Category - Answers

A few questions from last week, along with a few questions from this week will be answered. Join us at 4PM Indian Standard Time. Post your questions in the comments section below: Q. Can Dangal touch 400 crore mark? A. All versions combined could cross the 400 crore mark, it will depend on how the film performs in the 4th weekend. If ‘Ok Jaanu’ and Deepika’s ‘xXx’ does well, Dangal will find it tough, but if those two films fail, Dangal will get two more weeks to collect before ‘Raees’ and ‘Kaabil’. Q. Is there any chance for Kaabil to open better than Raees at box office? A. Box office is unpredictable, but it will be very surprising if Kaabil manages to get anywhere close to Raees. Buzz is clearly in favour of Raees and it should manage take a much better opening than Kaabil. Q. Bajrangi Bhaijaan or Dangal, which is a better movie according to you and whom will you pick to watch ? A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan worked both at single-screens and multiplexes, Dangal comparatively has performed better at multiplexes and was way poorer at single-screens. To pick the better film, it would be Dangal. Q. Your predication and expectation from Tiger Zinda Hai? Can it break the record of Dangal? And your predication for Highest Grosser of 2017? A. Too early to make predictions. Only content can make a film the highest grosser of all time, so it would depend on what sort of response Tiger Zinda Hai gets. Even Dangal after its release was difficult to predict, because it’s almost impossible to analyse or predict whether a film can get repeat-viewers or whether the family audience will come out in big numbers. These two factors are very important for business to go to the next level. All about word-of-mouth, if people begin strongly recommending a film to others, then anything is possible. Even 450 crore is a possibility if business at both multiplexes and single-screens peak. It’s about a fantastic film finding that balance. At the moment, we think Tubelight has a better chance than Tiger Zinda Hai. As for the highest grosser, we think ‘Baahubali 2’ will be the highest grosser in the first half before Eid. After that it should be one of the two Salman Khan films, he has two of the biggest festive weekends too. The pressure to delivery will be very high, because the minimum expectation from both films will be 300 plus. Q. Dangal deserves this success because we know the efforts which Amir & the whole cast have put throughout this tenure of almost 2 years. There is crazy fan following for Salman & SRK across the world also there are miscellaneous fans of other actors. Amir Khan can pull EVERYONE to his cinema – This is now confirmed. What I feel is Dhoom 2, PK, HNY, PRDP, Dilwale, Sultan etc do not actually deserve what it has received; this could happen only because of these giants. Indicine view please! A. Agree to what you said, what works for Aamir Khan is the trust that his audience have in his films. He’s worked very hard for it too, the credibility has been built over a long period of time. More than 20 years now. Right from his ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander’ and ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ days, Aamir has kept the film above himself. It’s not about him getting the best scenes or best role, of course his films require him to have a large share of screen-time.. but whether it is Rang De Basanti or Dangal, the climax wasn’t on Aamir’s character, it belonged to someone else.. yet he has signed films that most other superstars would reject. It takes guts and tremendous amount of conviction to do a film like Dangal and see it through to nearly 400 crore at the box office. Aamir is a legend, a different breed, a cut above the rest when it comes to quality of films and knowing the pulse of the audience. Q. Indicine, you guys are fabulous.I love to read articles and QnA by you.What will be final approx footfalls of Dangal according to you?Which film is more acclaimed universally, BB or Dangal? A. Thank you. Around 3.5 crore footfalls, tax exemption in several states has helped increase footfalls. Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the more universal blockbuster. It was a certain ‘Highest Grosser of All Time’ if it had a more favourable release period with open week and without ‘Baahubali’ and ‘Drishyam’ competing. Q. Your comment on consistency of Aamir he has had just one flop in this century and that too in January 2000 after that he had just two below average one Mangal Pandey which broke opening records and one art film Dhobi Ghat which had Aamir in supporting role rest all successful and mostly big hits along with classics. A. We’ve already spoken a lot about Aamir. Not much to add except that we may never have someone like Aamir Khan again. His films will be watched, loved and hailed even 50 years from now, long after all the box office records are forgotten. Cinematically immortalised. Q. Is Salman Khan doing Remo D’Souzas dance film? Is it releasing Eid 2018? A. Yes, Salman has spoken about the film. But he has also spoken about a lot of films in the past, which never happened. Let’s wait for the official announcement. From what we know, the final script isn’t ready yet and Salman hasn’t officially signed the film. If it happens, the target will be Eid 2018, no one will even think of taking it before making sure that Salman cannot have a film ready. Q. Why did Deepika Padukone chose to do a B-grade Hollywood film like xxx??n the result is zero buzz and she wasted 1 year for it!!do you think if the film doesnt work it will affect her career? A. Poor decision. It may not do any good to her and she’s wasted more than 2 years of her peak in our film industry. The difference between Priyanka and Deepika is, Priyanka moved abroad after her peak, which is the best time because older actresses get better roles in International Cinema as compared to the Hindi Film Industry. Deepika moved during her peak and if the pre-buzz is anything to go by, it looks like a wasted attempt. Q. My question is since the Demonetisation. What’s the amount of online tickets sold for Dangal ? Any estimates? A. The online ticket sales have increased and BookMyShow broke their own records during Dangal’s peak. We’d like to add here that it’s about time BookMyShow reduces the ‘convenience fee’ on tickets. When most non-movie online shopping sites have free-shipping and heavy discounts, BookMyShow being by far the most popular movie ticket booking website is taking advantage of the monopoly. PayTM is competing now and giving cashback and waiving off convenience fee, it should make BMS reduce the amount it charges. Q. How do you rate the promos of Raees and Kaabil so far? And what’s the response of trade and audience towards the promos? A. Raees is leading by a distance at the moment, Kaabil isn’t tracking as well as it should. Q. In your article, you have claimed the buzz for Raees is 8/10 and Dangal 10/10 . But Raees is everywhere on the internet and on tv. Please clarify. Say with the same buzz and songs Raees had released on Christmas without competition, how much would it collect? A. Creating awareness about a film on the Internet / TV does not necessary convert into ticket sales. A bigger marketing budget can always create a splash on TV, which to be honest, an SRK film doesn’t even need. His presence is enough to get an initial. What his films do need though, is good content. The neutral audience aren’t coming to theatres to watch the film, which is clear from the post-weekend collections and poor trend of his last few films. Good, entertaining film providing wholesome entertainment is what an SRK film need. SRK is the king of romance, sure, but are his romantic films working as well as it used to about 5 – 15 years ago? Is it generating the kind of interest it used to? A socially relevant film, that captures the essence of own country.. something that’s working today, might help him regain the trust of the movie-going audience and get them back to theatres in big numbers. This is just our opinion, a legend like SRK has nothing left to prove or achieve. He’s already done it all. Q. If you @indicine were a new comer in Bollywood and given a chance to choose a role between Salman Khan movies and Aamir khan movies, which kind of movies you would choose and on what rate do u think the movies would be hit? I am sure it wouldn’t be ATBB since u will be a new comer but do u think u would make hits when choosing Salman/ Aamir movies?? Please choose the movies after 2010..and if you don’t mind tell me which movies u think would be hit …and why u will not be choosing the movies? A. Would be doing the kind of films Varun Dhawan is doing. You don’t become an Aamir or Salman overnight. It takes time (decades), hard-work, experience and a huge following. On a lighter note, we love our job of analysing box office of films and doing our FBO and LBO. It’s a lot easier and we get bashed very often too. Get predictions right, no one cares. Get a few wrong, people love it. Q. Hi indicine i’m your regular reader from last two years. Thanks for your wonderful work. My question is can you pick 5 hollywood movies which could surprise in 2017? Please answer. A. The action / superhero genre and popular franchise films will continue to work. Others don’t really manage to find an audience. Fast and Furious 8 and Spiderman Home Coming should be the biggest Hollywood films this year. Q. What is the current buzz of Padmavati? Is it considered among the potential big grosser’s of 2017? A. It’s a big film, on paper (Script level) it’s fantastic. But the costs will be high and recovering investment is not going to easy unless it turns out to be an extraordinary experience. Q. What is your expectations from Jolly LLB2 at multiplex and single screen separately as a song and promo has been already released. A. We have immensely high expectations from Akshay in 2017. His fan-following is growing, people are liking his choices, he’s making films that are looking interesting. It could potentially hurt his core fanbase at smaller centres, because his films are getting more multiplex friendly – but it’s a risk that’s worth taking if he can make films that appeal to the wider section of multiplex audience (not just restricted to metros). Big money is coming from these centres and if some of these films click, he could get into the 140-150 crore territory. If he gets there this year, or even manages to take Jolly, Toilet and Padman into the 120 crore+ range, it’ll be huge for him, considering the number of films that he does. Q. Your never answer my question so please answer it this time. As we have already seen the response Raees got from trailer and songs compare to Kaabil, so can the opening of Raees be huge compare to kaabil’s? And is Kaabil still releasing in 25th evening ? A. For the last time, Kaabil is getting a normal morning release on 25th. And to repeat what we’ve already said, we’d be very surprised if Raees does not take a much bigger opening than Kaabil. Some quick answers now: Q. I think Riteish Deshmukh has potential to become a super star. But directors do not offer him a good movie. He has shown his potential in ek villain. What’s your thoughts? A. No chance. He’s tried, but failed. Q. What’s the chance of Salman Khan and Karan Johars’ movie starring Akshay Kumar releasing in Christmas 2018 ? A. They haven’t decided on a date yet. They won’t clash with SRK. Q. After Salman which actor commands the second biggest fan following and super stardom today? A. SRK. Q. Robot 2 or Baahubali 2, Your early bet in terms of Box Office Collection ? A. Robot 2. Q. How’s the buzz of RAEES? A. Very good. Q. Highest Grossing Movie of Akshay, Salman and Shahrukh in 2017 ? Do not consider Robot 2 as Akshay Kumar’s film because it will surely gross more than other bollywood actors movie. A. Akshay it’s really difficult to pick, Salman Tiger Zinda Hai (Tubelight riskier on paper, but if it clicks can be much bigger), SRK The Ring / Rehnuma. Q. Why do you underestimate SRK so much? He was ruling since last 2 decades. FAN was his first flop in 10 years. Just because of one flop film you have started underestimating him a lot. Why? A. Not under-estimating, but given the standards that he has set during the first 20 years of his career, the expectation of him matching the top stars in the industry will always be there.  His films have under-performed after Chennai Express and the gap is widening. In QnA, we can only talk about the current scenario or current standing of actors. Q. Mr Indicine now atleast accept ur defeat , u have been proved wrong time & again by aamir khan & yet u want to predict secret superstar , i mean its ridiculous to say the least!!! A. We don’t make predictions to win or lose, we cannot predict a trend like Dangal. How can we know how many people are going to visit the theatre and purchase tickets? How can we predict a 3 Idiots doing a 200 crore, when the previous highest grosser is only 115. No one thought Jungle Book would do nearly 200. It cannot be predicted even by the best of trade analysts. Box office will always surprise and that’s what makes it exciting. Q. Why dont you consider Dear zindagi not as shahrukh khan starrer movie in your top actor rating system even though he has a longer role than aamir khan had in taare zameen par? A. Even the audience knew Dear Zindagi was not a Shah Rukh Khan film. Otherwise it wouldn’t open at 8 crore. Taare Zameen Par was different, it was almost entirely sold on Aamir’s name. Q. How will u rate Remo as a director?What u want to say about Salman choosing him for his next? A. Don’t rate him too highly, but he’s made successful films. Q. Any update about the new release date of Crack? A. Pushed to 2018. Q. Can hindi version of Robot 2 open above 30 cr if it gets the right buzz? A. Difficult. Q. I don’t know how many times I have to try to reach you but i will keep trying, big fan of your site. Love it so much. I have a question for a long time. Why Bollywood movies do not get extended version on dvds like Hollywood does? A. No idea about this, will try to find out. Could be because not many people buy DVD’s anymore. A few films have had DVD extras. Q. Will the failure of Befikre make an impact on the trade’s faith over Ranveer Singh. Since he hasn’t been able to give a single hit after his debut without the Bhansali-Deepika combo. A. Trade doesn’t really trust the newer generation of actors, it’ll take time. They are new in the industry. But the trade sure has lost trust and faith in Aditya Chopra films. He’s letdown a huge section of the audience who have grown watching his films. Q. Indicine ,i would like to ask one thing that whenever I visit Boxofficeindia i always see some discrepancy in box office collections of many films whether its Pk, sultan or Bajrangi Bhaijaan with respect to your site. According to my perception this is happening due to Net collection and Gross collection. Could you please help in clearing my perception? A. They are independent trackers, we follow producer figures here. People need to understand that the released collections are never accurate, almost everything is an estimate. When people talk about inflation or manipulation of collections, it’s usually a comparison between two sources. But what if both inflate? Will people know? There’s a big film that has done it and at that level even 5-10% makes a massive difference. Even under-reporting is done sometimes to make inflation look too high (Krrish 3 for example). We do not usually want to talk about such things, because as soon as we do, we are labelled as biased. Q. Your opinion on Late Mr. Om puri’s acting skills & his contribution to Indian cinema @Indicine. A. Legend. He made an impact even in the smallest of roles, like the one in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Q. Thank you for being so bold and straight forward. Hardly any unbiased media left . Hardly few admire this . I enjoy reading everything on indicine. Thanks once again A. Thanks a lot. Q. Why Ajay Devgn remove letter ‘a’ from Devgn? In 90’s decade ‘a’ has his name… Pls rply… I have asked many questions bt didn’t rply so this time pls rply…. Thnx Indicine A. From the internet: “Though his friends and family have been asking Ajay to change the way he spells his name to “make it more balanced” and therefore attract success, he stayed away from the temptation. That was until his mom asked him to make the change for health reasons. Last year, after U Me Aur Hum released, Ajay had a severe back and neck sprain (he was laid up for over a month.) Later, he had some health problems and a couple of accidents on the sets.” His worried mom contacted an astrologer, who suggested the name change. Mrs. Devgan then urged Ajay to make the alteration, as she was very worried for him, adding that the change would add to his general well-being and happiness too. Ajay argued but finally gave in.” The source says, “This is a huge step for Ajay as he has never been too much into numerology and astrology though he believes in vastu shastra and stones. His friends were shocked too when they learned that he’d changed the way he spells his name. He has already feeling the positive effects of the change as he has been getting mind-blowing reactions for the All The Best promo” Q. Could u plz tell me what goes in actors mind when he chooses the script. Or how does any chose a script. Because apart from top few all movies fail at the box office. A. Every actor has a different approach. No one sets out to make a bad film, but the whole process of filmmaking is complicated. A lot can go wrong. Small mistakes can make a big difference. A fantastic film is about getting a lot of those small things right, which the best of directors do. Q. Aamir Khan has delivered first ever 3 BACK TO BACK “highest-grossing film of all time” (Dhoom 3- 2013, PK-2014, and Dangal-2016). Do you think that his contemporaries will break his record of 3 back to back all time highest grossers? A. No, it’ll remain with him. Even delivering one highest grosser of all time is a big deal. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed today’s QnA. More than 35 questions were answered.

Q. What is the word-of-mouth of Dangal ? As compared with Bajrangi Bhaijaan , 3 Idiots, Chak De India ? A. The word-of-mouth is excellent, but it’s too early to compare Dangal to films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Chak De India or 3 Idiots. Chak De India wasn’t as big as the other two, in fact it fell well short of ‘Om Shanti Om’ which released in the same year. Bajrangi Bhaijaan and 3 Idiots were universal blockbusters, it remains to be seen if Dangal can perform at that level all over India. Q. I think Dangal will cross 400 crore now.. what are your thoughts? A. Without extra holidays, it’s not going to be easy for Dangal to do 400. The lifetime collections of Bajrangi Bhaijaan was 12 times its first day business. Dhoom 3 was 8x and PK was 13x. Only 3 Idiots was 15x, but times have changed now and films these days tend to be more ‘top heavy’ (collecting more in the first week) than it used to be before. A film that showed better trends than 3 Idiots was The Jungle Book, but we cannot compare a local superstar movie to a Hollywood film. In short, Dangal has to trend better than PK and Bajrangi Bhaijaan without any extra holidays to get anywhere close to the 400 crore mark. Q. Which Movie is the Biggest Hit of this Decade? PK or Bajrangi Bhaijaan? A. Difficult to pick between the two. Both were massive blockbusters, although Bajrangi Bhaijaan sold more tickets and worked better at smaller centres as compared to PK. Q. Can India match with total No. of screen count of China in coming years? A. India has a long way to go before it can get anywhere close to the number of screens in China or the United States of America – both of which have 40,000 plus screens. India has around 12,000 screens, out of which 80% of screens are single-screens. In those, nearly 6350 single-screens are in five south states – Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka. Most of those theatres play South Indian films. Per capita ratio is too low at the moment in India, but then the content isn’t upto the mark either. 99% of the movies that are released every year are not watched by 99% of the population. Even the biggest blockbusters are only watched by 5% of the population. It’s a huge difference from the time when films like Sholay released and were watched by 25-30% of the population in the country at that time. The reach is very poor and the content of majority of films is even worse. The fact that the biggest of directors from the biggest film industry in the country, are now making urban films that are watched by less than 0.5% of the population.. says a lot about the state of the Hindi film industry at the moment. Q. If the current trend continues, how much can Dangal earn in its lifetime? A. The trend will only be clear by Tuesday – Wednesday, it’s difficult to make any firm predictions until then even though our LBO prediction will be out later today. Even if it does drop during the weekdays, the film still has a chance to grow and put up big numbers over the second New Year weekend. Q. Which movie will become Highest Grosser of the Year? SULTAN or DANGAL? A. At the moment, we’d still put our money on Sultan. Q. What will be the loss for Dangal as Christmas and new year falling on Sunday A. If Monday (tomorrow) was a holiday for Christmas, the film would’ve had another 30 crore plus day. But now we could probably be looking at a 20 crore plus total. The advantage is around 40%. New Year isn’t as big a holiday as Christmas, but it would still have given the business of the film a boost of around 25-30%. However, a lot of schools, colleges and offices remain closed during the Christmas – New Year period which does give business a minor boost on all days. Q. Which one is a better film – Dangal or Sultan? And why? A. Dangal will work better at bigger centres, while Sultan – the more commercial and entertaining film – will be the pick of masses. Not to forget that Sultan had those ingredients – popular leading lady, romance, heroism (which the masses love) and it was very well packaged. Dangal is way more real, not too many cinematic liberties were taken. So it did come as a surprise when the film opened so well, it’s the trust in the Aamir Khan brand that’s bringing the audience to theatres. Salman generates craze, Aamir commands respect and trust of the audience.. that’s probably the biggest difference between the top two and they make films knowing this and working around their strengths. Q. Whats is footfalls of Dangal in 2 days as compare to Sultan BB and PK movie..? A. Can’t put numbers yet because of varied ticket prices. But it would be Sultan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Dangal and PK. In that order. Day 1 only. Q. Would Dangal now cross Sultan which you have always answered in negative. A. There is no question of any negativity. We can only make realistic predictions, it does not make any sense to talk about 400 crore plus, when even 300 crore is difficult to achieve – that too without extra holidays. The first weekend business will be around 103 crore, so doing triple of the weekend business is a long way away. More in the LBO article. Q. Hats off to you Team Indicine as you are doing the Askindicine even on Christmas. I agree that Dangal is a very outstanding film. But don’t you think that Dangal lacks that repeat value to be able to attain that big numbers that almost everyone is expecting from it. May be Dangal will have more unique viewers that the big grossers such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and PK but the lack of repeat viewers will act as a barrier for it. Your take on this. A. Repeat-viewing, extra holidays, excellent word-of-mouth, universal appeal, entertainment value are all very important for a film to do 300 crore plus. Else it becomes extremely difficult, but there is one factor that works for Aamir and that is the section of audience who don’t usually watch film, but make it a point to watch Aamir films. He gets those extra audience, which makes predicting his films the toughest. Q. How is the Buzz of Kaabil right now? I heard 3rd Trailer of Kaabil is coming is it true? A. No third trailer. The makers are happy with the response that the second trailer has got, it had received a much better response as compared to the first. Q. It’s easy to give a big hit with a commercial massy movie for even young stars leave apart big superstars but real test is to do so with off beat classy movies which Aamir is doing on consistent basis be it Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots, PK or Dangal (even Talaash which was moderate success). What is the reason behind this according to you? A. We have already mentioned the reasons in other questions, but just to add one more point; there is novelty factor that is attached to Aamir Khan films. Every outing is different, he has something new to offer with every new film. He doesn’t usually play larger-than-life characters. His real personality is hidden and he plays the character. He makes people curious about his films and over-delivers more often than not. The audience don’t mind paying more for his films (he commands the highest ticket prices in the industry), something that only he can justify. Q. How do you rate Aamir on basis of – Acting skills, Superstardom, Script sense, Marketing skills. A. Acting skills, marketing skills and script sense.. all get a 10 on 10. None better than him in the industry. But when it comes to sheer super-stardom, there are other who are far bigger than him. Super stardom is about craze, not for the film but the star. When a star’s presence overshadows even his films and people lineup just to watch the star, it’s called super stardom or hero worship. Like a Rajnikanth vs a Kamal Hassan. Q. What is a trade buzz for Jolly LLB 2 after the trailer as its seems to very serious film focusing on fake encounter of fellow Kashmiri? A. Response to the trailer is mixed. Trade and audience response will be published on Monday or Tuesday. Q. Has Dangal proved that promotional campaigns are nothing but waste of time & money??and also is the word promotion is overrated cause now a days only Good & inspiring story attracts mango peoples in most of the cases!!?? A. You have answered your own question, but not every movie has an actor of Aamir’s stature or script sense. Even otherwise, the city tours and various television appearances.. make little or no difference at the box office. Even the value of music is diminishing. The most thing thing is to get the trailer right, after that it comes down to the content. Q. Wy have u stopped the detailed box office prediction which u used to do earlier. About first day and then weekend. If accepted. Word of mouth average and rejected. And also with it how much for the film to be called as blockbuster and so on. That one article was a huge hit with not only me but also others. Kindly start that again. Next question which is a direct one is. Has the buzz of raees come down, coz u have reduced the first day prediction from 18 odd crores to 17 odd. Do shed a light on that? A. To answer your first question – those were ‘box office expectations’ more than predictions. But now that we make LBO predictions after release, we have stopped the previous format – otherwise people get confused and it gets difficult to explain. When we made our 3 Idiots prediction in the old format before release, it best case scenario was around 95 crore. The logic behind the prediction was that the film may not have ‘universal appeal’ like Ghajini which worked both at single-screens and multiplexes.  But it’s impossible to predict box office and what a film can do if it finds acceptance (like Jungle Book this year or Baahubali Hindi last year). But now, people are using those old pre-release predictions and quoting it as a ‘post release prediction’ on social media websites. It was for these reasons that we stopped those more detailed predictions. As for Raees and Kaabil – since both films are releasing on the same day, it’s about the two films sharing the business on offer. Raees buzz hasn’t come down, but the second trailer of Kaabil has received a very good response. That ends the QnA session for today, thank you for joining us.

Before we begin the QnA, check out the results of the poll that we conducted on the site. You can still vote, if you haven’t already: Q. Raees is releasing on 25th January in the morning, but Kaabil will be evening shows (6pm). What will be the collections of Raees 1st day and Kaabil paid previews? A. It’s not possible for Raees to release in the morning and Kaabil in the evening. Both films should eventually release in the morning itself, that’s how the exhibitors and distributors would like it to be. As for the collections on Day 1, it won’t be a holiday release, but more like a non-holiday Saturday release. The reason for releasing the film a day before the holiday is to take advantage of night shows. When the following day (in this case Republic Day) is a holiday, the night shows on the previous day usually tends to have higher occupancy. It’s exactly the reason why most multiplex films show growth on Saturday. We are expecting the two films combined to share around 30 crore, with Raees leading at this point in time. Q. If Dangal gets Tax Free Status across India or in 5+ States, do you think Dangal can challenge PK’s lifetime Collection? A. The central government doesn’t decide entertainment tax exemption, it comes under the state government. So even if the film gets tax free status in a couple of major states, it should benefit. It’ll obviously become easier for the film to reach PK, but that’s not a certainty because the word-of-mouth has to be extraordinary. Also, PK had several extra holidays, whereas Dangal doesn’t really get any advantage because both Christmas and New Year falls on Sunday this year. Q. In the next year, which Hollywood films can be a threat to Bollywood? A. The top picks would be Fast and Furious 8 and Spiderman Homecoming. Trailer of Spiderman below Q. What’s your prediction on the combined collection of Raees and Kaabil? A. It’s not a big weekend and the family audience may not come for both films. Ticket prices too, may not be at festive rates. So, from what we’ve seen so far, we expect both films to collect somewhere in the range of Rs 200 crore combined! Q. What are the chances of SRK to be top again bcoz he is doing 5 movies back to back Raees, With Anushka(The Ring), The dwarf movie, Aditya Chopra’s next, Don 3. They look promising and have potential to rock box office? A. For any actor to reach the top – three things are very important apart from stardom. One, the ability to get the big festive weekends (Eid, Christmas). Two, ensuring that your film gets a solo release. And three, the film has to be good and universally appealing. Raees fails on all three counts, The Ring has a better chance but romantic films shot overseas may not have the potential to cross 200. Don 3 will find it difficult too, unless they move away and make it commercial and massy. The best chance is with the Aanand L Rai film. Also, unless the form of the Top 2 dips, SRK needs 2-3 major grossers to reclaim the top spot. Salman and Aamir have really upped the game in the last 6-7 years, making it almost impossible for anyone to touch them. At the domestic box office, there is currently a huge gap between those two and the rest. Q. What is status of Shahid Kapoor in Bollywood with respect to box-office, crowd puller , star power in different parts of world , acting talent? A. He scores a 10 in acting talent, but very little in the other three. Potential has always been there, but so many films with Vishal Bhardwaj can be disastrous for anyones career – from a box office point of view, of course. Q. No poster or trailer for Commando 2 wasn’t it supposed to be the first 2017 release. Is it postponed or shelved. A. Not shelved, but postponed to March 3rd 2017. Q. Every where all started to predict Top 10 Movies of 2017.. So ur one of the most popular bollywood site in net..So whats which are the 10 films you expect to make it big in Box office next year? A. We had already done an article on the most awaited films of 2017. Our official LBO prediction for 2017 is in the works, we have compiled data from several people from the trade. It should be out soon. Thanks for your interest. Q. What has been the response to Raees trailer? And please tell me the biggest initial day crowdpullers of Hindi cinema CURRENTLY in domestic box office as well as overseas. A. Response is good, detailed article on trade and audience response is being worked on. Biggest crowd-pullers domestic is Salman Khan, overseas Shah Rukh Khan. Q. Approximate Screen counts for Raees and Kaabil. I know the question is bit early but requesting estimates based on the trailer response of both the movies. A. Raees should get around 2700-2800 screens, while Kaabil might release on 2400-2500 screens. Q. Since the trailer of Raees has received positive response from audience, its for sure that SRK starrer will take a much better opening than Kabil if both come since the morning shows…But do you think Raees can be that first NonEDX 200cr earner in the history of indian cinema if the movie is more appreciated than Kabil after its release..? A. It’s difficult for any film to cross 200 crore in a clash, even Bajirao Mastani with the biggest Christmas weekend and the advantage of extraordinary word-of-mouth – fell short of 190 crore. Even if it was a solo release, no trade analyst or someone who understands box office, would expect 200 crore from Raees. The family audience, who contribute hugely to the collections, won’t come to watch the film. The director and even the banner (Excel) is not known to make massy films. The only chance for Raees to cross 175 crore is if it turns out to be a hugely entertaining film and Kaabil becomes a rejected disaster. Q. Do you think Rakesh Roshan is astutely playing the sympathy/victim card by passing such statements in the media about the “clash”? A. We’ve all got to understand one thing. Filmmaking is a business and a lot of people are involved. It’s not only about Rakesh Roshan, but also his distributors. A ‘clash’ can affect the business of both films and both will be worried about recovering their investment. We stick to what we said earlier – it was stupid on the part of Raees makers to avoid one clash and take on another film. At the same time, this ‘superstitious’ bit from Rakesh Roshan sounds a little too – if he can change his date from 26th to 25th, why not release it a week earlier or later? There is a still quite a bit of time though, one film can still move. Q. Congrats for accurate FBO prediction for Befikre. How is the WOM for the film? A. Thanks. The word-of-mouth seems to be mixed, and possibly veering towards negative. It’ll be clear on Monday, but do wait for our final LBO (lifetime) prediction tomorrow. Thank you for joining us today. A few more questions will be answered next week.

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.

