New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) Making a comedy became a sure-shot success formula at the box office in 2008, but it hasn't worked well for filmmakers so far this year with biggies like "Chandni Chowk To China" and "Billu" biting the dust at the ticket window.

But many still feel that the genre hasn't lost its charm and will prove its worth with upcoming films like "Kambakkht Ishq" and "Dil Bole Hadippa".

Comic capers became box office favourites in 2008 when big-budget, multi-starrers like "Dostana", "Golmaal Retuns" and "Singh Is Kinng", small fry "Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye" and even the non-commercial "Welcome To Sajjanpur" turned into top grossers at the ticket window.

But none of the comedies released in 2009 have been able to do repeat the success story. When Akshay Kumar-starrer "Chandni Chowk To China" was released, trade pundits expected it to carry forward the trend and fans too anticipated another heavy dose of fun and frolic. But the film didn't live up to expectations and fell flat at the box office.

Similarly, Shah Rukh Khan's much-hyped home production "Billu", starring Lara Dutta and Irrfan Khan along with special appearances by Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, too flopped.

Others that saw the same fate were films like Soha Ali Khan's "Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge", Fardeen Khan-starrer "Jai Veeru", a film based on the Parsi community "Little Zizou", Aftab Shivdasani's "Aloo Chaat", Vinay Pathak and Gul Panag-starrer "Straight" and "99", which had Kunal Khemu and Cyrus Broacha in key roles.

Despite comedies flopping left, right and centre, filmmakers have not lost faith in the genre. Vipul Amrutlal Shah, who produced last year's blockbuster "Singh is Kinng", had told IANS that humour has to change it's form to hit the bull's eye.

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