Category - Answers

Q. Why Dhoom brand is famous among us as all the movies have weak plots especially Dhoom 3? Are we fascinated by Bikes or something else is there? A. Dhoom was a 12 crore film, Dhoom 2 was made on 30 crore budget. 150 crore was invested into Dhoom 3. The makers have not only upped the scale with each new film, but have also opted for bigger stars. This ensures that they get the biggest release periods, so it’s highly likely that the next Dhoom film will either feature Salman Khan (strong reports) or Shah Rukh Khan.

Q. According to you, a film you think will be remembered (appreciated) in years to come more, Bajrangi Bhaijaan or PK? Both are evergreen but a slight difference. One promotes love and humanity AND the other tells us about the reality of religion and issues related? A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan appeals to a wider section of the audience. It’s a simple story that not many will dislike. On the other hand, PK was received with extreme reactions. Many loved it, some hated it. There are few others who consider OMG! Oh My God to be a better film that PK, more original because it released first. So overall, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the more liked film and that’s unlikely to change in the future too. Your favourite?

Q. Sultan will be the 10th consecutive successful movie of Salman Khan if it succeeds. Do you think he has chance to break Rajesh Khanna’s record of 15 consecutive successful films. If he does that will he become biggest superstar of Bollywood of all time? – Saquib A. Superstardom has absolutely nothing to do with consecutive hits. A star can have a few failures in between and still retain his stardom. It’ll probably be a nice record to have, but Rajesh Khanna’s 15 back-to-back successful films came within a period of 3-4 years. There was a time when 2 or 3 of his films were running in different theatres at the same time. Let’s talk about this once the record is achieved, as Salman needs 6 more films to succeed (including Sultan) and future is never predictable Q. How many screens will be given Rustom, if it clashes with Mohenjo Daro? And what will be the lifetime collection of Housefull 3? – Sachin A. It’s still too early to talk about both films, without watching the trailer. The impact of a trailer can make a huge difference, so all eyes will be on the theatrical trailer of Mohenjo Daro. If it manages to create the impact that the trailer (not teaser) of Bajirao Mastani did, then it’ll have a major advantage. Rustom is targeted mainly at the multiplex audience, while Mohenjo Daro will have wider pan-India appeal. The Hrithik Roshan film is certain to get 3000 plus screens, Rustom would probably settle for around 1600-1800. Single-screen release of Rustom will be very limited, it’s more due to the genre than the star. Housefull 3 should finish somewhere around the total of the previous Housefull film (116 crore). There could be a difference of around 5 – 10% depending on whether Udta Punjab releases this week or not. Q. Udta Punjab postponed or not? A. For now, it’s scheduled to be out this week. The makers are going ahead with their release plan, hoping that the court’s verdict (tomorrow) will be in their favour. They are well aware of the fact that the film will benefit only if it releases this week. If they push it ahead, Udta Punjab will have to move to next month – until all the issues are sorted out. You can’t postpone it by a week, because then there will again be uncertainty. Next month, there is Sultan too – so with the film hitting headlines throughout the week, the makers have got crores worth of publicity for free. It’ll help convert into collections only if its out this week. Q. Current Top 5 superstars in terms of fan following? A. Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar. In that order. Q. Is there any way to get movies like Natsamrat, Sairat, Thithi etc in Hindi or with subtitles? Please do clarify over this – Bhautik A. Sairat is a recently released film and is still performing very well at the box office, so it’s not yet available on DVD. The other films that you mentioned are available with English subtitles. Link to Amazon Q. Is Great Grand Masti releasing on 22nd July? Still no poster or trailer while Dishoom coming 1 week after it has released it’s trailer? A. Yes, Great Grand Masti is scheduled to come out 2 weeks after Sultan. The trailer will be out this week (most probably). We’ve been informed that it’s ready. Q. If Dangal gets postponed, are there any chances of Raees releasing this Christmas? A. Dangal is confirmed for Christmas. No delays, shoot will be wrapped up soon. Post production work has already begun. Reports are very good. Q. What do you think about the promotional strategy of Dishoom as it has been nearly 2 weeks since Trailer got released and no song promo? A. The first song of Dishoom will be out on 16th June. There is no hard and fast rule that the first song absolutely must come out a week after the theatrical trailer. It’s normal to release the first song two weeks after the trailer. Q. Don’t you think that Khan movies grossed 200 above only due to festive weekends. Whenever they release in non-holiday it managed to do around 100 crores only. Akshay, however, didn’t get any festive period still his films grosses 100 crores. If Akshay got Christmas – Eid – Diwali weekend, don’t you think it can do 200 crore? A. You cannot take credit away from the Khans. Eid as a festive weekend was non-existent before Salman Khan came, dominated and made it his own. Christmas was considered to be a non-favourable period because of extreme cold in North India before Aamir Khan started releasing his films and made it a big period. As for Akshay Kumar, he has got several favourable release periods. Baby (Republic Day weekend), Brothers (Independence Day – big day for film business), Singh Is Bling (Gandhi Jayanti – Haider and Bang Bang collected more than 200 crore combined), Airlift (Republic Day), Housefull 3 (Post IPL). It’s not like Akshay is releasing his films during normal weekends. He’s picking the best out of what’s available. Even if you release Brothers on Christmas, it won’t work, like we’ve seen with Tees Maar Khan which released during Christmas 2010. Not being negative about Akshay, but there is a potential for big films like Brothers / OUATIMD / Housefull 3 to get to 150 crore and beyond during non-festive periods. Like we’ve seen with films like Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and others Q. Sholay, Maine Pyaar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, DDLJ, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai etc are considered as Evergreen Cults of All Time. Will 3 Idiots, PK and Bajrangi Bhaijaan be remembered in the same league in years to come let’s say a decade or two? A. Most certainly. On television, 3 Idiots and Bajrangi Bhaijaan generate high TRP’s every single time they are aired. In fact, most times when Bajrangi Bhaijaan is on television, it trends on Twitter. The films that you mentioned are also three of the five most watched films in theatres. Due to extremely high traffic and server load, we have to temporarily stop the QnA session for 30 minutes. We’ll be back at 5:45PM. Apologies for the inconvenience caused. Back. Q. According to you, a film you think will be remembered (appreciated) in years to come more, Bajrangi Bhaijaan or PK? Both are evergreen but a slight difference. One promotes love and humanity AND the other tells us about the reality of religion and issues related? A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan appeals to a wider section of the audience. It’s a simple story that not many will dislike. On the other hand, PK was received with extreme reactions. Some loved it, others hated it. There are few others who consider OMG! Oh My God to be a better film that PK. More original because it released first. So overall, Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the more liked film and that’s unlikely to change in the future too. 3 Idiots beats both though and if the sequel does happen, it’ll be unimaginably huge. Q. Why Dhoom brand is famous among us as all the movies have weak plots especially Dhoom 3? Are we fascinated by Bikes or something else is there? A. Dhoom was a 12 crore film, Dhoom 2 was made on 30 crore budget. 150 crore was invested into Dhoom 3. The makers have not only upped the scale with each new film, but have also opted for bigger stars. This ensures that they get the biggest release periods, so it’s highly likely that the next Dhoom film will either feature Salman Khan (strong reports) or Shah Rukh Khan. Content-wise the audience don’t expect a classic either – some good songs, stunning leading ladies, a bit of humour and action. Script has never really been the strong point of any Dhoom film, except maybe the first. YRF also doesn’t overdo it – one Dhoom film every 5 years seems to be the target. In short, Dhoom films are packaged and timed well. That’s the USP of the franchise. We have some Dhoom related polls on Twitter, have a look: Which actor do you want to see in DHOOM 4? @yrf — Indicine.com (@indicine) June 12, 2016 Which actor was the best as the lead villain in the DHOOM series and should return to the franchise? @yrf — Indicine.com (@indicine) June 12, 2016 Q. Will Sultan effect Dangal, Is Dangal really shifting? A. Sultan won’t affect Dangal. And like we’ve already said, there is no truth to rumours of Dangal shifting to a later date. To fill space and generate traffic, media has become notorious in creating rumours and a day later rubbishing them. Don’t believe 90% of rumours that you read. Let’s not speculate too much, wait for the official announcement. If a film is getting postponed, the production house will always release a statement. Q. Indian Box Office Queen & King? A. BeingSalmanKhan and DeepikaPadukone! Q. Regarding the underperformance of Housefull 3, Does this have any effect on Golmaal 4? Does team Ajay -Rohit have to look at H3 as a case subject? Your take please? A. A little early to call Housefull 3 an under performer. It could still do 120 crore plus. Golmaal 4 will be huge. Getting the release date right will be the key. Q. How well are the songs of Sultan received? Has the buzz increased and is the buzz equal to that of Fan? A. No comparison between the promotional campaigns of FAN and Sultan. FAN was the most poorly planned and marketed Shah Rukh Khan film in a decade! Nothing made sense and they didn’t even have units in the last one month to give the audience something new. On the other hand, they haven’t put a step wrong with Sultan. Perfectly announced, shoot went as per schedule with PR team constantly working at keeping the film in news. Teaser was well received, trailer was huge and the songs have worked well too. Everything has worked for Sultan so far and it’s all down to content clicking with the audience. Q. Who do you think have a better future in Bollywood: Parineeti Chopra, Alia Bhatt or Shraddha Kapoor? A. Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra – in that order. Parineeti has no big film offers, while Alia and Shraddha have plenty. Time is running out for Parineeti, a fantastic actress. Q. What’s the status of Ayan Mukerjee’s DRAGON? A. There have been too many delays and the problem could be the economics. It was meant to be a big budget film that was planned after the success of ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ when Ranbir was expected to soon be a major superstar. But he hasn’t had a success since and has two disasters and a flop to his name. But Ayan Mukerji has said the film is definitely happening and they plan on starting shoot by the end of this year. Q. Is Akshay is doing Jolly LLB 2, is it confirmed? A. Yes, the film is happening. Shoot begins Mid-July. However, no official announcement yet. Q. Any update on PK’s new worldwide collections or any info regarding its Japan box office performance please…? A. It’s releasing in Japan in October. Worldwide collections remain the same. Q. Is it true that the cast for 3 idiots sequel will be completely different from original film…? A. There have been reports that the script of the film has been finalised, but that’s not true. They are still working on the script. It’ll only happen in 2018 – 2019. Long way to go. We have no idea if it’ll be a completely different film or not. Q. Please can u tell me the release date of Mohenja Daro theatrical trailer? A. The trailer is ready, date yet to be finalised. Industry insiders say, third of fourth week of June. Q. What you think akshay kumar has to do in order to get back to the level of superstardom he had in the 2000’s and compete with the khans? This decade he has given us the most number of classy movies(sp 26, baby, airlift, omg etc) and massy movies( rowdy rathore, housefull series etc) but matter what he does he cant seem to get a decent opening and even if it trends well it seems to run of steam around 120-130 crore when the younger generation actors are giving 180cr+(YJHD, bajirao Mastani). Even his most most awaited movies cant get more the 15-16 cr opening? He used to do multiple movies at the peak of his career and most of them used to get bumper opening so multiple movies is not an excuse? Do you think he did too many bad movies at his peak and the audience lost confidence in him? A. Akshay’s working style is different from other actors in the industry. He’s an actor and he does his job i.e to act. Apart from that, he lets directors, producers, editors and marketing teams do theirs. He doesn’t necessarily involve himself into other aspects to ensure the overall product is upto his expectations. There is not a whole lot of planning or excess amount of time spent on decision making. This allows him to do films like ‘Jolly LLB 2’, which most other actors would be hesitant to do. Q. Is the sequel to Robot really called “2.0” ? A. Yes, but that’s the working title. They’ll opt for a Tamil title, because it’ll get them entertainment tax exemption in Tamilnadu. Q. Which clash is more critical Rustom vs Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay vs Ae Dil Hai Mushkil? Don’t you think Karan is clashing because he has personal grudges against Ajay Devgn? He did never clashed with a Khan movie. Mohenjo Daro or Shivaay which one is more expensive budget wise. A. No filmmaker will announce his film against another due to personal differences (if there is any). A film is announced for a particular period because the filmmaker believes his film has the best chance to do well on that day. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is going to be a big film too. It’ll have excellent music and probably hold stronger appeal towards the multiplex audience. Overseas too it’ll be the first choice as Karan Johar films always do well. It’ll also be a less risky film – both budget and genre wise – as compared to Shivaay, which could go either way. Either a big hit or a hugely disappointing disaster. Karan also has better credentials as a director as compared to Ajay Devgn. So it’s going to be an interesting clash. As for your question about the budget of Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay, the Hrithik film is costlier. Q. Your favourite movie in Housefull series? And which non-holiday release in 2016 would you bet on to have the biggest opening? Can Dishoom be the one? A. Housefull 2. Dishoom has very little chance of generating a big opening after the response the trailer has received. Q. Better first look.. Shivaay or Mohenjo Daro? Vote A. Here you go, take a look and vote. Q. Any update about Milan Luthria’s BAADSHAHO? When will they start shooting? A. Shoot begins early August. Q. Can Udta Punjab collect more than 100 crores after getting so much of free publicity by censor board? A. It’s very difficult for such films, because the appeal is limited and it’s adult rated too. No film that is adult rated and lacked appeal towards single-screen audience has yet crossed the 100 crore mark. Even with all the controversy, we’ll be really surprised if the film opens above the 10 crore mark on Friday. Q. If Sultan released on EID day, then the opening will be? A. 40 crore plus. Upper limit is something that cannot be predicted for now. Check out our FBO prediction closer to release. Q. As we all know a superstar can give a bumper opening and rest depends upon the content, so my question is there any process in which the makers appoint some critics and also big directors and shows them the movie and according to their suggestions makes changes in the finale product? A. Trial shows are held for neutral audience for feedback and suggestions. Aamir Khan does it for almost every film of his. He even does it to the music of some of his films. By doing this, you can probably better your product, but you can’t turn a bad film into a good one. Filmmaking is a long and difficult process. A lot can go wrong at different stages, even if the script is strong on paper, the director may not be in form or the actors might be incompetent or miscast. And finally, it’s also about timing the release of films right. The genre might go out of favour from the time you plan and shoot to the time when the film is ready for release. Q. Can Raees cross 40+ crore solo on 26 Jan 2017 because its national holiday…. And how much Mohenjo Daro can collect on 12 Aug 2016 solo… (Harshvardhan Singh on Twitter) A. Can’t talk about Mohenjo Daro before the trailer is out. Need to see some visuals from the film before commenting. 40 crore plus for Raees on January 26th with a solo release should be achievable if the ticket prices are hiked to festival levels. But it remains to be seen if the film will appeal to the family audience. It’s about a bootlegger, could have violence and there is a Sunny Leone item number too. SRK will be returning after Dilwale and FAN too. For a 40 crore plus opening, every centre, every circuit should open to extraordinary response and every section of the audience should watch it too. That ends our QnA session for today. More than 30 questions were answered. Thank you for joining us.