Q. Robot 2 or Bahubali 2- which movie will earn more in North? A. It’ll be close, but ‘Robot 2.0’ should have the edge in the North because of Akshay Kumar’s presence. Star value always helps. It’s a big action film too, Shankar (the director of both the films) achieved quite a lot with a smallish budget in 2010’s Robot. The sequel has 3 times the budget, larger scale and much better technology. Q. What’s the actual collection of PRDP in Domestic and Worldwide? A. Domestic the film finished at Rs 213 crore (including collections from regional versions), worldwide gross is Rs 392 crore. Q. Is it true that Housefull 4 would be happening soon and Sajid Khan will be directing it? A. Not true. He is working on a different film. Q. What percent of box office collection goes to producers as their earning or profit including overseas? A. To keep the answer simple, it varies from film to film. The share of the distributors is usually higher for massy films which perform well at fixed rentals. Multiplex share is highest in the first week of release, goes lower in the second week and further down in the third. So a word-of-mouth film that does well in the 2nd week, will earn lesser for the producer, as compared to a film that’s top heavy (i.e most of the business is generated in the first week). From 100 rupees that you spend at the ticket window, around 30 rupees goes towards taxes and from the remaining 70 rupees, 35 goes to the exhibitor (theatre owner) and 35 goes to the producer / distributor. Again, this can vary, depending on various things that cannot be explained here. Q. Does Force 2 have any chance of becoming a Hit? A. It has shown a decent trend as films like ‘Force 2’ usually tend to show a drop on Saturday, but ‘Force 2′ has actually shown some growth. So it needs to hold well on Monday and then remain steady during the remaining weekdays. It has no competition at mass centres next week, as ’Dear Zindagi’ is mainly targeted at the multiplex audience, that too in those 5-6 cities which could go to 10-15 due to SRK’s presence, but the appeal is limited. The economics of ‘Force 2’ is solid too, so it doesn’t really need to be a huge grosser to recover costs. Q. When will Anand L Rai start shoot his next with Srk called Bandhua movie? A. It’ll go on floors next year. The director and his team were in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) for a recce, but we haven’t received any confirmation if the location has been finalised for the shoot. There are reports that the shoot will be wrapped next year, followed by extensive post-production work. Release date – Christmas 2018. Possibly the only SRK film that has its release date announced before it goes on floors. A solo festive release will be important for the film, as it’ll be SRK’s costliest film to date. Q. Can Toilet-Ek Prem Katha be called as a post-IPL release? How much will it be benefited by the period? A. It’ll be a Ramzan release, so a section of the muslim audience might not watch the film. It doesn’t exactly fall in the ‘Post IPL’ period as the IPL concludes on 21st May and Toilet Ek Prem Katha releases on June 2nd. It can become a really big film if the government decides to officially support it and state governments give it tax exemption. Too early to talk about those things at the moment though. We got a chance to read parts of the script, it sounds very interesting on paper. Q. Going by the current phase of Akshay’s career and his choice of films.. on which project would you like to put your money on barring 2.0 as it is more a Rajni’s film? His films are earning but not like other superstars film does.. So where’s the problem? Is his popularity less than them or is his movies not mass appealing or doing multiple films a year? A. Multiple releases in only a problem when two films release too close to each other (less than 1.5 / 2 month gap). But Akshay has been spacing out his releases quite well. The gap between Rustom and Jolly LLB is going to be 6 months and then 4 months for Toilet Ek Prem Katha. The problem seems to be the choice of films and budget / scale. Jolly LLB 2 is too small a film to become a huge grosser, unless it turns out to be an incredible film that grows on word-of-mouth. A film like Airlift will struggle to cross 150 crore, even if it features someone like a Salman Khan, as it won’t appeal to a big chunk of his fan-base. It’s films like ‘Housefull 3’ and ‘Brothers’ that should’ve gone on to be big grossers, unfortunately they didn’t. About a year ago, the multiplex audience weren’t coming for his films, but now that he has earned it back.. it’s time to do more universal films. There is certainly a change in perception (both audience and trade) when it comes to Akshay Kumar, he has played the patriotic card pretty well too. His popularity across the board is rising, it’s the right time to take things to the next level. Q. Indicine I am a daily visitor of your website as it is the best bollywood website. My question is for you that if Arjun Kapoor’s next both movies cross 100 crore mark at box office than which position will he get in your top 15 actors ratings A. Difficult to predict at the moment because the stars above him have releases like Ranveer’s Befikre and Varun’s Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Ajay has Baadshaho just a week before Arjun’s Half Girlfriend too. So there will be plenty of movement in the ranking. Half Girlfriend will be replacing Gunday in the list, so it has to collect more than 94 crore or more for Arjun to go ahead of Sidharth Malhotra. Q. Why does the poster of Robot 2 specifically say ‘Superstar Rajinikanth’? We don’t have Tiger Zinda Hai or any other hindi movie poster saying ‘Superstar Salman Khan’ or any other actor’s name than way. A. The aura of Rajnikanth in the Tamil film industry has always been in a different league when compared to others. He is incomparable. It’s a well-accepted fact that when it comes to sheer fan-following and craze, he is way ahead of the rest. Even the craze that ‘Kabali’ generated cannot be compared to anything that we have seen even in Bollywood. To add to his aura, he is 65 years of age and still commands the same level of following that he did a couple of decades ago. His films still get the biggest initial. So it’s befitting that we see ‘Superstar’ in the opening credits and also in the posters. His fans love it, the industry accepts it and he did not put it there himself, it was a producer’s idea. Q. Is it true that SRK will do a cameo in Salman Khan starer Tubelight? A. No. Q. I have been asking since a long time why do people love Salman so much? And why do mass audience love him? A. Why people love or follow an actor cannot be explained because there could be hundreds of reasons. Salman is probably the only actor who appeals to every section of the audience, the rich, the poor, the youth, the family audience and also the kids. His physique, good looks, action image, charisma all add to his appeal. Also, there is still a huge section of audience at smaller centres in India that doesn’t like to watch kissing or what they call ‘vulgar’ scenes in films. Salman doesn’t do those and the audience know it, so they come. A lot of actors don’t realise this, but there is a huge audience for clean family entertainers, both in theatres and on television. Superstars are made out of such films, urban films can never make an actor a superstar. Q. Highest Grossers in the month of June, July, August, September and October ? Which movies in 2017 have a solid chance to dominate in their respective months? A. We will update the old article and put our predictions in that. Q. Is Anushka Sharma the number one actress today? A. Definitely in the Top 2. Not quite the incredible run that Deepika Padukone had, because two of Anushka’s films like Dil Dhadakne Do and NH10 just about recovered costs, while Bombay Velvet was a huge disaster. But she has featured in big films like PK, Sultan and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Deepika isn’t doing enough films, so Anushka could soon take the top spot if the film with Imtiaz Ali and Shah Rukh Khan does well. Q. First Bajirao Mastani announced for Xmas release 2015 and later Shahrukh Dilwale announced for Xmas release. Bajirao Mastani didn’t postponed or preponed by a week. Both film clashed. Now, Rani Padmavati announced for Xmas release 2017 and later Tiger Zinda Hai announced for Xmas release but Rani Padmavati preponed by a month.when it comes to Shahrukh it didn’t postponed but when it comes to Salman it preponed by a month. Why is this happening with Shahrukh Khan. Why is this not happening with Salman Khan. A. At the domestic box office, Salman Khan is the numero uno star. No other actor can take him on at the moment, not even Aamir Khan. That’s a well known fact within the industry and trade. Not only would ‘Padmavati’ struggle to get screens at smaller centres, but YRF + Salman will ensure the clash is one-sided at multiplexes too. It would’ve been a suicidal clash, which they wisely averted. As for Bajirao Mastani, Sanjay Bhansali and Eros were extremely confident of the film succeeding at the box office. It was definitely a risk, taking on a big commercial film like Dilwale is never easy, but they pulled it off. Q. Do you think Befikre can do 150 Cr business in India? A. No. It’s a urban youth film, such films have limitations. Befikre would be a big success if it does 100 crore or more. Q. Indicine who is the Winner of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil & Shivvay First Day Prediction Contest? A. The winners were picked and tickets were sent to the winners in the second week after release. The delay was because there was a technical issue with Google Forms (which we use to collect the predictions) because of the number of entries we received – which was more than 45,000. The spreadsheet wasn’t searchable, so we had to manually go through every entry before picking the winners. The process was completed, but before we do more contests in the future we need to sort out the issue. Going through every entry manually is time consuming and we cannot declare the winners on time. [advert] Q. Now after success of ADHM, will trade see Jagga Jasoos positively? A. That would depend on the trailer of Jagga Jasoos. But even though it has been delayed for such a long time, we don’t think they could’ve timed the release better. Had Jagga Jasoos released after Bombay Velvet or Tamasha, it could have struggled at the box office. But now, it’s not only coming after the success of ‘ADHM’ but will be the first film to release after GST tax system comes into effect. So ticket prices could be lower and business could well be a little higher. There are no major releases between Badrinath Ki Dulhania (March 10) and Jagga Jasoos (April first week) too. So it’ll also get the ‘Post exam’ period audience. It’s a very good release date, which will help the film if the content isn’t rejected. 2 more questions to be answered: Q. How much impact SRK’s presence will make to Dear Zindagi’s opening? A. SRK’s presence could help the film double its opening day collections. A film like ‘Dear Zindagi’ would probably collect around 4-5 crore on its opening day if it was just Alia. Now with SRK’s presence it could go anywhere between 8-10 crore. But there is uncertainty at the moment because of demonetisation and last few promos. ‘Take 1’ and ‘Take 2’ were received well, but the other promos haven’t received the same response. Q. Won’t it be a good idea to release the tentatively titled “Ring” on Good Friday next year ? Because all other major holidays are blocked by other stars. A. No, because the film may not be ready and Fast and Furious 8 is releasing on that day. That’s it for today. Please join us next Sunday and do read the three articles on Robot 2.0. Two posters are out, we’ve also published an article on the Diwali clash.

Q. During Dilwale and Shivaay we heard a term ‘Bulgarian Rebate’ included in budget recovery… What is that? A. The governments of different countries give cash rebates to producers for shooting films in their country, which helps promote tourism along with some other benefits. Rebates help reduce production costs. Q. From a while some industry people are calling Dangal the Best mainstream Film of the Decade.As major portion of the Decade is gone,Which film till now can be termed as Best Film of the Decade? A. What people in the industry say, does not make any difference. Celebrity tweets or opinions are not taken seriously by the audience. The only thing that matters is what sort of response the film gets when it releases in theatres. There is definitely a lot of hope that it could be a classic, because of Aamir Khan’s presence. The best film of the decade so far is Bajrangi Bhaijaan, followed by PK. This includes both the response at theatres as well as television. Q. When is Robot 2.0 ‘s first look releasing ? A. The first look of Robot 2.0 will be released next week. Q. Under which slab of GST entertainment tax is coming?when it is going to be implemented? If ticket prices remain the same, what will be the nett collection of a movie which grosses 400 cr in India?Further kindly explain how GST will work? The tax nowadays is 40%. A. Entertainment tax is likely to come under the 28% slab. It will be implemented from April 1 2017. If ticket prices remain the same, the net collections will be up by around 10%, if ticket prices are lowered it could increase footfalls – because more people will come to watch the film if tickets are cheaper. It could be a win-win situation. It’s a good opportunity to reduce the price of snacks and drinks, should make movie outings a lot more affordable for the public. Q. Will demonetization affect Dangal collection? A. Highly unlikely. Circulation of money will increase by the end of this week and with each passing day, impact on film business will decrease. Force 2 will be affected to a certain extent, but Befikre onwards things should be back to normal. Q. How you can analyse this year until now the Box office performance of Bollywood films? Good or Bad or below expectations. Because many small budget films performed well and big ones lost. A. It’s been an average year so far. Some of the biggest films this year have failed – Fan, Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay. Even a film like Housefull 3 was expected to earn a lot more than it did. Smaller films have worked, but we’ve had such multiplex hits in the last few years too. Nine 100 crore films in 2014, Six in 2015 and Six so far this year – Dangal looking like the only other film that’s certain to do 100. Q. Till now are you still going with Sultan as Highest Grosser of The Year? How much there is chance that it will retain it’s Position?Everone who has watched Dangal or read its script is terming it the Best. A. Some reasons why we’ve been constantly saying ‘Sultan’ should remain the highest grosser of the year is because - One, both the major holidays (Christmas and New Year) fall on Sunday so the big holiday advantage won’t be there this year. Two, the film will have to be entertaining for the masses – Taare Zameen Par was a classic, one of the best films of last decade, but ‘Welcome’ which released on the same day collected a lot more even though critics slammed it. Three, it’ll have to have repeat-value too, a total of 300 crore plus is difficult to achieve if people do not return to watch the film more than once. Having said that, Aamir’s track record during Christmas is extraordinary. Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, PK weren’t just the highest grossers of the year, but all of those films went on to be the highest grossers of all time too. Q. What is the BO Verdict of Sultan (both India & overseas)?is it a bigger hit than 3 Idiots & Dhoom 3? A. As far as return-on-investment is concerned it’ll be this order – 3 Idiots, Sultan, Dhoom 3. Q. What went wrong in Rock On ? Whats the budget and how much it will loss ? Dont you think movies like rock on should be tight on budget as it attracts a certain group of audience ? A. The first ‘Rock On’ film worked only with a small section of the audience in urban cities and the film did well only because of music. But the sequel failed to generate any interest because the music album failed, the first film was liked but not loved so the eagerness to watch the sequel was missing, the promos were dull and eventually the film hasn’t been liked either. To add to the woes, the demonetisation of 500/1000 notes seems to have affected business by around 20-25%. Q. Who is the biggest superstar of India considering all time ratings? A. When it comes to the true superstars of Hindi Cinema, actors whose stardom is a cut above the rest – then it could just be four – Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan (in no particular order). Q. Do you think demonetisation of Rs 500/1000 notes will have an impact on Dear Zindagi as it is also a multiplex movie ? A. Dear Zindagi could be affected by around 5%, don’t think it’s going to be more than that because card payments are unaffected and cash in circulation will increase by the time Dear Zindagi releases on 25 November. Q. If Raees manages to find appreciation among the masses, the classes and the family audience as well (though it is a crime thriller and has Sunny Leone).. Will it have a healthy chance to earn at least 200cr nett clashing with Kaabil? A. Highly unlikely. The banner itself (Excel Entertainment) is not known to make the kind of films that appeals to every section of the audience. Most of their films are targeted at the urban audience, so when a banner like Excel and a director like Rahul Dholakia  (Parzania, Mumbai Cutting etc) comes up with a massy film – it’s a wait and watch situation. We’ll have to see how it goes. The response to the teaser was outstanding, but there have been way too many delays. It’ll have to be a very good film to even do 150 crore. Not the best period of release, plus clash with another big film. We continue the QnA: All the questions below were answered on 14th November Q. You have mentioned a lot of times that the industry is working at 5% success rate. On top of it you have colossal flops in the last 2 yrs. Bombay Velvet, The broken horses, Fitoor, Mohenjo Daro, BBD and now Rock on 2 to name a few. How long do you think this will continue? How long would investors continue to put big money on directors like Ashutosh Gowariker, Anurag Kashyap, production houses like excel and actors like farhan akhtar? Do you forsee less movies being made from 2018 of budget higher than 60 cr? Dont you think the television industry should stop paying high satellite prices as even for a film like sultan the impressions are significantlly lower? A. The industry is probably going through a transition, only good films are working. No other tactic like excessive marketing or a popular music album is helping films at the box office. If the film isn’t worth it, the audience is unwilling to pay. That’s been the problem with films like Mohenjo Daro and FAN, two films that even star power couldn’t save. Fitoor, Mirzya, Rock On 2 were rejected outright too – because it did not appeal to any section of the audience. Even reviews like ‘Poetry on screen’ for films like Mirzya is actually a turn off for the audience. In 2017, GST will give film business a boost.. but to what extent it helps is something that remains to be seen. Sultan is a hit on television, the film is doing well on repeat-run. Q. Why is Hollywood movies performance, their collections and trend in India, not analyzed here elaborately? A. Hollywood films are too inconsistent for us to analyse or predict. Only superhero / big action films are working. It’s the trailer, scale and content that’s pulling those films – which makes it difficult / impossible to predict. The opening day of Hindi films is more star cast dependent. Q. Now that Golmaal 4 has been announced, when do you think The Ring will come? Almost all Festivals and weekends are already booked for 2017…Also which movie has highest chance to come on Eid 2018? A. Golmaal 4 was announced long ago for Diwali 2017, only the female lead (Parineeti Chopra) was announced yesterday. Yes, almost all weekends are booked for 2017 – we have an article that’ll be published later today on this. Eid 2018 should have Salman yet again, no confirmation on the film so far. Q. Should we expect more impact on upcoming release ( force and others) with the Ban on 500 and 1000 notes. A. We expect the impact of demonetisation to be around 25% on Force 2. The FBO page has been updated today with the latest figures. Force 2 is down from around 7.6 crore to 5.4 crore. If things improve in the next few days, we’ll update the FBO page. Things should significantly improve ‘Dear Zindagi’ release onwards. It’s not about the lack of money (people can still pay using cash), it’s just that the priorities at this point in time are different. Not many people want to watch films, the focus is more on helping other people.. getting daily essentials, keeping extra cash. Q. If you can predict or assume…which actors will be in Top 3 after 10 years… and why ? A. Established stars aside, our money is on Ranbir Kapoor, Varun Dhawan and Ranveer Singh. Q. What are your initial LBO predictions for Kaabil, with and without clash ? A. Our initial predictions always assume that the word-of-mouth will be mixed to positive, so if Kaabil gets a solo release, then it should do around 130-140 crore. But clashes are very difficult to predict, more so when the other film stars Shah Rukh Khan. The result will be almost entirely dependent on word-of-mouth, as the better film will get all the business. Perception about which film is better, plays a big role too and that’s where the PR and media comes in. Q. What’s the impact on moviegoers with the ban on 500 and 1000 notes. We have been reading its effect on small retailers but do you have any stats on Theaters and Multiplexes across country. A. There has been an impact of 20 – 40% on film business. The smaller the centre, the bigger the impact. That’s the reaction that we’ve been getting from exhibitors. But there haven’t been any films either, Rock On 2 was mostly a multiplex film that was rejected. Q. According to you which date is best release date for The Ring ??? Is it better to release solo on non festive period rather than clashing on a festival period ??? A. Out of suggestions at the moment because there are no good dates left in 2017. Even the Post-IPL date has been taken by ‘Toilet Ek Prem Katha’. So it’s either about releasing the film during a normal weekend or taking another film on and risking yet another clash. Q. Looking at d upcoming movies of Akshay Kumar I strongly feel that gold is a 150-200 crores film if the content clicks and is liked by each and every section of audience since Akshay is first time coming in a sports film.. What are your views on it? A. Such predictions cannot be made before knowing the look and feel of a film. Only a commercially-entertaining films that finds appreciation across the country, can do go on to be huge grossers. His line-up is solid, probably the most varied and best choices among actors, but choices almost don’t make a film successful. A good script or a promising idea doesn’t always translate into a good film on-screen. The trailer of each of those films will give us a better idea on the box office prospects. Q. Hi Indicine, it’s my first foray into your funtastic Q&A section from Malaysia. I think it’s the only Bollywood web that make me hooked and bookmarked. Well done for all the latest updates and news. Hope the visitors to your site appreciate this. My question is: 1. Why Aamir Khan’s films do best by beating his own records by the fact we know that he has got not many fans compare to Rajnikanth, Salman, Shahrukh & Amitabh? 2. If the content then why Fan didn’t make it or BB and Sultan could beat Aamir’s record? A. Thank you. One, Aamir is different from other actors. He doesn’t command a crazy / blind following that a Rajnikanth or Salman do, but it’s his films that appeal to audience that doesn’t even normally watch films. It could also be because Aamir is always the character in his films and very rarely do we find him playing larger-than-life roles. His persona doesn’t come across in his character. But for a Salman, Rajnikanth or SRK.. their persona, charisma, dialogue delivery can more-often-than-not overshadow the character itself – which is why the audience pay to see them, more than even their films. Two, a large section of the audience did not like FAN. It’s a rejected film. It could be the ending or the lack or songs or the film itself.. but FAN didn’t carry any appreciation. 10 more questions were answered today – Join us once again on Thursday for answered to the remaining 10 questions. Thank you for joining us today.

Q. What’s Padmavati’s budget and what are your (very early) box office predictions for it? A. It’s too early to talk about the final budget of ‘Padmavati’. Industry insiders say the budget will be 150 crore plus, but such films can easily go over-budget. No predictions for now. We will never go with a very high early prediction for Padmavati, because the budget of Bhansali films are always high and his films always need good word-of-mouth to recover costs. Q. Which movie will have a bigger opening day and weekend – Kaabil or Raees? A. Raees will lead on Day 1, weekend will go to the better film. Q. Do you think its the right time for Krrish 4? A. There is no right or wrong time for a film like ‘Krrish 4’, as long as they keep a gap of around 3 years between two films. It’s a huge franchise, probably the second biggest in the industry after Dhoom. So anytime they release it, it’ll shatter records. Q. Please clarify regarding the buzz about ‘Befikre’? A. The campaign of Befikre is gaining momentum. The trailer got a mixed response, but it worked with the target audience of the film (urban youth). The music is doing quite well too. Our tweet yesterday: #Befikre songs are gaining popularity, 'Nashe Si Chadh Gayi' is quickly rising up the charts, good response to 'Ude Dil Befikre' too. — Indicine.com (@indicine) November 5, 2016 Q. Is there any upcoming movie of Hrithik with YRF? As there already a YRF movie rejected by Hrithik! And What about Hrithik-Kabir-Nadiawala movie Happening? A. Hrithik opted out of ‘Thugs of Hindoostan’ and the Kabir Khan film is on hold too. It looks like a case of an actor taking too long to sign a film. A script that Hrithik rejected was accepted by Aamir – difficult to understand what went wrong there, we’ll only know once the film releases. Q. When is the trailer of RAEES Coming? What are the internal reports of how the film has shaped up? Please answer. A. The Raees Trailer will be out with ‘Dear Zindagi’. Should be out a little earlier on the internet. The trailer is good. Q. Can Kaabil do 100 crore plus in clash if it’s accepted and where is your trailer review for Kaabil? A. It’s going to be difficult for both films to cross 100 crore if both are accepted, because the target audience of both films are the same and they’ll eat into each others business. Even a big weekend like Diwali is only giving about 200 crore combined. Mohenjo Daro and Rustom did 190 crore. Both Kaabil and Raees run the risk of under-performing if they release together. Q. In Hollywood the top superstars like Leonardo, Brad Print, Robert Downey Jr.mix their line up with both Critically acclaimed as well as commercial movies and they are successful as well. Don’t you think it’s time stars like SRK, Hrithik and others should consider doing critically acclaimed movies as well because they have the talent as well as the stroller to bring in the audience and the parallel cinema in India will breath a life? A. Hollywood and Bollywood cannot be compared. The potential of acclaimed niche films is restricted to 5-10 cities here, whereas the market both inside and outside US is much bigger for less commercial films. In our industry, Aamir has been doing it quite successfully for a long period of time. He had 3 Idiots, followed by Talaash, then Dhoom and PK. Now Dangal followed by Thugs of Hindoostan. Someone like a Salman can’t do this because his audience may not accept him in a film like Talaash. The trick is to balance both in the same film. Q. Will it affect Dangal collection as this year 25th Dec and 1st Jan is falling on Sunday? A. Yes, it’s obviously isn’t it? The advantage of a national holiday is 35-40%, so the film would’ve definitely benefited due to extra holidays. However, the Christmas – New Year period is a holiday for several schools, colleges and offices. So that extra advantage will be there for Dangal throughout the week. Q. Which is more loved Bajrangi Bhaijaan or 3 Idiots? And if 3 idiots is more loved then why the footfalls for 3 idiots were lower than that of Bajrangi Bhaijaan? A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan appealed to a wider section of the audience and was easier to relate to for those at smaller towns and villages. In a country like India, it’s difficult to call one film as the more ‘loved’ one over the other. For example, for a section of the audience, a movie like ‘Ready’ (which was rejected as rubbish by the so-called intellectuals or critics) is liked more than a film like ‘PK’. A movie like ‘Rowdy Rathore’ will always be the better film for the masses over films like ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’. Q. After seeing the opening of ADHM can we say that Ranbir’s stardom hasn’t fallen as much as people expected ? Yes the songs, cast and the name Karan Johar added much to it but still the opening collection was pretty much above expectation. A. Ranbir definitely has a following and is loved. Judging him by the opening that Bombay Velvet got isn’t fair to him, because even bigger stars like Hrithik (Mohenjo Daro) and Akshay (Joker) have failed when the promos haven’t been exciting enough for the audience. Yet, Ranbir isn’t at the level that he was after ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’. The success of ADHM has definitely got his career back on track, let’s wait and see what sort of a opening he can get for the much-delayed ‘Jagga Jasoos’. Q. This is my 1st question on indicine. Love your site, addicted. I know it is already confirmed Raees release date i.e 26th January. But isn’t 13th January a good date as well, gets open 2 weeks and if the content clicks it will get enough screens when Kaabil releases. Your take? A. Thank you. It’s definitely a better date. Absolutely any date is better than releasing both films on the same day. It’s been difficult to understand what both are trying to gain from just one holiday. A lot to lose, very little to gain. Q. Is the trend of paid reviews hurting the industry? I mean production houses will start paying critics 25 lakhs and get the initial boost even if the film is bad which just happened during ADHM.. A. Accusing everyone to be a ‘paid critic’ is pointless now, it’s nothing but an excuse for a flop film. Critics have made a living out of trashing Salman Khan films, but it hasn’t affected his films one bit, has it? Ready and Bodyguard were thrashed, but both were box office blockbuster. The responsibility of ensuring a good opening for a film is on the actor and absolutely noone else. The rest depends on content, if the film is good the audience will come. They trust what their friends say more than critics. And please understand this – Shivaay press screening was organised a day before release (Thursday 6PM), ADHM screening was at 10AM on the day of release and most reviews were only out after noon. If reviewers were to be paid for, it’s better to put it out a day before, isn’t it? Q. Filmfare award for best actor male… Both critics and popular.. who will be your pick for this year? A. We still think Shah Rukh Khan in FAN was the best performance so far this year. It was a very difficult role to play. Now, Filmfare hasn’t been very clear over the years about what goes into the popular and critics category. They once gave the popular award to SRK in Swades. Q. In order to increase revenue of films is it possible to post critics review after first weekend and let words of mouth play their game !! Shivaay has seen damage because of critics. A. Couple of things. One, it was Ajay who organised the press screening a day before release. Since it was his decision, he could have shown it on Friday morning too. Secondly, most commercial films that are successful at the box office, are thrashed by the critics. Their reviews can make a difference to smaller films like Pink, but for such big films – the audience decide for themselves. Q. Who has a more meaty and more important role in Padmavati? Shahid or Ranveer? A. We know very little about the screen-time or length of their roles. The film revolves around Deepika Padukone. Q. What was the response to Wajah Tum Ho trailer.Your LBO and FBO prediction? A. Such films sell at mass centres, so it should take a good opening. It’s currently trending at 4.8 crore on FBO. Q. What is the response to the trailer of Kaabil..and what is its projection for the first day collection? A. The response to the trailer is good, more detailed article out later today. As for first day collections, if it releases with Raees, then we think it could be one of the biggest non-festive days ever (combined). The two films together could do around 35 crore on Day 1. Q. Amitabh Bachchan in Pink, Salman Khan in Sultan, Shah Rukh Khan in Fan, Hrithik Roshan in MD, Akshay Kumar in Airlift, HF3 and Rustom, Ranbir Kapoor in ADHM, Ajay Devgn in Shivay, Shahid Kapoor in Udta Punjab, Sushant Singh Rajput in MSD . A. Shah Rukh Khan in FAN, Shahid Kapoor in Udta Punjab, Sushant Singh Rajput in ’MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’, Ranbir Kapoor in ADHM, Amitabh Bachchan in Pink, Salman Khan in Sultan, Akshay Kumar in Airlift, Ajay Devgn in Shivaay, Hrithik Roshan in Mohenjo Daro, Akshay in Housefull 3. Q. Please atleast this time answer my question..What do you think is the problem with John abraham,he is active from 12 years in bollywood & only Have a 1-2 hit?? What’s the main reason ? A. His solo films i.e where he plays the lead and doesn’t have any other star to support, do not generate any interest. His acting skills or the lack of it, could be the reason. Q. Which movies of Akshay kumar & Ranbir kapoor are confirmed to release in 2017 ? A. Akshay has four releases – Jolly LLB 2, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Crack and Robot 2.0. Ranbir has only one release Jagga Jasoos. Q. Do you guys think that our industry gives enough value/freedom/money to our writers? I have seen many interviews of directors and actors who complain about the same when They are asked about the lack of new and fresh scripts, your thoughts please? A. The need of the day is fresh scripts, because apart from a select few films featuring superstars, almost all others are working only if the film has a good story to tell. The pay isn’t great, but we do not have any big-name writers who can generate interest just because of their writing credentials. The best writers in the industry – Raju Hirani, Shoojit Sircar, Neeraj Pandey to name a few – are also directors themselves. Q. Don’t you think films have become all about business and not art? As an aspiring actor I can tell you that for me films and filmmaking are one of the most powerful art forms there is and art is supposed to touch you, inspire you, make you feel and think something. Today it’s all about making money. A. The Hindi film industry is a business, investors invest because they want to make money out of films. The audience pay to get entertained. Now if a director aims to inspire or touch the way Rajkumar Hirani or Shoojit Sircar do, those films, apart from entertaining the audience, also earn money – which is important for the industry to survive and the theatres to run. But if you make films that Anurag Kashyap or Vishal Bhardwaj do, it might inspire a section of audience, but investors almost always end up in the red and the majority of audience don’t care. Arty films are not even a theatre watch for most, they’ll either wait for the DVD or watch it on TV. Q. Between Raees and Kaabil which movie could be the first choice of multiplex audiences looking at teasers of both the film? A. Cannot answer this question with certainty at the moment. We need to wait and see how the campaign goes for both films. Raees may not be the first choice for the family audience, because it’s dark, about alcohol trade and it also has Sunny Leone. We’ll have to wait for the trailer of Raees and a few more promos to see what’s working better with the multiplex audience. Q. Are there any chances for Shivaay to become at least an average grosser? A. Shivaay has to collect about 50 crore more before it can break-even. Long way to go, still. Q. What is more important recovering the cost or winning a clash. A. Recovering costs and acceptance amongst audience is most important. As long a film recovers costs and is a profitable venture for all involved, it doesn’t matter who wins the clash. But this particular Diwali clash was made into a very personal and ugly one, so it was also about who comes out on top. Q. Is Aditya Chopra is as popular as Karan Johar, will his name will add value to the opening of Befikre? A. Undoubtedly. Aditya Chopra films have a following too. Befikre also has the added advantage of Ranveer Singh returning after Bajirao Mastani. Q. How do you think will Padmavati impact Shahid’s career, as you at Indicine have always criticized his choices rather than his acting ability as a deterrent to his attaining superstardom? Assuming it is good movie like Bajirao Mastani, will he be able to hold his own against Ranveer who seems to be having a more iconic role? Also Rangoon seems commercial, lavish and period love story, so thoughts on that as well please…. A. If Padmavati does well, it will help all involved. But for Shahid to rise in the ranking or standing in the industry, his solo films will have to perform. For the acting talent and charisma that he has, it’s hard to believe that he isn’t even considered equal to actors who made their debut many years after him. It’s his choice of films that seems to be the problem, luck plays a big role in the industry too. Q. If you were to watch just three Hindi movies in 2017, which three would you choose? A. Tubelight, Baahubali 2, Robot 2.0. Q. Doctor Strange had no promotion in India, still it is going houseful. Why so? A. Film Promotion is over rated. These city tours and television appearances that stars do, do not add any value to the opening day. Katrina and Aditya went all out to promote Fitoor, but most theatres were empty on Friday. It’s more important to get the cast right, make a good film and cut good promos. Promotion should only be about creating awareness that a film is releasing in theatres and this can be achieved by airing the promos on television and internet. Everything else is a waste of time and increases marketing expenses as well. Q. Shouldn’t the budget of ADHM be added by 5 crores as it was used to release the movie and the movie got a lot of publicity because of that controversy? Very weird question I know but just want to know your opinion. A. 5 crore was not paid. Q. Will Aamir’s DANGAL able to break all box office records? Bcoz there is no holiday of Christmas, New Year.What you think? A. 300 crore is not going to be a walkover total for Dangal. It’s got to be an exceptionally good film to achieve that total. Q. Why big names in the industry like Rajkumar Hirani, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar not directing Hrithik roshan? He is 10 years junior to khans and has broken opening day , opening weekend , highest single day and life time records with several of his films?? Please respond A. Other big name directors have worked with him – like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sooraj Barjatya, Ashutosh Gowarikar.. just to name a few. Karan Johar also directing him in K3G. It’s not that Khans have worked with all of them too. Q. What are the total collections and verdicts of Baar Baar Dekho, Freaky Ali, Pink, Raaz Reboot, Banjo, MS Dhoni, Mirzya and Saat Uchakkey ? A. Baar Baar Dekho 31 crore – Flop, Freaky Ali 14 crore – Flop, Pink 64 crore – Hit, Raaz Reboot  30 crore – Flop, Banjo 8 crore – Flop, MS Dhoni 132 crore – Hit, Mirzya 10 crore – Disaster, Saat Uchakkey 2 crore – Flop. Q. What is your opinion on Half Girlfriend? What could be opening day, weekend and lifetime? A. It’s going to be a big film. While it’s difficult to talk about a number before the release of the trailer, it should open at 13-14 crore on Day 1 and lifetime (if good) should cross 100. Q. Is Ranbir Kapoor ahead of Ranveer & Varun after ADHM success? Or Befikre will decide between Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh? A. The opening of one film doesn’t decide which star is bigger than the other. Consistency is what makes a star bankable. Varun has been consistent and growing right from his second film. Ranbir is up and down, Jagga Jasoos will decide because ADHM had a popular director and top heroine. Ranveer is very popular and promising, Befikre is his test. But it’s these three at the top among the younger generation of actors. Q. You pick for the highest grosser in the month of this November? Dear Zindagi or Kahaani 2? A. If both films are liked equally then Dear Zindagi should come out on top, because it has plenty of face value. But if your question is November specific, then Kahaani 2 isn’t even releasing this month. It’s coming on December 2. Q. If you had to rate the best movie , best actor , best actress , best director from the past one decade . Which one will you choose ? Name only one from each category . A. If by decade you mean last 10 years, then Best Actor – Aamir Khan (that performance in PK was just flawless), Best Actress Kareena Kapoor Jab We Met / Rani Mukherji Black, Best Director Rajkumar Hirani. Might have missed some better performances, but difficult to think of everything during Live QnA. Q. Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania shooting is over or work is still left. When will Varun start shooting for Judwaa 2? A. Humpty Sharma… shoot wrapped up long ago and the film has already released and become a super hit. If you mean, Badrinath Ki Dulhania, the shoot is currently in progress. Releases March 10 2017. Judwaa 2 will begin after the completion of Badrinath. Q. Which film do think will earn more between Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2? A. Difficult to pick, but Judwaa 2 has a fantastic release date. Plus it’s a sequel to a much-loved film, it has a big cameo.. so it should all add to the interest. Badrinath will also be a massy film, both are potential 100 crore plus films. That’s it for today. 40 questions answered. Thank you for joining us and we apologise if your question was not answered.

