AskIndicine: Live Now

Q. Should a film clash with Fast 8 or Spiderman Homecoming?

A. Highly unlikely, because both those films are huge at major cities. Fast 8 is releasing on ‘Good Friday’ holiday next year and no other Hindi film is scheduled to release on that day. In fact, it is one of the few films that has two open weeks next year (barring Sonakshi Sinha’s Noor) – Jagga Jasoos releases a week before and Baahubali: The Conclusion two weeks after. It could set the record for the highest opening day collections and even a 20 crore opening cannot be ruled out as it’s releasing on a holiday.

Q. Top 3 Best Performances by Khans(SRK,Salman & Aamir) in this decade?

A. SRK – Fan, Salman – Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Aamir – PK.

Q. Who is the bigger star between Tiger Shroff and Sushant Singh Rajput?

A. Right now, it’s Tiger Shroff. He has a fairly good following at mass centres and he does the kind of films which very few other actors attempt. His films also garner good ratings on television – Heropanti, Baaghi and A Flying Jatt have all done well.

Q. Do you think that Shivaay [AJAY DEVGN] without the ugly clash with ADHM would have 150 Cr+ looking at the current trend? Because even with the clash, Shivaay performed reasonably ok?

A. The collections of Shivaay are far from satisfactory because almost everyone involved has lost money over the film – and this without including Ajay Devgn’s acting or direction fee. Ask anyone in the trade, they’ll tell you the same. If it had got a solo release, it would’ve probably collected around 30-40% more which would have made it a profitable venture.

Q. Hrithik movies apart from Kaabil? Also, what are the chances of Kaabil doing 150 crores?

A. Hrithik hasn’t signed anything after Kaabil, nothing official so far. Kaabil will find it difficult to get to the 150 crore mark, but it doesn’t need that much to recover costs. At 90 crore, it goes into the green zone.

Q. Current buzz of Dangal?

A. That incredible level of interest or buzz that we usually associate with ‘event films’ is missing with ‘Dangal’. It’s not that sort of a film either, so it’s a little more word-of-mouth dependent as compared to other films like PK or Dhoom 3.. but long as the movie is good, the first weekend total should be huge.

Q. What is the word of mouth of Kahaani 2? Is there possibility for Dear Zindagi to emerge a HIT?

A. The word-of-mouth of Kahaani 2 isn’t as good as the previous film, the growth on Saturday was good, but nowhere close to other excellent word-of-mouth films. Pink jumped by 77% on Day 2 – went from 4.32 cr on Friday to 7.65 cr on Saturday. Piku showed growth of 64%, Neerja went up by 62%. In comparison, Kahaani 2 has only grown by 36%. It needed more. Dear Zindagi should be a ‘clean-hit’ by the end of its second week.

Q. DNA reported that crack is postponed to 2018 which the ring is getting a solo release. Is it true? Also if it is then what do you think of the release date? Is it a perfect one for SRK since there will be 3 consecutive holidays on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

A. Reliable sources have confirmed that Crack is moving to a different date. However, the postponement hasn’t been officially confirmed. It’s a very good date for the SRK-Imtiaz Ali film. It’s going to be a 5-day extended weekend with Krishna Janmastami on Monday and Independence Day on Tuesday. If the word-of-mouth is good, it should be SRK’s highest grosser after Happy New Year.

Q. Can you give us any idea of the kind of footfalls Amitabh Bachchans big hits of Seventies and Eighties must have generated ?

A. On an average, even some of his under-performers used to get more footfalls than the most watched movies in today’s times. Apart from stardom, it was also because of limited entertainment options, no piracy and lower ticket prices (even after adjusting inflation).

Q. Rajesh Khanna was the First Superstar of Indian cinema but most out of his consecutive 15 hits are forgotten while BigB’s stardom continues, The ‘Angry young man’ image to which Anil Kapoor & Sunny Deol almost touched but couldn’t fathom… Do you think Salman Khan’s current stardom is relatable to What of Mr. Khanna as each passing year he gives a blockbuster but they are short lived except BB & Sultan which were an inspiring stories while SRK and Aamir have given several flops in between but also have given memorable films since the inception of their careers… Do you think the that Stardom is time being while class is what remains ?

A. It’s difficult to answer a question like this, because it would be wrong to say only films like ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ and ‘Sultan’ will live-on and others will be forgotten. Even Hum Saath Saath Hai, which is Bajratya’s least successful film from the 90s, manages to get higher television ratings than ‘repeat runs’ of successful films of today’s times.