Q. Don’t you think that Khan movies grossed 200 above only due to festive weekends. Whenever they release in non-holiday it managed to do around 100 crores only. Akshay, however, didn’t get any festive period still his films grosses 100 crores. If Akshay got Christmas – Eid – Diwali weekend, don’t you think it can do 200 crore?

Q. Udta Punjab postponed or releasing this week? A. For now, it’s scheduled to be out this week. The makers are going ahead with their release plan, hoping that the court’s verdict (tomorrow – Monday) will be in their favour. They are well aware of the fact that the film will benefit only if it releases this week. If they push it ahead, Udta Punjab will have to move to next month – until all the issues are sorted out. You can’t postpone it by a week, because then there will again be uncertainty. Next month, there is Sultan too – so with the film hitting headlines throughout the week, the makers have got crores worth of publicity for free. It’ll help convert into collections only if its out this week. “We are going ahead with the release plans hoping and praying that the honourable High Court will rule in our favour on Monday” source from Phantom Films. Note: This question was answered as part of AskIndicine – Dated 12 June 2016.

Q. Sultan will be the 10th consecutive successful movie of Salman Khan if it succeeds. Do you think he has chance to break Rajesh Khanna’s record of 15 consecutive successful films. If he does that will he become biggest superstar of Bollywood of all time? – Saquib

AskIndicine QnA at 4PM today. Post your questions in the comments section below. Q. Is it true Mohenjo Daro trailer launching in the next 3-4 days? – Vaibhav A. Yes, Ashutosh Gowariker has confirmed that the trailer of Mohenjo Daro will be released in 3-4 days. Should be out this week, expected on Wednesday. Q. Can Akshay kumar’s Housefull 3 cross the life time collection of Housefull 2? A. It’ll be touch and go. Would be able to give a better answer on Monday. If it holds to 7.5 crore plus on Monday, then it has every chance of beating Housefull 2. Else, it’ll be difficult. Our final IndicineLBO Prediction for Housefull 3 is Rs 105 crore. Q. How is the response to the trailer of Dishoom amongst the trade and the general movie going audience as well? Are there any reports above the music of the film? A. The response to the trailer is mixed, not as positive as it should be – both in the trade and amongst the general audience. As for music, there are a couple of good songs. Q. Why did Houseful 3 underperform on its opening day? Will it raise questions on Akshay Kumar’s stardom? – Ashish Thapar A. Average trailer and lack of popular songs are the main reasons. To answer the second part of your question, the last Akshay Kumar film that took a good (above expectation) opening was Rowdy Rathore. Since then, almost all his films have struggled to get an initial that falls in the ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ category. Even the real-value of Singh Is Bling without the holiday advantage is around 13 crore. He’s been consistent with 12-15 crore opening, but has struggled to take it to the next level even with big budget / franchise films / when his films released during favourable periods or holidays. Q. Can you please let us know about the shooting schedule of SRK ? When will he start with Aanand’s movie , and Imitiaz’s movie ? Also what are their probable release dates ? A. Imtiaz Ali film starts in July / August. Will be announced next month too. Aanand L Rai’s movie is being made on a bigger budget, once the star cast and dates are finalised the film will go on floors. Gauri Shinde film this year, Raees in the first half of 2017. Imtiaz Ali film in the second half of 2017. Aanand L Rai film is announced for Christmas. All tentative. Q. Any idea about Mohenjo Daro first look, teaser and trailer are coming out? A. Trailer is coming out this week, the poster will be released too. Q. Who is currently biggest star in term of openings? – Sheharyar A. Salman Khan, undisputed right now. Way ahead of the rest. Q. Your views on the box office performance of Housefull 3?Has it performed well in the domestic and overseas markets?Also,even though it’s a bit early to predict, do you think the film has a chance to do 100 crores and eventually emerge a hit? A. So far, both the opening and the trend is average i.e in the domestic (India) market. Overseas, it has exceeded expectations, more so because of its genre. It wasn’t expected to do as well as it has. We have already given our final LBO prediction – 105 crore. Q. How are MS Dhoni biopic, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Befikre shaping up? Also, how has Dishoom shaped up? Can the success of any these films take the lead actors one step closer to superstardom and becoming a bankable male lead or they will need few more string of releases for that? A. Story will be the strong point of MS Dhoni biopic and Neeraj Pandey is an excellent director, the pre-release reports are good. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’s music reports are outstanding, it could / should be the best album of the year. It’ll open very well at multiplexes and overseas. We do not know anything about Befikre, too early to comment too. ‘Superstardom’ takes years to achieve, Ranbir has had quite a few failures recently, Sushant with all due respect can’t guarantee a initial on his own. Ranveer has made his presence felt, is the most promising star among younger generation of actors – but still has a long way to go before he gets into the big league (4 stars currently). Q. Is there any chance of Housefull 3 crossing 150 crore? A. Highly unlikely. Vote below and let us know. Q. Why is it that Housefull 3 has underperformed at the massy centres,where Akshay Kumar has a massive following? Please correct me if I’m wrong,though I’m just going by your articles. A. It’s music that ensures a good opening at smaller centres (doesn’t apply to Salman Khan), and that’s where Housefull 3 was lacking. A better promo and better music would have probably given the film a 17 crore plus opening. Q. Why science fiction genre still remains untouched in Bollywood? A. Krrish films have been very successful. Rest have failed. Budget constraints and comparisons with Hollywood  - make the genre very risky for anyone to attempt. We don’t have too many directors who are capable enough to handle such big films either. Shankar has been successful in the south, Robot 2 will be ‘huge’. Q. If Sultan release on Eid holiday, how much collection will be on Day 1? A. We have been hearing that YRF is targeting the Eid holiday. Anything is possible, but should most certainly be 40 crore plus. Some well-known trade analysts have been talking about 50. Can’t rule that out. Salman has done it before. Sultan is the biggest event film of the year, it’ll get the showcasing it deserves. Q. Don’t you think if Hrithik would have atleast two releases every year he would have been way ahead than Khans by now? Also don’t you think Hrithik is wasting his peak years by not doing films in between looking at the talent he has? A. In the last 10 years, Hrithik has done just 9 films. That’s too less and doesn’t really give him a chance to compete for the top spots. Having said that, not all actors want to get into the number game. They like working at their own pace and at the end the day, even though fans would like to see a lot more of him, it’s finally his decision on how many films he wants to do. The problem has been the scale – films like Bang Bang, Krrish 3, Jodha Akbar, Mohenjo Daro – take a lot more time to shoot and complete – as compared to a film like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. To do 2 films a year or one film every 8-9 months, you need to do one small film that can be shot in 2-3 months. That hasn’t been the case for Hrithik, because almost all his films are biggies budget and scale wise. Q. Will TE3N affect business of Housefull 3 in Second week? A. No. Q. Is that true that Akshay is doing a movie called Toilet, with Neeraj Pandey? A. Yes, the film has been titled ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Satire comedy on the cleanliness and sanitation. It could also promote and spread awareness about PM’s cleanliness initiative Swacch Bharat Abhiyan. Q. Now a days big festive and holiday dates are being booked very early (even 1 or 2 years before the actual date) that too without starting the filming. Example: Kabir Khan’s next, Sons of Sardaar). So what is your opinion about big films booking the festive dates even before starting filming and SRK’s decision to not announce the release dates before starting filming of the movie? Do you think it’s a bad decision by SRK? A. No difference. We have already seen this with Raees and Sultan. Sultan was announced before it went on floors and Raees makers announced their dates much earlier after their film went on floors. The bigger star (current standing) will get the bigger dates. There isn’t enough space for two major stars to release their film on the same day. A lesser star film might want to challenge, if the makers are confident of content – like we saw with Bajirao Mastani last year. When someone like Aamir announced PK, other films that were announced for the same date, moved. No one has the guts to take on Dangal this year either – even though two films combined generated more than 300 crore during Christmas last year. So it all depends on the current standing for actors, as soon as that weakens, people will target you – whether you announce early or late, doesn’t really matter. Q. Is Hrithik doing YRF #Thug also starring Big B? A. Yes. Confirmation after official announcement. Q. Captain America Civil War, Batman Vs Superman and X Men Apocalypse opened well at box office in India so why Bollywood dont interested in Super Heroes movies? A. The budget of Batman vs Superman and Captain America: Civil War is Rs 1700 crore. And even though Batman vs Superman didn’t find much appreciation, it grossed 5800 crore globally.  Captain America: Civil War grossed 7500 crore globally. Do we have that kind of budget? Even if we do, can we recover it? Can we match Hollywood standards? Do we have a visionary director who can pull off films of such scale? Will audience at smaller centres be willing to watch a classy superhero film? Will the metro city audience who watch Hollywood films on a regular basis, accept a substandard film – because of budget constraints? Too many questions, unfortunately the answer to almost all of them is a big NO. Q. Which film could be big surprise success in 2016 like previous year we had Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Bajirao Mastani? A. Neeraj Pandey’s MS Dhoni biopic, Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra’s Mirziya and Ajay Devgn’s Shivaay could be those films. Q. What is the current buzz of Mohenjo Daro? What’s the genre of the movie? Is it commercial film like Baahubali? or is it a Niche film like Lagaan, Devdaas, nd Swades? or is it a mixed type film like Jodha Akbar and Bajirao Mastani? A. The buzz is huge. The trailer is highly anticipated and Hrithik returns after nearly two years. It’s a commercial film. Lagaan wasn’t niche, it was commercial and entertaining. Swades was completely off-beat. We haven’t seen the trailer, so we need to wait for that to know the look and feel of the film. We’ll analyse the trailer after it’s launch – both from an audience and trade perspective. Q. Who is SRK? A. A common man who became one of the biggest movie stars in the world? You know Indicine, but you don’t know SRK? Who are you? Q. Son of Sardaar 2 was announced to release in Diwali 2017. But looking at Ajay’ s busy schedule do you think it will be possible to release it on 2017. A. It’s not Son of Sardaar 2. It’s a completely different film titled ‘Sons of Sardaar’. No update on that for now. Q. What could be the reason for houseful 3’s under performance? It was a complete entertainer for me though? A. Too early to call it a film that has under-performed. Housefull 2 dropped on Day 2, Housefull 3 has shown growth. So let’s wait for a few more days. It would only be a under-performer if it doesn’t beat the previous film which released 4 years ago. Q. Will Rustom collect more if it gets a solo release than it will do with clash with Mohenjo Daro? A. Rustom is a word-of-mouth film, it won’t get a big initial. The target audience is at multiplexes, so content will be the key. Solo release is always better, because if a big film like Mohenjo Daro clicks and the response to Rustom is mixed, it could get swept away. Vice versa also holds true. Let’s wait for the Mohenjo Daro trailer, there are still chances of the clash getting averted. Q. Rate Dishoom trailer out of 10? A. 6 on 10. It’s looking like a ‘multiplex masala’ film. Won’t be story-driven, so Rohit Dhawan’s direction will be the key for the film to succeed. It has to be entertaining to work. Q. Which are the best three male performances(acting) of 2016 so far in your opinion? – Nipun A. Shah Rukh Khan in FAN, Akshay Kumar in Airlift, Randeep Hooda in Sarbjit. Q. Why isn’t Akshay able to give a Bumper/ Excellent opening in the last few months? Can only the Khans and Hrithik deliver a bumper opening purely on stardom regardless of the genre? A. Khans and Hrithik very rarely disappoint when it comes to opening. They usually match or exceed realistic expectations. Varun Dhawan has been very consistent with the opening of his films too. We don’t mean to say he’s hit the big league, but for a young actor to be as consistent as him and push upwards with each new film, it’s a big achievement. Consistency is the key here. Akshay too has been consistently above the 10 crore mark, but expectation-wise he has disappointed more often than not. Mid-2000s he was at the top of his game, now content and word-of-mouth dependent after a steady start. Q. It is very apparent now that films with good content are only doing well. And superstars are not able to sustain da audiences beyond the weekend if content is not good. However would it be fair to say that sultan is insulated from this phenomenon. And Salman + Eid would ensure min 200 crore even if the content is bad? A. If content gets rejected, then 200 crore is difficult for any star. Word-of-mouth spread quickly these days, so if the film is not upto the mark, the collections will come down. But what the presence of actors like Salman / SRK / Aamir does is.. if the word-of-mouth is good, they are capable of bringing a lot more people to theatres – more so since they release their films during festivals. Since people know a Salman movie is coming during Eid, at smaller centres they save up on money to watch his films. It’s that connect that he has established with his audience for years, which is why he doesn’t want to let go of his Eid period. Q. Can Housefull 3 cross the collections of Welcome Back? A. It should. We’ll have a day-wise comparison up on our site tomorrow. Q. Why don’t you update the TOP 10 Song section per month? It has been more than 1.5 years since you have stopped doing it. A. We are working on this, should be up soon. There are hundreds of sites that put up Top 10 ranking, we want to do something different and unlike what’s already out there. There is an idea in place, should be up soon. Q. Don’t you think if price of tickets come down by 25 to 30% movies with smaller star will perform well in cinemas ? A. We already have a long and detailed article on this – Movie Ticket Pricing Strategy: Should all movies cost the same? Q. Why indian censor board is still runs on old rules and regulation? Today due to internet many people are aware about many things but why they are so strict while compare to hollywood. Udta punjab is one film which may give good message about social evil i.e drug absue but they still has not give a certificate to UP, also demanded for 40 cuts. What is your take on censor controversy about Udta Punjab? And what is the budget of Udta Punjab and how much it need to be a hit? Please reply. A. We really can’t comment on this, when we haven’t even watched the film. The Censor Board of Film Certification goes by the rule book, the rules might be outdated. So there is a team headed by Shyam Benegal that has been appointed to reform the Censor Board. It will take time, obviously. But like Anurag Kashyap has said, he has lots of options. Revision committee, Tribunal, Court. Q. What about ‘Eega-2’ ? K. V. Vijayendra Prasad, the celebrated story writer said in an interview that Salman is doing it… What is the status ? A. Scripting stage. Won’t release before 2018. Q. There are reports of Aamir Khan being upset with YRF because of Sultan and Dangal being on same plot line.. how much is this true and whats the real issue? A. Both movies are different. No issue. All good after Sultan trailer. Q. This decade so far is the worst ever decade for the music of Bollywood. What do you think, why the quality of music is decreasing day by day? According to you, which era was the golden era of Bollywood music? A. Taste of audience varies. The audience that grew up in the 90s will probably always like the music of the 90s. Just like the older generation say that the Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar can never be matched. Youngsters these days like songs like Kar Gayi Chull, nothing wrong in that. We also have had classics like Tum Hi Ho in the recent past. Don’t think it has been the worst decade, although we think the 90s music was far superior. More than 35 questions were answered today. We have some more questions from ANK (Censor Board related) and a few others that will be answered in a separate article. Thank you for joining us. We apologise if your question wasn’t answered – we really can’t answer all of them.