Q. Is it true that Raees has been postponed to Eid 2018 as the makers say a lot of the shooting is yet to be shot? A. Not true. We have not been informed about any change in release date. Q. Does piracy of films, increased ticket prices affect smaller films? Collections are decreasing day by day and people are coming out to watch movies in 3 major festivals only. Also it affect some of good films as well like FAN, MS Dhoni etc. What is the future of business of Bollywood, Hollywood and regional films? Now families are willing to spend their money only during Christmas, New year release. How much it will affect Raees? A. That’s not true. The problem is not release period, but content. Some of our big films have been huge disappointments this year. Films like Fan and Mohenjo Daro were expected to collect double of what they did.  Even Shivaay has been way below expectations. But other films like ‘The Jungle Book’, ‘Pink’, ‘Neerja’ have over performed. So the audience is willing to spend only if there is a good film in theatres. For example a film like Robot (Enthiran) was released 6 years ago, but that level of action, visual effects or scale has not been made in the Hindi Film Industry. We have acting talent, we have superstars.. but that vision to take the industry forward doesn’t seen to be there among filmmakers. To add to the woes, most of our films are now targeted at 5-10 city audience, very few universal films are being made. Q. How much ADHM need to attain hit and super hit status? A. Economics-wise, ADHM is a very safe film. It’ll recover its entire investment from Satellite right, digital rights, music and overseas business. It may not even need domestic business to be a profitable venture, but it’s about getting that perception hit number, which is 100 crore. We’ll publish the economics soon. Q. What really happened to SRK’s career, he was the undisputed No.1 and then suddenly it all crashed. I firmly believe it was due to the content of his movies. What is your opinion? Can he really comeback and overtake Salman? A. It’s been a case of Shah Rukh’s level dropping and the other two (Salman and Aamir) rising to an altogether different level. Some of Shah Rukh’s biggest blockbusters in the last few years are Om Shanti Om, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Chennai Express. Now compare the average footfalls (number of tickets sold) of those films, to the average footfalls of Aamir and Salman’s Top 3, and you’ll realise that they are selling a lot more tickets than Shah Rukh did after year 2000. Even a film like Sultan, which wasn’t really carrying excellent word-of-mouth, was watched by many more people than a film like Chennai Express. Choice of films play a big role here, to get those 250-300 crore grossers, you need a film that connect with every section of the audience. Shah Rukh simply hasn’t been doing those kind of films, even Raees and The Ring won’t get him those big grossers. Even though he has the star power, craze and following to become a top star – it’s his choice of films that stopping him. Aanand L Rai film could be his biggie, but there is a lot of time for that film. Q. Why are you delaying the reviews for Dangal and Kaabil trailer? A. The delay was because we have tied up with three exhibitors to get reactions for trailers. Most reactions on the internet are unreliable in today’s times, whereas the reactions that we get at theatres is the most unbiased and gives us the real picture. We get to know exactly what the response is like. In the last couple of weeks, there have been no major releases, footfalls were very low at theatres. The trailer of Dangal and Kaabil were also attached to films that just released on Friday. We have the reactions of both films now, both reports will be out very soon. Sorry for the delay and thank you for your interest. Q. What is your opinion on Dear Zindagi teasers? About the box office prospect of the movie? A. The teasers of Dear Zindagi has received a good response, but the interest to watch the film will only be at major cities. Shah Rukh’s presence might help the film get a opening at ‘Tier 2’ cities too, but isn’t really his film. It’s an Alia Bhatt film, which is being smartly promoted. It will open well because of SRK and Alia, but rest would depend on content. We are expecting a 12 crore opening for the film at this point in time (will change depending on other promos). Please follow our FBO page. Q. Is the failure of Shivaay going to be fatal for Ajay Devgn’s career? A. Too early to call ‘Shivaay’ a failure. Collections tomorrow will decide, but the advance booking isn’t upto the mark so far. But even if it fails, Ajay has seen many failures in his career, it won’t affect his standing, but will be a huge blow for him financially. Q. Rank the younger actors in terms of fan following. A. There are three actors who are leading and they are Varun Dhawan, Ranbir Kapoor and Ranveer Singh. In no particular order. Next few films will decide. Ranbir and Ranveer are huge with the youth, Varun has following amongst kids too. The actor to rise and grow bigger will be the one who taps into the huge market at smaller centres. Q. Do you think that collection of Dangal will get effected due to its genre because we have seen same genre in Sultan? A. Difficult to answer this at this point in time. People have noticed the similarities, but there is no reason not to watch Dangal. It’s a different story, based on real-life people. And since it features someone like Aamir, who the audience has immense trust in, there is no reason why people would want to skip it. Q. How will the failure of Shivaay affect Ajay Devgn’s upcoming films(Golmaal 4 specially)? Also you mentioned that he is making a shift from medium to heavy budget films. Is that also going to be affected? A. Golmaal 4 is a big film, a perfect film for Diwali. This year, that fun and masti sort of film which the audience like to watch during Diwali is missing. As for the shift from medium to heavy budget film, there is a big risk involved too. Ajay doesn’t really command a huge following at cities, so unless he wins over the urban multiplex audience, it’s difficult to recover investment of 100 crore plus from his films. He isn’t a huge star in the overseas markets either. So he either needs a really well-made film or Rohit Shetty franchises like Golmaal or Singham to get him those big grossers. We don’t mean to be harsh on any actor in our QnA, but it’s the truth, ask anyone in the trade and they’ll give you the real picture. Q. How are so sure about Robot 2 releasing on Diwali next year? There hasn’t been any official announcement from the makers yet. Is it a strong belief or because of rumours floating around. A. One of the producers of the film has said they are targeting Diwali next year. Unlike the Hindi film industry, release dates are not firm down south. They change, delays are normal. Q. How is the word of mouth of ADHM and Shivaay? A. Mixed for both. Q. The most disappointing film for you indicine? The one you expected to be a blockbuster but it failed to live up to its hype? A. This year, it has to be Mohenjo Daro. Pre-Trailer hype was huge, but from the time the trailer was released, everything related to the film was a huge disappointment. Q. Nothing to ask Indicine. Just wanted to wish you and your users a very very happy diwali! A. Thank you. Here’s wishing all our readers a very happy Diwali too. Q. Ajay Devgn hasn’t even given many excellent openers, forget bumper, since 2000, without franchise. And now we have the poor opening of Shivaay, so won’t that raise questions on his stardom? A. He has never been a major superstar, he has always been known for his outstanding acting talent more than sheer charisma or star power. He may not be as big a star as others, but not many can be as good in the acting department as him. Q. I heard on tv that there were protest against ADHM in Andra Pradesh and at another place.. Is it true or just rumours? A. There was nothing major. Some minor incidents in a few places. Some journalist, including a film journalist, gave it more attention than it deserved. We haven’t heard of any show getting affected due to protests. Q. Out of the two what would you pick for the future of Bollywood. A) Directors like Rajkumar Hirani, Kabir Khan who make masala movies true to the Indian sensibilities or B) star culture like that of Bachchan, Khans, Kumars etc considering the fact that star culture is already declining (loss of exclusivity due to social media) and considerable change in taste of Indian audience confusing film-makers and stars alike, what actually works – masala movie or content-driven film? A.300-350 crore films or all-time grossers are only possible when both combine to give us a good film. Star power will always be more important for the industry, else Hollywood is far superior in every other department. ‘Phantom’ had the same director, but it finished under 60. Put Salman in the same film and it will easily do 200 plus. Big stars give films a lot of face value and our audience too like having their own favourite stars. We don’t think the ‘star culture’ will die in the industry, there will always be someone or the other who’ll be ruling the hearts of the audience. As for Rajkumar Hirani, he belongs to a different league. Way above every writer / director in the industry. But even he will probably need a star, a Hirani film starring newcomers might be a big grosser, but it’ll struggle to get anywhere close to what he has achieved with Aamir Khan. Q. Why things that Ajay Devgn said and did to promote Shivaay over ADHM , will be forgotten ? If this was SRK , this negativity would have carried a long time. Do you think he crossed the line ? A. Industry still remembers everything that happened when Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son Of Sardaar clashed. Q. Can Shivaay do 300+ as Ajay sir movies always does well on Diwali? A. They’ll celebrate if they get half of that. Even a third of 300 looks difficult at the moment. The first weekend is going to be around 30 crore, it needs 20 crore plus on Diwali holiday to have any chance of crossing 100. Q. How will the trade be looking at Jagga Jasoos after ADHM. Did ADHM bring the much needed positive perception towards Ranbir that he needed? A. ADHM still has a long way to go before it can be called a domestic box office success. The opening of the film wasn’t because of Ranbir alone, Karan Johar is a big director, Anushka Sharma is one of the Top 2 female stars today and music was a massive hit too. It all combined to give ADHM a good opening. That aside, Ranbir is loved as an actor, he’ll only grow bigger from here.  Good actors can afford a few failures, while others like Imran Khan who made his debut at around the same time has already retired. Q. Why didn’t ADHM team promote SRK’s cameo in the movie because SRK even in his bad phase is capable of pulling in huge crowds in the initial days? A. If cameos could help box office opening of films, then Dulha Mil Gaya, Bhoothnath or Billu would be record openers. The audience is smart. SRK’s ADHM cameo was only meant to pleasantly surprise the audience. It wouldn’t help the opening. Q. What is more important for the opening of a commercial film today, trailer or music? Reasons if possible. A. Most definitely, the trailer. Music adds value only if the film is good. Baar Baar Dekho didn’t have one bad song, all worked, yet the film was rejected. People can listen to songs and even watch the song promo on their mobile phones or computers, why spend on costly tickets to watch the same songs on the big screen if the movie isn’t worth the ticket price? Q. As you’re against this idea of clash in Jan, who do ‘you’ feel should move and avert the clash, Raees or Kaabil, and why? A. Good question. Firstly, Raees should never have been announced for January 26. Roshans are close to SRK and Hrithik shares a good working relationship with Excel Entertainment too. Internal fights have crossed all limits in the last year or so. But now since the damage has already been done and ‘Raees’ is already a much-delayed film, we think ‘Kaabil’ could move to the April 14 Good Friday holiday. It’ll give the film GST tax benefits and two open weeks before the release of ‘Baahubali’. If ‘Raees’ and ‘Kaabil’ clash, it’s going to be suicidal. Both films are also targeted at the masses, so both will affect each others business. One film should move to a new date. Q. If both Salman and Srk comes on same day today with all the ingredients of a commercial potboiler then who do you think will win and what could be the margin of win? A. Only Indicine will win because of huge traffic. Q. Among the top directors in India, what is the standing of Karan Johar after ADHM? A. He is one of the biggest directors in India. All his films have opened well at the box office, with or without star power. So his name does command a following. Overseas, he is huge. Q. Can any movie survive with good word-of-mouth against Salman in Eid and Aamir in Christmas? If yes, then why nobody has clashed with them during that period? A. Taking on Salman is very difficult because the competing film wouldn’t get a good release at single-screens and his films would also get higher number of shows at multiplexes. People come to theatres to watch him during Eid, more than even the film that he features in.. which makes it very risky. Aamir has content and like we all know, content is king. Why risk? Better to take on someone else. Q. Does Shivaay has any chance of becoming a hit after such poor opening day figures? A. Very difficult now, unless it does 20 plus tomorrow and follows it up with another 15 crore plus day. It needs one massive day and a couple of goods days to have any chance of recovering costs. Q. Do you think Kaabil Trailer released at an apt time – 3 months before movie release ? And what is the best time to release Raees Trailer ? A. Best time to release is with Dear Zindagi. Even Dangal isn’t a bad choice if they do not have too many units to follow up after the trailer. Q. Who do you think shown more maturity between Ajay and Karan Johar in the latest ugly clash of Shivaay and ADHM ? A. Dignity was in silence. Q. Dear Indicine my question is regarding GST, according to news it will be implemented from April 2017 so how much it will affect the collections of BAHUBALI 2 . thank you A. It’s going to be a huge advantage, but it remains to be seen if ‘tax free’ status will remain in the state. There is no clarity over this for now, but if home state is tax free, then it’s definitely a huge advantage for the producers of the film. Hindi version will benefit for sure. There are four tax slabs that have been proposed – 6%, 12%, 18% and 26%.. Entertainment tax could come under the 26% slab. More on this, as soon as the government takes a decision. Q. Which movie according to you could record higher collection on Monday – ADHM or Shivaay? A. We think Shivaay could lead on Monday. It will be the only choice for the masses, who might come out in big numbers. Q. Shivaay response was so fabulous, everyone was saying Ajay sir is one of the finest directors, social media was booming with go watch Shivaay, married women and men were posting the same too but why collection is low? A. Social media perception can be created these days. On the ground, things were very different. The interest to watch the film wasn’t there, atleast in big cities. The problem for Shivaay was, the trailer was very well-received, but what came after that did not create any impact. In fact, the promos were sometimes dark, gloomy and even unexciting.. just like Mohenjo Daro.  Because of this, the music also did not track. This reflected in our FBO too, we started at nearly 15 crore and came down to 10 crore finally.   That ends today’s QnA. Thank you for joining us. Once again, on behalf of our team, we wish you all a very Happy Diwali.

Two major films, Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay, are scheduled to release in theatres this coming weekend. Both the films have been in news for all the wrong reasons and it’s also been the ugliest clash of all time. Today’s QnA will be dedicated only to the two films. Post your questions in the comments section below. Q. Can Shivaay score over Ae Dil Hai Mushkil? A. If your question is about the first day collections, then we expect ‘Shivaay’ to be around 5% ahead of ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ on Day 1 (final predictions on Thursday). Both films haven’t been able to seize the initiative as far as promos are concerned. Shivaay had a solid trailer that managed to create huge interest, but it’s been downhill since. ADHM’s trailer got a mixed response, but the songs and promos that followed have been received well. What gives Shivaay the edge is action and scale, which should help the film open well at the single-screens. Q. Which is a hotter film in trade at the moment? If both films have good content then which film is going to win the clash? A. The trade has been favouring ‘Shivaay’ since Day 1 and understandably so. Urban multiplex films like ‘ADHM’ have never been a trade favourite. As for the film winning the box office clash, it’s going to be about content. And content is going to carry even more significance in this clash because Friday, Saturday and Sunday will fall under the Pre-Diwali period. So by the time the audience come out in big numbers (Diwali holiday on Monday), the film that’s carrying better word-of-mouth will begin to score big at multiplexes. If both films get mixed word-of-mouth, then the trend over the weekend should give us a clear indication of which film will emerge victorious. Q. How many screens would be allotted to Shivaay and ADHM respectively? A. Shivaay should end up getting higher screens, due to its wider appeal, especially at single-screen theatres. The final screen count could well be very similar to Mohenjo Daro (Shivaay) and Rustom (ADHM). It’ll also be interesting to see how the multiplexes divide the shows. It was 50-50 for MohenjoDaro vs Rustom, it could be the same this time around too. We’ll keep you updated on the screen count, clearer picture on Wednesday, closer to release. Q. Thanks Indicine for keeping us tuned in to your site every Sunday? We really enjoy this question and answer session. Please never end it. A. It won’t end. Thank you for your interest and support. Q. Both movies are not family driven, both have kisses and romantic moments. Won’t it affect them during a festival like Diwali? A. How are ‘romantic moments’ not family friendly? The family audience does not even mind watching kissing scenes on the big screens anymore, even all-time grossers like PK and 3 Idiots had kissing scenes. It’s no big deal as long as they are aesthetically shot and do not look vulgar on-screen. Q. Wasn’t there a scheduled 2nd trailer of Shivaay to come? First one was more of a lengthy teaser type theatrical revealing nothing about the plot of the movie. So can this be said as a missed trick by Shivaay team to release a second trailer just few weeks before and again push up the buzz which has been lacklustre of late with poor promos? A. Ajay was happy with the kind of response the first trailer got, which is why he and his team decided not to follow it up with a second trailer. It would not make much of a difference, the trailer has been liked, it kept the mystery but conveyed what the film was about. So people who want to watch it will get to theatres. Those who rely on word-of-mouth will wait it out and then decide. Update: We’ve been informed that there will be a second trailer out tomorrow or day after. Q. Is it true that Shivaay will lead in single screens and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in multiplex or does Shivaay have a edge even in multiplexes? A. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has a lot going in its favour at multiplexes. Karan Johar is a popular director, Ranbir Kapoor is a more popular star, Anushka commands a huge following and is returning after Sultan. There is the ‘new pair’ factor of Ranbir-Anushka too. Then there is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and extremely popular music. None of this ‘Shivaay’ has. It’s pretty much a one-man-show with Ajay leading and he himself isn’t a hugely popular star with the urban youth. So it’ll be Karan + Star cast + Music of ADHM vs Shivaay the film itself. At single-screens, action will sell and Ajay has a following in the core Hindi belt. Plus the advantage of a film titled ‘Shivaay’ during a festival like Diwali. So it should all help the film lead at mass centres. Q. Collections needed for Shivaay to become a clean hit at box-office? A. We’ll be posting the economics soon. The first target for ‘Shivaay’ will be 100 crore, but it’ll have to surpass Ajay’s highest grosser ‘Singham Returns’ (140 crore) by a fairly decent margin if it has to become a big enough success. Q. Now that both the films are very near to release, what does Team INDICINE think that which will be the better film? Only content wise, not box office wise. A. At the risk of being accused of taking sides, we’d put our money on ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ at this point in time. A lot has happened in the last couple of months, but it’s been difficult to understand a lot of what ‘Team Shivaay’ has said. Right from involving someone like Kamaal R Khan, to all the other things that have been said, it’s been one ugly clash. The other side hasn’t even spoken or responded to the allegations yet. In fact, more has been spoken about the clash, the opposition, and not the film itself. All for what? Morning shows on the first day? After that the content would take over, wouldn’t it? From Ajay’s point-of-view, it could be the pressure of handling it all and a lot of his own money is at stake too. While all that is understandable, a person who is confident of the film that he’s made, would let the film and its content do all the talking. Q. Indicine, I know it is not related to the clash but (please please) could you please do a poll between the two teasers of RAEES and KABIL? (it wont cost you anything but you will fulfil a fan’s desire) A. We don’t think a comparison between the two teasers is right at this point in time. Because the visuals of Kaabil were not shown in the teaser, else we’d have put out a poll immediately after the teaser was out. Raees was more like a half trailer. But anyway, vote below: Q. If both the movies ADHM and Shivaay receive extremely positive word of mouth which movie could collect more? A. Shivaay is the more universal film, so if both films turn out to be extremely well made, Shivaay would race ahead of ADHM on the strength of solid business both at single-screens and multiplexes. In that way, ADHM will be more restrictive, appealing to audience in those Top 20-25 cities. There would be no stopping Shivaay if it’s a brilliant film. If word-of-mouth is mixed, that’s when the higher ticket prices at bigger centres, will begin to benefit ADHM. It doesn’t have to sell as many tickets as Shivaay to succeed. Q. Will ADHM face ban in 4 states in single screens? A. No. We expect it to get a stable release. Q. Does the supporting cast of the film really make a huge difference? ADHM has a strong supporting cast. Shivaay doesnt. But a film like Dangal without any big names in the supporting cast is making news continuously. Dont you think it’s the promotional strategy and audience acceptance of the trailer that matters more than supporting cast? A. It depends. A film like ‘Welcome Back’ or ‘Garam Masala’ benefitted hugely from its supporting actors. Paresh Rawal added tremendous value to films like ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Hulchul’ and others, even though he was only a ‘supporting’ actor. But when it comes to films featuring the top Khans, the supporting cast doesn’t really add much value as someone like an Aamir would over-shadow everyone else. In a film like ‘Rang De Basanti’, another actor had a more substantial role, but it was Aamir who not only got the audience to theatres, but also got all the credit for the film’s success. Not many in India might like him anymore, but Fawad Khan was called the best thing about the ‘ADHM’ teaser by some. Aishwarya has a huge following overseas too. So supporting cast does add value. We can’t compare star cast to trailer or promotional strategy. Marketing is probably the least important of the three, because if you have a good cast and solid trailer, it should create enough awareness and interest amongst the audience. Q. What are your thoughts about the whole controversy related to ADHM. Do you think MNS demands are justified? A. To answer whether MNS ‘demands’ are justified, we need to know how MNS is even in a position to ‘demand’? CBFC has passed the film, government has no problem with Pakistani stars, the movie was shot way before the government decided to isolate Pakistan (which we, as Indians, should wholeheartedly support) and even the army has said it doesn’t need such favours. Moreover, the producer is Indian and the entire lead cast is Indian too. Fawad Khan will neither lose nor gain. We’ve got to add here that Anurag Kashyap’s tweets were probably the most stupid and gave this entire controversy a major political angle. A lot of people have been adding fuel to the fire, and made this silly controversy into a big one. Q. Who has more stardom? Ajay or Ranbir? A. Ranbir in cites, especially with the urban youth. Ajay at smaller centres. Q. Can Ajay Devgan cross 200cr lifetime with Shivaay. A. It’s going to be very difficult, unless it’s a fantastic film. Q. A lot has been said about Ranbir and his stardom. But why people are so damn negative? I mean I agree there is not a single hit in his kitty since YJHD but all of his film opened well but doomed because of poor content (except BB). Even a niche film like Tamasha opened similar to commercial Dishoom. Your views? A. Every actor goes through phases like Ranbir is going through at the moment. But like we’ve already said, it’s about that one film finding acceptance and doing well. His career will be back on track and the perception will change if ADHM works at the box office. Q. Is Shah Rukh Khan’s guest appearance confirmed in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil or is it mere rumours? A. Confirmed. He makes a special appearance. Q. Does ADHM have a chance of getting a bigger opening than Shivaay? A. If the word-of-mouth is very good, then yes, ADHM could begin to show growth late afternoon / evening onwards. It’s going to be a very tough prediction for us. Q. How big of an impact current controversy will have on ADHM if it gets uninterrupted release? Considering the sentiments of some Indians who will not watch it due to Fawad’s presence & the free publicity it has got for same reason? A. Every form of publicity is good. The section of audience who are not going to the watch the film because of Fawad will be negated by the awareness that the controversy has created. Stable release and audience acceptance of the film would be the only two things the makers of ADHM would be hoping for. Q. How much does Shivaay have to collect for Ajay to be in your top five rankings? A. Shivaay needs to collect 210 crore or more for Ajay to beat Akshay to enter the Top 5 in our ranking. Ranbir can enter Top 5 if ADHM earns 203 crore or more. Top 5 looks difficult for both. Q. Guys till now you have not even cared about my question for one time, so i hope this time you’ll.. Don’t consider Shivaay and Adhm because they have generated a lot of buzz…so just answer my question in normal terms. Who is the better or huge crowd puller? It is Ranbir or Ajay? A. We’ve already answered this. Ranbir at multiplexes and major cities, Ajay at smaller towns and single-screens. Q. Why is music response of Darkhaast low even though the song & picturization is good & at par (if not equal) to that of ADHM songs? A. Yes, it isn’t tracking even though it’s a excellent song. Difficult to give reasons for this, ‘Tu Hai’ was a quality song from Mohenjo Daro too.. but it simply did not track. If ‘Shivaay’ is liked and does well at the box office, the songs of the film will eventually gain popularity. Q. What will be the parameter to decide winner of the clash? Will it be total collection or the verdict? A. Shivaay has to collect more than ADHM. Final verdict will be given based on economics of the two films. Q. If ADHM gets good response from only the multiplex audience.. is it enough to win the clash? A. Yes. Q. Did you guys like the strategy of adhm team not releasing the whole music album yet? Is this a planned move to generate more curiosity/popularity or it might be that they are not ready with the music fully? Can this strategy work in the future for all films as today its all about online platform only and no one really buys an audio cd/cassette? A. The music album will be out on Tuesday. Thank you for joining us today. More than 25 questions were answered. We have a lot more for you think week, so stay tuned.