About people relating a certain phase or decade to a certain superstar, if it was Rajesh Khanna in the 70s and Bachchan in 80s, it doesn’t necessarily need to be just one star from the 90s and 2000s. All three Khans will be remembered as the biggest stars of the current generation which stretches to almost three decades. Even Amitabh Bachchan did not have that sort of longevity. Hrithik and Akshay are big too and have done well in phases, but like Dharmendra from the 80s, they may not get the credit they deserve – unless of course they take it to the next level from here on.

There is also a chance of Salman Khan extending his supremacy and becoming a larger-than-life superstar like Rajnikanth is in the south. But even if he does that, the impact of Shah Rukh Khan on the industry and world non-Indian audience, is too huge to be sidelined or ignored.

Q. Its almost a month since demonetisation but people are still queuing up for cash. There is still not enough cash with people. That should surely effect films releases like Kahaani, Befikre and mostly Dangal. Being an even film, more people are expected to watch Dangal, hence the effect should be more on Dangal. But the question is how much?? Even a 5-10% negative effect is huge for event films, isn’t it?

A. We still have nearly 20 days to go for the release of ‘Dangal’, so by that time there should be enough cash in circulation. Plus, the government has been heavily promoting cashless transactions, so a lot more people even at smaller towns are swiping cards. We’ve been hearing that even single-screen theatres now have POS units.

We don’t think ‘Kahaani 2’ was affected at all, because the film would’ve opened somewhere around the 4-5 crore mark even without cash-crunch. But assuming there is an impact on ‘Dangal’, it would be impossible to put the loss in numbers. Maybe if the film opens below 20 crore, we could say demonetisation has affected business by around. Otherwise, given the less commercial nature of the film, ‘Dangal’ is not one of those film that’s expected to get a earth-shattering initial. For that matter, even the opening of PK wasn’t outstanding when compared to a Dhoom 3.

Q. Thank You Indicine you are doing excellent job by implementing QnA session. I want to know, what will be the lifetime business of Jolly LLB 2 if it finds appreciation at B and C centres?

A. Jolly LLB 2 is going to be an interesting film. Budget-wise it’s a small film, but if it turns out to be an entertaining film, it has the potential to be a big grosser. We might start our LBO prediction from around the 80-85 crore mark and take it from there depending on the trailer, promos and eventually the word-of-mouth.

Q. Since all top three Khans have crossed their 50’s and only have few years of dominance.Who do you think is gonna be the future Face of this industry? Hrithik is the best and probably only Megastar for me remaining! How you see the future few years of Hrithik?

A. Hrithik has the potential to be a top star, but his choice of films has been poor in the last couple of years. Bang Bang had no story to tell and Mohenjo Daro was a poorly planned and executed debacle. If ‘Kaabil’ works his career will be back on track, but it’s clashing with a big film like ‘Raees’ and there is a huge question mark over Sanjay Gupta the director. If ‘Kaabil’ doesn’t work, that’s when serious questions will be raised about his standing as well as choice of films and directors. The younger generation of stars are growing their fanbases and working with the top directors in the industry too.

Q. What makes Half Girlfriend hot? Arjun, Shraddha, Mohit Suri, Chetan Bhagat or Balaji?

A. It’s a combination of all those. Arjun has done well in Chetan Bhagat films, Shraddha can add a lot of value when she does commercial films like ‘Half Girlfriend’. Mohit Suri is a good director, plus has a good ear for music. Films based on Chetan Bhagat novels have a bit of everything – light hearted humour, fantastic title, youth friendly story and a bit of sex and romance in there too.

Q. Golmaal 4 has been preponed by 2 weeks is it true ?

A. Golmaal 4 is not releasing during Diwali, that’s been confirmed by Rohit Shetty. The final release date hasn’t been announced.

Q. Kaabil team did their best to avert the clash by moving to 25th… will Raees team learn or do they change to a different date?

A. It’s strange that a few in the media, including some trade analysts spoke about the clash being averted. How exactly? ‘Kaabil’ is releasing on 25th January at 6PM, they are just trying to take advantage of the night shows on the previous day. So it’ll just be preview shows and nothing more. The ‘clash’ is still on as both films are releasing on the same day. It’s true that the ‘Kaabil’ team did try to avert the clash by requesting the ‘Raees’ makers to move, but it hasn’t worked unfortunately.

Q. Why did Salman not sweep the awards for Bajrang Bhaijaan and very sure he wouldn’t win for sultan also despite nomination. Had it been Shahrukh khan for both the movies the award list would have been different. Why so much bias in awarding the trophy for best actor.

