Rakesh Roshan’s much-awaited Krrish got an extraordinary opening on Friday (June 23). The advance bookings for the Rs 35 crore film gave a good indication of the initial response that the Hrithik-starrer was going to get. An unprecedented demand for tickets for the Koi Mil Gaya sequel pushed the Mumbai multiplexes to allow bookings on Monday instead of the usual Wednesday. In fact, some multiplexes obliged impatient fans with tickets on Sunday itself. A lot of companies have also done block bookings for the film.

Despite the high cost of the film, if Roshan was successful in making a table profit, it was partly because he sold the satellite rights of the film in 2005 to Star TV for an unheard of price. Market reports suggest that Roshan recovered almost one third of his cost from Star alone. In return, Hrithik Roshan promised to give one-on-one interviews to just the Star channels on an exclusive basis till the day of release of the film. That’s a small sacrifice for the big price his dad got in lieu of selling the satellite rights.

If Krrish opened to bumper houses this week, last week, Alag, a film about a hero who was special, went abegging for distributors first and audiences thereafter. The fate of fashion photographer-turned-producer Subi Samuel’s Alag was no different from that of umpteen flops churned out by the Bollywood factory every year. Yes, Alag has lost out completely. Even the assembly of top stars, including Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Sushmita Sen and Karan Johar in the title song of the film, didn’t make any difference to the fate of the film.

Director Priyadarshan must be regretting disowning the sequel to his film Hera Pheri. For Phir Hera Pheri has proved to be a blockbuster at the box office. Had he not given interviews saying that Phir Hera Pheri was hardly a sequel as he had not directed the film, he would have got the credit for its super success without being associated with it.

Phir Hera Pheri is a money spinner all over India and in the overseas circuit too. There’s a misconception in the public mind that Hera Pheri was a box office hit. The truth is that Priyadarshan’s Hera Pheri did not work at the turnstiles in more than half of India. While it lost money at the box office, it became a huge hit with viewers on the VCD, DVD and satellite circuits. It was much after its release in 1999 that audiences actually realised its potential to tickle the funny bone.

But the recently-released sequel is breaking box-office records across the country. The Akshay-Sunil-Paresh starrer had a phenomenal opening and despite a section of the audience complaining that it was very lengthy and boring, collections were phenomenally good. Why, at some centres, the film, directed by Neeraj Vora and produced by Firoz Nadiadwala (who also made Hera Pheri), surpassed the performance of Yash Chopra’s Fanaa.

In fact, this is the first super-hit from the Nadiadwala banner after Firoz Nadiadwala took over the reins from his father. Before this, his Awara Paagal Deewana, featuring the Phir Hera Pheri trio, did make some money, but it was nothing compared to what Phir Hera Pheri is earning.

Firoz Nadiadwala has mostly delivered big flops. Some of his earlier films are Aan ? Men At Work, (MP Shatrughan Sinha had to seek the Prime Minister’s permission to work in this one), Deewane Huye Paagal and Ram Shastra. But with Phir Hera Pheri, his distributors are expected to easily double their investments. Producer Nadiadwala will also end up making a hefty profit from the enterprise that cost him approximately Rs 15 crore to make.

Meanwhile, as luck would have it, Priyadarshan’s own film, Chup Chup Ke, was released simultaneously with Phir Hera Pheri, unfortunately not to half as good houses as the sequel. The appreciation has also been far less, making the Rs 7 crore film an average performer in some circuits and a loser in others.

P.S.: The audio sales of Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna were launched last week to a rousing reception in India and abroad. Despite being a non-Himesh Reshammiya album, it’s faring well everywhere.

Komal Nahta is editor of Film Information