Q. Hello Indicine, I am a regular user of this site from last year. I don’t reside in India but get all the latest update about Bollywood through your site. Thanks for that. My question is related to SRK and his competition with other actors. I feel that media created a war between SRK and other actors. I never heard competition between other actors like Salman vs Akshay / Hrithik vs Ajay, Aamir vs Akshay or others. It always around SRK due to that a lot of negativity has been filled by fans of all actors. Can you please tell why always top position actors are compared with SRK? (Silent Viewer) A. First of all, thank you for visiting. About Shah Rukh Khan, right from the beginning of his career, he’s been a divisive personality. Whether it is through his interviews, statements made at other public appearances or even during film clashes – what he says used to generate extreme reactions. People either loved him or hated him. The media alone cannot be blamed for the rivalries and fan wars, because some of the statements that the stars have given have also helped create fanwars on the internet. Salman and SRK were not on talking terms for more than 5 years. Aamir has made controversial statements against Shah Rukh. SRK himself had once added fuel to media made comparisons between him and Amitabh Bachchan (when he replaced Bachchan on KBC). Between actors too there is competition. Not just box office, but also to get to work with the big directors in the industry and to maintain their standing. This isn’t just with the likes of Khans, but also with younger generation actors like Ranveer, Varun, Arjun, Sidharth. Sometimes the competition is healthy, sometimes it isn’t. The other angle to it are the die hard fans, who like to see their star winning at the box office, getting awards, signing films with big directors etc. All this combined, creates fan wars and controversies. The outsider who has played the game the best has been Shah Rukh, without doubt. It’s a difficult industry to survive in, for an outsider.. but Shah Rukh hasn’t just played the game smartly, he’s outsmarted many over the years. Currently though, it’s not helping him beat Salman and Aamir. He’s tried with films like Dilwale (it was made and released to break records) but it hasn’t worked. Q. Why in present time most comedy movies don’t work at box office? A. Well made comedy films that entertain the audience, will work at the box office. When a couple of bad comedy films release and fail, the genre is not considered to be ‘in trend’ or liked by the audience. Masala films were considered to be to risky, but ‘Baaghi’ has done very well. The key for producers / directors / actors is to time their films well. When there is an overdose of any genre, there is a higher risk of films failing. At the same time, releasing a film belonging to a particular genre after a good break (like the youth-masala-film Baaghi released more than a year after Tevar), gives the film an advantage. If ‘Housefull 3’ works, the comedy genre will be back with a bang! [advert] Q. How distributor’s share is being decided? N then how much share goes to producers and cinema owners? Its bit confusing so want a detailed analysis please. A. Detailed analysis will require a separate article. But to answer your question in brief, distributor’s share varies from film to film and place to place. At multiplexes, the distributor’s get the highest share in Week 1, it goes lower in Week 2 and further down in Week 3. At fixed rentals, theatres are rented out, so the share is usually much higher – provided the occupancy is good / high. Otherwise, releasing the film can actually be loss-making, because distributor’s won’t even recover the rent that they paid. This is exactly why a lot of films don’t get released at single-screens. A lot of people think films will collect more if they get more screens – this is not true. The lead actor has to have an audience at smaller centres and the genre should be universal enough – for films to get 4000 plus screens. We have a very old article on this – it needs to be updated but worth reading nonetheless (Read: Indian Box Office Model) Q. After the mind blowing run of “The Jungle Book”, which movie in 2016 might have the power to create the same magical run? A. Purely in terms of numbers, Sultan should easily beat ‘The Jungle Book’. But to get the kind of trend that the Hollywood film got, it would require a truly special film. Won’t be easy. We’ll keep a close eye on the 3rd – 4th – 5th – 6th week collections of the most liked film of the year and then compare it to ‘The Jungle Book’. Should be interesting. Mohenjo Daro and Dangal are our picks of the two films with the best chance, Shivaay will be a film to watch out too. Q. Any news on Deepika’s future projects in Bollywood? I heard she might be doing Padmavati or Shoojit Sircar’s next? A. Lot of rumours, but officially Deepika hasn’t yet signed a Hindi film. She’ll be making a special appearance in ‘Raabta’ starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon. Q. What are the reasons for FAN’s failure? A. FAN flopped because the audience rejected it’s content. The word-of-mouth was negative from Day 2 / 3 itself. Q. How is the buzz of Housefull 3 and will it be able to cross FAN going by the current trend? A. Housefull 3 should easily beat FAN, unless the film turns out to be a major disappointment. Sajid – Farhad have replaced Sajid Khan as directors – remains to be seen if it was for good or bad. Q. Why Ek Tha Tiger isn’t ‘All Time Blockbuster’ at 199 crore – less than 3 crore of previous 3 idiots. But Bajrangi Bhaijaan is ATBB inspite of collecting 19 crore less than previous highest grosser PK? A. The ‘All Time Blockbuster’ verdict is always debatable, but it’s not a verdict that is given to the highest grosser of all time. It’s about return-on-investment. ‘The Jungle Book’ is an all time blockbuster even though it isn’t even close to the highest grosser of all time. ROI-wise even Tanu Weds Manu Returns got pretty close to ’All Time Blockbuster’. Ek Tha Tiger was an expensive film. Q. With upcoming movies, do you see any actor breaking into the the coveted 30 + crores rupees opening day from now to end of 2017? Or you still think it will only be reserved for the usual superstars -suspects : Salman Srk Aamir Ajay Hrithik? and why? A. When it comes to opening, it would be Salman, SRK and Aamir – in that order. These guys are cut above the rest. Salman has been phenomenal over the years, in a league of his own. SRK has been excellent too, because even the opening of Dilwale – inspite of clash with a major film and release on a working day – it managed 21 crore Day 1 (equivalent to 30 crore plus). Aamir is right up there too, but he’s had backing of top franchise and director, so Dangal opening should give us a better picture of how he compares to Salman and Shahrukh – purely in terms of a earth-shattering initial. After that it’s Hrithik and then there is a huge gap. So the actors capable enough to deliver 30 plus, would be these four. Akshay has been consistent with opening, but most of his films average around 12 – 15 crore. Ajay has been highly inconsistent, the credit for the Singham opening doesn’t entirely go to him. That’ll change if Shivaay manages 20 plus opening. Ranveer is the next best bet, but has a long way to go before he can even think of joining the ’30 crore opening’ club. One other point – an actor has to have strong audience-pull both at multiplexes and single-screens. Plus the genre has to be supportive to get a 30 crore plus opening. Otherwise it’s not possible. Q. The Craze Of Sultan Is Unparalleled. Can Sultan Open More Than 50 Crores ? A. No. But we’d have said the same if you asked if 30 crore is a possibility before Ek Tha Tiger’s release. Salman is capable of box office miracles. Let’s see, box office is unpredictable, which is why it’s always exciting. Q. What is the verdict for Baaghi? And what would be Azhar and Sarbjit’s verdicts? A. Baaghi is ‘Super Hit’. Azhar is Flop. Too early to talk about Sarbjit, but even in the best case from here.. it looks like a ‘Average’ grosser. Q. Don’t you think Mohenjo Daro should release solo? Am really looking at massive bankruptcy for Rustom if they clash? What does Hrithik has to do from now to earn a Megastar title? A. Clash is won with content. Mohenjo Daro will get better opening, but Rustom can surprise if it turns out to be a well-made film. Even the mighty can fall, like we saw last Christmas. These days there are clear trend clues on Friday itself. Q. Is Salman’s next with Rajkumar Santoshi is confirmed or not ? And if it is confirmed then any idea about its story,lead actress,genre etc ? A. Salman hasn’t signed the film. Q. Do you feel market of hindi films is shrinking as regional and Hollywood movies are making some serious dent of late. A. The next few years will be testing times for the Hindi film industry. There are quite a few problems. The corporatisation of the industry has meant Hollywood films are eating into the business of Hindi films at big centres. At smaller centres, especially in South and West, regional films are growing both because of creativity resulting in good content and entertainment tax exemption in home states. Hollywood films don’t need massive promotions, the lead stars aren’t even coming down to India because it’s a small market. Yet, 5 months into the year, the combined collections of the two biggest films – Airlift and FAN – is almost as much as ‘The Jungle Book’. The threat from Hollywood is real, because the audience is getting more value-for-money from Hollywood films as compared to films that we produce. The Hindi film industry also has the looming threat of our major superstars ageing. How long will they remain at the top of their game, is a question that we’ve been asking for almost half a decade now.. Luckily, they continue to do well and we also have a bunch of younger stars who have quickly established their fanbase. But currently, there is no doubt that the business of Hollywood films is growing at a much faster rate. The Hindi market is not shrinking, but stagnating. The rest are growing. Q. Is the Biopic trend is becoming unpopular given the fact that Azhar almost failed and Sarabjit started poor ? A. The genre is not getting less popular, but people are smart in today’s times. Ticket prices are high and unless a film is really worth a movie outing, the audience is more than willing to skip mediocre films. There has been an overdose of biopics, which is never good, because people become more choosy. M.S Dhoni biopic should do well, it has good director and an immensely popular cricketer. Not many were interested in knowing more about Mohammad Azharuddin. But Dhoni, ticket collector to India’s most successful captain.. a man who has given happiness to so many through World Cup wins.. who wouldn’t be interested? Q. Why is it that the Hindi film industry doesn’t invest in producing well made magnum opus projects like Bahubali and Robot inspite of earning 200-300 crores per big movie? Regional cinema is redefining cinematic boundaries with every coming year. A. We lack visionary directors and those who are successful are happy exploring their own genre. Even Rajkumar Hirani has stuck to his tried-and-tested formula for the four films that he has directed so far. Rakesh Roshan has taken risks, but he still falls short somewhere in the writing department. Having said that, films like Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay are risky and big-budget. If these films turn out to be well-made, it could be our industry’s ‘Baahubali’. Q. Will Raees be releasing this year? A. No, postponed to 2017. Q. Is Ticket price the main reason why people are not giving a chance to 2.5/3* movie? A. Most certainly. A movie outing is expensive for the city audience. If one film is not worth it, they’ll wait for the next. Q. Don’t you think in Bollywood, there is no unity? Doesn’t a brave, risky and ambitious experiment like Mohenjo Daro deserve a solo release? A. There is a lot at stake for a film like ‘Mohenjo Daro’. Even for an established lead star like Hrithik, it’s a lot of risk when you release one big film after 2 years of absence. It could mean two years of work going down the drain and the losses can be huge if your film doesn’t find acceptance. But at the end of the day, if your film is well-made, it’ll work. If your film is excellent, it can destroy not just the week’s competition, but films that release 1 or 2 week later. The stakes were equally high for a film like Bajirao Mastani and it was up against a massive film like ‘Dilwale’. It not only did well, but decimated the Shah Rukh Khan starrer from Christmas holiday onwards. If Ashutosh Gowariker is confident of the film that he’s made, clash wouldn’t be a big concern to him – although it would still mean the film would collect a little less than it would with a solo release. Q. Please provide update on the movie ‘BankChor’ by Y Films of Yash Raj Films starring Ritesh Deshmukh n Vivek Oberoi A. We have been asking them, but YRF isn’t talking about the film. Q. What are the total collections and verdicts of Nil Battey Sannatta, Santa Banta Pvt. Ltd. , Laal Rang, Baaghi, Traffic, One Night Stand and 1920 London ? A. Nil Battey Sannatta finished with lifetime business of less than 2.5 crore, Lal Rang was around the 2 crore mark, Santa Banta Pvt Ltd was very poor with collections of 75 lakhs. One Night Stand finished with 3 crore. All disasters. 1920 is at 14.5 crore Average grosser. Baaghi is the only film that has done well. Super Hit. That ends the QnA session for today. We have received many more questions, we will try and answer most of them through the week and next weekend. Thank you for joining us.