Q. Should we write off Raees? Because it had release trouble, and now Mahira Khan and Indo-Pak issue; so can we say that Dear Zindagi and Raees both will go the Dilwale way? (Even Dear zindagi has Ali Zafar). A. We still have more than 3 months to go before the release of ‘Raees’. The government isn’t banning any film starring a Pakistani artist, in fact the Home Ministry has said they’ll continue to grant visas. So there is no question of writing off Raees, ADHM or any other film. Q. Can a love story movie be the highest grossing of all time nowadays? A. The genre is eternal and the potential is always going to be huge. Even a Marathi film like ‘Sairat’ managed to collect more than 100 crore this year, so there is no reason why a well-made romantic film can’t go on to be a huge grosser. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani was a romantic film that collected nearly 190 crore in 2013. Q. Vidya Balan or Kangana Ranaut, who is a bigger actress? A.Kangana Ranaut, but both are content and word-of-mouth dependent. Q. Will Raees release on Republic Day or not? As theatre owners have decided not to screen the films starring Pakistani actors. A. Only the ‘Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India’ has requested its members not to release the films. That doesn’t mean multiplexes or even single-screen exhibitors will decide against releasing the film. If the relationship between India and Pakistan continues to worsen, then there will be two issues – one, Raees could lose out on a few screens and two, negative coverage for the film in the media could lead to a section of audience boycotting the film. Too early to talk about what could happen so far out in the future, we do not even have a clear picture about ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. Once that film releases and depending on how things pan out, we’ll get a better idea on how it could be for Raees. For now, the trailer of Raees might come out a little later because of the ongoing Pakistani artists controversy / debate. Q.Why M.S Dhoni the untold story founding difficulty in crossing 150 crores besides having 3 open weeks? Is it an over rated film… I mean how is exactly the trend of the film? A. The trend was average in the first week, but the film has sustained quite well in Week 2 and 3. Lack of competition, obviously, has helped. The two big negatives of the film, which people have been pointing out, was the length and the romantic portions. It could have probably collected about 20-30% more than it did if the film was shorter and crisper. Q. Which 5 films releasing in 2017 are most awaited by you? And on which film will you put your money on to become HGOTY of 2017 (Including 2.0 and Baahubali)? A. Tiger Zinda Hai is our top pick for 2017, it will shatter records if its a good film. Followed by Tubelight. Both are potential 300 crore plus grossers. Then comes Baahubali 2, the Hindi version could do 200 crore plus, the popularity of the first film on television will add tremendous value to the box office potential of the 2nd film. Box office is unpredictable, but from what’s on paper, these three films should be in the Top 3 grossers of 2017. Q. Why has Ayushman Khurana not yet hit superstardom (have asked this question many times, hope you answer this time)? A. With all due respect to his talent and hard work, ‘superstardom’ is too far way. Let’s talk about stardom first, he isn’t even a bankable star yet. Long long way to go for him. Q. When we can expect something like poster or teaser or trailer from Jolly LLB 2 makers? A. In November, that’s when they begin their campaign. Q. How hot are ADHM and Shivaay right now? How much would you rate their buzz out of ten? A. Both films are not where they should be at the moment. ADHM is involved in a controversy, so it’s very difficult to say anything with certainty. There is interest to watch the film, the response to the trailer was average but songs have been received very well. The ‘break up’ song may not be the best song in the album, but it was a fun song, exactly what was needed at this point in time. For Shivaay, the makers have not been able to sustain the interest. The trailer was very well received, but rest of the units (except Darkhaast to a certain extent) haven’t really connected. People are confused about what the film is all about. The question is going to be about content, word-of-mouth will decide the fate of Shivaay. Q. After the initial reports of Dangal, do you still bet on Sultan as HGOTY? How much are you expecting from Dangal? A. It’s too early to say it’ll be the highest grosser of the year just going by a few celebrity tweets. Especially since the word ‘decade’, ‘decade and a half’ and ‘century’ has been repeated in each of the tweets. Even if it turns out to be an extraordinary film, it would still need to be an entertaining film to reach 300 crore. Few more days to go for the trailer, that should give us a better idea about the box office prospects of Dangal. Stay tuned to the FBO and LBO page. Q. After super success of Dhoni how do you see Sushant Singh Rajput’s career from here on? A. It has given his career a big boost, a lot more people know him now and he’s touched people with his performance. To find out how much it has helped, we’ll have to wait for the release of Raabta in February next year. If it opens above 8-9 crore (assuming solo), then it’s probably an indication that he has gained a lot from MS Dhoni The Untold Story. Q. Is it true that Sultan and Bajrangi Bhaijaan both have crossed 100 crores on single screens? If yes then how big a achievement is this?pls reply I have been asking this from previous 6 times? A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan are two of the highest grossers at single-screens. It’s a massive achievement because the average collections from single-screens has fallen below 15%, even lower for many of the ‘successful’ films this year. Salman is the only star currently who’s catering to Pan-India audience, whether it’s families, masses or multiplex audience. It’s at the script level he’s achieving that balance, which is helping him not only deliver those big grossers, but also adding to his growing fanbase. Q. Is Robot 2.0 a Bollywood movie? A. No. Q. When GST will be implemented? What will be than the nett & gross collection of a movie like SULTAN which has nett collection 301 cr & gross 420 cr?What about footfalls. A. It’s expected to be implemented from April 2017. It will definitely increase the collections of films, but by how much depends on whether or not the benefit of lower entertainment taxes is passed on to the paying public. For example, if theatres increase the base price of the multiplex ticket and the final ticket rate (including taxes) remains the same as before, then net collections will increase and bigger records will be set. If tickets become cheaper and all the tax benefit is passed on to public, then the footfalls will increase leading to higher collections. So it’s a win-win situation. GST will give a huge boost to the film industry. Q. In last 5 years box office collections of movies are highly dependent on holidays but that was not the case before. Movies releasing on non holiday were also blockbusters. Does that mean Indian audience have lost interest in watching movies in recent years and only like watching it on festivals? A. It’s just that big films featuring big stars are releasing during these festive weekends, to make it an ‘event’. But if Salman releases a Bajrangi Bhaijaan during a normal non-holiday weekend, it would still probably get close to the 300 crore mark. We’ve seen films with normal releases like ‘The Jungle Book’ or ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ (without even a major star) that have gone on to become 180 / 150 crore grossers. This, inspite of the fact that ticket prices weren’t really at holiday levels. So it really shouldn’t be difficult for good films like PK, 3 Idiots, Bajrangi Bhaijaan to be major grossers. In fact, we’d say Bajrangi Bhaijaan’s holiday advantage was negated by the outstanding run of Baahubali. Q. One word to describe these Bankable Superstars our country is proud of. Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ajay Devgn, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan. No specific order; names are based on Seniority debut in the industry. A. We would like to use more than one word, but promise to keep it short: Aamir Khan: Extraordinary script sense. Even those who don’t usually watch films, make it a point to watch his films. Salman Khan: Megastar, biggest name in the industry today. Ajay Devgn: An actor who will be remembered for his performances, Sultan Mirza for example was beyond extraordinary. Shah Rukh Khan: Still the most recognised Indian actor in the world. Loved. It’s about that one film that clicks, needs to happen soon. Akshay Kumar: Making all the right moves at the moment. Should peak in the next couple of years. One of the nicest men in the industry. Hrithik Roshan: Needs to do more films and work with better directors. Still commands a following, but the last couple of years (both on a personal and professional level) hasn’t been great for him. Q. Why are people calling it a end for SRK? I am a die-hard fan & sometimes I get scared & become very sad just by thinking about it. A. It’s far from over. FAN is his only big failure in the last 10 years or so. Yes, quite a few of his films have been below expectations as far as box office collections are concerned, but every actor goes through such phases. He’s still working with top directors like Imtiaz Ali and Aanand L Rai. The success of these three films will be crucial for him, but he isn’t going anywhere. An established fanbase doesn’t disappear with one or two rejected films, they’ll be back in theatres as soon as he does one film that looks appealing. Q. Tubelight is gonna be the first not-so out and out commercial movie of Salman Khan in the SALMAN KHAN ERA. It has a weird title, no Bollywood actress, no love angle, above 200 cr budget. Kabir Khan has pushed the liberty far too much as he himself said its a huge risk to do a film like Tubelight, but I can afford to take such a big risk at the level I am today (because of Bajrangi Bhaijaan and ETT). Do you think Salman Khan went too far in search of a HAT-K movie and took this huge risk? A small mistake and others could start looking at EID weekend as well to release their movie. A. It’s too early to make these assumptions and the budget is not 200 crore. It might be a different film, but as long as its commercial and entertaining, it still has high chances of working. Kabir Khan is a good director and knows what the audience expect from a Salman film. So those audience-pleasing elements will definitely be there. Wouldn’t call the title weird, ‘Tubelight’ does generate quite a bit of curiosity. From what we’ve heard, Salman’s character in the film will be loved. Q. I am big fan of indicine, please post an article on Top 10 actresses of Bollywood.. I think indicine you are a patriarchal mind because you post article on Top 10 actors every year but never on actresses. Do you underestimate the women power or is there any other reason. Please answer I’ve asked this 3-4 times. A. It’s not about being patriarchal or sexist. But it’s a well known fact within the industry and trade that it’s the male actors who are driving the box office collections of films. How else would one explain the box office opening of Fitoor? It did not even get a face-saving opening at the box office, even though it featured a top star like Katrina. Even Baar Baar Dekho collected less than 7 crore on Day 1, but put the same Katrina in Tiger Zinda Hai and the numbers would be record-breaking. So the problem with posting an article on Top 10 actresses is the criteria to rank them. How do we rank them, what numbers do we use? Q. How does a movie work to become super hits, blockbuster and so on. Is it because when a film does more money then the budget they spend on that film. And how about they send 50 core on a film and it make 52 crore in box office is that a average or flop. Can u explain this in more specific details. A. In today’s times it’s a combination of recovery and perception. A film like Ae Dil Hai Mushkil for example would probably recover all its investment from satellite, music and overseas collections. But that doesn’t mean we can declare the film a hit if it collects 50 crore at the domestic box office. At the very least, for the film to be declared a moderate success, the nett box office collections of a film has to be equal to the budget. After that profit can be worked out after including recovery from the various rights and overseas collections. There are other factors involved too, like if a territory has been sold to a distributor, the nett collections has to be more than double the price for which it was sold for (because a share of the collections goes to the exhibitors / theatre owners). In olden days, verdicts used to be ‘strict’ but these days its based on perception and overall recovery. Q. Why didn’t Vivek Oberoi starrer Prince open well back in 2010 when it had a chartbuster music album and big budget? To be honest, I liked the concept. A. Because of Vivek Oberoi. Q. Was Akshay Kumar bigger than Aamir, Hrithik and Salman in overseas during his peak stage? A. Mid-2000s, yes. Second biggest after SRK. That ends the QnA session for today. We got a lot more questions than we expected today. Some of them will be answered during the week. Thank you for posting your questions.

Refresh the page once every 10 minutes for the latest answers. Q. Why are you including ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ Telugu + Tamil version collection in Hindi’s version collection? A. The collections that we release on the website includes business from all versions, Hindi plus regional. The reason for this is, releasing a film in Telugu can have an impact on the business of the Hindi version in Andhra/Nizam circuit. Also, the cost of dubbing the film into regional versions and releasing it, is included in the budget.

After a week’s break, we are back this week with AskIndicine. Begins 4PM Indian Standard Time. Post your questions in the comments section below Q. How much did Flying Jatt lose and what’s its verdict? Flop ie below average? A. The verdict is ‘Flop’. The budget was around 50 crore and recovery through worldwide theatrical business was less than 20 crore (share, not net collections). Q. Do you think Excel made a mistake by announcing the release on 26 Jan for Raees…They could have released the movie on Christmas with Dangal as it was guaranteed to collect better than Republic Day weekend… Overseas collections also will be better for Christmas Weekend compared to January. A.We have written several articles on this, including one before the announcement, where we mentioned that the last thing the makers would want to do is, get involved in another clash. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what has happened and it’s hurting a film that had generated quite a lot of interest after the teaser. September 9th was the best date for the film – open 4 day weekend, Bakrid period, plus the movie would’ve released before the relationship between India and Pakistan worsened. Now, with the lead star of the film being a Pakistani actress, the film is in trouble. How will SRK introduce his leading lady to the Indian media and audience? How will they promote the film? What if, god forbid, there are more attacks or the relationship between the two countries worsens further? More than the protests from political parties, the real worry is the public anger. The makers have only themselves to blame for the mess that they find themselves in. You can’t avert one clash and get involved in another (when there were other better dates), you can’t release the teaser 1.5 years before its theatrical release. Q. Are Shivaay promotions proper & adequate in today’s times or it has been under marketed ? Can it go past 200 crore now as ADHM is not that hot in trade ? A. Film promotion is over-rated, Diwali films do not really need to be over-promoted, as a lot of people want to watch films during this period and are well aware of the films that are scheduled to release. Whether it crosses the 200 crore mark or not, depends on content which has to be extraordinary, for it to even have an outside chance. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil cannot be labelled as ‘not hot’. The trailer and songs have generated quite a lot of interest at urban centres and from overseas alone it could recover nearly half of its investment. Q. In how many years do you think the Hollywood movies will start dominating Indian movies in India.. or will it never happen.. ur views? A. As long as we keep producing stars and keep improving in the content department, the threat won’t be big. Hollywood films doing well is good for exhibitors and multiplex chains. Q. Arrange in terms of best year for Akshay – 1994, 2007, 2012, 2016? A. 2007 was his best year, because it was the only year his films not only opened record levels, but he also had a 100% success ratio. Followed by 1994, he had a record number of releases, some flopped, some did very well. After that comes 2016, 100% success ratio and fairly decent grossers. Finally 2012, one disaster (Joker), one under-performer (Khiladi 786) and two hugely successful films. Q. What is the Budget of Raees? Why are they changing the movie release date again, why did they not release it on Bakri Eid instead of Baar Baar Dekho? Don’t you think they are being unfair to the biggest film in their kitty? A. The budget of Raees ‘should’ be close to 100 – 110 crore including marketing, it has increased because of the delay. More accurate figure, closer to release. For now, we haven’t received any official word on postponement of the film. They denied it yesterday. But there have been reports within the industry that the makers are ‘looking’ to see if they can find better dates. Q. Hi I’m from Sri Lanka . I’m a big fan of war movies like saving private Ryan , Enemy at the gates and one of my all time favorite Border . My question is why cant Bollywood make great war movies like Border with advanced technology ? Why the war genre has been neglected by the Bollywood directors ? Even Bajirao Mastani didn’t have any large scale epic combat scenes. A. You could watch a film like ‘Baahubali’, it had scale and a great story to tell. In the Hindi film industry, scope and talent is definitely there, but the problem is, budget constraints. A big war film probably needs 100 – 130 crore solely kept aside for its cost of production, excluding talent-fee. But a huge chunk of our budget goes towards actor-director fee. For example, there were reports that Ashutosh Gowarikar cut down on costs by compromising on VFX of his film, but Hrithik took home a huge fee which was nearly 4-5 times more than the VFX budget. Q. I just have an inner feeling that Shivaay will be among the Top 3 highest grosser of the year. My question to you indicine is what is your current view on Shivaay? Has Ajay Devgn so far impressed you with all what has been evolving from the very day he released his motion logo to just released Raaten video song. Your honest opinion please,it will be of good help in my mindset too from your point of view. A. ‘Shivaay’ needs to collect upwards of 130/135 crore to recover its costs, so merely entering the Top 3 highest grossers of the year wouldn’t be good enough. It’s a big budget film and it needs to be a good film to work. Basically, Ajay has to deliver his highest career grosser without the advance of Singham’s franchise value (which is currently his biggest) and a clash against Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. It’ll have to be well received like say ‘Bajirao Mastani’ for it to work. So far, the trailer has received a huge response and the songs have been fairly well-received too. Our opinion – it’s either going to be a huge disaster or a huge grosser. Q. Shahrukh Gave up Eid 2016 for Salman. His film The Ring does not have a release date still and Salman has already occupied EID and Christmas. Is it fair because once again his film does not have a proper release date? A. There is no ‘giving up’ business in the industry. Salman pretty much snatched it away because of his track record during Eid and current stardom. The bigger star (present standing) will take the bigger dates. In the current scenario, major stars need to be in a position to scare away the opposition. Else it’s very difficult to get a solo release during Eid, Diwali, Christmas or even the other major weekends. Q. Which will be the bigger movie in North India- Golmaal 4 or Robot 2? A. Too early to talk about it, we need to see the promos, especially those of Robot 2. Golmaal is a hugely popular series and has a following Pan-India. It’ll have no chance in the south because nothing can compete against Rajnikanth, but North and the rest of the country should be more even i.e if the two films come out during Diwali. Q. What is the current status of Ranbir’s movie Dragon. Tiger Shroff is again working with Sabbir in a masala movie. Isn’t he too repetitive and limited. Please answer this time. A. The superhero film with Ayan Mukerji is happening. We do not have dates. As for Tiger’s film with Sabbir Khan, it’s been titled ‘Munna Michael’. It may not really get repetitive for the masses, because they like watching such films and other actors are mostly catering to the multiplex audience. Q. With all respect to Amitabh Bachchan he is a legend no doubt but don’t you think his stardom in 1970s and 1980s is little overrated compared to Khans? I think so because most of his major blockbusters were multi-starrers and the biggest being Sholay. While khans have given maximum solo blockbusters. Whats your opinion on this? A. Not at all. Amitabh Bachchan was one-man-industry. The footfalls he used to generate was more than the biggest blockbusters of today. Khans have been more evenly matched over the years. During his prime, it was Bachchan, a big gap and then everyone else. Q. Is Mirzya a commercial film? A. It’s meant to be, but it’s not looking like one. Actors have been asked to tweet about it, to increase the awareness and generate some interest. But it’ll all be about content. If people don’t like the film, it’ll be a huge disaster, if they like it.. it’ll still be difficult to recover costs. The film needs to collect upwards of 70 crore. Will not be easy. Q. Why do you still underestimate Shivaay? Do you really think that after dull trailer and the protests by MNS, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has any chance to give a fight against Shivaay which hasn’t put single foot wrong so far? Don’t you think its logical to say that Shivaay will open more than 20 cr now? A. We keep getting similar questions for almost every big film. People asked the same questions even when we opened FBO of Mohenjo Daro at 14 crore and it went gradually down from there. It’s not possible for Shivaay to take a 20 crore plus opening, if it doesn’t release on the Diwali holiday. Since it’s releasing on a non-holiday Friday, the best the two films combined can collect is probably around 27-28 crore (best case being 30). Anything more would be really very surprising. Out of that, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil will take about 50% of the shows at multiplexes and business will be divided. A film directed by Karan Johar starring Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma can never be under-estimated. It’s a big film. It’ll open well.  Music, emotion and romance.. does appeal to a large section of the audience. Too early to talk about protests etc, because it depends on how the PR handles it. Fawad Khan won’t be promoting the film and he only has an extended special appearance, he isn’t playing the lead. So we’ll have to wait and see how it goes. Q. Any inside news you have about the release date of Srk-Anushka-Imtiaz movie? A. Last heard, they are still looking at the September 29 weekend next year. Q. Heard that there was some sneak peak of ‘Raees’ for some of the distributors and exhibitors… is that true? A. Yes, about 15 minutes of the film was shown to exhibitors. This was to try and convince the single-screen exhibitors to opt for Raees instead of Kaabil. Raees is a massy film. As for the reports – the Sunny Leone song is a hit, say people who have watched it. The rest was average. Q. After seeing the collections of MS Dhoni,isnt it important to make a good film and promoting it well even if getting a normal week rather than fighting for single day holiday periods and clashing? A. Dhoni is an exceptional case, it has opened well because of Dhoni’s popularity in every nook and corner of the country. As for clashes vs solo release – it’s better to opt for a solo release on a normal week, especially for bigger films. If the content of the smaller film is good, it’ll almost always have a great chance of upsetting the bigger film – like we’ve seen with Bajirao Mastani and Rustom. Q. Why Eros International backed out from SHIVAAY? Aren’t they happy with the product or they didn’t want to ruin their relationship with Karan johar? A. Ajay wanted a price (for the worldwide rights) that Eros weren’t willing to pay. Q. Is Shraddha Kapoor right now the most popular actress among all sections of audiences? A. Not at the top, but right up there in the Top 3. People at mass centres love her! Q. Your predictions about Jolly LLB 2? hope you answer bcoz i have asked it for 3rd time A. We’ll be adding films from the first half of 2017 to our LBO page. Q. Is Ranveer Singh a big star after success of Ram Leela and Bajirao Mastani? Can his solo project can be big opener on his own in range of 12-13 cr without big director/ Deepika? A. We’ll know after the release of ‘Befikre’. It does have a big director, but Vaani Kapoor is not very popular. Ranveer is popular for sure, but needs to get more consistent with the opening of his films. Q. How much credit should go to Dhoni for such an excellent opening of MS Dhoni The Untold story & how much credit should go to Sushant ? A. Sushant was brilliant in the acting department, but the credit for the opening almost entirely goes to Dhoni. He’s incredibly popular across India. Else, the opening would be around Azhar’s level. Q. Is Sushant still a ‘small rising star’ even after super success of Dhoni? 4 films so far 2 hits, 1 bumper hit, 1 flop & 1 atbb in supporting role plus acting appreciation in all his films with Dhoni being a great performance A. Let’s not give any actor more credit than he deserves, especially those who have done less than 5 films. Let them grow a fan base and get more consistent with opening. Sushant has done just 4 films, Dhoni and PK did not open because of him. Let’s wait and see how Raabta goes. Q. Do you think the outrage against Salman after his comment on Pak Artists justified? Please be frank? A. Not at all. He was misquoted. People need to read the full statement that he gave. It was balanced and sensible. Having said that, actors do not really need to comment on current affairs, which includes sensitive political issues. What is the need? Media lays a trap, actors continue to fall for it. Media gets TRPs, actors get involved in a controversy and have all the explaining to do. Win-win for media. Nothing to gain for actors, atleast those who do not need publicity. Q. You always say that star power applies only for the release day of a film and then the content takes on… but do you think that if Akshay or Ranveer or Ajay acted in Sultan, would it have collected atleast 200 crore? A. It’s an interesting question, because only the big stars have been able to deliver those 200 plus grossers. Actors like Salman, SRK or Aamir appeal to a large section of audience, so the neutral audience when they see a film that’s out there that’s being liked by the audience.. they are more like to come out to watch the film when it has a big recognisable name like Salman.  So the value of a superstar rises quite significantly if the film is liked. You can’t expect actors like say a Varun Dhawan or Ranveer Singh to deliver a huge 300 crore plus grosser, it’ll take time. The fact that actors like Salman can sell a ticket for a much higher price also helps. Q. Dangal inside report? How the movie has shaped up ? A. Reports are outstanding. We’ve not heard a single negative comment on Dangal so far. Q. Which one is bigger Disaster – Bombay Velvet or Mohanjo Daro? Expectation wise & BoxOffice Wise (RoI) ? & why? A. In terms of money lost, definitely Bombay Velvet. Mohenjo Daro did 60 crore, which 95% of films still don’t earn. Bombay Velvet was a complete washout at 25 crore. Expectations-wise, Mohenjo Daro was a major disappointment, undoubtedly the biggest of the year. Q. Can Tubelight Cross 50cr. on opening day – because Tax will be reduced to 18-20%? what can be expected range? A. Not clarity on when GST will be implemented just yet. We’ll keep you updated. Net collections will definitely increase when GST comes into effect. 50 crore net will become much more easier. But we hope ticket prices are reduced and the paying-public is given some benefit too. When tickets become more affordable, it’ll increase footfalls (i.e more people will come to watch the film) Q. Can MSDhoni earn 150cr at box office ?? Will the give the necessary boost to the career of Sushant Singh Rajput ? A. Our LBO prediction is coming up in sometime. Stay tuned for that. A hit film benefits everyone, so it’ll definitely help Sushant. He’ll get more offers and hopefully get to work in bigger films. Q. Can Befikre open to 20cr nett and establish Ranveer Singh as a Superstar? A. We would not go to the extent of calling any of these younger stars as ‘superstars’ atleast for the next 2-3 years. It just wouldn’t do justice to stars who truly command a following. It’s not just about collections, but more about following and love that some of the older actors command. Varun aside, none of the other actors have been consistent with the opening of their films. Ranbir is probably the only actor who almost reached that ‘superstar’ stage after Barfi, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and the opening that Besharam got.. but it’s downhill since. That ends our QnA session for today. 30 questions were answered. Thank you for joining us. Stay tuned to our LBO prediction of ’MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’