A. Awards in our industry is about actors caring about them and wanting them. If you are a big star, you can get them if you want them. Wanting is important. But Salman, Aamir, Ajay or even stars like Kangana for that matter, do not want them. It’s unfortunate, but none of our awards have any credibility.

Q. Hi Indicine, waiting for the this hour. Well, my question is we all know dangal is coming this Christmas. Why do you think Aamir shifted Thugs of Hindustan to Diwali not Christmas 2018 which is his favourite that gave us all the blockbuster? I guess it’s coz Avatar 2. What’s your count?

A. Avatar 2 cannot be the reason because the film has been delayed quite a few times and it may not even make it by the end of 2018 if there are delays. Hollywood films can also be pushed ahead by a week if there is a big Hindi film releasing in theatres. Coming to the reason, while we do not know what exactly happened, it seems to be some sort of understanding between Shah Rukh and Aditya Chopra, as the release dates of both films was announced at around the same time. SRK needs a big date for his film with Aanand L Rai, because it should be his costliest film.

Q. Now what’s your Opinion on The Historic clash of Kaabil Vs Raees? Is there any possibility to avoid the clash?

A. For the last time, unless one of the two producer decide to let better sense prevail, Kaabil and Raees are releasing together. It’ll be affect the business of both films. The better film should win, with Raees taking a better opening.

Q. Alia Bhatt or Anushka Sharma. Who had a better 2016 as per box office as well as appreciation of acting talent.

A. Alia Bhatt is rising quickly, but she doesn’t yet have a following at smaller centres. Her following is restricted to cities. None of her films have appealed to the masses. Anushka on the other hand is popular all over India now. It reflects in the box office collections of her films too. While Alia hasn’t crossed the 80 crore mark this year, Anushka films have crossed the 300 crore (Sultan) and 100 crore mark (ADHM). Appreciation for acting-wise, it again has a lot to do with perception. Critics and social media create perception these days, which isn’t necessarily the reality or what the moviegoers think. Currently, Alia Bhatt is probably the front-runner to sweep awards this year for her performance in Udta Punjab.

Q. How can Robot 2 be called as an Akshay Kumar film when he is playing the villain?

A. While Akshay Kumar’s presence will add tremendous value in the north, Robot 2.0 is a Rajnikanth film. The footfalls and collections from just one state (Tamilnadu) will be higher than the Hindi version of the film, so it would be unfair to call it anything but a Rajnikanth starrer.

Q. Don’t you think, there are huge gaps in between: 1. The Ring (Aug 11) to Judwaa 2 (Sept 29) 2. Robot 2 (diwali) to Padmavati (Nov 17) 3. Padmavati (Nov 17) to Tiger Zinda Hai (Xmas). Are there any big movies releasing in these gaps? and if Crack is really postponed, then why it is targeting December release & sandwitched between Padmavati & Tiger Zinda Hai with no holidays in between. Why not it is releasing between 1st option as there are couple of holidays in between that.

A. Most of what is being spoken about at this point in time about ‘Crack’ is pure speculation. From what we have heard from a couple of reliable trade guys, it was only after Neeraj Pandey confirmed that he wouldn’t be coming on Independence Day, did SRK announce the date of his film. About the big gaps between the films that you mentioned, we still have 9-10 months to go before those films release. Just a couple of weeks ago, Badrinath Ki Dulhania had 2-3 open weeks, but now there is Sarkar 3 a week after Badrinath and there is the Anushka Sharma production too. Films like Sidharth Malhotra’s Reloaded do not have a release date yet, so there will be many more release date announcements in the next couple of weeks.

Q. Why is that for some movies you consider the budget for declaring it hit or flop and for some others you take in how much it was sold to distributors , to take a final call? Why not same for all? Dear Zindagi the budget is around 35 crores and it would definitely double it’s revenue. So it has to be a clean hit by your earlier logic? But by present logic, I don’t understand. Kindly clear the air.

A. That’s because there cannot be a standard format, business dealings of every film is different. For example, Jai Ho was made on a budget of less than 40 crore and sold to Eros for 110 crore. Now the producers (Sohail, Salman) made huge profits, but the distributor lost money over the film. Same with Dilwale. The producers made a fortune, but distributors lost a lot of money because it was sold for very high prices.

Dear Zindagi falls in the same category. It was made on a low budget, but it was sold for a high price (considering restricted appeal of the film). But unlike Jai Ho and Dilwale, Dear Zindagi will recover costs for the distributors and hence can be declared a ‘hit’. It has to be mentioned here that SRK’s acting fee has not been included in the budget. Atleast half of his market value should be added, else it does not make sense.