This question was asked on the #AskIndicine QnA session dated 8th May 2016. This page has been created to discuss. You can read the full QnA here. Q. How are the box office prospects of Raees looking now? Is it still being seen as a potential bumper openers on a Friday morning by the trade?? A. Too early to talk about Raees right now. There is still quite a bit of uncertainty around the release of the film. Are the makers willing to take on a film like Hrithik’s Kaabil? If Mohenjo Daro goes on to be a huge hit at the box office, that will completely change the way the trade would look at the clash – Hrithik would then have a upper hand. How will Excel market the film? Are they going to lie low for a while, then release the trailer a couple of months before – which wouldn’t be a great idea because the teaser was released in July last year. Too many questions at the moment. There needs to be clarity over these questions, because we even begin to talk about opening number on Friday. Releasing on Eid against Sultan was probably a better idea than pushing your film by nearly 7 months. Bakrid (September 9) was the best date. Q. According to you, which movie will be Highest Grosser of 2016 - Sultan? Mohenjo Daro? Shivaay? Raees (if on Bakrid)? Dangal? A. For highest grosser of the year, it’s the content (story, writing and direction etc) that are more important because almost all films that you mentioned does feature a top star. Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay are two films that can surprise and go on to be huge grossers – because the genre of myth / history / costume has received a big boost with films like Baahubali and Bajirao Mastani. Sultan and Dangal are obviously the top contenders because of the release period and two of the biggest stars in the industry. We wouldn’t want to include Raees in this because it’s officially scheduled to be out in 2017. To make the QnA a little more interesting and interactive, we will add more polls. You can request for polls in the comments section. Do note, the decision to add the poll or not is completely upto us  - we do not want to overdo the poll thing.

This question was asked on the #AskIndicine QnA session dated 8th May 2016. This page has been created to discuss. You can read the full QnA here. Q. Just because ‘FAN’ had flopped at the box office, is it wise to write off Shahrukh Khan completely? If yes, can he make a comeback? (Aashish Thapar) A. Shah Rukh Khan is too big a star to be written off so easily. His popularity is still very high and one or two under-performers do not make a big difference to established stars like Shah Rukh. It’s because of his own high-standards and incredibly high success ratio that people are even talking about his downfall. Akshay Kumar’s Brothers was a big failure and all his films in 2015 were under-performers. Did anyone talk about his downfall? One film like Airlift and the entire perception has changed.