AskIndicine begins right now. Post your questions in the comments section below: Q. When can we expect the trailer for Raaes to release? A. It’s releasing in November this year. Q. How important are actresses for collections in a Khan film? A. Popular female stars like Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, Shraddha Kapoor (and others) are not bankable stars on their own (solo films), but they do add tremendous value to commercial films featuring top stars in the industry. Salman’s pairing with Daisy Shah didn’t work and it could well be the pairing that didn’t excite the audience – apart from poor production values and direction. An attractive leading lady attracts the masses, while good performances (Deepika in Chennai Express / Cocktail for example) can also add to the word-of-mouth and help increase the business of films. Q. Is it true that Sanjay Leela Bhansali film Padmavati and Sanjay Dutt Biopic is releasing along with Tiger Zinda Hai A. Padmavati is scheduled to released a week before Tiger Zinda Hai. But unless ‘Tubelight’ fails (which is highly unlikely), it’s impossible to take on Salman Khan given the kind of stardom he commands at the moment. The budget of Padmavati is said to be 175 crore plus, so it remains to be seen what sort of release strategy the makers of the film opt for. If the content is outstanding, it doesn’t really need a favourable weekend – but it doesn’t make sense to suffer the squeeze that the Salman Khan film can put Padmavati under. Basically, every single-screen that releases Hindi films would want to show Tiger Zinda Hai and multiplexes will give it higher number of shows too. Plus the backing of Yash Raj Films and Ali Abbas Zafar as director. Not worth the risk. Q. The makers of Raees haven’t officially published the date of 26th January anywhere, but everyone is saying like have confirmed.. what could he the next best date which is empty for Raees in start of 2017? A. On May 4 this year, Shah Rukh, Ritesh and Farhan released a statement officially announcing that Raees has been shifted from Eid this year to Republic Day next year (Read article). The makers are currently not looking at any other date. Raees is scheduled to arrive on 26 January 2017. Q. Can Rakesh Roshan wrap Krrish 4 in time to release on Christmas 2018. Considering the extent of VFX to be involved in the film. Or did he declare the date just to create hype around the film. A. There is plenty of time to shoot and complete Krrish 4 – more than 2 years and 3 months for Christmas 2018. But it looks like the unexpected announcement was to try and mount pressure on SRK to make him push Raees to a different date. You can’t just be looking at a Krrish Ganapti idol and suddenly announce a film as big as Krrish 4. Q. Why sequels are not working anymore? A. It’s not that sequels or franchise films aren’t working. The content hasn’t been upto the mark. Raaz Reboot had dull promos and the music album was arguably the weakest of the series. Great Grand Masti was leaked more than a week before its theatrical release. Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 was a poor film. Housefull 3 did fairly well, but it wasn’t liked as much as the previous film in the series. Q. What is Hrithik Roshan doing next apart from Kaabil? Is it only Krrish 4 in 2018? He said he has a surprise for fans? Do you have any idea about that? A. Nothing apart from Kaabil. He might do a film that’ll release between Kaabil and Krrish 4. Q. What makes Salman Khan different from other stars? A. He’s one of the few stars in the industry (probably the only star) who keeps the interests of his fans and his audience above everything else. Aamir only signs films that excites him, same with Hrithik. Shah Rukh does varied films – most of those may not even appeal to every section of his huge fanbase – like FAN, which was a film meant for fans, but his die-hard fans in smaller towns did not even come out to watch it in theatres. He also likes to work with directors who he’s comfortable working with (something that has probably changed in the last couple of years). Akshay keeps going, mixing it up and daring to be different – even if it means some of his films like Baby, Special 26, Airlift completely desert his core fan-base at smaller towns. Salman functions differently. He’s been opting for human stories, that are high on both action and emotion – that balance of appealing to the masses as well as the classes is being achieved, which is giving him those huge 300 crore grossers. It also helps that every section of the audience is liking his films – kids, youth, families. Even the senior citizens of the country love his films because they are clean. He doesn’t care about what critics or the so-called intellectuals think. There’s a lot to learn from Salman’s career for younger actors out there, especially someone like Shahid who’s been wasting his talent by working with directors whose films doesn’t interest 95% of the audience. Q. Women-centric films are always content driven, thus falling into niche genre. Do you think if made on big canvas, a commercial women-centric film can work big time in India, like Lara Croft, Hunger games etc ? A. Wasn’t Sonakshi Sinha’s Akira meant to be that film? It had a big director, action for the masses.. it didn’t work. For higher budget ‘female centric’ films, a good initial is important.. or at the very least, there should be signs that the audience is willing to come out for a film that has female star as the only known face. But when even critically acclaimed and multiplex loved films like Piku are maxing out at less than 80 crore, it doesn’t make sense to invest a lot of money. The risk is too high and the chances of success too low. Q. Can MS Dhoni movie cross 150 crore at the box office? If the film is strongly liked by the audience as well as critics? Please answer my question this time at least A. The film will get a solid initial, a 10 crore plus opening looks certain at the moment.  But 150 crore is a huge total and for the film to get to that number, it has to find appreciation across the country.  Difficult to predict without watching the film. Q. Why you don’t have filmographies of actors like Anil Kapoor, Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan, Jitendra, Dharmendra, Sunny Deol etc. A. We have gathered quite a lot of data from old film magazines, interactions with trade analysts etc but the data of older actors is not complete. We are also working on updating the current filmography of actors with more accurate collections and verdicts. But as long as we stick to official figures, it’s difficult to push it online. It’ll be very controversial too. We are looking at including trade estimates in our box office reports – but the concern is, we can’t be publishing our own figures and then evaluating the accuracy of our FBO. Do post your suggestions, if you have any. Q. What are the total collections and verdicts of Dishoom, Mohenjo Daro, Rustom, Happy Bhaag Jayegi, A Flying Jatt and Akira ? A. Dishoom finished at 70 crore. Above average. Mohenjo Daro 58 crore Disaster. Rustom 127 crore  Super Hit. Happy Bhaag Jayegi 28 crore Above Average. A Flying Jatt 37 crore Flop. Akira 27 crore Flop. Q. Is it impossible for a non holiday release to score big at box office? Big means shattering all records ie.. like Bajrangi Bhaijaan or PK.  A. In the past, records were achieved without holiday or favourable release period, so there is no reason why a film can’t go on to be the highest grosser of all time if released during a normal weekend. The Jungle Book did nearly 190 crore, it released in April. Tanu Weds Manu Returns did 150 crore. If the sequel of 3 Idiots is releasing bang in the middle of April and it carries the kind of word-of-mouth the previous film did, there is no reason why it can’t do 350 crore plus. A good film that appeals to majority of audience, will always find a way to succeed – irrespective of release date. We’ve got to understand that the big weekends are big, because big actors have made it big with their presence and films. It doesn’t mean any actor can come with any film during Eid and it’s a sure shot blockbuster. There are way too many questions coming in and we can’t possibly give detailed answers to most of them.. so shorter answers from now on. Q. Since Bahubali: The Conclusion is releasing on a non holiday what are your expectations for the opening day? A. Hindi version could well be 20 crore plus. Q. Which directors have the highest success ratio? Can you name them along with their successful films? A. There are a lot of directors who have nearly 100% success ratio – Rajkumar Hirani, Rakesh Roshan in the last 15 years, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Kabir Khan.. just to name a few. Q. Any news about when the teaser or trailer of Dangal is releasing ? A. Trailer will be out next month. Q. If Raees and Kaabil clashes which film will take the good initial considering genre and starcast of both films. What is your opinion before revealing the trailer of both movies. A. All factors balanced out, Shah Rukh Khan is still the bigger star.. so his films should quite easily take the bigger opening. But a lot can change after the trailer, songs and eventually the content. Star power alone can’t win a clash, content takes over Day 2 onwards. Q. How would you rate the marketing strategy of Befikre? A. Poor, they have started way too early. Q. Is the reason for lack of good horror films from Bollywood the reason why the Kanchana films have found such a huge response on Television? Not just for horror films, does this also apply for hindi dubbed action masala films from South(Main Hoon Lucky the racer, Fighterman Singham, etc)? A. Kanchana 2 did well at the Tamil box office too. It’s not just horror, but a mixture of many genres, massy and entertaining for a lot of people. These are the kind of films that do well on television. Q. Why do films like Airlift, Neerja and Kapoor and Sons get such a lukewarm response on Television? A. It’s too boring for the television audience and the appeal is limited to metro cities. Q. How much screens AA Films targeting for Raees ? A. It’s way too early to talk about screens. Long way to go. Q. Shahrukh Khan next film ‘The Ring’ should release on Eid 2018. I know Eid belongs to Salman but he has no release on Eid 2018. His film Tiger Zinda Hai release on Xmas 2017 so, he had enough time to complete one film in span of five months. 2017-18 is like a year of 2012-13 when salman had no release on Eidid 2013 Shahrukh came and shatter all records. So, Shahrukh had best chance to release his film The Ring on Eid 2018. What do you think. A. Eid 2018 is too far ahead, Imtiaz – SRK film will be ready for release in the second half of 2017. They were first looking at Independence Day weekend and then Dussera release (September 29). Both dates are now taken by Crack and Judwaa 2. There aren’t too many dates left in 2017, else it’ll be a clash. Q. Is Kaabil a low budget film i.e around or below 50 crore as it have Roshans as producers and shot in Mumbai ? A. It’s not a low budget film. Wait for the trailer. Q. What are the response to 2 song promos of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil so far? A. Positive. The songs have done very well, the visuals not so much. Q. Who is more popular among masses… Ajay or Akshay? A. Akshay Q. Do you think Airlift can win awards like Filmfare or National award? A. It may not even get a nomination, like Baby last year. Q. Top actresses presently based upon their acting talent and box office? A. Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma. Q. If a movie gets record views on you tube how the producers are getting benefitted from that. Do they have any profit sharing ratio? A. The revenue from the advertisement that you see before and during the videos, is shared between the publisher of the video and YouTube (Google). Q. Do you think the tittle of a movie can make a difference in collection? A. It can. The working title of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was Running with the bulls. If that title was retained, the impact wouldn’t have been as much as the Hindi title. Same with SRK-Imtiaz film ‘The Ring’. It’ll be changed. Aamir once said every Hindi films should have a Hindi title, it increases ticket sales at smaller centres. Q. What are the Top 5 highest grossing movies of Ajay Devgn? A. Singham Returns, Golmaal 3, Bol Bachchan, Son Of Sardaar, Singham. That’s the end of today’s QnA. 30 questions were answered today, thank you for joining us.

This week, we start taking questions as soon as they start coming in. Live QnA begins in about 10 minutes from now. Post your questions in the comments section below: Q. Why are item numbers so important in movies these days? A. Item numbers are not important and the trend itself is fading. ‘Jaanemann Aah’ didn’t help Dishoom at the box office. Only a select few songs like Fevicol Se, Munni, Chikni Chameli, Sheila Ki Jawaani have actually added value to films as far as the box opening is concerned. And all those films were targeted at the masses and featured major stars. In recent times, even a good music album (Baar Baar Dekho for example) is not helping films open well at the box office. For multiplex films, good music alone isn’t selling tickets anymore, but it does add value if the promos are appealing and the content is good. Q. What is update on Raees and Kaabil clash? News is out that Kaabil release will postpone. Is it true? A. Officially, the clash is still on. The shoot of ‘Kaabil’ is going on smoothly and the film should be wrapped up in October. As for Raees, industry-insiders say the film has shaped up really well. Q. Who is bigger star Ranbir, Ranveer, Varun, Shahid? A. It’s between Ranbir, Ranveer and Varun.. We’d say Varun because he’s been very consistent with the opening day of his films – Student Of The Year was 7.5 crore, Main Tera Hero was 6 crore, Humpty Sharma was 9 crore, a niche film like Badlapur opened at 7 crore, ABCD 2 was 14.5 crore and Dishoom was 11 crore. Ranbir isn’t really the star that he was in 2013. Bombay Velvet and even Tamasha (with a top female star like Deepika) were way below expectations. It’s Ranveer’s time to be more consistent now, because some of his films in the past (Kill Dil 6 crore, Lootera 4 crore) haven’t really opened. Q. What is the status of Shraddha Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor in Bollywood in terms of popularity? A. Shraddha is one of the most popular female stars in the country. At smaller centres, she’s way ahead of Alia Bhatt and could be in the Top 3 after Deepika and Anushka. Ranbir, like we already mentioned, isn’t the star that he once was. But he’s a terrific actor, one of the best in the industry, which is why he’s the top choice among young stars for big directors like Rajkumar Hirani and Karan Johar. Q. On which basis National award for best actor is given? They consider only acting or they also consider the plot and message and story of the movie? A. We are not too sure about the criteria, because a film like Swades should have won Shah Rukh Khan a national award for Best Actor, but it went to Saif Ali Khan for Hum Tum. That was probably the only odd year when a commercial film won the Best Actor award. Even Amitabh Bachchan for Piku was a surprise, there were better performances last year. Q. Is Kaabil postponed? Is it low budget or high budget? What is the real reason behind Hrithik rejecting Thug? Why media is so negative regarding Hrithik nowadays? A. Kaabil’s release date remains 26th January 2017, until the day Rakesh Roshan officially announces a change in plan. Hrithik wasn’t convinced with the script of ‘Thug’. Q. In which language does regional movies get released in overseas? A. In the same language i.e Tamil films release in Tamil. Subtitles are included. Q. Apart from Salman and Aamir, did Hrithik, Akshay or Ajay ever give a tough competition to SRK or beat his opening collections in overseas? A. Shah Rukh Khan is in a different league when it comes to popularity of Indian actors in the overseas markets. For a lot of non-Indians, Bollywood still means Shah Rukh Khan. That will probably never ever change. He has been ruling the overseas markets for nearly 2 decades and even now his films open very well. He’ll shatter overseas records the day he gives a very good film that trends well there. Aamir has gained a following by doing quality films, people love him for his films. Salman was never a major star overseas, but that has changed quite drastically after the release of Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Q. Please rank KK Menon, Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Irffan Khan, Rajkumar Rao acting wise. Please compare them with current superstars in acting department and their importance to Bollywood. A. Our pick, in order of preference – Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkumar Rai, Manoj Bajpayee, KK Menon. Comparing them to top superstars is like comparing apples to oranges. Actors like Irrfan or Nawaz can never create mass hysteria or even ensure a good opening. Their films will almost always open slow and then grow on word-of-mouth. Q. Are Jolly LLB 2 and Raabta seriously about to clash or will it be averted in future? A. The clash is still on, but Raabta could be push to a later date. Q. As per your opinion, which movie get higher buzz among ADHM and Shivaay as the title tracks for both films are out. ADHM songs is already superhit which justified the theme of the movie, Shivaay also done the same for me. So what’s your opinion about the Shivaay song and overall buzz of both films. A. Shivaay will appeal to a wider section of the audience, plus the trailer has received a very positive response – both of which are big advantages to have during a weekend like Diwali. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is a big film too, but it remains to be seen if the film will appeal to audience outside major cities. Trailer will be the key. Buzz-wise, Shivaay is ahead at the moment. Q. Does Crack have the potential be a 150 crore grosser? A. Unlikely. But it’s too early to talk about the film without even watching the trailer. Q. Do you think Raaz Reboot can take a good initial on its opening day? A. The response to the trailer and music has been lukewarm. It could still open well because of the popularity of the franchise, but we don’t think Raaz Reboot is going to open the way Raaz 3 did. Q. Won’t the release of Jolly LLB 2 just after Rustom be a negative factor for it as both are going to revolve around courtroom, it might be something similar that happened to Holiday and Baby. A. It’s not going to be a negative factor, in fact it could be a positive because the audience in cities now believe Akshay does good films. The variety and quality of his films has improved. The change of perception has come in 2016. The coming year could be huge for him if content is upto expectations. Q. As a big fan of your site.. I want to know something my question is once you said your site is going to complete 10 years in 2016 so on which day and what are the plans ? A. We completed 10 years on 20 August. There were no celebrations. Thank you for visiting. Q. What is the role of a director because the actor does acting, then there are cameramen, writers, etc etc and many times even the screen play is written by others. So why the director is important? A. A director is like a supervisor who gives directions to his cast and crew. It’s his / her responsibility to ensure that every department of filmmaking comes blends together. The director visualises the film and then works closely with his actors, cinematographers etc. A film belongs to the director. If the direction isn’t good enough, even a good script won’t translate into a good film. Q. What was the verdict of Singh Saab The Great, Ghayal Once Again for producers and distributors. What is the line up Sunny Deol in 2017? is he still a bankable star in north atleast for distributors? A. Both Singh Saab The Great and Ghayal Once Again flopped at the box office. Sunny has a few delayed films like Bhayyaji Super Hit, but no big release. His films open well in the North, but he’s not even close to the star that he once was. Sunny Deol during his peak, was like Salman Khan at single-screens today. The industry doesn’t really produce massy stars like Sunny anymore. Q. How would you rate the promotional strategy of Befikre.. people in indicine are not appreciating the posters and the video.. How is trade response?? Don’t you think banners like YRF and Dharma should start producing film other than these rom com? A. It has been difficult to understand the strategy behind pushing the kissing scenes as much as they have. The response from the audience even at bigger centres has been mixed to negative. But there is still a long way to go, let’s wait and see what they give us in the trailer. Our LBO ‘expectation’ (not prediction) for Befikre is already down 82 crore from 100 crore plus. Q. What would be the ideal release date for SRK starrer the Ring? A. The tentative date is still the Independence Day weekend. But they are also looking at a couple of other dates, announcement will be made soon. Q. Did ‘Brothers’ help Siddharth Malhotra make his presence felt among the masses? Will Ittefaq remake be a film for the masses? A. Ek Villain helped Sidharth more than Brothers. But he has a long way to go before we can even call him a mass hero. Q. Why some people are questioning Sidharth’s stardom just after one flop? In his 6 films short career he has already delivered 2 super-hits including one 100 cr grosser with Kapoor and Sons still being the 3rd highest overseas grosser. His debut SOTY is still the highest grossing film starring a debutant and Hasee Toh Phasee did reasonably well? A. That’s how it is for every actor. When your film opens well, you get praised, when it falls below expectations, box office pull of lead stars is questioned. Sidharth has started his career well, but has a long way to go before we can call him an ‘established star’. Q. What is the status of Kahaani 2? A. It’s releasing on November 25. On the same day as ‘Dear Zindagi’ starring Alia and SRK. There have been rumours that the film is likely to be postponed, but that’s PR at work. Official sources have said, the film is still on schedule to release in November. Q. What’s the reason for the below average opening of Bar Bar Dekho? A. It can never be said with certainty that a film will open well at the box office. Film business is unpredictable, what appeals to the audience and what doesn’t cannot be predicted. It could be the casting that didn’t work, Sidharth and Katrina are not the greatest of actors and watching them together on screen was probably not very exciting for the audience. It could also be the concept of time-travel that limited the audience. Difficult to pin-point and give you the exact reason. Chartbuster music raised expectations, but the multiplex audience don’t come to watch songs, they come to watch good films. If the content isn’t liked, the film will be rejected. It’s also a game of perception. When the expectations for a good opening is low, a 7 crore start becomes decent, but when a film is expected to do 9-10 crore and it opens at 7.. negativity spreads quickly. Having said that, for the costs, the film should have opened at 8-9 crore and then shown good growth over the weekend. Q. Yesterday I saw an article of Kannada film Mungaru Male review of part 1 which you reviewed 10years ago.. can you tell me why you stopped reviewing the other regional movie which are biggies.. if possible can you give me the update of Mungaru male 2..or any similar site where we get updates of box office collection of Kannada films as how we get the update of hindi film here.. I mean the true box office collection.. A. The site was first planned to cover all Indian films, that why the name Indi (Indian) Cine (Cinema), but we later decided to cover only Hindi films. We do not know any site that gives accurate estimates or collections of Kannada films. We do get multiplex collections of regional films and have contacts with some individual distributors in Karnataka. Maybe sometime in the future we might give estimates for Kannada films too. Thank you for your interest. Q. Why national awards of all Ajay Devgn movies was not successful at hindi box office.but still given best actor? Even National award film like Raincoat was a flop. Why its confusing A. Box office collections isn’t taken into consideration for national awards, neither for Best Film nor for Best Actor. Ideally, film awards should never be about popular choice. Q. How much business did Rustom lose due to Mohenjo Daro and Happy Bhaag Jayegi? A. We think the film benefitted because of the big clash with Mohenjo Daro. It increased its business potential. We say this because Rustom over performed, such films don’t usually collect 130 crore. Happy Bhaag Jayegi was too small a film to affect Rustom. Q. Do you think Sultan can remain the highest grosser of the year? What do you think about the prospects of the lifetime of Dangal? A. Dangal will have to be a terrific film if it has to cross the 300 crore mark. Even 250 crore won’t be easy if it doesn’t find acceptance. We have been hearing good things about the film, but we’d put our money on Sultan topping the year. Q. What do you think of Befikre marketing strategy? A. Difficult to understand. Q. Is there any possibility of Hera Pheri 3 with Akshay as it will be a great (huge) success as we all know about the franchises craze around the 3 actors. A. The next Hera Pheri film has been shelved. Q. The rate at which salman is going he could have 12 or more blockbusters this decade only. are there any words to describe this unbeatable achievement? A. If he can continue at this level for the next 4-5 years or more, he could be the biggest Bollywood superstar of all time. There is also a chance that he could take it to the next level as films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan have really set box office benchmarks, both when it comes to opening, weekend and lifetime collections. One actor generating 1000 crore of business within a span of 12 months (Bajrangi Bhaijaan to Sultan – just domestic business) is simply phenomenal.

Q. Why Dangal is getting a solo release? When others are getting clashes like Diwali and Republic Day clash? A. It depends on the current standing of actors i.e how their last couple of films have performed. Salman and Aamir are the Top 2 stars in the industry today, they have not only delivered 300 plus grossers, but have also dominated the Eid (Salman) and Christmas (Aamir) periods. For other producers, it becomes too big a risk to release another film on the same day, even if they are confident that the content will click. Even more so with Aamir, because the content of his films is almost always good. If Salman had a release during Diwali this year, the other two films would immediately move, because he’s too big across the country. But with Shivaay and ADHM – Ajay’s core following is at smaller centres and Karan Johar films caters to the multiplex and overseas audience, so there is space for both to perform if they both turn out to be well-made films. Q. Do you think, as with ADHM vs. Shivvay controversy, the dirty game may also have been played during MohenJo Daro & Rustom clash. A. Not at all. The main men involved in the clash between Mohenjo Daro and Rustom, were two of the nicest people in the industry. It was a clean clash and both supported each other’s films. The media was negative against Mohenjo Daro, but the media alone cannot be blamed because the promos that the makers of the film put out, were sub-standard. With ADHM vs Shivaay there was an attempt to try and destroy a film, to get it to move to a different date. Don’t think it’ll work. Q. What you think of recent Ajay-KRK-KJo fiasco? Will it affect both film’s opening in any way? A. The gap between the controversy and the release of the two films – which is nearly 50 days – is way too long for it to make any difference at the box office. The campaign is yet to begin, what’ll eventually make a difference is the kind of songs and promos both makers put out. Q. Indicine, Which movie do you think is the biggest of 2017? I mean which movie looks the biggest as of now. Tubelight, Thug. Bahubaali 2, Raees, Robot 2, Kaabil, The Ring? Kindly answer this one and please have a poll. A. Our pick, in order of preference – Baahubali 2, Raees, Robot 2, Tubelight, The Ring, Thug, Kaabil. Poll below. Q. Why industry is fighting over a clash? Is this matter cannot sort out peacefully? Why Ajay is fighting again for a Diwali clash? A. (Our opinion) Ideally, when there is a big film that has been made on a big budget (Mohenjo Daro / Shivaay) it should get a solo release – because it would give the film the best possible chance to recover costs. However, every filmmaker is free to announce / release his film on any given day of the year. There are only 52 weeks in a year and more than 200 film releases. It becomes even more difficult when every big filmmaker or star wants a solo release during one of the three major festive weekends every year. Q. Don’t you think 2017 will be best year for Akshay Kumar? A. He has an interesting line-up that’s for sure, but whether or not 2017 will be his best year cannot be predicted. On paper, 2015 looked way more promising for him than 2016. Also, Housefull 3 was expected to be his biggest grosser this year, but it turned out to be his lowest. Q. We all say that word of mouth make a movie a true blockbuster. However, I don’t understand how did Dhoom 3 become such a huge hit. Nowadays, word of mouth comes in from the first day’s evening shows or the next day and back then in 2013 it was after the first weekend it came into affect. So how did it go on to score around 100 crs even after the first week. A. Expectations from a Dhoom film, content-wise, isn’t sky high. The first Dhoom film was arguably the best in the franchise and since then each film has been weaker than the previous movie. People watch Dhoom films for action. songs, good looking girls and the lead villain is obviously the biggest attraction. The next Dhoom film, if it features someone like a Shah Rukh Khan, could do 350+ even if isn’t a great film. But if it turns out to be the best film in the franchise, then even 400 crore plus cannot be ruled out. Q. MohenjoDaro is decent film with a superstar like HR. Why then was the box collection as low as 60 crore. In the past, we have seen many bad films had done good business due to presence of superstars. A. The trailer was poor, the promos that followed weren’t appealing enough and when the audience had two choices – they decided to spend their hard-earned money on the better option (Rustom). Even FAN with a solo release did just 85 crore and Joker which was also rejected did less than 25 crore. Jai Ho and Talaash were a lot lower than most Salman – Aamir films too. So no star is bigger than the film, a superstar can add tremendous value to a well-made film, but can’t save a bad films from sinking at the box office. The ‘intellectuals’ and critics in our industry consider films like ‘Bodyguard’ and ‘Dabangg 2’ to be poor films, but they are not. A large section of the audience at B and C centres like those films more than a ‘Kapoor and Sons’ or Airlift’. Q. If Baar Baar Dekho opens well at box office, then credit goes to Siddharth Malhotra or Katrina? A. The biggest factors that are driving the film is music and marketing. Katrina is still one of the most popular female stars in the country and Sidharth has a following amongst the urban youth too. All these factors combined, should help the box office opening of the film. Q. Big fan of your site. My question is may I know what is the reason behind the contradiction of star ranking between your site and another site? Because, the ranking is calculated on both domestic points based on number of 100 crore films and also gives 50 points for overseas Top 10 each for individual actors. So may I know which one should be considered true? The list of actors on the other site’s power index is slightly different than your site ranking. Please answer. Thanks. A. Including names of other websites in the QnA or in the comments section is not allowed. How can we answer for other websites? They have their own system to rank stars and we have ours. We believe the method we use is simple enough to understand for our readers, as well as for people in the industry (actors included) and trade. We have only received positive feedback. Ranking actors based on points for 100 crore films makes no sense whatsoever. Salman’s Ek Tha Tiger collected Rs 199 crore, so if we use the points system, Salman would miss out on a lot of points just because his films failed to add 1 crore. We also like to keep domestic box office rankings separate from overseas. Q. If music of ADHM turn out to be as excellent as the title song, how much it will help in its opening? A. Quite a lot, because Karan Johar films are known for its music and it did enhance the feel of some of his earlier films. We have also been informed that the trailer of ADHM will be out on September 29. Q. Big fan of your site. My question is may I know what is the reason behind the contradiction of star ranking between your site and another site? Because, the ranking is calculated on both domestic points based on number of 100 crore films and also gives 50 points for overseas Top 10 each for individual actors. So may I know which one should be considered true? The list of actors on the other site’s power index is slightly different than your site ranking. Please reply me. Thanks. A. Including names of other websites in the QnA or in the comments section is not allowed. We cannot answer for other sites either, they have their own way of ranking and we have ours. We believe the method we use is simple enough to understand for our readers and a lot of people in the industry (actors included) and trade like our system too. Ranking actors based on points for 100 crore films makes no sense whatsoever. Salman’s Ek Tha Tiger collected Rs 199 crore, so if we use the points system, Salman would miss out on all the points just because his films failed to add 1 crore. Q. Shivaay or Ae Dil Hai Mushkil? Which movie has better buzz and which one will take bigger opening? A. If the two movies were to release today, both would probably open at around the same level – with Shivaay leading by around 1-2 crore due to a very well-received trailer. But the campaign of both films has only just begun. We currently have Shivaay at 14.6 crore and ADHM at 12.7 crore on our FBO. Keep following the FBO page for latest updates. It could change quite significantly when more promos are out. [advert] Q. Can Raees collects 50 cr plus on its opening day if he has solo released? A. Highly unlikely. Anything above 30 crore will be a good total, 35 plus will be excellent. Q. Toilet : Ek Prem Katha and Crack both are same film or different? A. Different films. Q. Is there any update on Hrithik next? Any suggestion from your side about what type of movies he should do to back on top. Can he afford another clash with Raees ? A. He’s been in the industry for long enough to know what kind of films he should be doing. As for the clash, it should be averted. It does not matter which film releases on Republic Day, but there should only be one film. Both SRK and Hrithik have just delivered a box office flop (FAN and MJD), so a clash between two stars who aren’t at their best, isn’t ideal. Q. What can be the reason of Akshay not doing Movies with bigger Heroines like Katrina, Deepika, Kareena etc.? Is it cost issue as he makes Movies in controlled Budget or is it that the pair might get too repetitive? A. Akshay gives bulk dates and prefers completing his films in less than 2 months. The problem with working with top female stars is working out the dates. It’s easier to work with smaller stars. Their dates are available, the casting is fresh and it also keeps the budget in control. Q. One underperformer movie of Rohit Shetty & everyone is underestimating him. Before Dilwale release every actor wanted to work with him. After the success of Chennai Express SRK was very fond of Rohit but when Dilwale underperformed its all the fault of Rohit. Can u explain this hypocrisy of Bollywood People? A. That’s how the industry has always been. Every new film is a test and if you fail, the perception changes and questions will be asked. Rohit Shetty is still one of the top directors in the industry today and it’s a wise decision on his part to direct Golmaal 4 next. Q. How are the internal reports for Raees? A. The reports are very good and Excel is confident the film will do well. Q. Is SRK doing a cameo in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil? A. Yes, Shah Rukh Khan will be seen in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. His role should be liked too. We are ending today’s QnA session due to internet connectivity issues. The remaining questions will be answered next week. Apologies for today and thank you for joining us.

