Although school examinations in many parts of the country are over, the holiday period did not prove too bountiful for the box office. All the three releases of last week ? Subhash Ghai’s Shaadi Se Pehle, Saawan Kumar’s Saawan? The Love Season and Pankuj Parashar’s Banaras ? A Mystic Love Story ? opened to dull houses. While Shaadi at least remained steady at average collections after the poor start, the other two films continued with dull collections throughout the week. Frankly, all the three filmmakers erred in releasing their films on Thursday instead of the customary Friday. For, the holiday of Ram Navami on Thursday (April 6) simply did not translate into house-full or even impressive box office collections.
There are certain set rules in the industry, of which releasing a new film on Fridays is one. It doesn’t make sense to play around with these set practices unless conditions warrant it. Had a film been an eagerly awaited one starring a Khan (Shah Rukh, Aamir or Salman), it may have made sense to break convention and release the film on a Thursday instead of a Friday but neither Akshaye Khanna (in Shaadi Se Pehle) nor Urmila Matondkar and Ashmit Patel (Banaras) nor even the new starcast of Saawan were reason enough for anybody to have played around with the release day. You might ask, why Saawan did not benefit from the Thursday release although it had Salman Khan in its cast. It is because Salman is not the hero of the film but is cast in a guest appearance only.
In recent times, Aamir Khan’s Rang De Basanti and Mangal Pandey ? The Rising had both opened on Thursdays. But while Mangal Pandey was released on 15th August, Rang De?. made it to the screens on 26th January. Both were national holidays. Diwali is the only other holiday which would warrant an odd-day release.
And why did all the three makers choose to get their films a day earlier? It all started with the producer of Banaras. Since the love story was shot in Banaras and because the festival of Ram Navami is celebrated with a lot of fervour in Uttar Pradesh, the debut-making producer of the film felt it would help to release it on the festive day. No sooner did he announce his decision than Ghai and Saawan Kumar followed suit. Herd mentality, of course!
If, despite the dull box office, showman Subhash Ghai managed to laugh all the way to the bank in Shaadi, it is because he pre-sold the distribution rights of the comedy. The combined deal for the satellite rights of Shaadi and four other films of his company acquired by Sony for Rs 17 crore, would ensure that Mukta Arts Ltd would not lose money on Shaadi. Since only 36 China Town from among the four other films is a bigger project than Shaadi, it would be appropriate to apportion around Rs 4 crore of the Rs 17 crore he got to Shaadi. Since 40 per cent of the cost of the film was recovered from satellite rights alone, it isn’t a tall order to expect the balance 60 per cent to come from theatre (India and Overseas) and audio rights. As it is, the film is distributed in most of the circuits by Ghai’s company itself.
The economics of Saawan worked for the producer because of Salman Khan’s presence. Even though he was cast in a special appearance, his role was fairly long, which prompted distributors to at least pay a decent price for the film which, otherwise, would not even have been picked up by them. However, most of the distributors would suffer losses in the film which, in the final tally, worked in the Hindi belt only. Banaras was made on a shoestring budget, but even the low outlay did not ensure that the producer recovered his money because there were simply no collections. Ashmit Patel is no star material and Urmila Matondkar, at this colourless stage of her otherwise rangeela career, can’t carry a film on her slender shoulders.
Meanwhile, the economics of the producers of Salman Khan’s under-production starrers has gone for a toss. Contrary to press reports that Rs 100 to 150 crore of the industry is riding on the convicted actor, the truth is that around Rs 60 to 70 crores is invested in films starring him. The three biggest casualties, if anything were to go wrong with Salman, would be God Tussi Great Ho, Jaanemann and Baabul. Partner has been shot for barely 10 days and Rajkumar Santoshi’s London Dreams, for just a single day. As for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saanwariya, Salman has not even faced the camera for the love story which will introduce Rishi Kapoor’s son and Anil Kapoor’s daughter. Ditto for Nikhil Advani’s Salaam-E-Ishq.
Komal Nahta is Editor, Film Information