AskIndicine Live QnA begins at 4PM today. There are no major releases in May, apart from Azhar (May 13) and Sarbjit (May 20). So this would the last QnA before the release of Housefull 3 in the first week of June. Post your questions in the comments section below. Q. How are the box office prospects of Raees looking now? Is it still being seen as a potential bumper openers on a Friday morning by the trade?? A. Too early to talk about Raees right now. There is still quite a bit of uncertainty around the release of the film. Are the makers willing to take on a film like Hrithik’s Kaabil? If Mohenjo Daro goes on to be a huge hit at the box office, that will completely change the way the trade would look at the clash – Hrithik would then have a upper hand. How will Excel market the film? Are they going to lie low for a while, then release the trailer a couple of months before – which wouldn’t be a great idea because the teaser was released in July last year. Too many questions at the moment. There needs to be clarity over these questions, because we even begin to talk about opening number on Friday. Releasing on Eid against Sultan was probably a better idea than pushing your film by nearly 7 months. Bakrid (September 9) was the best date. Q. According to you, which movie will be Highest Grosser of 2016 - Sultan? Mohenjo Daro? Shivaay? Raees (if on Bakrid)? Dangal? A. For highest grosser of the year, it’s the content (story, writing and direction etc) that are more important because almost all films that you mentioned does feature a top star. Mohenjo Daro and Shivaay are two films that can surprise and go on to be huge grossers – because the genre of myth / history / costume has received a big boost with films like Baahubali and Bajirao Mastani. Sultan and Dangal are obviously the top contenders because of the release period and two of the biggest stars in the industry. We wouldn’t want to include Raees in this because it’s officially scheduled to be out in 2017. To make the QnA a little more interesting and interactive, we will add more polls. You can request for polls in the comments section. Do note, the decision to add the poll or not is completely upto us  - we do not want to overdo the poll thing. Q. Has the buzz for Azhar biopic increased? A. Not by much, atleast not where they should be ‘buzz-wise’ less than a week before release. The film has been extensively promoted during the ongoing IPL season (Azhar himself has made appearances), so a lot more people are aware that the film is releasing. Whether that converts into ticket sales on Friday morning – is something that remains to be seen. We think it’s going to be a word-of-mouth film - decent start with content deciding the film’s fate. Azhar isn’t as popular as the likes of Sachin, Dhoni or even Dravid and Ganguly. But the older generation who grew up watching Azhar, might want to watch his films. His life is more controversial than any other Indian sportsman too. Q. What are the reasons behind Salman’s success at single screens? (Yuvraj) A. His action image, his larger-than-life persona (both off-screen and on-screens), his connect with the masses and above everything else his awareness that he needs to do films for the people of India. He does not aspire to do films that the critics or the so-called intellectuals love, but does films that connects with the audience in the core Hindi belt of India and also with the middle-class in urban cities. They are head over heels in love with everything that Salman does, because people can relate to his films. In the interiors of India, actors like Sunny Deol and Akshay Kumar are loved for their action image. You’ll find their posters all over the place, including at the back of tractors and auto rickshaws. Some of Salman movies, apart from having action, also have a emotional connect. This has helped him go one step ahead of everyone else. He was already at the peak of his popularity, but Bajrangi Bhaijaan has taken him to another level. Will be hard to beat or even touch that level of fan-following and craze. Q. Can you let us know which are the big ‘event’ films that are announced for a theatrical release in 2017 and for the remainder of 2016? (Aashish Thapar) A. 2016 – Sultan (Eid), Housefull 3 (Post IPL), Mohenjo Daro and Rustom (Independence Day weekend), Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay (Diwali), Dangal (Christmas). 2017 – Kaabil and Raees (Republic Day), Salman – Kabir film (Eid), Sons of Sardar and Salman – Rajkumar Santoshi film (Diwali), Raju Hirani film – Sanjay Leela Bhansali film – Aanand L Rai film all for extended Christmas period. Tentative for now, will change depending on various factors. Q. What do you think about Tiger’s acting? Is it his martial artist ability which takes a movie forward or the story. I don’t think he can act in a pure rom-com or comedy or drama. so,what type of actor he is do you think? A. Tiger has a long way to go as an actor, but the confidence that an actor gets from success and acceptance will help him improve. The advantage for him is, he has got plenty of time and currently no one in the industry can do action like he does. So by the time he overdoes action, maybe he will improve in the acting and dialogue delivery department too. Akshay Kumar wasn’t a terrific actor when he started, but he could do fantastic action. He then improved tremendously as an actor and now he’s reached a stage where he can play just about any role. To match Akshay won’t be easy, we aren’t even comparing, but Tiger definitely has potential and his career is off to a fantastic start. Q. What are the upcoming movies of Jacqueline Fernandes? (Rohit Kumar) A. Dishoom with Varun Dhawan and John Abraham, A Flying Jatt with Tiger Shroff and Housefull 3 with Akshay Kumar. Q. Just because ‘FAN’ had flopped at the box office, is it wise to write off Shahrukh Khan completely? If yes, can he make a comeback? A. Shah Rukh Khan is too big a star to be written off so easily. His popularity is still very high and one or two under-performers do not make a big difference to established stars like Shah Rukh. It’s because of his own high-standards and incredibly high success ratio that people are even talking about his downfall. Akshay Kumar’s Brothers was a big failure and all his films in 2015 were under-performers. Did anyone talk about his downfall? One film like Airlift and the entire perception has changed. The problem for SRK is.. right from the early stages of his career to until about 2009-2010, he was the top star. There were other contenders, but he was ahead. But in the last 6-7 years, Aamir and Salman have taken giant strides and SRK hasn’t been able to do match up. Those big grossers have been missing, even though opening-wise he’s right up there in the Top 2. Next only to Salman and even comparable to him. Opening of his last few films: Chennai Express – Highest Opening day, Highest Single Day Happy New Year – Highest Opening day, Highest Single Day Dilwale – Excellent opening, but was affected by Bajirao Mastani. 21 crore is excellent even for a solo release on a working day, Dilwale managed that even though it lost 40% multiplex shows to Bajirao Mastani. FAN – It isn’t a off-beat film that it’s being made out to be after it’s failure, but for a film without songs, opening of nearly 20 crore is terrific. So it’s all about that ‘one big film’ where everything falls into place. Not just the opening, but the content too. The sooner it comes, the better. If it doesn’t come in the next 1-2 years, it’s then that things will actually begin to get serious because he doesn’t have age on his side anymore. Q. Everyone including some famous trade analysts saying that Baadshaho delayed for March release. Is it true? A. Director Milan Luthria has just released a statement 3 days ago that Baadshaho is releasing on January 26. He’s more credible than any trade source. Having said that, it’s going to be difficult to come on January 26, because Hrithik has made his intentions clear and Raees is also on the same day. It’s not a big weekend like Christmas either. So Baadshaho, given the fact that Ajay has a release October end (Shivaay), might postpone the film for a couple of months to give a 4-5 month gap between his two films. Q. How is the response of Kaabil sneak peek and posters?? What will be the opening day collection of Kaabil assuming solo release?? Will it do 35crs on opening day? (Sohail) A. Posters and sneak peeks like the one which was released, do not reach out to a large section of the movie going public. It was only released to confirm the release date. As for opening, we can only talk about it after the teaser / trailer is launched. Q. Which one is biggest hit in 2016 so far?  A. The Jungle Book is by far the biggest blockbuster of 2016. In fact, it’s the only Blockbuster / All Time Blockbuster of the year so far. Q. You are now one of the top Bollywood site. Cant you bring notice to SRK regarding the Bakrid weekend. A. It was conveyed to them before they made the ‘Republic Day’ announcement. From Excel’s point of view, there must be some major reason to postpone a film like Raees by 7 months. It could either be to reshoot scenes from the film (there have been rumours) or it could be because they want to give Raees a good 8-9 month gap because of FAN’s failure. We can’t think of any other reason. For someone who was quick to rubbish rumours, it isn’t right on Ritesh Sidhwani’s part to be silent on Twitter. Both Excel and Red Chillies owe an explanation to fans, especially on social media. Q. What kind of a marketing campaign can we expect from Aamir Khan for Dangal? During Ghajini he promoted his haircut amongst all the employees of multiplexes when Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi had released, For 3 idiots they came up with the idea of writing ‘Capacity 3 idiots’ behind every auto rickshaw,for dhoom 3 he wore his hat everywhere and for PK the poster did all the talking which helped to push the curiosity? Can we expect him to come up with something innovative yet again especially because he is the producer himself? A. Can’t speculate such things, but Dangal PR has been working all through without anyone realising that it’s PR. That in itself is a masterstroke. The effort that Aamir is putting into making the film has been all over the media, and this information is the PR machinery at work. Aamir is a genius at making things look real and natural, he doesn’t speak much, but lets his action do all the talking. Meanwhile, we have been hearing that the makers of Dangal aren’t too pleased with the second teaser of Sultan. Q. Is it true that Robot 2 and Sons of Sardaar are clashing on Diwali 2017? A. The way the Tamil film industry functions is different from how things are in Bollywood. Kabali is Rajnikanth’s next release and we do not yet have a release date for the film. It’s expected to release in July. Q. Is Mohenjo Daro clashing with Rustom? (Aashish) A. For now, yes. Q. What’s your opinion on movies like Shahid, Masaan, Aligarh, Aamir etc? When this movies will get market? Critical acclaim is a nice thing. But they cant sustain if collection is less as Aligarh collected 2 crore only. How can directors take risks if this is the condition? A. Audience that watch such films in theatres is limited, because films like Masaan, Aligar or Aamir.. can also be watched at home. Ticket prices at multiplexes is another big problem. You could as well wait for a couple of weeks for the movie to be aired on television, buy it from Youtube or even rent a DVD when it releases. Commercial films are entertaining, exciting and has stars. You can’t blame the audience for not watching such films in theatres, when the tickets cost as much as commercial films with stars. A different strategy needs to be worked out. You should read this article – Movie Ticket Pricing Strategy: Should all movies cost the same? Q. India has 1.3 billion of people but just 10000 screens ( and bollywood can just 5000 of them); Why? And on other hand the US has three times more screens (approx 30000 or more) and they are less then us (in terms of population).. but still Bollywood is considered the biggest movie industry in the world… why? A. Biggest movie industry because we produce the most number of films. All regional films included, we produce more than 1000 movies every year. Q. Can Baaghi surpass the lifetime of Fan? A. Looking difficult now, should end at around 80 crore. Still has a chance though. Q. How much will Twinkle’s statement on Sri Sri will affect Housefull 3 considering he has millions if followers? A. Won’t make any difference, unless media does their bit and blows it out of proportion.  It’s mostly the media that twists, turns and make a silly issue into a sensation. Q. Can Housefull 3 earn 200 crore if the content is loved by everyone like the first and second part? A. Definitely has a chance of getting close to 200 crore if its liked. But a more realistic figure is 150 plus, if the content finds appreciation. Q. Do you think it’s high time for senior actors like Shahrukh Khan and Ajay Devgn to prove themselves as the youngsters are going very fast and even beating their films? A. They have nothing left to prove. It’s like comparing Amitabh Bachchan to the younger stars, Bachchan isn’t a major crowd puller now, but does it make him any lesser than Shah Rukh or the youngster that you talk about? It doesn’t make any sense. SRK and Ajay have had long and successful careers, it’s the youngsters that need to prove themselves by lasting in the industry for as long as some of their seniors have. Q. Abhishek Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Emraan Hasmi and Sunny Deol – Arrange these actors in terms of stardom. A. Extremely harsh to put Sunny Deol in that category. He was a major star. Even Emraan was way more successful as a solo star compared to others. Apart from them, the order would be Emraan Hashmi, John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan. Q. Is Salman now free from all his court cases? If no, what are status of all cases? A. Not at all. The Supreme Court is yet to clear him. Both cases – Hit and Run, Black Buck – are pending in court. Q. What are the prospects for Houseful 3. Even though the trailer is not universally accepted, still the hype generated by it is humongous..11 millions views in a week.Also, when it comes to comedy, we all know that Indian Family audiences loves to come in numbers to watch. Can HF3 pull off in style and numbers? A. It’s definitely a big film, belonging to a very popular franchise. If Welcome Back could open so well and go on to do business of nearly a 100 crore, Akshay’s presence will add tremendous value to a film like Housefull 3. Box office wise it’s definitely his best chance of scoring big, but it’s with his film that were ‘big’ pre-release that Akshay has failed. Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara was huge prior to release, Brothers was equally big. Both were mega disappointments. Let’s hope Akshay can turn things around with his third big film. Q. Which movies have more buzz as for now? 1. Mohenjodaro or Rustom? 2. Raees or Kaabil or Baadshaho? 3. As Dil hai muskil or Shivaay? A. We can only comment on ‘buzz’ once the trailer releases. Pre-release wise Mohenjo Daro is a big film. Raees postponement has been received negatively, good response to Kaabil poster. Baadshaho has a very good actor-director combo, who made Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, so the audience will be interested. Ae Dil and Shivaay are both big films. Ae Dil will have fantastic music. Shivaay will be scale and grandeur. Let’s see, we like to talk about box office prospects after trailer launch. Q. You had mentioned in one of your articles that Varun Dhawan’s Dhishoom should be big in the mass centres and interiors.Does this mean that he has acquired a fan following there?Is He a pan India star?Also,amongst the young generation of male actors, who has a pan India following today? A. Yes, his fanbase has been growing at smaller centres. Main Tera Hero did fairly well, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania was decent and ABCD 2 did very well. Dhishoom is his first action film, should open very well at mass centres. Expecting 15 crore plus opening. Q. Was it right on the part of Kaabil makers to desperately target Raees by instantly releasing the poster ..also considering the fact that Baadshaho was already slated to release on 26th Jan! Roshans have always had good relations with SRK and Excel entertainment but don’t you think such move can create tensions? A. There is no question of desperation. Sneak peeks videos aren’t created in a day. There were rumours of Raees moving to Republic Day for a week or so and it’s at that time that they decided to release the video confirming the date. There was a ‘hint tweet’ from Hrithik too. About ‘creating tensions’, this could have been sorted out internally. The Roshans are just a call away for both SRK and Excel. We are yet to completely understand the decision that the Raees makers have taken and the statement which said “It was not an easy decision to move the film. We understand that our movie is highly anticipated. However, a film of such magnitude requires appropriate showcasing. Therefore, we have decided to shift our release date” does not make much sense, because your film is not going to get the ‘showcasing’ it deserves on Republic Day 2017. That’s the end of today’s QnA session. More than 25 questions were answered. Thank you for joining us.