Apologies for the 4-5 minute delay. Traffic on our website begins to spike sharp at 4PM and our server struggles for those few minutes. Let’s start. Q. Will Kaabil and Raees clash take place? Or will one shift? A. We have no new update on the clash for now. Officially, both films are still scheduled to release on the same day, but there is still plenty of time for the clash to be averted. We believe only one film will release on 26th January. Q. Can Freaky Ali affect Baar Baar Dekho collection? A. It will, but the impact will be less than 5-10%. It could pose a bigger threat if the word-of-mouth is good. It’s a extended weekend just like Mohenjo Daro and Rustom, with Monday as a partial holiday for Eid. The holiday advantage won’t be as big as Independence Day, but film business stands to benefit by 20-25%. Q. Now that Akshay Kumar is on a roll and back to 2007 stardom days, with Crack, Jolly LLB 2, Toilet in the pipeline in the future, what are the expectations from his biggest film Robot 2? A. Expectations remain the same. It’ll be the biggest film of 2017. The star cast and director combo of that film is on a different level. Q. Is Shah Rukh Khan confirmed for Dhoom 4? A. No, but reliable sources say, Shah Rukh is the top choice right now. Q. If Dangal folds at around 220 – 230cr, will it make Salman Khan the undisputed No.1 and how much would Dangal need to collect for Aamir to make a undisputed No. 1? A. Salman is already the undisputed No 1 superstar in the industry. For Aamir, Dangal has to open and sustain at a level higher than Sultan in the first weekend. To be the undisputed No 1, he has to do more films. Q. Is it true that Hrithik sign satellite right deal of his next 6 movie in 550 crore? If this is true, does it include Mohenjo Daro or not? And after MD debacle is their any changes in that deal? A. The deal begins with Kaabil next year. Mohenjo Daro satellite price will be revised / renegotaited after the box office failure of the film. Q. Do you think that Akshay Kumar is going the Aamir Khan way? Let me explain: Aamir did “patriotic” movies in the mid 2000 (Lagaan, Mangal Pandey and Rang De Basanti) and Akshay is doing the same (Baby, Gabbar Is Back, Airlift and Rustom) and the latest ones were big successes. He has Robot 2.0 now and it will surely open to earth shattering response. So do you think big directors and producers could approach him in the next few years and by 2018/2019 he will start blocking big release dates? A. It makes no sense to compare two actors, more so when it comes to two of the most established stars in the country. Both Aamir and Akshay have different styles of working. Akshay will finish 8 films by the time Aamir completes one. The pace at which Akshay works, we don’t think he will give extra time to films. Also, it’s not like he isn’t working with big directors already – A.R. Murugadoss, Shankar and even Neeraj Pandey (although his films haven’t been hugely successful) are some of the biggest directors in the country. Q. Every other site has been posting that Rustom is already a Super Hit and needs to collect 130+ crore to become a Blockbuster. Your views? A. We can’t talk about any other website. We do our own analysis and we have already put up our business economics. How can a film that was sold for 39-40 (domestic theatrical rights) be declared a blockbuster when it does 60-65 crore share? It’s a Super Hit. Has to do 80 crore India share (160 crore plus net collections) to be declared a blockbuster. Q. Who is the highest paid actor in India ? Also rank on the basis of actor male/ female charged per movie. A. In terms of market value, it’ll be Salman Khan and Deepika Padukone. Followed by Aamir Khan – Anushka Sharma at 2nd spot. Shah Rukh Khan comes third. Highest paid / earning actors (not including income from endorsements etc) will always be very similar to box office standing of stars. Some actors do get more than their market value. Q. What would have been the verdict for Mohenjo-Daro and Rustom if their collections would have been vice versa? A. Well, Mohenjo Daro had to collect 120-130 crore from India to attain hit status. Even Rustom would be a flop if it collected what Mohenjo Daro has. Q. Can Rustom become Akshay Kumar’s highest grosser? A. Highly unlikely now. Both the first weekdays and second weekend collections are lower than Rowdy Rathore. Q. What do you think how much would “Rustom”collect in the coming days and what would probably be its lifetime collection according to the current trend in which it is flowing. What would be the standing of Hrithik in your Top 15 Actors list,will Mohenjo daro affect his position at no.4?Will Akshay overtake hrithik in the coming year if his movies perform at a level par compared to this year? A. We will be updating the Top 15 Actors in the next couple of days. Hrithik will retain his position, because Guzaarish is the film that’s going out of his last 5 films. If Akshay has to make it to the Top 3-4, he needs one big grosser. Otherwise, he has no chance even if he does 5 100 crore films. SRK averages 157 crore per film, Hrithik averages 135 crore per film. Aamir and Salman are 200 crore plus per film. All of which is higher than Akshay’s highest grosser Rowdy Rathore. So he’ll have to either start giving bigger grossers, or deliver one big grosser. Robot 2.0 could be that film. Read Top 15 Actors Q. Hrithik has confirmed only one upcoming film which is Kaabil. What types of movies he needs to do to match his potential which is definetely to be on top? Because we all know he is just one or two movie away to be on Top Again! A. Hrithik needs to rethink and re-strategise if he has any ambitions of sustaining his standing in the industry for the few years. Otherwise things could go downhill pretty quickly, because there is quite a lot of competition from the younger bunch of stars too. The pace at which he works, is way too slow – which is fine as long as he can come up with something extraordinary. But in the last 4 years, he has done two films – one was Bang Bang and the other is Mohenjo Daro. Content-wise both films disappointed big time. Hrithik always said Mohenjo Daro was a big film, but it didn’t look like it from the promos. Even Rohit Shetty’s advertisement Ranveer Ching had more ‘scale’ to it. Also, being the lead hero of the film, you can’t let your producers and other involved in the film to take every decision for you. When the movie is selling on your name, when people are coming to watch you on the big screen.. it is your responsibility to ensure your product is upto expectations. It’s also very important to get involved in the decision making process. Like release dates for example. Q. Has failure of Mohenjo Daro affected Hrithik’s standing in the industry? A. It has not, but it has definitely created negative perception. Like SRK, Hrithik also needs a good film to make a strong comeback. Q. Indicine since last many times I have asked this question but did not get reply.I hope today I will get answer to my question. Is Salman Khan movies except Bajrangi Bhaijan is able to cross 250 crore without festive season? A. Sorry, but the day we understand your question, it’ll definitely be answered. Salman created Eid weekend. Full stop. Q. Are you amazed by the kind of trend Rustom has shown despite mixed response? A. The response isn’t exactly mixed, quite a lot of people have liked the film – otherwise movies cannot sustain after the initial holiday period. It has performed and sustained very well at multiplexes and also taken full advantage of the holiday weekend. Exhibitors are happy, but if Mohenjo Daro released solo last week, the footfalls would’ve been way too. With the benefit of hindsight, Rustom deserved to release during the Independence Day weekend. Q. My question is Arijit is singing a song for Salman in Tubelight is it confirmed or just a rumour.. Kriti which was removed from YouTube is now back after winning the court case.. A. Yes, Arijit Singh is singing a song for Salman Khan’s Tubelight. Arijit himself has confirmed the same. Looks like the short film ‘Kriti’ was put back after a few days, we tracked it for a couple of days, but it wasn’t online. Q. Akshay has just delivered his 6th non-holiday 100 cr grosser with Rustom. Don’t you think this is a Huge Record as all other Stars especially the Khans have no Non-Holiday 100 crore grossers & they all need festivals like Eid, Diwali and Xmas to do 100 crore, 200 crore? Your Views? A. We have said it before, we say it again. Akshay is like a mini industry. His style of work is almost robotic. Out of 12 months a year, 2 months he sets aside for vacation, doesn’t work on Saturday or Sunday. So that’s 160 off-days a year. In the remaining 200 days – he approves 3-4 scripts, shoots for those films and promotes them. And he maintains this pace every year. Earlier, the quality of his films was possibly suffering because of this, but this year has been terrific. If he maintains this pace and quality, it could be the beginning of a period that’s bigger than the mid-2000s for him. Q. There are still rumours that Shah Rukh Khan is eyeing the Independence Day Weekend for Imtiaz Ali film? If these rumours are somewhat true, will it be a wise decision for Shahrukh to afford another clash? A. After analysing the last two major clashes, it’s clear that releasing a big film on the same day as another big film, can be an advantage - provided you have made a good film. If your competition is weak, then it’s an even bigger advantage. But the difficult part is – you can’t be too sure of both, until it’s too late to avert the clash. So it’s a tricky decision. Even announcing release date of your film well in advance is risky these days, because if someone else comes on the same day, you’re again on shaky ground. With Bajirao Mastani and Rustom both emerging victorious, get ready for many more clashes in the next few years. Q. There was a twitter trend going on yesterday about Rustom having highest occupancy record in Week 1 and some trade people like Joginder Tuteja and Girish Johar also saying the same thing. Is it really bigger than 3 Idiots, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Sultan, Gadar, HAHK etc? Please clear this thing? A. That statement or argument just does not make sense and we do not even know how to clarify it with correct examples. First of all, it’s wrong to compare films on occupancy basis alone. Because let’s say there is a multiplex with capacity of 1000 for Rustom and Sultan is running with a capacity of 2000. Now, if Rustom fills 900 and Sultan fills 1700 – which is higher? The percentage might be lower, but the tickets sold / footfalls are much higher for Sultan. It’s not like Rustom was running at 100% capacity that people did not get a chance to watch the film. At the end of Week 1, more than 2 crore people watched Sultan. Rustom was watched by less than half of those. It’s an unfair comparison too, because the genre does not allow Rustom to perform at Sultan level. It has to be understood, that a big chunk of Sultan collections came from single-screen centres that were sold out for the entire 5 day weekend. 100% occupancy at many centres. The collections will be lower because tickets are cheaper, but occupancy of Sultan was light years ahead of Rustom. No comparison whatsoever. You are comparing a film that collected 208 crore in 7 days to a film that collected 90 crore. And it’s much more difficult to achieve the high level of occupancy of Sultan on 20-30 shows a day at multiplexes and for a film that released on 4300 plus screens. Girish Johar knows the trade well, he knows the reality too. But it’s his film after all. It’s natural for him to call it the best. We can write an entire 3000 word article on this, but these days its all about taking sides. No one wants to accept the reality. We do not even want to get into Gadar and other films, because then it starts becoming too silly. Q. Don’t you think if Rustom was released on 3500+ screens then it will collects 150 crore plus definitely? A. This is another question that keeps coming up. Do you think the producers are fools not to release the film on 3500 screens if they could make money? Why did Airlift release on 2000 screens and Housefull 3 on 3600? That’s because releasing Airlift at smaller centres, will mean the cost of releasing the film is much higher than the chances of recovering even the release cost. If there is no audience in a village in UP for a film like Airlift, it doesn’t make sense to give it a release there. Higher screen count does NOT necessarily mean higher collections. Also, when the screen count is higher, you need to have favourable genre and star power to pull audience at smaller centres in India. Q. Why do people compare a film that was released 5 years ago to the film released now there is a lot difference in the inflation rate, like like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun made 70 crores crores in 1994 cant be compared to a film which made Hundred crore today. Can you do an article on this topic or just tell what is the real value of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun today today? A. 70 crore in 1994 could be worth 700 – 750 crore today. But that doesn’t mean the same Hum Aapke Hain Kaun would collect that much if it released today. Such films may not even work universally. Also there are other factors like piracy, multiple entertainment options etc. HAHK should be compared to films of that era only. Q. Is Mubaraka starring Arjun Kapoor and Anil Kapoor confirmed? A. Yes, the film is confirmed. It will be directed by Anees Bazmee, goes on floors in November this year. Apart from Arjun and Anil, the film will have two leading ladies. The announcement will be made in the next couple of weeks. The makers have been waiting to get the chaos around ‘Aankhen 2’ (also directed by Bazmee) out of the way, before they make the final announcement. Q. What could be best release date for 2.0 next year according to you? A. It’s scheduled to release during Diwali next year. But release dates of Tamil films can change any time. Q. Rustom verdict at 125 cr finish ? Hit or superhit ? A. Super Hit. Q. Do you think the intolerance comment has affected SRK’s films? A. It didn’t impact SRK’s last release FAN, so there is no question of his remarks affecting business of any of his films. With Dilwale too it was a non-issue, but Aamir’s more serious comments, too close to release, added to the negativity for SRK. People have short memory, so as long as there is no further controversy just before release that goes to the extent of people boycotting the film, it’s not big deal. Q. Your views on Padmavati? Is it happening or shelved? A. It’s happening. It looks like they want to build up the hype through the media before the final announcement. Ignore the rumours, wait for the announcement. It should be Shahid – Ranveer – Deepika. Q. Is Mubaraka postponed / shelved? Which one going to start first Mubaaraka or Aankhen 2? A. Not shelved. Goes on floors in November. Q. You said Ranveer Singh is ahead of Varun. How it can possible Varun has 7 back to back successes and his fan-following among youth is more than Ranveer. Varun’s every movie has opened well, but Ranveer has only one big success, which is due to actress and director. A. As per our ranking system, Ranveer is ranked higher because he delivered a major grosser and also a few other 70 (Dil Dhadakne Do) – 110 (Ram Leela) grossers . Ranveer is also working with some of the biggest directors in the industry like Aditya Chopra, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Rohit Shetty.. However, Varun has been very consistent and successful too with incredible success ratio. He just needs to work in bigger films and bigger directors. To be very honest, all the young stars are almost equal at this point in time. All are dependent on content and all are establishing their fanbase. So next 2-3 years will decide who takes the lead. If Befikre doesn’t work, there will be talk that Ranveer needs Bhansali. And Bhansali himself isn’t a very consistent director – he gives one or two films that just about break even or are slightly profitable, and then puts all the money on a big film only to deliver a disaster. His career has been a roller coaster, very few of his films have been hugely profitable. Q. Rumour is that Aankhen 2 have one more lead actor than the announced actors… and its said to be a big young star.! Is it true? A. We are not sure about ‘Aankhen 2’ and we don’t think the film will happen.  They announced Ileana D’Cruz as part of the star cast, but later she herself said she is not doing the film. Something doesn’t seem right about ‘Aankhen 2’. The grand announcement and hype is to get investors, but unless there is a big lead hero, the film won’t work. Akshay is not interested. With all due respect to him, Amitabh Bachchan, currently, is not a bankable star to carry a big film on his own. Q. It is a hypothetical question, yet would request you to answer it based on your experience, how much would have mohenjo daro and rustom had done, if the actors were swapped in both the movies? Hrithik in Rustom and Mohenjo daro would have starred Akshay Kumar? What would be a possible number on day 1 and lifetime collections, rest everything remaining the same? A. With such dull promos and the negativity it got right from the day the trailer released, Mohenjo Daro would not have worked irrespective of the star. Appealing promos can help take star power to the next level, but no star can save a film with such dull and boring looking trailers. Do go back and read some of the articles and even QnA’s that we had published before release of the two films, we had predicted doom for Mohenjo Daro right after the trailer was launched and then it just went downhill since then. Absolutely nothing worked. When people were simply not interested in watching the film, they should have just averted the clash and given it a solo release. If there was no alternative, MJD would have probably collected about 10-20% more overall. Doesn’t change the fate of the film though. Q. My question is when you knew the trend of Rustom very well, why you predicted such a low LBO? A. It’s difficult to accurately predict lifetime of films that over perform / films that go way beyond expectations. But such mistakes will probably help us make more accurate predictions in the future, because when we introspect on what went wrong with the prediction – we realise that we underestimated the weekend that it released in. It basically had two national holidays and one big partial holiday. That’s about 3 crore increase in business on Raksha Bandhan and 9-10 crore on Independence Day. Also, we thought Mohenjo Daro will compete better, but it didn’t.  The final difference will be around 25% between our prediction and the actual collection. Q. Are Toilet:Ek Prem Katha and Crack two different films or the name of movie Toilet has been changed to Crack now? A. Two different films. There are internal reports that Toilet Ek Prem Katha will go on floors this year end. Q. Asking this question again, Is merchandise business is a thing in Bollywood or it’s just a hollywood thing. Movies like Star Wars and Toy Story generate around 30 and 10 billion respectively revenue from merchandise business did any Bollywood movie earned some extraordinary money from Merchandising? A. A few producers have tried selling merchandise of Hindi films too. The only success was Krrish. We do not know how much money was made. It’s something that should be researched. Q. You gave Rustom negative reviews even worse than Mohenjo Daro. Don’t you think you should review movies according to audience prespective rather than your own. A. How exactly do we give reviews from audience perspective, when audience opinion itself will be mixed and divided for every film? We can only do a poll. We have different reviewers, they have their individual opinions, they can only express it in the reviews. We do not ask a reviewers to give x numbers of stars to a film, it’s completely upto him / her. Q. Indicine, your LBO was 102 cr. for Rustom but it’ll collect even more than that today…So can we say the WOM is extremely positive or only postive?And do you think it has any chance to do 150 cr. nett? A. No chance of 150 crore, as the trend is poorer than Rowdy Rathore. We do not want to easily give ‘extremely positive’ word-of-mouth rating to any film unless the trend is extraordinary and the film is liked by 8-9 out of 10 people. So Rustom will be ‘positive’ word-of-mouth. Last year, only three films got extremely positive word-of-mouth ranking – Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Bajirangi Bhaijaan and Bajirao Mastani. The weekdays and 2nd / 3rd week collections need to be excellent. That’s the end of QnA for today. More than 35 questions were answered and it went on for more than 4 hours. More than 26,000 people joined us today and most of them stayed today. Thank you and  do join us next week.

Two big films – Hrithik Roshan’s Mohenjo Daro and Akshay Kumar’s Rustom – are scheduled to...

Post your questions in the comments section below. QnA starts at 4PM Indian Standard Time. Q. Happy Bhaag Jayegi trailer review ? Your expectations about the content not BO collection… And Will Jagga Jasoos ever release? A. Good trailer, looks like a typical Aanand L Rai film, even though he hasn’t directed it. Box office would depend on content, should open around 3-4 crore. Jagga Jasoos is releasing next year. Q. Which are the top 5 movies in Indian cinema with highest footfalls on Day 1? A. Kabali, Baahubali, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Happy New Year, Sultan. Q. When will the trailer of Baar Baar Dekho release? A. The song ‘Kala Chashma’ from Baar Baar Dekho  will be out on July 27. The trailer will release in the first week of August. Q. Which is the biggest hit of Akshay Kumar’s career? A. Hit biggest solo hit is ‘Rowdy Rathore’. Q. I am a regular Indicine user from Pakistan. I hope i get an answer this time.. If Mohenjo Daro works, will it take Hritik ahead of SRK? If it fails and Rustom works, will it take Akshay ahead of Hrithik? A. In our Top 15 ranking system, Mohenjo Daro would have to collect 145 crore or more for Hrithik to go past Shah Rukh Khan. For Akshay to beat Hrithik, Rustom will have to collect Rs 232 crore more than what Mohenjo Daro collects. Akshay has a better chance of going past Ranveer to make it back into the Top 5. Q. Why Kabali is being compared to Sultan in terms of Box Office Collections and Other aspects as both the films are of different genre and the Collections from a single State (Tamil Nadu) of Kabali are much higher than the other Hindi releases this Year? A. Like we said in our Kabali box office report yesterday, comparison is unfair. It’s like comparing collections of a Hollywood film to Bollywood. Salman’s market is much bigger, it’s Pan-India, while Rajnikanth is popular only in Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka. He simply does not have a market with 3/4th population of the country. So when it comes to population to number of tickets sold ratio, Rajnikanth is way ahead. Q. Do you think Rustom has the potential to be third consecutive 100 crore movie of Akshay Kumar in India? And If it is yes then can it be safe to say that this year belongs to Akshay Kumar? A. Unlike 2015 when most of his films either failed to recover or just about recovered investment, 2016 has been a better year. Airlift was a theatrical success, Housefull 3 recovered investment even though it was expected to collect more than Housefull 2. There is plenty of interest for his upcoming film ‘Rustom’ as well, the trailer was liked and the music has done fairly well too. Rustom should open well at the box office. Q. Which film will have better opening 2.0 or Baahubali 2? A. It’s difficult to pick between the two, but we’ll go with Robot 2.0. Looking at the craze that ‘Kabali’ has generated in the South, the casting of ‘2.0’ is looking like a masterstroke. While the makers of ‘Baahubali’ will have a tough task ahead of living up to unrealistically high expectations, Robot 2.0 has everything in its favour – superstardom of Rajnikanth, Shankar as director and a major star from the Hindi film industry who has pan-India audience. Q. What are the chances of Dishoom at the box office? At present which movie is hot in trade, Rustom or Mohenjo Daro? A. Dishoom should open around 10-11 crore this coming Friday, rest will depend on word-of-mouth. Rustom is currently the ‘hotter’ film. Q. Which territories are Salman’s strongest zones? A. Salman is strong all over India currently, he dominates almost every circuit as far as the opening is concerned. Even at ‘class’ circuits like Mysore and West Bengal, Sultan was phenomenal for the entire extended weekend. Different league when it comes to consistency in opening and converting them into big grossers. More importantly, his audience is growing at a rapid pace, because his script-sense / choice of films has improved in the last couple of years. Q. Rajesh Khanna, Rajnikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan. Compare them according to the stardom they saw at their peak times.? Was Rajesh Khanna and Rajnikanth is on another level? A. From the names that you mentioned – we’d put it in this order – Rajnikanth, Amitabh Bachchan / Salman Khan, Rajesh Khanna. Simply because of the fact that Rajnikanth has sustained his stardom for the longest period, his audience is restricted to a few states and even at the age of 65, he commands a huge audience. Amitabh Bachchan was a one-man industry and was the top star for a much longer period as compared to Rajesh Khanna’s short-lived stardom. It’ll be interesting to see how Salman progresses from here. As he grows older, if he starts doing fewer films, like one film every Eid and creates a perception that it’s a major event.. he could still go a long way from here, even though it looks like his stardom has peaked.  Doing good films, working with good directors and holding on to the weekend he created will be the key. Having said that, he’s already achieved everything in the industry and will be remembered as one of the biggest superstars the country has ever seen. Q. How much will Dear Zindagi collect on its opening day and please tell its lifetime box office? A. How exactly do you expect us to predict this? Based on what? Let the trailer release. If the film is off-beat, it’ll only do well in a few cities. Q. Is it true that ROBOT was offered/Signed by SRK before Rajini Sir? A. Yes, both Robot and 3 Idiots were first offered to Shah Rukh Khan. He opted to do Ra One instead of Robot. Q. Will Rustom vs Mohenjo Daro clash make an impact on Kabil vs Raees clash? If there any possibility that makers of Kabil waiting to see how Mohenjo Daro performs on B.O?Can they change the release date of Mohenjo Daro if it fails at the box office? A. The success or failure of Mohenjo Daro could make a difference if the clash between Kaabil and Raees does take place, but as for averting the clash, Rakesh Roshan has confirmed that his film is arriving on Republic Day. He has also sold a few circuits and has committed the date to his distributors. So the ball is in the court of Excel and Red Chillies. It’ll be their decision whether to go ahead with the clash or postpone / prepone their film. Q. What is the release date of Robot 2 and release date of the trailer of Baar Baar Dekho. Please answer my question I am asking you for the fifth time. A. Robot 2 is releasing late 2017. Trailer of Baar Baar Dekho will be out in the first week of August. Releases September 9. Q. In today’s time reviews spoils movies. Don’t you think that all the critics should give their reviews on monday after the release of movie. Let audience decide about the movie because to some extent critics review matter. A. We are all for banning press screening of films. The atmosphere is negative and most critics aren’t professional either. Most would be busy on their phones during the screening. Let critics pay for ticket and watch the film on Friday morning with the audience. Reaction of the real audience would help them better understand the pulse of the theatre going public and also not spoil the film for the first-day-first-show audience. Q. Your response to Dear Zindagi Scheduled release, November 25? A. Not the best of dates, because it sets up yet another clash with ‘Kahaani 2’. However, they have two open weeks before the release of ‘Befikre’ on December 9. Ample time for the film to do well if the word-of-mouth is good. Will be an excellent date if ‘Kahaani 2’ moves. Q. What do you think should Excel Entertainment do with Raees ? Clash with Kaabil or postpone the movie to a better solo date or prepone the movie to Nov or Dec 2016 ? What should be the ideal decision according to your perspective ? A. It’s not right to only blame Excel Entertainment for the mess that ‘Raees’ is in. It’s a Red Chillies Entertainment co-production. All three producers – Ritesh, Farhan, SRK – are involved in the decision making process and all three signed the statement (of postponing the film). First of all, like we’ve said in other QnA, it didn’t make any sense to postpone the film by 7 months – more so when the trailer was released in July last year. The teaser was unanimously praised, so the poor decision making is hurting a promising film and fans have been let down too. Secondly, September 9th was an excellent date – it was with Excel’s own Baar Baar Dekho and there were no major releases two weeks before or after. Even Christmas was a better date than Republic Day, as there is space for two films. There is no ‘ideal’ decision now. You can’t postpone it again, it’ll further hurt the film, but it’ll be difficult to clash too. So preponing the release could work in favour, but there aren’t any good dates available anymore. Q. How much sultan needs to cross 300cr? A. Sultan needs 16 crore, should be 9-10 crore after 3rd Sunday (today). Q. How a movie collect 20 crore from one state itself in one day? Kabali earn 20 cr from Tamilnadu.. Tamil films are tax free in Tamilnadu.. but i think 20 crore in a day is out of its potential? A. Not really. Only a small section of the Tamil audience watch Hindi films, majority of Tamilians do not even understand Hindi. So it’s completely different when it comes to Tamil films, especially those starring superstars like Rajnikanth. Tamilnadu has plenty of single-screens too and Kabali was packed to capacity on Day 1. A working day becomes a festive holiday for a lot of people when a Rajnikanth film releases. Tickets were also priced higher. Q. Are collections of Kabali real? A. They are unreal. On a non-holiday, Kabali was bigger than the opening day of the biggest of Hindi films on the biggest holiday of the year (Diwali). Q. Recent teasers of Mohenojo Daro is looking nice. Given the fact Hrithik’s acting is always brilliant and Ashutosh is master class with its direction skill. It is not too early to predict the opening of movie with too low (14 crore)? A. If you’re talking about our FBO predictions, it’ll change closer to release. Currently, a 15 crore opening is looking like the best case scenario for ‘Mohenjo Daro’, which will be a very good total for a film releasing on normal working day, with Rustom on the same day. What’ll be much more important will be the word-of-mouth, which will help the film take advantage of the holiday on Sunday and Monday. For Mohenjo Daro to succeed, the crucial days will be Sat – Sun – Mon. If the trend on these 3 days is good / excellent, the film will be a success. Q. How do you see Salman, Shahrukh and Aamir after 7-8 years from now? All the three have been the backbone of Hindi Cinema for quite a long time and have huge loyal fanbase which is only increasing with each passing year. Any of the younger actors you think can enjoy as much fan following and command over the hindi film industry as these 3 Khans have? A. Such things cannot be predicted, anything is possible in the industry. We could even have a superstar who is bigger than the Khans in the future. Who knows? 7-8 films will be too long a period to think about for the Khans. It’ll be one film at a time and holding on the weekend they created – Eid and Christmas. Q. Why Bobby Deol doesn’t get any films in last 7-8 years. He is handsome, can act well . Then what went wrong with him. Is there any chance that a movie will be made with him as a solo hero like Naqaab, Humraaz etc. A. It’s important to be a bankable star in the industry. Even if your film doesn’t do well in the long run (lifetime), a solid opening will get you more solo offers. Unfortunately, even though Bobby Deol’s career started well, he wasn’t able to sustain his following and eventually lost his value when he started doing multi starrers. Q. Suppose if both Shivaay and ADHM are successful in meeting their expectations before release (i.e chartbuster songs and feel good trailer for ADHM and Bahubali and Bajirao Mastani range speculation for Shivaay), how much will they roughly earn on Day 1? A. About 35-40 crore should be shared between the two films. We think it’ll be 55:45 in favour of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Our first prediction for ADHM will be out after the teaser (if it’s not too short) and for Shivaay in the second week of August. Q. Would like to applaud you on your sensational predictions of your LBO. Especially Dilwale, BM, Housefull3 and now Sultan. Even more so Sultan as the 1st 5 days collections were indicating 400 crore life time. Even the so-called experts were predicting 400 crore after the 1st day of sultan. Even more special was the reason that you gave for your LBO for Sultan. That the WOM is not as +ve as BB or PK. Just wanted to understand how did you figure this out? A. Thank you. There is plenty of research involved. Talking to people we trust in the trade, feedback from the audience, reports from exhibitors, along with our own analysis of the trend and factors over the next few days. Everything is taken into consideration before making the final prediction. Numbers like 50 crore opening and 400 crore lifetime are thrown around too loosely these days. For such big numbers to be achieved, the circumstances around release need to be near-perfect and the word-of-mouth has to be extraordinary. WOM for Sultan was very good, but not quite as perfect as Bajrangi Bhaijaan – which was a easy 350 – 375 crore film if it released during Christmas with 3 opening weeks. Q. In your last QnA you said that Robot 2 will open better than most Hindi films. Can you elaborate a bit more on that? A. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, Rajnikanth’s presence itself could ensure a 50 crore net total from South (Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra/ Telangana). To add to it, Akshay Kumar’s following in the Hindi belt is strong and he’ll also ensure that major Hindi circuits where Rajnikanth doesn’t have a following – Mumbai, Delhi/UP, East Punjab, Rajasthan, Central India –  will open well. Then there is Shankar, whose films are commercial, massy and he’s the biggest director in the Tamil film industry. The film also has A.R. Rahman and is being simultaneously shot in three different languages. In short, Robot 2.0 ticks every box. It’ll plunder box office records. Q. Time in again you and lot of other trade pundits have said that the clash of 2 BIG films is not good for both films. Yet the big films are clashing for no apparent reasons. I mean Rustom could have easily released in September (5th sep holiday, 9th sep holiday). Same case with Kaabil / Raees. In fact one of the co producers of Rustom (Mr Girish Johar) last year spoke strongly against clash of Dilwale and BM. Yet they are clashing. Whats even worse that apart from SRK, there is no visible efforts from any other filmmakers to avoid the clash. Why is this happening? could you throw some light on this? A. Two big films shouldn’t clash on the same day, as recovery for the costlier film becomes very very difficult. This applies for all weekend, except probably the Christmas weekend. Having said that, it’s a calculated and well-planned move that the makers of ‘Rustom’ have taken. So far, things have worked well for them and their strategy is working. We’ll elaborate on this after the release of the two films. As for Raees vs Kaabil, it’s very different. The stakes are higher with Raees. Shah Rukh can’t afford another failure or under-performer and Rakesh Roshan has the backing of individual distributors. They are good friends too. Q. Is it safe to say that Kabali is the biggest opening movie of all time in india, considering the fact that a regional movie challenging the biggest hindi movies. Is Rajnikant the biggest star ever? I have never heard of the sort of craze his movies generate. Office holidays, tickets selling in black at 4000, building temples with his statue etc. In there any site which gives authentic information about south movies, like yours for hindi movies? A. The craze for superstars in the South is different from how it is for Hindi film stars. Stars like Rajnikanth, Pawan Kalyan, Chiranjeevi and a few others is simply in a different league. They are worshipped like gods. We don’t really get to see it in Mumbai or North India. You can watch the video below of Pawan Kalyan attending a music launch event.. the ovation simply goes on and on.. Rajnikanth is one of the few stars to also appeal outside his state and command following that crosses the limitation of language.. that’s why he gets national media coverage and some of the other superstars don’t. Q. Is it official that Anushka Sharma will be opposite SRK in Imtiaz Ali’s next? A. It’s not official, but Anushka is confirmed. Q. Why are regional films like Bahubali, Kabali etc are having a bigger opening day collection than bollywood films A. Hindi film industry is suffering because of entertainment tax. The average all-India tax is close to 40%. Whereas a Tamil film gets 100% tax exemption in Tamilnadu if it gets universal rating. Q. Why there are no theatres in village and remote areas in Bollywood Belt? Major Chunk of our population resides in Village and that’s why Footfalls are so less for Bollywood movies now while in South there are many theatres in village where regional movies are played? A. How many films that we make, appeals to the mass audience? How many mass heroes do we have in the industry? There is demand, but there is very little supply. That’s the end of today’s QnA. Thank you for joining us and apologies to those who posted a question, but didn’t get an answer. We can’t possibly answer all of them.

