit Sunny Kaushal joins the sequel with Jayprad Desai helming the Netflix offeringStree 2Once upon a moonlit night Stree 2018 spooked us with a tale of a witch who abducts men Now Rajkummar Rao Shraddha Kapoor Pankaj Tripathi and the team have reunited for a muchawaited sequel This time around Raorsquos Vicky and his bumbling friends are in for a new terrormdashthe headless man who is tormenting their town Expect chills and laughs from director Amar Kaushik who introduced Bollywood to horror comedyThe CrewItrsquos not often that we see three female actors headline a mainstream Bollywood movie Thatrsquos what makes The Crewmdashstarring Tabu Kareena Kapoor Khan and Kriti Sanonmdashspecial Rajesh Krishnanrsquos directorial venture which also stars Diljit Dosanjh could well usher in more allwomen films in Hindi cinemaKannappaAnother big Telugu release of the year is the Vishnu Manchuled Kannappa Director Mukesh Kumar Singhrsquos fantasy drama is based on the folk tale of Kannappa a tribal hunter who became Lord Shivarsquos devotee The ambitious project has starstudded cameos by Mohanlal Mohan Babu Prabhas and Shiva RajkumarKanguvaIf Telugu cinema is doling out spectacles its Tamil counterpart isnrsquot far behind Tamil star Suriya will headline the period action drama Kanguva which revolves around a valiant warrior Sivarsquos directorial venture to be released in 3D is reportedly mounted on a staggering budget of over R300 crore It also marks the Tamil debut of Bobby Deol and Disha PataniAmar Singh ChamkilaFour years after the debacle of Love Aaj Kal 2 2020 filmmaker Imtiaz Ali gives romantic dramas a rest and instead trains his lens on legendary Punjabi musician late Amar Singh Chamkila Diljit Dosanjh will play the singer whose career was tragically cut short while Parineeti Chopra portrays his wife Amarjot Wersquove got another reason to look forward to the filmmdashmusic by AR RahmanBade Miyan Chote MiyanActionfilm fans gather here Bade Miyan Chote Miyan brings together the two action heroes of our times Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff Locking horns with them in Ali Abbas Zafarrsquos directorial venture is Prithviraj Sukumaran as the antagonist The April 10 offering also stars Sonakshi Sinha and Alaya F