Q. Has SRK’s streak of back to back hit films ended with FAN and do you think Salman can break the all time record set by Rajesh Khanna. A. Yes, the winning streak has ended. Rajesh Khanna had 15 consecutive successful films, starting with Aradhana in 1969 to Apna Desh in 1972. Shah Rukh Khan’s success-streak started with Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (after the failure of Paheli) and ends with the theatrical failure of FAN. He had 12 films that were ‘Above Average’ or better. Q. Why FAN IMDb rating is so high when it neither worked at single screens or multiplexes, domestic or overseas? A. That’s because most of the votes are from fans. The rating was 9 on the day the film released, 8.3 earlier this week, it’s now 8.1. IMDb ratings gradually drop.  The ratings are no longer as reliable as they used to be, atleast not as soon as the film is released. Q. Top 5 superstars in terms of fan following? A. Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar. Q. Will the focus of Priyanka and Deepika on their Hollywood careers affect their standing in the Hindi Film Industry? A. Priyanka is in her mid-30s now and her move to Hollywood has come at the right age. Actresses in Hollywood have longer careers, while in our film industry the decline begins at the age of 31-32. Deepika hasn’t completely moved to Hollywood, she’s doing just one film, so it remains to be seen how it goes for her. Q. What does the future beholds for SRK as a commercial star? His future line ups (apart from Raees may be) doesn’t look like out-n-out commercial films…so does the debacle of Dilwale and FAN going to affect his popularity among neutral audience? A. His following among neutral audience has decreased in the last few years, but his fan-following remains strong. It’s exactly the reason why his films are taking a massive opening, but not sustaining even during the first weekend. Word-of-mouth of his last few films have been mixed to negative, so he needs a big success now. A film that not only opens well, but does well for 2-3 weeks on the strength of positive word-of-mouth. Raees could be that film, it has commercial ingredients and the reports are positive too. All it needs is a good date, but the makers are struggling to find a suitable release date for the film. That in itself is a big worry, because when SRK announced a film before, the others would simply make way for him. But now, we have clashes and other producers holding press conferences to re-confirm their release date or releasing their first look posters 5 months prior, to slam the release date. For the three Khans to sustain their dominance over the industry, they need solo releases during festive weekends (Eid, Diwali, Christmas), if they can’t get that, they might struggle to deliver those big grossers, which will weaken their standing. Aamir and Salman have been able to hold – Aamir is getting a solo Christmas release, Salman has already booked Eid and Diwali next year. Losing the clash to Bajirao Mastani has hurt SRK. Having said all that, he’s still a top star with a huge die-hard following. who needs one good film to bounce back strongly. It’ll only be a problem if that ‘good film’ doesn’t come soon. Q. What’s the progress of 3 Idiots’ sequel? A. Here’s what Aaamir had said not too long ago “Raju Hirani has given me a hint about 3 Idiots sequel and I am giving you all a hint. The film will happen if and whenever he will write the script. Let’s keep our fingers crossed” So it’s not happening atleast until 2020. Question: Do you think SRK can make a strong comeback with Raees? Alert: Housefull 3 Trailer has been launched. Those following QnA, can watch it here. Q. Which is the most extraordinary achievement between these two: PK earning 275 crore from multiplexes or Bajrangi Bhaijaan earning 100 crore from single screens? which one of these is the toughest record to break in future and which movie can break these records? A. The easier record to break would be at multiplexes, but there is an increase of around 150 plus screens every year and ticket prices are increasing too. As for the bigger achievement, but are big, but during times when single-screens aren’t even generating 10-15% of business for 90% films, 100 crore just from single-screens is HUGE. Q. How are the inside reports of Sultan. Is Sultan a biopic or commercial potboiler? A. Too early to talk about inside reports, the shooting is not yet complete. It’s a commercial film. Q. Can Shahid Kapoor make a strong comeback with Udta Punjab and Rangoon? Udta Punjab already created a huge buzz and Rangoon also seem to be a good project or it is still difficult for him?  A. Social media buzz should never be equated to the real buzz on ground level. Films like Udta Punjab only appeal to a very limited section of audience and unless the word-of-mouth is very good, Udta Punjab will struggle for a good total. Rangoon has a incredible star-cast, but none of them are major crowd-pullers. The costs are high too (pre-sold for 55 crore), so recovery won’t be easy. Q. Captain America Civil War is already premiered on April 12 and the response is hugely positive and it also have Spiderman. So what do you think about the boxoffice performance of the movie in India? A. It should open very well, but sorry, we are not very good at predicting the opening or lifetime business of Hollywood films in India. We’ll stick to Bollywood for now. Q. What are the total collections and verdicts of Kapoor & Sons, Rocky Handsome and Love Games ? A. Kapoor & Sons 73 crore (Super Hit), Rocky Handsome has finished at 25 crore (Flop) and Love Games is 5.5 crore (Flop). India business. Net box office collections. Q. What are the prospects of Housefull 3 for box office success, as its seems that box office is very unpredictable and uncertain from time to time. A. Box office is unpredictable, but good films that entertain the audience will always do well. It has a good release date, so it should be able to put up a strong total if the content is good. It’s currently trending at Rs 158 crore on IndicineLBO. The opening day prediction (IndicineFBO) will start tomorrow. Q. Any news about Mohenjo Daro and its post production? A. The post-production is currently in progress. The trailer will be out late May or early June. It’s a massive film, made on a humongous budget. If content clicks, it  has the potential to create history. Q. We know the importance of multiplexes in today’s time but don’t you think a star is a real star if he doesn’t pull off his movies in single screens? I know 95% of the movies are not made for SS audience as the revenue is less because of low ticket price but atleast these movies can open good at single screens which is not happening with today’s young stars? Why so? A. The younger lot of actors (Ranveer, Varun, Arjun, Sidharth) have just started out and it would take time for them to grow their fan-base at smaller centres. Films like Kapoor & Sons don’t help, but films like ABCD 2, Ek Villain, Bajirao Mastani, Tevar (even though it didn’t do well, it still worked at mass centres), Gunday.. all help in increasing fanbase with the single-screen audience.  Sidharth has Aashiqui 3 now, so that will increase his following at smaller centres. Varun has Dishoom and Arjun’s Half Girlfriend too will appeal to a wider section of audience. All of them have started well and have the acting talent too. Let’s give them time. Q. Kapoor and Sons’ landing cost is 40 crore, but it’s a HIT at 45 crore, Azhar landing cost is 38cr, but it needs 55 crore to be a HIT? Why this discrimination? A. Each films has different economics and recovery depends on different factors. Kapoor & Sons recovered investment from satellite and music rights. Azhar’s India theatrical rights has been sold for Rs 23 crore, so it needs around 45-46 crore just to recover costs. If domestic distributor loses money, a film can’t be a hit. Q. After the poster release of Baar Baar Dekho, Is it confirmed that Raees and Sultan will clash on Eid or any new release date for any of the two movies? A. Raees makers are still in search of a new date, if not they would’ve reconfirmed Eid release. The problem with Eid is the failure of FAN. If Fan had done well, SRK could have got any date. But with that film not crossing 100, he’s on the back foot. Raees most certainly won’t get a single-screen release if they stick to Eid, this will affect the collections of the film. Either way, it’s suicidal to clash against Salman during Eid, unless Raees is super-strong content-wise. Even then it would be a risk that SRK can’t afford to take after Dilwale and FAN. If Raees underperforms because of the clash, then his film with Aanand L Rai will be in trouble, because that film is being made on a big budget. Q. Can Sonam win Filmfare or National Awards for Neerja. If not who can give her competition? A. Too early to talk about awards. 8 more months in the year. Q. How much do u think would b ideal for Housefull 3 to open with? 23-24 cr or a bit more? Can it touch 200 if it finds acceptance from both classes and masses? A. Welcome Back opened at 15 crore on opening day, so you expect Housefull 3 (because of Akshay’s presence and more established franchise) to open at atleast 25-30% higher than Welcome Back. So opening should be around the 20 crore mark. As for 200 crore, it has a chance if the film is liked universally like Housefull 2. The period of release that the markers have chosen (Post IPL), has given the industry several blockbusters. Q. Is Akshaye Khanna making a return in Dhishoom? A. Yes, Akshaye Khanna is making a comeback with Dishoom. He’ll be part of the promotional campaign too, after the trailer launch. Q. While critics are giving some of the best reviews for fan but the box office business shows otherwise. Don’t you think if FAN would have some songs and some commercial value attached to it, then it would have performed better. What has gone wrong in Fan? Any thoughts? A. The audience, barring Shah Rukh Khan fans, have not liked the film. It would be wrong to call FAN an off-beat or non-commercial film, when it had thrill elements, emotions and action. It was a commercial entertainer without songs. It most certainly wasn’t a film like Swades, which had songs, but lacked entertainment value. Here’s what we think went wrong: Poor marketing campaign arguably the worst for a biggie in a long time, not including the Jabra song when it was promoted so heavily and the content didn’t find appreciation either. Q. Akshay Kumar or Ajay Devgn? Who’s a bigger star? A. Akshay Kumar. Q. There is news that FAN’s satellite rights has been sold at 55 crores? Is this is a technique to fool the audience into believing that Fan isn’t a flop? A. The best thing to do is to respect the audience verdict, accept that a film has failed and move on to the next. Those figures are completely baseless. The satellite market is down and there is no way a film like FAN can get 55 crore from satellite. The general audience and even the mainstream media look at the domestic box office collections of films and compare it to others, so the perception won’t change by quoting a unrealistically high satellite figure. Q. Is it true that Hrithik Roshan has requested Akshay Kumar to push the release date of Rustom? A. No. Q. Can we rate Sonam as a bigger risk taker than Deepika as most of Sonam’s movies had only Sonam as the lead role while Deepika has always had bigger stars to support her in all her hits? A. Actresses or even actors who fail in a commercial setting, are much more likely to take risks than top actors or actresses. Sonam’s career as a conventional heroine, did not work. She wasn’t liked even in a big film like Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. So she opted to do different kind of cinema and it has worked well so far for her. For someone like Deepika who consistently gets offers to work with top superstars, she doesn’t need to take too many risks – even though she has with films like Finding Fanny and to a certain extent Cocktail. Q. Fan opened to rave reviews but did not perform well at the box-office, then why all critics started bashing the film. Even a film like Andaaz Apna Apna or Swades didn’t do well but later acquired cult status? A. 99% of films that fail at the box office don’t gain cult status and even if they do it would take years. Andaz Apna Apna released more than 2 decades ago, so it’s pointless to compare. If it released today, it would have been an all-time-blockbuster. Swades was off-beat and completely lacked entertainment value. The audience for such films is very limited. Can’t compare both to FAN. Q. How many movies of Salman have crossed 200 crore worldwide? A. 7 movies. Dabangg, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger, Dabangg 2, Kick, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. Q. Arrange acting wise best performance: Aamir (PK), SRK (Fan), Salman (Bajrangi Bhaijaan), Akshay (Airlift), Ajay (Drishyam) A. Aamir and SRK, can’t pick between the two. Both stellar. Followed by Akshay, Ajay, Salman. Q. Will the underperformance of FAN discourage filmmakers in the future to make ‘niche’ films with limited appeal to the masses? Do note that I’m not referring to films with content. I’m specifically referring to ‘niche’ films. We have seen that content-oriented films have worked this year like Airlift, Kapoor and Sons. But these cannot be called niche in nature as they did have some commercial aspects to attract the masses such as hit songs like Soch Na Sake, Dil cheez tujhe dedi, Chull and Bolna. A. It’s strange why FAN is being made into a completely off-beat niche film after its release. FAN had plenty of commercial elements too, like action and emotion. Lack of songs doesn’t make a film ‘niche’ or limited appeal film. Swades had very limited appeal, but it did have songs. Even Paheli was also less commercial as compared to FAN. Q. Seeing Sanjay Dutt’s body language and personality, do you think that Ranbir Kapoor is a misfit in the biopic? A. Let’s see. Ranbir Kapoor is a terrific actor and Rajkumar Hirani is the best director in the industry. His look and body language will look convincing on screen, Hirani’s attention to detail is outstanding. They can’t go wrong. That’s the end of today’s QnA. We answered 30 questions from our readers. Thank you for joining us.