We are very clear about two things - One, the film has to recover cost for its domestic distributors. Two, even if a film is profitable when revenue from satellite, overseas, music etc is added up – the domestic net collections of a film has to be equal or more than the landing cost at the very least. If it fails on these two counts, the film cannot be a ‘clean box office hit’.

Shivaay is another example of the lenience of box office verdicts these days. It wasn’t like this before. Without including acting or direction fee, the lifetime net collections aren’t even close to the costs of the film. The distributors share is less than half of the costs!

Q. What will be the screen count of Raees and Kaabil as we heard Raees will get more screens because of Bahubali?

A. Yes, Raees should get wider release. Too early to talk about screen count. We still have more than 50 days for the release of the two films.

Q. As you said yesterday, Dear Zindagi should cross 60 crores by the end of its run, how come is this movie, a winner of november. It is also a flop or below average because you said that Dear Zindagi needs to collect 65 crores to recover its cost & more to be a hit. This means it needs 65 crores to become an Average grosser.

A. The trend in the second weekend is good, the jump on Saturday was bigger than Kahaani 2. So now it looks like the film will easily cross the 65 crore mark by the end of its run (Read today’s report) It’s a break-even / small profit for the distributors, hugely profitable venture for the producers. Enough reason to declare the film a hit.

Q. What are the Potential 300cr grossers of 2017? And reasons please?

A. Only two for now, Tubelight and Tiger Zinda Hai. Top reason obviously is Salman Khan along with two of the biggest festive weekends and both films have directors who know the pulse of the audience. Baahubali and Robot 2.0 should do 300 crore plus when collections from all versions are combined together.

Q. Who do you think is a bigger director? Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra?

A. Aditya Chopra.

That’s it for today. It’s been nearly 4 hours since we started. Thank you for joining us.

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303 Comments

  • Is it true tht srk is unhappy with the final outcome of raees…??
    Has the movie not shaped up well? ??
    Pls answer it this time ive asked it several times before

  • Is it true tht srk is unhappy with the final outcome of raees…??
    Has the movie not shaped up well? ??
    Pls answer it this time ive asked it several times..

  • Do you think that SHIVAAY [AJAY DEVGN] without the ugly clash with ADHM would have 150 Cr+ looking at the current trend? Because even with the clash, SHIVAAY performed reasonably ok & collected 100 Cr at the domestic box office ! Kindly answer my question………..

  • Asked several times.. hope you guys answer this time. Hrithik movies apart from kaabil.?
    also, what are the chances of kaabil doing 150 crores?

  • DNA reported that crack is postponed to 2018 which the ring is getting a solo release. Is It True ??
    also if it is then what do you think of the release date. Is it a perfect one for srk since there will be 3 consecutive holidays on Sunday , monday , and Tuesday .
    How much can it fare ?

  • Can you give us any idea of the kind of footfalls Amitabh Bachchans big hits of Seventies and Eighties must have generated ?

  • your expectations from Rangoon, any buzz about how the trailer is? Secondly what are shahid’s next films after padmavati? Milan luthria had tweeted he is making one with shahid, even raj dk & krishna said they want to revisit earlier script with shahid, there was also news about shahid working in vikas behls next

  • What r the internal reports of raees trailer? What could be the benefit of moving kaabil to 25th Jan?Please reply.

  • Rajesh Khanna was the First Superstar of Indian cinema but most out of his consecutive 15 hits are forgotten while BigB’s stardom continues, The ‘Angry young man’ image to which Anil Kapoor & Sunny Deol almost touched but couldn’t fathom… Do you think Salman Khan’s current stardom is relatable to What of Mr. Khanna as each passing year he gives a blockbuster but they are short lived except BB & Sultan which were an inspiring stories while SRK and Aamir have given several flops in between but also have given memorable films since the inception of their careers… Do you think the that Stardom is time being while class is what remains ?

  • Its almost a month since demonetisation but people are still queuing up for cash. There is still not enough cash with people. That should surely effect films releases like Kahaani, Befikre and mostly Dangal. Being an even film, more people are expected to watch Dangal, hence the effect should be more on Dangal. But the question is how much?? Even a 5-10% negative effect is huge for even films, isn’t it??

  • We have seen clashes on diwali, christmas, independence day and republic day but no one clash on eid isn’t it because of salman’s current standing?
    For 2018 akshay and srk have booked independence day and christmas dates respectively for there movies but eid slot is still empty.

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