It’ll be a shorter QnA Session today. We’ll be starting at 4PM (Indian Standard Time) and end the session by around 5:30PM. Post your questions in the comments section below. Q. How will Kabali perform in hindi markets? And will its performance be a future sign for Robot 2? A. Kabali will be getting the widest ever release for Tamil film across India. Fox Star Studios is releasing the film on 900 – 1000 screens of the Hindi dubbed version, so it’ll be interesting to see how the film performs outside Tamilnadu, Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala (these South states will be record breaking). However, it’ll be unfair to compare Kabali to Robot 2. Akshay Kumar’s presence will give the business of Robot 2 a major boost, especially in the north. It’s also a much more expensive film with a more commercial director. Robot 2 should open better than most Hindi films! Q. How much does Sultan need to collect to attain All Time Blockbuster verdict? A. About 285-290 crore, since it has performed very well in the overseas markets too. Overall, Sultan will be a more profitable film than Dhoom 3. Q. Do Shivaay has any chance to cross 200 crores? What is current box office ranking of Ajay Devgan? A. It’s going to be very difficult. Shivaay will have to be a extraordinary film to even get to a total of 150 crore, let alone 200. The highest grossing film during a clash is ‘Bajirao Mastani’, but that film released during Christmas – which is a much bigger holiday period (more holidays, open weeks) as compared to Diwali. A total of 250-270 crore will probably be the best case for both films combined. Q. How has the music of Mohenjo Daro and Rustom performing? And is music really such a big factor for Mohenja Daro? Baahubali was a huge hit without great music. A. Popularity of music of both films is satisfactory. No song has gone on to be a chartbuster. Songs, especially those from the ‘Mohenjo Daro’ album takes time to grow. It’s not going to be a huge factor at the box office, the trailer was always more important. Q. Considering the rise in the collections of Sultan on Saturday, is it a safe bet for it to be 300 crore grosser now? When will Dhoom 4 will go on the floor, do you have any idea about its entire cast? A. Even with the big growth on Saturday, 300 crore is going to be touch and go. Looking at the trend, it’s more likely to finish at the 290 crore mark. Having said that, anything can happen at the box office. No announcement on Dhoom 4 so far. Q. Is there any increase in buzz of Mohenjo Daro as music and new posters are looking promising? A. After the trailer, the promotional campaign that has followed has been good. The response to the music and posters has been positive too. Q. If Raees releases solo on 26 January, then it has best chances of creating new opening day record. Isn’t it? Like Agneepath did with huge buzz? A. It’s a possibility, but let’s talk when the film gets a solo release. For now, from what we’ve heard, the makers of Kaabil are not going to let of the Republic Day weekend. Q. Which is most viewed teaser & trailer on Indicine. & Most number visited (view) article & most commented article? A. Mohenjo Daro trailer is the most viewed and Dilwale trailer page is the most commented. Q. As of now, do you think Mohenjo Daro can still do above 20 crores on day 1? And will Rustom do 12 crores on day 1? A. 20 crore plus won’t happen for Mohenjo Daro. The first target would be 14-15 crore. Yes, it’s looking like Rustom will achieve 11-12 crore, which would be a good opening day for the film. Q. Everything kept aside, which movie do you think will do more on Day 1 Raees or Kaabil if they both clash? A. Raees should open better, it has a solid teaser out already. But we’ll have to wait and see how Kaabil shapes up. A good trailer will even out the clash, but SRK’s presence should ensure a better opening on Day 1. Q. Who are the Top 5 actresses as of today based on box office, talent and future line-up of movies? A. Deepika, Anushka, Alia, Katrina, Kangana. Q. There are films like Welcome and Dhamaal that are repeatedly telecasted on the prime time on televisions at prime time to garner high TRPs and the audience too love them a lot even today. So does this mean that they are achieving the kind of cult status films like Andaaz Apna Apna and Hera Pheri have achieved? I’ve asked this in the last 2 QnA sessions too, hope you answer it this time. A. It’s difficult to answer such questions. What is the parameter to compare classics like Andaaz Apna Apna / Hera Pheri to Welcome / No Entry / Dhamaal? Even a Singham has fantastic repeat value on television. Salman’s Chal Mera Bhai was a theatrical flop, but was hugely popular on television. Family entertainers will always be loved on TV. But it’s difficult to decide if a film is a cult or classic based on TV ratings. Q. Any news about trailer release of Dear Zindagi? A. No official update so far. Could be attached to ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. Q. Which are the top 5 biggest circuits for Hindi movies in India ? A. Mumbai, Delhi/UP and East Punjab are the three major circuits. Followed by Rajasthan, CP Berar, Mysore, West Bengal, Nizam/Andhra, C.I, Bihar and the rest. Mumbai can be three times bigger than East Punjab and 5-6 times bigger than Mysore. It all varies from film to film, depending on appeal. For a film like Ram Leela, which was extraordinary in Mumbai, Gujarat, Saurashtra.. Mumbai circuit was more than 7 times bigger than East Punjab. Q. I want you to answer me about the curious case of Akshaye Khanna? He has always been a good actor with 5-6 memorable hits under his belt & even in 2nd lead (Dil Chatha Hai,Race) he was very impressive. Till 2004 he was surely ahead of saif. But why his career never took off and nowadays he is hardly seen in movies or anywhere for that matter! Please solve the mystery A. Akshaye Khanna was always reluctant, uncomfortable in playing a quintessential Hindi film hero on-screen. He had more success playing negative / comedy roles in films like Humraaz, Race, Hungama, Hulchul etc. Also, he’s media shy, doesn’t like giving interviews or promoting his films. And at the end of the day, an actor needs to be very ambitious and make a lot of sacrifices as far as his / her personal life is concerned. Akshaye likes to maintain a low profile and lead a very private life. Not sure if it solves the mystery, but that’s some of the reasons why he hasn’t been successful as far as his acting career is concerned. Q. Any Govinda movies coming out? He is the best in comedies… What’s your favourite Govinda movie? A. No he doesn’t have any major film lined up for release. Favourite Govinda film is Haseena Maan Jayegi, we have a article on Govinda  - David Dhawan films, do read Q.Wrestling background, Haryanvi dialect, Girls also wrestling. Do you think Dangal has lost out its novelty to Sultan? Alternatively, there is a thought that Sultan has laid a solid platform for Dangal and that Dangal would start where Sultan ends. Maybe wrestling sports genre has gained popularity just like historic periodic drama genre had gained momentum after the release of Bahubali which helped Bajirao Mastani. You thoughts please.. A. It probably won’t be as exciting or as novel as it would be if ‘Dangal’ released before ‘Sultan’. But both Aamir and Salman have said the scripts are very different from each other. There is a gap of 5-6 months too, so if ‘Dangal’ gets a positive response, people should still come out in big numbers to watch the film. It’s Aamir’s first release after 2 years too and he doesn’t appear in too many films, so ‘Dangal’ will be huge, atleast at multiplexes. Q. Reason of failure of Great Grand Masti? A. Piracy and decision to release the film a week after Sultan. Q. Can Dishoom take the kind of start ABCD 2 took? The movie lacks chartbuster songs, the USP of all Varun films so far and not to forget ABCD 2 had a sequel factor and the ticket prices were hiked at a couple of multiplexes due to 3D shows. A. It’s going to be difficult for Dishoom to open like ABCD 2. Currently, the film is looking at a 10-11 crore opening. The response to the trailer was mixed, one song has worked, the other two haven’t. ‘Jaaneman Aah’ looked promising from the teaser, but the full song has been a huge disappointment. Q. Akshaye Khanna, Bobby Deol, Zayed Khan, Tusshar Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, Vivek Oberoi and Aftab Shivdasani. Can you arrange them in the order of their popularity in the last decade? A. Bobby Deol, Vivek Oberoi, Akshaye Khanna, Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan. In that order. Q. SULTAN’s censor copy was leaked on Internet day before its theatrical release. Don’t you it affected SULTAN big time? A. Pirated copies of almost every film is out after release, it was no different for Sultan. We are not too sure if it was the censor copy, need to verify this, but no copy was out before theatrical release. Q. What is releasing on Christmas next year? I know SLB’s Padmavati is confirmed for December 15th. Are there other movies clashing? Would it be a good idea for any other movie to clash with SLB after Bajirao Mastani’s success? A. Three films are targeting Christmas 2017 - Bhansali’s next, Aanand L Rai’s next and Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanjay Dutt biopic. There are reports that Aamir wants his Christmas weekend too. So we’ll have to wait and see which films come during Christmas next year. More clarity in 3-4 months from now. Q. Please do an article on how much the rise in ticket price adds to movie collections. What would be the collection of few big movies with normal ticket price. (eg. Pk, Sultan)? A. These arguments over ticket prices is as stupid as talk over screen count.  Higher ticket price is actually a negative factor that could seriously impact the business of films that don’t deserve to be priced higher. People are spending their hard-earned money, if a ticket costs more, they will be much more reluctant to spend. Would you buy a phone from a Chinese manufacturer if it costs as much as a Samsung / Apple smartphone? Only big budget films featuring major superstars can justify price hike (which are high even during normal weekend). So there is no question of making an article on how much PK / Bajrangi Bhaijaan would collect if tickets were priced at normal level. People spent on the film, because they thought it was worth the money spent on the ticket. Ditto for the argument over higher screens. Only major superstars in universally appealing films can release a film on 4000 plus screens. An ‘Airlift’ releasing on 4000 screens will actually be a loss, as it won’t collect at smaller centres and the release cost (especially at fixed rentals) would be more than recovery. A film like ‘Housefull 3’ can go for a wider release, as it holds appeal towards the masses. That ends our QnA session for today. Thank you for joining us.

Weekly AskIndicine Live Question and Answer session begins at 4:15PM today. Post your questions in the comments section below: Q. If you compare the word-of-mouth of Bajrangi Bhaijaan which released last year and 3 Idiots, which one would you say had better trend? Is Sultan word-of-mouth exceptional for such a big film? A. 3 Idiots was in a different league, especially at urban centres. When 3 Idiots released, no other film had even crossed the 120 crore mark.  It collected 75% more than the previous highest grosser (Ghajini) and more than two times the business of the 2nd highest grosser at that time (Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi). So 3 Idiots was in a different league as far as setting records is concerned. The trend in Week 4 – 5 – 6 was exceptional too. Yesterday, a trade veteran messaged to say, he’s never liked any film as much as Sultan – after 3 Idiots. So going forward, anything could happen. Weekdays will give us the exact picture. Q. Will Mohenjo Daro be able to collect more than 200 crore in India? A. Look, anything can happen at the box office and such predictions can’t be made before the release of the film. We didn’t expect the Hindi version of Baahubali to do 20 crore, it did 120. No one gave Bajirao Mastani a chance either, but it did almost 200.  So if the film turns out to be well made and carries good word-of-mouth, it could go on to be a huge grosser. Q. Why Mohenjo Daro Trailer suffered unexpected negativity? Even though the trailer is good. A. A section of the audience has liked the trailer, majority haven’t. So the overall response to the trailer is mixed to negative. The makers will be releasing a second trailer closer to the release of the film. Q. Deepika Padukone was allegedly offered Anushka’s role in Sultan. However, she rejected the film stating that her part wasn’t meatier. Do you think she lost out on a huge opportunity? Clearly, Aarfa go hand in hand with Sultan in the entire movie. A. Anushka Sharma was outstanding in Sultan and she was perfect for the role.  It really doesn’t matter which actress was offered the role before. Deepika was busy with her Hollywood film. Q. Do you think Sultan collection will be affect if Great Grand Masti release on 15 July? A. No. The damage has already been done to Great Grand Masti. Piracy and now the decision to release it a week after Sultan will affect its business big time. It was expected to open at 13-14 crore, but now it’ll even be a struggle to get half of that. In fact, Great Grand Masti might not even get a proper release because Sultan will continue playing at majority of single-screens. Q. Can Shah Rukh Khan make a strong come back? It’s hard to believe that someone who has dominated the industry for 2 long decades is not able to get solo release. Is there any politics in the industry behind SRK to bring him down? A. He has quite a few interesting films lined up for release, especially the film with Aanand L Rai, it has the potential to be a huge grosser. So it’ll be about one of his upcoming films that’ll have to hold universal appeal and sustain well enough to do well in the long run. Most of his films in recent times have been top heavy. A huge opening followed by a free fall. None have sustained after the first weekend, let alone run for 3-4 weeks. No politics, Excel is responsible for the mess that Raees is in. Q. What’s the collection of Sultan in Pakistan? A. About 11.5 crore PKR (Rs 7.35 crore) in 4 days. Record breaking. Q. Anushka Sharma and Salman Khan might both have two 300 crore movie to their credit. What will be the standing of Anuskha and Salman in the Bollywood? A. Anushka is the top star now. Deepika is cutting down on Hindi films, she doesn’t have a release this year. Anushka is also signing big films, she’ll be featuring opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the Imtiaz Ali film. There is a shortage of leading ladies in the industry. Q. Don’t you think that Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan both have consistently faced clashes since 2012 and they deserve solo release because they were Top 2 stars once upon a time? A. Whether we like it or not, in business there is no value for what happened “once upon a time”. What matters is the current standing. Every producer is free to release his film whenever he wants to. Ideally, films like Mohenjo Daro should get a solo release, because there is way too much money at the stake. But unfortunately, there is no unity in the industry. Even Shivaay and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil shouldn’t be releasing on the same day. With the Hollywood threat looming, our industry is busy fighting with our own films. Q. Where is Imran Khan? What about his next films? A. He has stopped doing films for now. Remains to be seen if it’ll be a short break or if he has completely quit acting. Q. What is the budget of Shivaay and Mohenjo Daro? How much do both need to collect in order to achieve hit verdict? A. Both films will have to do 140-150 crore plus at the domestic box office to recover costs. Q. What is your prediction of Great Grand Masti? A. Opening day is expected to be around 5-6 crore. Q. Is Jagga Jasoos releasing this year? If not then when exactly is it releasing? Will affect Ranbir Kapoor’s career further? A. Jagga Jasoos has been pushed to March-end 2017. Ranbir is too good an actor for a couple of failures to affect him. He’ll make a strong comeback. Q. How many people are involved in making a movie in Bollywood counting everyone from spotboys to technical team to producers to the lead actors? The number varies from movie to movie but still a rough figure. Also comparatively how many people are involved in a Hollywood movie? A. Hundreds of people are involved in making a film, sometimes thousands. You could as well count the number of people that are mention in the closing credits to get an approximate figure of the film crew. As for Hollywood films – the Top 5 are Iron Man 3 (3,310 people), Avatar (2,984), The Avengers (2,718), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2,709), Chronicles of Narnia (2,622). Q. How is Salman Khan getting so much unconditional love from the audience in spite of so much negativity around about him regarding different controversial Issues and running court cases? A. He’s the most loved star in the country today and the reason for such a crazy fan-following cannot be explained. About controversies and court cases, as long as his films entertain, how does his personal life matter? It might for a few, but if his films are good (like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Sultan) even those who dislike his off-screen persona will go to the theatre to watch. Q. Sultan has been doing excellent business overseas, and salman Khan has again delivered the second biggest overseas weekend of all time after Bajrangi bhaijaan last year and now with Sultan so has he raced ahead of Shahrukh Khan in overseas too? A. Shah Rukh Khan is still the most popular and widely known actor overseas. He’s been consistent for way too long and even Dilwale did very well inspite of all the competition (Star Wars and Bajirao Mastani). But both Aamir and Salman have closed the gap and are right up there with him on currently standing. [advert] Q. Salman Khan’s career-total movies collection before Sultan? A. He’s currently at Rs 2,648 crore (inflation not adjusted). Sultan needs to collect Rs 352 crore for Salman to become the first actor to cross Rs 3,000 crore. For the first time in his career, he’ll go past Akshay Kumar to become the highest grossing actor. Akshay’s 107 films have collected Rs 2,893 crore. So Sultan has to collect Rs 245 crore for Salman to go past Akshay. Also Read: Bollywood Actors Career Collections and Analysis (published before the release of Housefull 3) Q. What is the Latest update on Hera Pheri 3 and Jolly LLB2? A. Hera Pheri 3 is shelved for now. Jolly LLB 2 is happening. Huma Qureshi has been cast opposite Akshay. Goes on floors in August. Q. What would have been the impact of Raees on Sultan if they would have clashed on this EID? A. You can’t take on Salman Khan during Eid. It’s best to let him have the weekend that he created, for as long as he dominates it. From now onwards, Salman will have one film every Eid, he won’t let go of that weekend. Q. In the CBFC there is an “S” certification, what does this stand for and are there any films which have been certified “S”? A. From June 1983, two new certifications were introduced. One was U/A and the other was S i.e restricted to ‘specialized’ audiences such as doctors or scientists. We don’t really know of any film that has certified as ‘S’ and why films will be produced and screened only for ‘specialised’ audience. With growing reach of the internet, that certification is pretty much obsolete now. Q. If Monday collection Holds above 20 crore + then will sultan be able to beat PK to become ATHG? A. Definitely a possibility if it holds strongly Monday onwards. Q. Do you think this July could turn out to be the best ever month for Bollywood considering that there are two more movies lined up? A. Only three major films this month – Sultan, Great Grand Masti and Dishoom. GGM is affected because of piracy and the decision to release on 15th will backfire. Dishoom isn’t very hot in the trade, music has worked to a certain extent, but it’s unlikely to get a big initial. December has the potential to be huge if both Befikre and Dangal work. Q. Best album of 2016 so far according to you? A. Kapoor & Sons. Q. What are the upcoming films of Akshay Kumar besides Rustom? A. He has plenty of films. Namastey England. Jolly LLB 2, Robot 2.o, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha. Q. I did not understand how you gave blockbuster status to Sultan after 4 days only. Don’t you think its so earlier? A. Some calls are make early because of the trend. When a film holds up so well over the extended weekend, it means the word-of-mouth is good and the film is highly unlikely to crash Monday onwards. By the end of 5 days the film would’ve already collected 185 crore. Even if it collects just 60-70 crore from Monday onwards, the film is a blockbuster. Should be easy. That’s how we make our LBO predictions too.. by judging trends. Q. Any details YRF’s next projects after Befikre? A. Shoot has been wrapped up. We think the makers will have something new to show on the 9th of every month. Q. What’s the issue, as many of the films censor board copies are leaked before their release date? A. No clue about this. Two things – one, both the films that have been leaked after from Balaji Motion Picture (Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti). Two, if the CBFC or Tribunal is leaking the film, why not take them to court? Difficult to understand what the problem is. Q. I would just like to say that this is the best Bollywood site right now and I visit this site like 3 to 4 times a day. But can you please keep a logo for your website for the mobile browsers. A. Thanks. We do have a mobile logo, right at the top when you scroll down. Q. Is there any Website similar to Indicine for Hollywood Box Office and Reviews? A. You can check out BoxofficeMojo.com Q. What are the total collections and verdicts of H3, Te3n, Do Lafzon Ki Kahaani, Udta Punjab, Junnoniyat and Raman Raghav 2.0. I have been asking this question for a long long time and I hope today you will pay attention to my request. A. Sorry. Here you go – Housefull 3 – 109 crore (Hit), Te3n – 17 crore (Flop), Do Lafzon Ki Kahaani – 3 crore (Flop), Udta Punjab – 59 crore (Above Average), Junooniyat (only did reasonably well in UP, finished with 3.2 crore – Flop), Raman Raghav 2.0 – 5 crore (Flop). Q. Why have we not seen any movies in the zombie genre? They are a good blend of action and horror. Done the right way, they could accommodate every element to make up a blockbuster. A. That genre was explored in Saif Ali Khan’s Go Goa Gone. It was a pretty good film too, but didn’t work. Such genres have little or no appeal outside metro cities. It’s difficult for major actors to feature in zombie films, but the younger actors could give it a try. Q. Are you amazed by collections of Sultan? A. Absolutely. The kind of craze and level of business over the first 4 days has been unbelievable. Amitabh Bachchan will be proud! The industry has not seen such craze for an actor for a very long time. Q. Tell the top 3 non-khan Actors currently and potential youngsters who can give them competition in 2016? A. Hrithik, Akshay and Ajay. Quite a few young actors have started well and some of them have excellent success ratios and growing fan following. Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Arjun Kapoor – could all make it big if they stick around for long enough and do the right films. Shahid too, maybe. Q. Who has the best starts to the career? Varun Dhawan (SOTY, Main Tera Hero), Sidharth (SOTY, Hasee to phasee), Tiger (Heropanti, Baaghi), Ranveer Singh (Band Baajaa, Ladies vs Ricky), Arjun (Ishaqzaade, Auranzeb). Best upcoming movie between them? Baar Baar Dekho, Dishoom, Flying jaat, Befikre, Half Girlfriend. Also tell the current rankings of them in bollywood A. Varun and Sidharth got dream debuts, but more importantly they’ve followed it up with quite a few successful films. Arjun was terrific in Ishaqzaade and Ranveer was raw but appealing in Band Baaja Baarat. Start to Tiger’s career has been unbelievable too, but it’ll be interesting to see how he fares when he moves out of his comfort zone (action). Among their upcoming film – the biggest would be in this order – Befikre, Half Girlfriend, Dishoom, Flying Jatt and Baar Baar Dekho. Ranking-wise, Ranveer leads because of Bajirao Mastani, but Befikre will be a test for both him and Aditya Chopra. Followed by Varun. Q. Mohenjo Daro doesn’t look very huge on screen. Especially the visuals, costumes and also the impact dialogues, which are kind of must for a movies these days to make audience excited. Music sounds good but still missing a chart buster. On the other side, a lot of appreciation to Rustom. How do you think Mahenjo Daro will open, given the facts that it is one of the costliest movies in bollywood and Hrithik coming after two years when the benchmark has been set further up by Sultan? Is there any possibility for it to grab a 30cr + opening? Or even 25cr+, at this stage? A. “The scale is missing” is something that we’ve been hearing from a lot of people.  It’s definitely a concern, because Mohenjo Daro was expected to be a magnum opus made on a huge scale. A lot of money has been spent, but that’s not coming across in the visuals that we’ve seen so far. No chance of 30. Best case would be 20, even that would be surprising – unless the next trailer that they’ve promised to release is outstanding. It’s a word-of-mouth dependent film. Q. On what basis have you placed Ae Dil Hai Mushkil above Shivaay in your lifetime prediction? A. On the basis of the film opening very well at multiplexes. Anushka is one of the Top 2 female stars in the country, bigger after the success of Sultan. Ranbir is loved by the youth, when he does the right film, his audience will return. Karan Johar is one of the top directors in the industry, with an excellent success ratio too. On the other hand, Shivaay only has scale and Ajay’s acting ability in its favour. It’s a risky film that could go either way. Stay tuned though, the prediction will change after the trailer of both films are out. That ends our QnA session for today. More than 35 questions were answered today. Thank you for joining us.