Q. How would you rate the Sultan teaser? And what are the prospects of the clash actually happening? A. The Sultan teaser was short and effective, even though it didn’t reveal anything about the film. The shoot is still in progress, so the whole point behind releasing the teaser early was to attach it to the prints of ‘FAN’ – which was getting a wide release worldwide. The response has been very good so far. As for the clash, it’s not happening. Raees will move to a later date. Official announcement will be made soon. Q. When Namaste England will happen? A. The shoot begins in August this year. It’ll be wrapped up by the end of 2016 and release early 2017. Q. According to you which is the better teaser, Raees or Sultan? And what do you think whether they should clash or not? (Axis) A. Raees Teaser, any day. It was fantastic, arguably the best teaser in a very long time. There is a genuine reason why the clash between Sultan and Raees can’t take place. Raees wouldn’t get a wide enough single-screen release that it deserves and at multiplexes too the ratio of shows could be higher for Sultan. When it comes to sheer star power, Salman is in a different league right now, especially at smaller centres. He also has a stronghold over Eid, people want to watch his films during the weekend that he created. It would be a very risky move to release Raees during Eid, more so because SRK can’t afford yet another domestic under performer. Q. Ratings for Udta Punjab Trailer? (Amar) A. 7 on 10. Good trailer, with what looks like terrific performances by Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Q. Is Shah Rukh Khan - Aditya Chopra film the biggest of their careers? And when is the film releasing? (Adnan) A. There hasn’t been an official announcement from Yash Raj Films about this, but Shah Rukh Khan has confirmed that Aditya Chopra has asked him to keep his dates free for 2017 end. Shoot begins end of next year, 3 month schedule, release in the second half of 2018. By ‘biggest’, if you mean ambitious, then that’s what we would expect – scale and budget wise. But if you mean career biggest hits, it’ll take something extraordinary to beat DDLJ. Q. Please post an article comparing three Khans (Salman, SRK and Aamir) with Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna and Dilip Kumar (Rohit Agarwal) A. That comparison cannot be made. Khans belong to the same era, the other legends you mentioned weren’t really competing with each other and all belonged to different eras. Rajesh Khanna was super-popular for a short period of time and that’s when he delivered those 15 back-to-back successful films. Bachchan was one man industry for more than a decade. Salman has been inconsistent, but has taken super stardom to a different level now. Aamir is one of those rare combination of good films plus stardom. Shah Rukh has been in the industry for a very long time, dominated for long periods and while he has had his share of failures in between, he has been consistent like no other. It’s only in the last year or so that questions are being raised about the domestic (India) box office performance of his films, it’ll get more serious if FAN doesn’t cross the 100 crore mark. Q. Which film will take the weekend of 2nd October this year? Is the weekend good for Raees if it’s getting postponed? (Faizan) A. There are rumours of Raees moving to 29th July (date taken by Dishoom) and Diwali (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay). The two other dates that the makers could look at is September 9 (currently with Excel’s Baar Baar Dekho), it’s a 4-day weekend with Bakrid falling on Monday. October 2nd isn’t the best of dates if a film wants to have a long and successful run. The pre-Diwali period (dull for films) will start affecting business from the second week of October. Q. According to you who was better acting wise – Akshay Kumar in Airlift or SRK in Fan? (Ayush) A. Shah Rukh Khan in FAN, he was absolutely terrific. Outstanding would be an understatement for the way he played the role of Gaurav. Award deserving performance. Akshay was very good too, but his role didn’t really require him to modulate his voice or completely change his body language to play a 25 year old like SRK. Quick poll, vote. Q. Does FAN have any chance to do business over 150 crore? Sachin A. No, there is no chance now. Final IndicineLBO (lifetime box office prediction) will be published later today. Q. Do you think Azhar biopic can really hit it out of the park and be a box office success? (Huzaifa Zafar) A. It’s expected to hit a six on Day 1 i.e we are expecting the opening day to be around the 6 crore mark. Rest would depend on content and how the audience like the film. Q. Heard Azhar makers already in profit.. How much Azhar needs to get blockbuster tag? A. It would need 45-50 crore from the domestic box office to break even. 55 crore plus would be HIT, 80 crore range Super Hit and 110-120 crore for Blockbuster. Approx. Q. Is this the best ever April for industry? First Ki & Ka, then The Jungle Book and now FAN. There is still Baaghi to come. (Hardik Lamba) A. It’s been a terrific April so far. Ki and Ka was a profitable film. The Jungle Book will be the most profitable film of 2016 and could cross the 150 crore mark. FAN has been a little below expectations, but if it manages 120-130 crore by the end of its run, it’ll be a fantastic April with a mass-film like Baaghi to come. Q. Do you think Bollywood has raised its bar with films like Fan, Airlift, Neerja, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and upcoming film like Sarbjit, Udta Punjab and many more. No masala film only quality movies work in these days. A. India is a vast country and what’s ‘quality’ for the city audience is boring / unappealing for audience at smaller centres. We need more universally appealing films like Bajrangi Bhaijaan and if not films of that level, even films like 2 States that appeal to a larger section of the audience. Airlift and Neerja were fantastic films without doubt, but both didn’t work at smaller centres and the exhibitors there aren’t too pleased with Bollywood churning out films that only appeals to the Urban audience. Sarbjit might work, but the ‘heavy’ and ‘depressing’ feel to it, with restrict its business. Udta Punjab is a word-of-mouth film. Q. What is the word of mouth of FAN? A. Mixed in cities, negative at smaller centres. Q. What do you think about the prospect of Kaabil Box office? (Sohail) A. Too early to talk about Hrithik’s Kaabil. All we can do for now is hope that Sanjay Gupta does a better film than he has in the recent past. Q. Do you think consistently under performance of SRK’s movies will replace him with Hrithik at No 3 if Mohenjo Daro become huge success? (Ankit) A. If you’re talking about our Top 15 Actor Ranking, then SRK’s last 4 movies have collected exactly Rs 700 crore and Hrithik’s last 4 have collected Rs 640 crore. So Hrithik’s Mohenjo Daro has to collect Rs 61 crore mark than SRK’s FAN. This is assuming Raees releases after Mohenjo Daro. Q. What is FAN’s ‘actual real’ Final collection for DAY 1. Some reporting 19.4 crore. Some reporting 20+cr. Some reporting as high as 23 crore? A. The figure of 19.4 crore was released by Yash Raj Films. Why would they underquote their film? They haven’t inflated either, 19 crore is accurate. We posted it in our early estimate on Friday night too. There are lots of sites on the internet today and most of them quote random figures. Q. Seeing the collections of Fan, Raees looks certain to get postponed now. Which date you think they will opt for? It will be a non holiday date again I guess as all good dates are already booked. A. 9th September (Bakrid) or Diwali if Karan Johar is willing to move Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Raees should be a good film, so it would probably work in the film’s favour if they release it atleast 4-5 months after FAN. Q. How much have Jungle Book’s excellent box office results affected FAN opening and overall weekend collection? A. Not much on Friday, but business on Saturday was affected. Q. Would it have made a difference in collections if they did put the Jabra fan song in the movie? A. Not by much, but the audience were disappointed that the Jabra song wasn’t a part of the film. Also, songless films don’t work at smaller centres. Q. What are the changing dynamics that affecting & guiding the movie products into another direction? My question is in the context of “genre” & people’s “tastes” as I think these are changing fast these days. (Ihsan) A. The audience is more than willing to give every genre a chance. Bajrangi Bhaijaan, PK, Bajirao Mastani, Baahubali, The Jungle Book, Airlift.. all belong to different genres. The audience also got something new from each film. So the message is clear, give us a good film and we are more than willing to watch it. Bad films are biting the dust as early as noon on Friday. Q. Are there any rumours or actual information about the story or cast of the new Sanjay Leela Bhansali Christmas 2017 movie? A. None. Few rumours, but no confirmation. There are reports that he wants to sign a big star, because the budget will be high. Q. Do you think Baaghi will be postponed by a week because of lack of screens. Jungle Book will run for a month looks like. FAN will definitely run for a month. No more screens left for a 60 cr budgeted film like Baaghi. A. Screens wouldn’t be a problem at all. Baaghi will get a good single-screen release. At multiplexes too, both Jungle Book and FAN will be down to low levels by the time Baaghi releases. Q. Why has fan underperformed, despite getting good reviews? If the answer is – ‘it hasn’t performed well at mass centres’ then the point is it was never expected to give the genre. So shouldn’t the the expectations be set in the right way? A. It’s fans who set unrealistically high expectations from a film like FAN. We had always maintained from the day the trailer was out that the film was looking at a 20 crore opening day and 150 crore lifetime total if it carried good word-of-mouth. There are some films that have limited audience, a star alone can’t take a film to a 30 crore opening – the genre has to be universally appealing too. Critical acclaim and celebrity reviews on social media is worthless, if the audience doesn’t like the film in theatres. The word-of-mouth will quickly negate positive reviews. Q. Do you think its good from Ranveer Singh to do a Rohit Shetty Movie? Yes they make money in the box office but are not critically acclaimed.it seems that the audience is looking for more content oriented movies rather than over the top entertainment A. Every single actor in the industry would prefer commercial success over critical acclaim. Praise from critics is added bonus if the film does well at the box office. Can’t write off Rohit Shetty after one under performer, he has delivered several hugely successful films. Families and children love his films. Even Dilwale would have done 200 plus with solo release. Q. Which film has the biggest opening day for films which do not have universally appealing genres or which are slightly off beat/ non massy or which have been promoted/relied on only one ‘factor’ or a ‘face’ to get an initial? (Ashish Thapar) A. Interesting question. It’s FAN that has managed the biggest opening without a universally appealing genre. It was also the highest opening day for a film without songs. Full list of Highest First Day Collections Q. Why we always compare every movie with box office collection and not with quality? A. Because it’s box office collections that suggest whether the audience is liking the film or not. There can be nothing bigger than people paying their hard-earned on a film. A critic who watches a movie for free during a press screening shouldn’t be the one who decides the ‘quality’ level of a film. If someone in Bihar watches a film like Bodyguard or Aashiqui 2 and enjoys it to the fullest, it’s a quality film for him. Liking or not liking a film is completely subjective. Q. What does does verdict ‘under performer’ means exactly? A. Under performer means a film that has fallen below trade expectations. A film like FAN is expected to do around 130 crore to be a decent grosser, if it doesn’t do that, it’s an under-performer. Same with films like Jai Ho, Talaash or Dilwale. Q. How much fee does SRK charge for doing Fan? A. SRK doesn’t charge for his films. Outside producer he takes a share if the film is profitable. Otherwise, he himself produces it. He himself has said he hasn’t charged for his films in the last 20 years. Q. Can Baaghi get opening of more than 10 cr? A. The expectation is around 8-9 crore opening. It could do 10, if the songs get popular. Q. Is the SRKs film with Anand Rai targeting next year Christmas release and is he playing the role of a dwarf in it? A. Yes. Q. What about Rangoon, Sonakshi’s Haseena? A. Haseena is on hold at the moment. Date and production issues. Ragoon: The shoot has been wrapped up two days ago. Releases 30th September. That ends today’s QnA. Thank you for joining us. We have taken quite a few questions from the first 15 pages in the comments section. We will answer remaining questions from the last 5 pages tomorrow.  32 questions were answered today.  

