Stars shine in 2019, but small films win big hearts and box office as well

The Avengers' franchise from Marvel was the winner for Hollywood while for Bollywood, the Hrithik Roshan-starrer War was the top grosser

It was a year of surprise small-budget films and a familiar list of big-ticket franchises that brought magic to the big screen in India this year. For Bollywood, the franchise battalion was led by Housefull 4 and Dabangg 3  while the Disney-Marvel stable ruled the charts for Hollywood. Surprisingly however, Disney’s latest release in the superhero franchise, Rise of Skywalker, has not quite set the box office on fire although the studio has still to release the opening weekend numbers. Holding their own against the big names in the business were a bouquet of low-budget Bollywood movies with unusual storylines,