Q. Please give the total (unadjusted) box office impact of 5 major actors – Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan and Akshay kumar starting from 1988. A. Shah Rukh and Salman were the top stars during the 90s. Shah Rukh and Aamir between 2000 – 2010. Salman and Aamir have the lead this decade. Ajay and Akshay weren’t in the top league of actors in the 90s, but have stuck around long enough to become bankable stars. You can check the following pages for collections of their films: Salman Khan Box Office Shah Rukh Khan Box Office Aamir Khan Box Office Ajay Devgn Box Office Akshay Kumar Box Office Q. In recent time in Bollywood has any actor, actress or director had two or more release in a single day? Please tell for three of them. A. It’s difficult to answer such questions in live QnA, but Shruthi Haasan had two releases on the same day – D-Day and Ramaiya Vastavaiya. Nikhil Advani had two back-to-back releases in Hero and Katti Batti. Can’t think of anything else at the moment. We’ll try and post an article on this if there are 4 or 5 instances. Update: A reader pointed out - Another example of an actor having two releases on same day is Amitabh Bachan. Khakee and Aetbaar released on same day in 2004 Q. Why Salman’s statement is not facing any wrath whereas Aamir & SRK had to face the wrath even though Salman said something far more worse? A. Not sure what you’re talking about here.. but most of Salman’s comments have been his personal opinions for which he has had to face outrage. He’s ridiculed almost every day and the outrage for his ‘raped woman’ comment was much more than necessary. On the other hand, Shah Rukh and Aamir’s comments were probably directed at the people of the country. Aamir’s comments of “thinking of leaving the country” was difficult to digest for a lot of fans, because the country has given him so much. It’s all behind them now.. FAN wasn’t affected. Dangal won’t be either. Q. Do you think Shahid Kapoor’s career graph is going the Aamir Khan way? Just like Aamir, Shahid is a terrific actor, but hasn’t really delivered big at the BO yet ( which was the case with Aamir too, for the initial 15-18 years of his career, apart from big hits like Raja Hindustani, DCH etc.). Do you think a movie like Ghajini can turn it around for Shahid? Please share your views. A. Aamir had three major hits – Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Dil and Raja Hindustani. Even Akshay and Ajay had 10-12 years or so before they hit the big league, so yes, given the fact that Shahid Kapoor is talented, he could still turn it around. Those days were a little different though. Actors used to work on 2-3 films simultaneously and seriousness with which current generation actors take each film – probably wasn’t there back in those days. What has worked for Aamir is his choice of films. Films like Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par were brave choices. It helped him grow his fanbase and also build the trust that the audience now have in him. Shahid is talented, but his choice of films needs to change quickly if he has to make it big in the industry. Udta Punjab – with all its critical acclaim – has been watched by far fewer people as compared to a film like Baaghi. While Shahid has stuck on to a director like Vishal Bhardwaj (his films are restricted to audience in 10 cities at best), Aamir was smart enough to not repeat his directors – unless it’s someone like Rajkumar Hirani who gives him pan-India audience. It isn’t a fair comparison anyway, Aamir is in a different league. Shahid has a long way to go. Q. Do you think Adult Comedy genre in Bollywood dying because of Censorship issues. Kyaa Kool Hai Hum 3 & Mastizaade almost became a regular comedy when audience very expective adult comedy in them. A. Don’t think so. Can’t comment on censor board issue without seeing the scenes that were cut. Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 and Mastizaade were bad films. The response to Great Grand Masti trailer has been fantastic. It’ll open well and probably do well too. Q. Why in Bangalore, Aamir has huge fan following compare to other big cities? A. He has fans everywhere. Mysore (includes Bangalore) and West Bengal circuits are known as the ‘class’ circuits. Films that are multiplex targeted do well here. For example, a ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ will perform much better in Mysore circuit as compared to ‘Krrish 3’. Q. Why there is so much negativity around Mohenjo Daro? Yes, the trailer was not upto the expectations but it was not bad even better than many of 2016? A. The trailer was generally not received very well, but negativity from a section of the media was shocking. Some even went to the extent of asking people not to watch the film. A few others said it’s historically inaccurate, without even watching the film. It could be a case of very high expectations from Hrithik – Ashutosh and the subject that they were dealing with. It’s better to wait for the film, because Ashutosh’s films are way better than his trailers. Q. Thoughts on Anushka’s lineup? A. It’s going to be a big year for Anushka Sharma. Priyanka and Deepika have moved to Hollywood, so Anushka is the top choice for the big stars in the industry. She has one release during Eid (Sultan) and next film is during Diwali (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil). If both films work, she’ll be one of the top female stars in the industry. Q. As we all know AR Rahman is a great music director.. But he does not get much offer from Bollywood.. What is the reason? A. Rahman picks the films that he wants to do. No dearth of offers. Filmmakers should also be able to afford him and his music doesn’t always suit every genre. Q. Once both SRK told that he wished to make a Film Franchise based on Mahabharata that will have a budget on par with Hollywood Films & even will try to rope in Hollywood Producers. Do you think there is a distant possibility in future of this? We all know SRK is a daring producer & actor and he even tried to raise the bar with Ra.One but not quite succeed, has country’s best VFX studio & even tried something like FAN & a Dwarf Film too. A. Even Aamir Khan has said in several interviews that making a Hindi film on Mahabharatha has been his dream for several years now. It could be a perfect film for the three Khans and maybe a few other top actors to come together to make a biggie. A director like Rajamouli or Gowarikar could be roped in too. No better time, because the genre is working. However, it could take years for the film to complete and putting it all together could be a difficult task. Getting the cast right is crucial for a film based on Mahabharatha, if the actors don’t suit the iconic characters they play, the film won’t work. Q. Why movies like Baby and Drishyam were ignored at IIFA? A. Nothing surprising. Don’t they have a long history of ignoring good films and performances? Q. When will we see trailer of Rustom and what shall be the impact if Mohenjo Daro and Rustom release on same day? A. Theatrical trailer is expected this Tuesday (28th June). We’ll do an article on the clash after the trailer of Rustom is out. It’s difficult to comment without watching the trailer. Q. Which is the most awaited movie of 2016? Pick any one. From trade, audience’ point of view. A. It’s got to be Sultan and Dangal. Biggest release periods and the biggest of stars. Q. During 2006, Hrithik was on top, even bigger than khans. What actually he needs to do to regain his position? A. Most actors don’t do films to be the top stars in the industry. It’s the fans who want to see their favourite star on top. For a lead actor, it’s all about box office success (profitable for investors) and audience appreciation. As for Hrithik, he has never really been in the number game. If Mohenjo Daro works big, he’ll be in the Top 3.. if it disappoints, it’ll be a major setback for him. That’s the risk you take when you do one film in 2 years. Too much at stake. Even bigger risk if there is a clash with another major star. It’s not going to be easy for Mohenjo Daro to recover costs if it’s anything less than an excellent film. Q. Can the SRK-Alia starrer ‘Dear Zindagi’ get a good opening due to SRK ? OR the audience knows that he will be extended guest appearance , so there will be no initial? A. Impossible to comment before the trailer. Depends on a lot factors, but SRK’s presence will obviously give the film a massive boost. A 15 crore plus opening is also a possibility, which would be unthinkable without Shah Rukh in the film. Quick answers from now on.. Q. What are inside details of Sultan? Censor board cleared with zero cut is it sign of good film? A. Salman films will never have a problem with the censor board, most of them are clean family entertainers. Q. Madaari release date? A. July 15. Q. How much Salman’s rape remark will affect Sultan ? A. Zero impact. In fact, it’ll help the film because a few critics have decided not to watch it. Q. How would you connect yourself with Indiciners in just one word? A. Difficult to explain in one word. Love the interaction and we do read each and every comment and also the tweets. Q. What’s the worldwide gross of Housefull 3? Is it set to cross FAN worldwide? A. Currently, Housefull 3 is about 5 crore short of FAN. Both films could be at around the same level by the end of Housefull 3’s run. FAN was better overseas, Housefull 3 did better in India. Q. Has Dangal shoot wrapped up? When we can expect its first teaser/trailer. How the film shaped up if you have any inside report. What is next film of Aamir after Dangal? A. They are still shooting for the film. There have been reports that a teaser could be attached to Mohenjo Daro. We haven’t heard any positive or negative reports of the film, so can’t comment on how the film has shaped up.  There have been plenty of rumours about Aamir’s next film, but his publicity has told us he hasn’t signed any film. So no confirmed film after Dangal. Q. Did SRK face any bad phase during his long 24 years career like that of Salman khan’s bad phase(2000-2009) and Amir khan (2002-2008)? A. His bad phase is better than the good phase of a lot of other actors. Even though FAN flopped, it still did nearly 190 crore worldwide. Q. What could be the worst case and best case net lifetime collections of Sultan? A. It’s difficult to put a lower or upper limit. Anything can happen at the box office. Let’s just say worst case 130 – 140 and best case could be 350 plus. Q. Gadar or Hum Aapke Hain Kaun ,among them which one was a bigger hit and had more footfalls? A. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. Q. My apology for unintentionally bashing your team with my comments on your posts lately. Its just that I felt it that way and your negative posts fuelled it further. My question in its simplest form: How could slight historical inaccuracies hurt the movie’s business?? Yeah, I admit the selection of scenes in the trailer could have been more varied as for most of the part was simply centred on the fight involving those two giant warriors. But still why is there a needless disturbance and that too on judging the quality of such a finely churned out movie?? And will they release a second trailer or should they? A. We do our job as honestly as we can. Especially, the box office and trade reports. Reviews, sometimes, there is too much pressure. Both are handled by different people. Historical inaccuracy is not going to hurt Mohenjo Daro, but the film has to be entertaining and well-paced. Whether the movie is “finely churned out” or not, we’ll only know after release. The confidence in the trade has lessened after the trailer. Good music and better promos can give the film a boost. [advert] Q. Your choice for top five directors? A. Rajkumar Hirani, Neeraj Pandey, Kabir Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Ashutosh Gowarikar. Q. Is there any site to download free Bollywood-Hollywood Movie? A. I hope you are aware that it’s illegal to download films from the internet. Watch on Youtube, lot of movies are available for a very cheap price. Check out Google Play store. If not, rent a original DVD. Q. How was Aamir Khan Young Dangal look. Will these type of pictures bring more buzz for film? A. Incredible. The man is a legend. Would watch his movies twice just for his dedication and hard work. It definitely has created quite a lot of buzz. Q. What are the reasons behind SRK’s failure to deliver a 300 crore grossing movie on domestic market? Do you think Srk is lesser wise than Amir and Salman due to his some decision like-doing movies like Happy New Year, Dilwale, Fan releasing fan in non festive day ,during IPL,not booking big festive dates in advance for his upcoming releases? A. Didn’t he book Eid? Booking big dates means nothing if your films are not performing at a level that’s high enough to get you solo festive releases. For the trade, the box office performance of the last 1-2 films is more important than an illustrious career. In other words, current standing is what’s most important. Q. What do you think of Mirzya’s trailer? A. Didn’t like it. 5 on 10. Q. Any reasons behind the name of this site ? What does Indicine mean? A. Short form of INDIan CINEma. The plan was keep an option open in the future to cover other film industries. Didn’t want to restrict it only to Bollywood. Q. The genre of Rustom is crime and thriller…don’t u think Mohenjo daro will be the first preference of family audience? A. Yes. If Mohenjo Daro is a good / excellent film, it’ll easily outgross Rustom. Q. Do you think Rustom might get 50:50 or even edge ahead of Mohenjo Daro in screen count at multiplexes if the trailer knocks it out of the ball park? A. It should be 60:40 in favour of Mohenjo Daro. More after the trailer, the look and feel of the film is important to attract larger section of the audience. Q. Was it possible for Happy New Year to collect 45 crores on opening day keeping in mind occupancy,runtime,ticket prices?hope u gonna answer this question A. We stick to official figures here. So until that changes, we wouldn’t want to comment. But to answer your question, generally, it depends on where the occupancy is high. Even if screens, shows, ticket prices are more.. 10 people watching in Mumbai multiplex is equal to 100 people watching at a single screen in Uttar Pradesh. So that argument that some people are posting in the comments section, makes no sense. Q. Compare Dharmendra and Amitabh stardom, I know its not fair but we can have some idea atleast. A. Amitabh Bachchan was way ahead of the rest. During his period of dominance, he was a one man industry. If you follow tennis, he was like Novak Djokovic today. Q. 9 consecutive back to back 100 crore who will break ? A. Salman Khan. Currently only he can break his own records. Q. I agree that Mohenjo daro trailer is not that great as we were expecting…but don’t you think those who are criticising the trailer have nothing to do with history..they are from other fan base? A. Lot has been said about the Mohenjo Daro trailer, let’s give it a break and wait for the film. Expectations now isn’t as high as it should be, which could actually work in favour of the film. Q. If the content of Mohenjo daro strikes don’t u think historical errors won’t matter(if there are some)? A. True. Won’t matter. Q. Which one is more important, nett box office collection or Distributer Share?? A. From a film investor’s point of view, definitely the distributor’s share. The share is high in Week 1. The longer a film performs, the bigger the advantage for exhibitors (theatre owners). Q. Do you think that Saif Ali Khan’s time in Bollywood is over now? Another 2-3 years and he’ll stop getting projects. A. Saif was never a bankable solo star, never will be. His best period was when Hum Tum and Salaam Namastey released. Maybe Love Aaj Kal and Cocktail. But various other factors were in play for each of his solo successes. Q. Is MD vs Rustom still on ? Who will be at the loss if the clash happens ? Should Rustom move or stick to Indepedence day extended weekend with a partial holiday of Raksha bandhan after couple of days of independence holiday …. If it classes with MD , will it be tough to get hit status if the content is not largely accepted .. Do answer A. Lots of Mohenjo / Rustom questions. We’ve answered a few already. We’ll have a detailed comparison article on the site after the trailer launch of Rustom. Expect the article by the end of this month. Q. What should be the lifetime collections of MohenjoDaro at domestic market with average, decent,good and very good word of mouth respectively? A. Could range anywhere between 70-75 crore (worst case) to 200-250 crore (if the film is excellent). Q. Do you think Welcome would have been the first movie to cross 100 cr in India if it hadn’t clashed with Taare Zameen Par? A. Don’t think it lost 40-50% of its business to Taare Zameen Par. The target audience was different and due to the holidays, people could watch both films. Q. Does Rustom have the potential to cross 150 cr on solo release, if the content is as good as Airlift? A. No chance. That ends our QnA session for today. Nearly 45 questions were answered today, we tried to answer as many as possible right to the end of the 15th page of the comments section. Thank you for taking time out from your Sunday to join us.

Q. Can Anyone beat Salman’s 3 back to back 100 crore distributor share record (which would become 4 back to back after Sultan). And what will be the opening of Sultan on Holiday? A. Records are meant to be broken. About 3-4 years ago, 100 crore (net) was a massive achievement. Now, it’s no big deal. With increase in the number of multiplex screens and ticket prices, 175 – 200 crore will be more easily achievable in the near future. So 3 back-to-back 100 crore distributor’s share, shouldn’t be difficult to achieve in a few years from now. Aamir might achieve the same record with the release of Dangal. He already has two back-to-back 100 crore domestic share films (Dhoom 3 and PK). As for Sultan releasing on Eid holiday (certain now, otherwise YRF would’ve announced a final date if they were not targeting Eid holiday), it should record the highest single-day and opening day collections. The target would be 45 crore plus, but a total of more than 40 crore looks certain. This question was answered as part of ‘AskIndicine – Live QnA’ dated 19 June

Q. Can Anyone beat Salman’s 3 back to back 100 crore distributor share record (which would become 4 back to back after Sultan). And what will be the opening of Sultan on Holiday? A. Records are meant to be broken. About 3-4 years ago, 100 crore (net) was a massive achievement. Now, it’s no big deal. With increase in the number of multiplex screens and ticket prices, 175 – 200 crore will be more easily achievable in the near future. So 3 back-to-back 100 crore distributor’s share, shouldn’t be difficult to achieve. Aamir might achieve the same record with the release of Dangal. He already has two back-to-back 100 crore domestic share films (Dhoom 3 and PK). As for Sultan releasing on Eid holiday (certain now, otherwise YRF would’ve announced a final date if they were not targeting Eid holiday), it should record the highest single-day and opening day collections. Q. Any details regarding SRK - Aditya film? Is it true that SRK will play the role of a warrior? A. This is what SRK tweeted yesterday “I am a Warrior, a Dwarf & a Guide.I am not wot I ought to, want or hope to be…I am all that & I am wot I am. My 2 bits on my upcoming ‘roles'” That’s confirmation from the man himself. It’s about time he did varied roles too, that’s the only way to bring the audience back to theatres. Not just the weekend fanbase, but the section of the audience that watch well-appreciated films. The chances of ‘mindless’ commercial entertainers failing is higher in today’s times. There are a lot of rumours about SRK – Adi film, but a YRF source has said it’ll be unlike any Aditya Chopra film (Befikre included). It’ll go on floors fall 2017. Q. Which movie has highest footfalls in the history of Bollywood, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Gadar:Ek Prem Katha, Dilwaley Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge or Sholay? Please give me top 10 list? A. Out of those, Sholay. Some people in the trade say, the film sold over 25 crore tickets. The footfalls (number of tickets sold) of some of Amitabh Bachchan’s blockbusters is said to be 2-3x of the most watched films in today’s times. It’s unfair to compare too, because there were very few entertainment options in those days. Ticket prices were relatively cheaper, even after inflation is adjusted. There was no piracy, no entertainment on television, no Youtube or mobile phones either. The 2000 – 2009 decade belonged to Gadar. Current decade Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the most watched film. Q. What is the official production budget of Mohenjo Daro? A. Official figure hasn’t been released and they may never reveal it. There have been reports that Hrithik was paid Rs 68 crore for the film, which is more than the production cost of 90% Hindi films. It’s a very big film. Easily over 100 and closer to 150 crore. More accurate numbers close to release. Q. You are predicting Sultan’s opening day & lifetime collections in your indicine lbo & indicine fbo respectively, but these are domestic collections can you please tell me how will Sultan fare internationally, i.e., Sultan’s overseas collections. A. The opening will be earth shattering in UAE-GCC and Pakistan. North America should open well too. YRF has promoted the movie well overseas, so the worldwide gross in the first 3 days ‘should’ cross the 200 crore mark. Q. Which is your favourite Akshay – Katrina movie among Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Welcome, Namastey London, Tees Mar Khan and Singh is King? A. Namastey London and Welcome. Q. Who is the most successful actor in the history of Bollywood, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan or Salman Khan? Can you please give me list of Top 10 most successful actors in the history of Bollywood. A. It depends on your definition of successful. If it’s success ratio, then Shah Rukh Khan tops. Among actors who’ve been in the industry for 20 or more years and done 50 or more films, he’s probably the only lead actor to have a 50% or better success ratio. Anything over 45% is very good, but 55% or better over a long career falls in the extraordinary category. Q. When is the Mohenjo Daro trailer expected to release? How has been the response to the First look posters and First motion Teaser? Any chance of clash with Rustom getting averted? A. It’s expected this week and the internal reports are phenomenal. The response to the first look of Hrithik and the first motion poster was excellent, but mixed for the Pooja Hegde poster. About the clash with Rustom, both films will have a better chance of doing well if they release separately. If the trailer of Mohenjo Daro gets a very good response, it will definitely make the makers of Rustom think. Q. With Kaminey, Haider, now Udta Punjab & hopefully Rangoon, do you think Shahid Kapoor is leaving behind a legacy where aspiring/contemporary actors would be covetous? Because let’s be honest he’s progressing & coming into his own now. Notwithstanding, minor glitches here & there like Shandaar! A. There is absolutely no doubt that Shahid Kapoor is a terrific actor. He has everything it takes to become a top star, but the problem is, the ‘glitches’ that you talk about haven’t really been minor. For a career that began in 2003, he’s had very few commercially successful films. His success ratio is 26% and hit-ratio is very poor at 17%. In other words, that means just one in 6 films are hits and only one in 4 films recover costs. That’s a very poor record for an actor as talented as him. Even his successful films haven’t been huge hits. Actors who made their debuts years after him – Ranbir, Varun, Arjun, Ranveer.. now have one or more 100 crore grossers to their credit. Shahid’s best has been 70 crore. Even Tiger Shroff has bettered that in two films. To add to that, his films struggle for a good initial. So his career has been disappointing so far. Yes, there have been films like Haider and Kaminey, but they are only watched by a tiny section of the audience in 5-10 cities at best. He needs a couple of commercial films to do well. Why does he miss on out doing films like 2 States, Half Girlfriend or even a ABCD 3 or Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania? Films that work beyond those 5-10 cities? He needs to grow his fanbase and do films that also appeal to audience in smaller towns and cities. He’s still known for Vivah and most would probably not even know that he’s still doing films. His choice of directors is what has probably held him back. Q. Who is the highest paid actor and actress in Bollywood. Please write about Top 5 highest paid actor and actress? A. The Top 5 actors – Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan and Akshay Kumar – are also the Top 5 highest paid actors. Since their salary can be a burden on the film, they take share of the profit and some of their get the satellite fee too. Market value wise Aamir would probably command the highest because he does very few films and they go on to be major grossers too. In terms of outright salary, Hrithik Roshan is the highest paid. Q. Do the makers show the film to distributors (who buy the films) before selling them? If yes why cant the distributors judge before hand the collection s that the movie may land up with? I mean if you guys can have so much accuracy in your FBO and LBO, why cant distributors with all their experience judge the final collections. This would enable them to minimise their losses and also push the makers to control their budgets? Your views? A. There are way too many factors involved and the fate of films is very difficult to predict. Whether a distributor watches a film or not, also depends from film to film. For example, Rakesh Roshan sold the rights of Krrish 3 to individual distributors even before the film went on floors and all of them made a lot of money – even though they had to wait for 2 years for the film to release. So it also depends on the trust a director or actors involved command. For our LBO predictions, we can achieve higher accuracy by analysing the trends of films. But as things stands today, we have Mohenjo Daro at 190 crore plus and Rustom at 70 crore plus. This is what we call ‘trade expectation’ which are made based on the track record of actors, directors and also the appeal of the genre and period of release. But when the film eventually releases in theatres, it could also go in the opposite direction like we have seen with films like Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani. Dilwale was sold for exorbitant rates and there was huge demand – Chennai Express was the highest grosser, SRK – Kajol, Rohit Shetty, Varun Dhawan – all big names and the film was expected to easily cross the 200-225 crore mark in India, even in the worst case scenario. But the end result was Bajirao pretty much thrashed it in India. Box office is almost impossible to accurately predict. Who’d have thought a film like Udta Punjab would open at 10 crore plus and 33 crore plus weekend? Film business is pretty much like a lottery or a jackpot, when you win, you win big. There are always more chances of losing money, but they try and take calculated risks. Q. Is it possible to achieve 200 crore on non-holiday release in near future? A. Definitely. If Tanu Weds Manu Returns could do 150 crore plus and The Jungle Book could do 190 crore inspite of competition from FAN, bigger films can obviously do a lot more if content clicks. Q. What will you say about the Contribution of KHAN’s to Bollywood? Had there been no Khan’s what would have been our position? A. Unimaginably huge. The industry has sustained and grown because of them. In the last 16 years (2000 – 2015), the three Khans have delivered the highest grosser of the year 12 times. Three of the other non-Khans films belong to Hrithik Roshan (KNPH 2000, KMG 2003, Dhoom 2 2006) and the other highest grosser was Gadar – Ek Prem Katha. So they not only dominated the box office in the 90s, but have also continued to deliver along with Hrithik and Akshay after 2000. With the threat of Hollywood looming on the Hindi film industry, we need them to continue to deliver for the next 3-4 years at the very least, before the younger stars grow their fanbase and hope to match the Khans when it comes to star power. Bollywood is a star-driven industry, we need big stars. We do not have the kind of budget or the quality of technicians (including writers / directors) that Hollywood has. Most of our audience come to watch movies because they like a particular star – which is exactly why most of our ‘lesser-star’ films don’t even get a decent initial. Q. How is the response of Masti 3 trailer in public? Can it give 15 cr opening? A. Quite liked the trailer to be honest. They have stuck to the formula that made the first two films successful. It should be a more entertaining film than both Kya Kool Hai Hum 3 and Mastizaade. Opening that we are currently looking at is 13-14 crore. Q. Rajni Craze at 65 is unimaginable? Can Salman have the same at 60+? A. Good looks are probably much more important for the national audience (Hindi movie watching public) as compared to the audience in the south. Rajnikanth has also spaced out his films – he releases one film every 2-3 years. His most successful films in recent times have been with director Shankar, who is probably the top director in the Tamil film industry. His other films like Kochadaiyaan and Lingaa were major disasters. So even Rajni needs good director to deliver the big grossers. As long as Salman can maintain his looks, space out his films and find commercial roles that suit his age – he will be able to sustain his standing. Finding leading ladies will be a concern in the next few years, if it isn’t already. Right now, he’s unstoppable, but one or two films that don’t do as well as expected, can suddenly change the perception. Q. Any news on what Aamir is doing next as a full fledged lead role? Secret Superstar seems to be confirmed but that’d be more in the capacity of a producer and as support cast. A. Aamir hasn’t signed any full-fledged role after Dangal. He’s said to be keen on doing the biopic on the life of Kishore Kumar. But like we all know, he does take a long time to sign films – the script has to be absolutely convince him. Once the shoot of Dangal is wrapped up, he might sign his next major film. Q. How much is the Distributor Share of Airlift, Housefull 3 (Expected), Fan & Baaghi? A. Airlift was 67 crore, Housefull 3 should be around 56 crore, FAN was 45 crore and Baaghi was 42 crore. Q. Who according to you is the bigger star, Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgn? Both have equal Rs 100 cr grossers, infarct Ajay’s highest grossing film (Singham Returns – 141cr) has collected more than Akshay’s highest grossing film (Rowdy Rathore – 131cr). Please give the reason for your choice. A. Akshay Kumar is the bigger star. He’s been much more consistent as far as the opening of his films is concerned. Q. Looking at the fantastic performance of conjuring 2, don’t you think a Bollywood pure horror (not horror+sex) can also do great if it has A Listers and not regular boring this genre actors like Emraan Hashmi and Bipasha? A. The market for horror films is extremely small and the risk of not getting it right is too high. Sex is included because it helps sell the film to a larger section of the mass audience. Even the Raaz series wouldn’t work without sex and good music. Q. How has SULTAN shaped up?Any inside reports?plz answer this time. A. We can only answer if there is something that’s doing the rounds in the industry and we know someone who’s watched the film. About a week before release is a good time to ask such questions. Q. Don’t you think it will be a massive disadvantage for both Rustom/Mohenjadaro to release on the same day. They both can be a potential blockbuster A. Both films will lose money. Mohenjo Daro is the risker film because of its huge budget. Even if Rustom doesn’t find appreciation, it’ll still affect the business of Mohenjo Daro. The reason for this is fewer shows in Week 1. When two films release on the same day, the bigger film of the two, which would otherwise get 15 shows at a 3-screen multiplex, would get 8 – 9 shows. So even with good word-of-mouth, about 20-30% of business will be lost. The distributor’s share at multiplexes is much higher in Week 1 as compared to Week 2 – this is exactly the reason why Aamir Khan has decided to release his film ‘Dangal’ on 23rd December this year. When the share is lower, the advantage of the Christmas holiday reduces for the investors. Exhibitors (theatre owners) benefit more than the producers. So it’s yet again a wise decision from Aamir to release his film during the Christmas week – because 60-65% of business would anyway come in the first week. Rustom will also be affected and it would still need content to work, but the risk is way lower. Some quick answers: Q. What will the probable release date of SRK Imtiaz Ali next?? A. No confirmed release date. Second half of 2017. Q. What is Housefull 3’s verdict? A. Hit. Q. Will Varun beat Ranbir if Dishoom collects 100 cr at box office? A. Varun is already ahead of Ranbir. Q. When was the Raees movie releasing? Don’t u think that better date to release on Bakri Eid? A. There is no point discussing this now. Too late. Movie has already been postponed to 2017. Q. You have predicted 192 crore for Mohenjo Daro with clash and 72 crs for Rustom, so you must be expecting nothing short of a masterpiece from Mohenjo Daro, isn’t it? A. That’s what we’ve been hearing. It’s a massive film and the audience is liking period magnum opuses. Bajirao Mastani and Baahubali. Mohenjo Daro also has a director capable enough to direct such films. The scale of the film is huge too. So expectations, for obvious reasons, are very high. Rustom is more like Airlift. How much would Airlift do if it clashed with Mohenjo Daro? Probably 7-8 crore opening and 90 cr lifetime. So 72 crore isn’t a very low early prediction for Rustom. It’ll change after the trailers of the two films are released. Q. How much should MD earn for Hrithik to topple Shahrukh from no.3 position? A. If you’re asking about our Top Actors ranking, then Mohenjo Daro would need to collect 145 crore or more. It was also mentioned in that article – Top 15 Actors (April 2016) Q. Is it true that Mohenjo Daro cracks 60 cr deal by selling it’s satellite and music rights …if yes then how much it will benefit the movie ? A. Yes, but there is always a box office clause. It’ll make recovery easier. Q. Can we expect almost 1000 cr collections from Salman next 3 upcoming movies till December 2017? A. An astrologer would be more qualified to answer such questions. An average of 333.33 crore per movie needs content. We’ll have to wait for the movie to release to know. Q. Why don’t actors like SRK, Ajay, Hrithik, Akshay and Salman work with each other…??? A. Producers can’t afford one of them, two will completely mess up the economics. There needs to be a script too and both need to get equal roles, else why will they do the film? Q. Recently Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam completed 17 years say something about it? A. One of Bhansali’s best films. Terrific chemistry between Aishwarya and Salman. We’ll never get to see them together onscreen ever again. Q. Do people outside social media know if something like “Rustom” exists? I mean how is the buzz and hype for Rustom right now? A. They do. Hype and buzz, for most films, is generated after the launch of the theatrical trailer. Q. Which movie has received the best words of mouth so far in 2016? A. The Jungle Book. Q. How much do you like 3 khans? A. Three much. Q. When will the trailer of MohenjoDaro release? How are the response from those who have already watched it? A. This week. Terrific. Q. Who is the best action hero in Bollywood? A. Always liked Akshay in action. One of our favourite articles here is this – Action superstar Akshay Kumar and the Khiladi series Q. Best movie of Sunny Leone according to you? A. Can’t disclose here. Q. Varun Dhawan in Dishoom playing supporting or parallel or lead role? A. A lot of people have been asking this question. It certainly looks like John is playing the lead from the trailer, but Varun is the lead. Q. If you had to rate the best performance of Aamir, SRK, Salman, Akshay and Ajay. Then what would they be. Name only one of each of them ? A. Aamir – PK. SRK – Chak De India. Salman – Tere Naam. Ajay – The Legend of Bhagat Singh. Akshay – He’s been good in a lot of films, can’t pick one. Q. Is Udta Punjab a turning point for Shahid Kapoor as it is performing excellently for such genre? A. Hopefully, it will be a turning point for him. But the movie opened well because of the censor board controversy. That ends the QnA session for today. Thank you for joining us.