Q. Have heard rumours about Raees vs Sultan not happening and it is Raees that is moving ahead. Any truth in that? – ANK A. Although an official announcement is yet to be made, it’s more or less certain now that Raees will be moving to a different date. Reliable sources have now confirmed that Sultan will get a solo release. Two massive films like Raees and Sultan simply cannot get the release they deserve, if they release on the same day. Given Salman’s record during Eid and the average performance of Dilwale at the domestic box office, Sultan was always the hotter film in the trade. Right from the day YRF announced the film for Eid, there was never really any question or doubt over that. Q. Will the excellent opening and a potential strong weekdays hold of The Jungle Book affect the final screen count of FAN? – Ashish Thapar A. FAN might lose out on a few shows at multiplexes, as exhibitors might retain more shows of ‘The Jungle Book’. It would also depend on how well the Hollywood film holds on Friday, but it isn’t going to make much of a difference. The fate of FAN is dependent on how well the film is liked by the audience, nothing else matters. Q. Which film takes 100% opening on first day & collected to its full potential? – Pratik A. No film in the last 10 years has taken a 100% opening. The last film that really opened to a earth-shattering response was Ek Tha Tiger, followed by Dhoom 3. The year-on-year growth was phenomenal - Bodyguard did 21 crore and Ek Tha Tiger collected nearly 50% more. Q. Most popular song of 2016? Kamran Ahmed A. It has to be Kar Gayi Chull from Kapoor & Sons. It has topped every chart – including iTunes, Radio Mirchi, Ormax (just to name a few) and continues to dominate. It also helped Kapoor & Sons to post a bigger total on Day 1. Q. How are Sultan and Shivaay shaping up? Also, has the post production of Dangal started? And when can we expect the theatrical trailer of Mohenja Daro? A. Early reports for Sultan are positive. Teaser will be out in 4 days from now, reports for which are incredible. Not much is known about Shivaay, except for the fact that the film is being made on a massive scale and the visuals are going to be incredible. The only question mark is over Ajay Devgn as director, he wasn’t very impressive in his first film ‘U Me Aur Hum’. Yes, the post-production work on Dangal has already begun, most of the shoot is complete. The trailer of Mohenjo Daro doesn’t have a date, it’s expected to release in June. Q. Is Shah Rukh Khan doing Imtiaz Ali’s next? – Shaker A. Yes, the film is confirmed. Q. Can you list down the films that have the potential to take a Good, Excellent, Bumper or Record Breaking opening for this year? A. Expected opening response to upcoming movies – FAN (Good), Baaghi (Good), Azhar (Average), Sarbjit (Slow start), Housefull 3 (Excellent), Udta Punjab (Slow start), Sultan (Bumper / Record Breaking, solo release), Raees (Bumper, solo release), Great Grand Masti (Good), Dishoom (Excellent), Mohenjo Daro (Excellent), Rustom (Average / Good, similar to Airlift), M.S Dhoni (Good / Excellent), Baar Baar Dekho (Slow start), Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (Good), Shivaay (Good), Rock On 2 (Average/ Good), Dangal (Excellent / depending on appeal could be Bumper). Q. What are the internal reports about FAN? How the movie has shaped up finally? A. Like always, the ‘internal reports’ are positive. But almost every pre-release report of big films is nothing more than the PR machinery at work. ‘Censor board gave a standing ovation’, ‘best film of all time’, ‘career best performance’ are things that we read about every big film prior to release. Even early screenings are only organised for people who won’t go out and thrash the film if they don’t like it. The only verdict that matters is from the audience on Friday morning. Let’s wait for that. Q. Why Hindi movies release a day before in Dubai? A. Because Friday in Dubai is like Sunday in India. Weekend is Thursday / Friday and Sunday is a normal working day. Q. In today’s time ticket prices are really costly even for smaller films? How much impact it will have on the number of films releasing every year. because audience are going to be very choosy. A. The audience is already very choosy. In 2016, only good films have worked. Even sex isn’t selling this year, like we’ve seen with movies like Mastizaade and this week’s release Love Games. Even when it comes to box office clashes, content is going to be the deciding factor, not star power. The challenge for filmmakers is now going to be about tapping into audience at smaller centres. In majority of cities and towns in India, no film this year has worked. This is going to be a real concern in the next few years, as some filmmakers are content with making films for a very small section of the audience. If smaller centres become all about regional films and with the growing threat of Hollywood films at big centres, Bollywood might struggle in the next few years. Q. If Ranveer Singh scores real biggie at box office with Befikre (solo film), will that put him above next generation stars like Ranbir, Varun & Sidharth Malhotra? A. At this moment, Ranveer is ahead of all those names that you mention, with Varun taking the second spot. Bajirao Mastani is like the DDLJ of his career. A landmark film. Big directors now want to sign him for their films. Q. Any inside news of Hera Pheri 3. When is it releasing or how much shooting is completed? A. The shoot has been stalled for now. It will resume once the financial and star dates are sorted out. Won’t release this year. Q. Who creates whom? An actor creates a Director and Producer or vice versa? A. No one creates anyone, they survive in the industry and succeed because of their own talent and hard work. Even a great director will fail if he doesn’t have good actors, script and technicians. An actor would fail too if the director isn’t competent enough. A film is a team work. Having said that, most of the top superstars that we currently have, are capable of ensuring recovery even if the film doesn’t meet expectations. That’s because of the fanbase that they’ve earned over the years. There is also a reason why top actors earn the kind of money that they do, it’s their presence that sells tickets at the box office. For example, if Kabir Khan would cast Saif Ali Khan in Bajrangi Bhaijaan, it wouldn’t earn a third of the money that it did. A popular actor in a good film is essential for a universal blockbuster. Q. Why SRK has not promoted FAN like all his other movies like Dilwale,HNY,CE ……. He was all over TV promoting it at every single place? A. A Shah Rukh Khan film creates enough awareness even without him going all over to promote it. About FAN, it could be because the makers are confident of the film that they’ve made. It’s also because the film is such, that it doesn’t really need a huge promotional campaign. Q. 5 days to go for FAN. With all your experience of watching and reviewing movies, what is your gut feel for this one? A. It has to be a good film to work. The trade isn’t very excited about its box office prospects. The early response to the advance booking is good though. Do not want to comment about ‘gut feel’. It doesn’t matter, a film like Chak De India didn’t carry any pre-release excitement, but went on to be one of SRK’s most loved films. Q. What will the total collection of Housefull 3 , if it is accepted? A. Has the potential to do 175 crore plus. Could do 200 plus if it really finds appreciation. The period of release (Post IPL) is very good, most films that have released during this period have done well. Q. When will be the trailer of Udta Punjab release? How much it need to collect at box office to be a hit? Please reply. A. Trailer will be out this month. The budget isn’t high, so the film would be a decent grosser at around the 45 crore mark. Business economics will be published couple of days before release. Q. Who are the top critics according to you,besides Indicine? As we can’t watch all movies either in theatres or on mobiles,laptops etc whom should we believe so that we can know which movie is good or bad? A. The top critic is the audience. Trailer and song promos should help you decide whether you should watch a movie or not. If you’re still unsure, it’s better to ask your friends who have already watched the film. Do note that watching movies on mobiles or laptops is illegal. Downloading a copy from the internet is illegal too. Tickets during weekdays are cheap and movies are best experienced on the big screen. Q. Has Katrina signed any new film? A. Yes, her next film is Baar Baar Dekho. Stars Sidharth Malhotra. Directed by Nithya Mehra. Releases September 9. Q. Your personal favourite movie of Karan Johar? And the reason why do u think its better than others? A. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai is his best, followed by Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham and My Name Is Khan. Q. Today the advance booking of FAN started.. How is the response for it? A. By far the best response of the year so far. Decent when compared to other big Shah Rukh Khan films in the recent past.   Q. Looking at a Bajirao vs Dilwale scenario, how much screens do you think Mohenjo Daro and Rustom will get? A. Rustom is targeted at the multiplex audience. Mohenjo Daro has wider appeal and should get a good single-screen release too. Q. Do you have any details about the story, music director, editor etc of the film Befikre? A. Music directors are Vishal – Shekhar, Story by Namrata Rao – both according to press release by YRF. No details about the story. Q. Has Salman signed Makkhi 2 and Kabir Khan’s next ? A. Kabir Khan’s next is official. Makkhi 2 has been confirmed by Vijayendra Prasad – writer of the film and father of S.S. Rajamouli. Q. SRK’s next with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is it confirmed? A. No. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s production house has denied the news. Q. A news channel described SRK as the biggest superstar in the world. What do you think? A. Not sure about biggest superstar in the world, but for a lot of people in the world outside India, Bollywood = SRK. Q. What is ur take now on Fan’s buzz? A. Not exactly where it should have been 5 days before release. Not as hot in the trade as SRK films usually are. Q. Where does Varun currently stand in terms of ranking and star power amongst his contemporaries? A. He doesn’t really have a failure against his name, which speaks volumes of both his consistency and fan following. One of the more promising young star that we have, if not the most – along with Ranveer Singh. Q. There is no other songs in Fan, only Jabra? A. That is right. Q. Can Dangal do unthinkable and cross 400 crore mark in domestic Box Office? A. It will be very difficult. But it’s been Aamir who has been doing the unthinkable for several years now. Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, PK.. all did the unthinkable, setting records by a distance. Q. Ramadan starts after about 5 days of Housefull 3 release, will it affect it in India and mainly overseas (Gulf,UK,US, Pak mainly as high Muslims). It has a big potential but for that 300 cr worldwide grosser it should have few factors going for it, do u think if the Wom is good it should achieve its potential despite Ramadan? A. Not really. Ramadan doesn’t really impact business like the Pre-Diwali period does. Films like Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag have been very successful even though they released during the Ramadan period. Q. Whats is the final verdict of Kapoor & Sons? How well has it performed overseas? A. Super Hit, overall. It’s the biggest overseas grosser of the year, ahead of Airlift. Q. How Fan will recover its cost ? What is the verdict at 150 crore for it. A. Hit at 150. Q. Any official confirmation on the clash between Sanjay Dutt biopic and Aanand L Rai’s dwarf movie (possibly starring SRK). A. The movie will star SRK, that’s confirmed. Clash is not. No release date either. Q. Has Kabir Khan casted Salman instead of Hrithik? A. Kabir Khan has a script for Hrithik, that’ll happen after Salman film. Q. Why don’t Bollywood make films like Baahubali and Robot? A. Maybe because we do not have a director who has the confidence to make such big films? Our best director makes very different films, they aren’t larger than life. That ends the QnA for today. More than 35 questions were answered. Thank you for joining us.

Q. Is it true that Shah Rukh Khan is having a cameo in Sultan? Ally A. Recently, Shah Rukh went to meet Salman on the sets of his film ‘Sultan’. One picture (below) from the sets made its way onto the internet. A tabloid picked this up and called it a scene from the film. If it’s indeed a special appearance, then it’s meant to surprise the audience. YRF neither confirmed this, nor denied it. Q. Any news doing the rounds about Aamir’s next film after Dangal? A. Just a couple of days ago, Aamir has said he hasn’t signed any film after ‘Dangal’. He’s said to be reading scripts, but hasn’t given his confirmation for any producer / filmmaker. Q. Do u think FAN’s buzz is less due to World Cup. But now its over so do you think marketing should be done on high level? A. Don’t think the World Cup has anything to do with the ‘buzz’ or ‘interest level’ around a film. It’s the lack of fresh units (promos, songs etc) that’s hurting the marketing campaign of the film. The promos are getting way too repetitive and boring too. While YRF knows better, we think it would have been a better idea to release the theatrical trailer around the 15th of last month, then release Jabra song a week later (when SRK made an appearance on Star Sports) and then this week they could have pushed out the regional versions. It would have given enough time for the Jabra song to grow and the marketing campaign would have been short and effective. But then again, they know better and eventually it’s all about content these days. Q. Among the top stars like Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Mithun & Big B who gave the maximum number of hits in the 80’s decade? A. Amitabh Bachchan was way ahead of everyone else back in the 70s and 80s. It wasn’t like how it is now, when we have 2-3 stars dominating the industry. It was Amitabh at the very top and then there was a gap between him and everyone else. He was by far the highest paid actor and commanded the highest footfalls at theatres. Q. What’s your favourite movie of Rajkumar Hirani? A. Munnabhai M.B.B.S. Unique and unforgettable characters, flawless performances, fantastic direction, feel-good, socially relevant.. it delivered much more than what was expected out of it. 3 Idiots probably has the best repeat value, can be watched any number of times. Q. When Mohen-jo-daro Trailer is coming? And Hrithik has signed an Yash Raj film, is it Dhoom 4 or just an another film? – Rakesh A. Not it’s not Dhoom 4. It will be directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya. Hrithik, Kabir Khan and Sajid Nadiadwala had earlier said they are doing a film together, but it’s on hold for now. Q. Who is more popular Akshay or Hrithik? A. There is no clear way to measure popularity of actors except box office. Akshay’s films were suffering because the multiplex audience weren’t coming to watch his films, that ‘could’ have changed after Airlift. Hrithik does very few films, which again isn’t the greatest of ideas unless you’re an Aamir Khan. Same type of film and same gap between films, Akshay probably has a slight edge at this point in time. Having said that, Akshay doesn’t have too many big grossers to his credit. Also in the overseas markets, Hrithik leads. Q. Budget of Mohenja Daro and minimum collections required to recover it? A. The film has to do a minimum of 150 crore in the domestic market. Again, these are just vague figures. Expect more accurate numbers nearer to release. There is still quite sometime to go. Q. Among the following superstars Aamir, Salman, SRK, Ajay, Akshay, Hrithik rank them in order of genres of movies they have done portraying different varieties of characters they have played be it lover boy action guy, comic roles, underworld, scientific patriotic, villain, socialists, super hero, etc etc 2. Do you think the more versatile an actor the more credit he deserves and justifies his market value? Trisha A. It’s a difficult question to answer in a live QnA session. We cannot analyse their careers when it’s live. But to answer your question for the last 8-10 years. It would be in this order – Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan. Akshay has started experimenting in the last couple of years after overdoing comedy and action-masala. SRK has done a few varied roles, but not as much as he’d have himself liked in the last few years. That will change too. Salman has explored in his own space, because his fan-base is such, he can’t completely go off the track and do a film like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Talaash or My Name Is Khan. Ajay has always been experimenting, but the problem is, his experimentation hadn’t worked. Shivaay and Sons Of Sardaar will be different films and audience will get something new from him. Exciting times as even the biggest of stars have begun to realise that their star-power can only work if their films are good. Audience these days is smart enough to put trash to where it belongs. Hope that answers your question. Q. What is the budget of Fan? Will it open better than Dilwale as its a holiday on 1st day (Ram Navami), No Competition & also that intolerance thing won’t be there this time? A. FAN isn’t a very big budget film. Business economics next week. Yes, it has a chance of surpassing the opening day total of Dilwale, but it won’t be easy. As for intolerance, there are unlikely to be any disruptions. Q. What do you think Hrithik Roshan’s Kaabil has more chance at the box office or Ajay Devgn’s Baadshaho as both are releasing on same day?Which will be a bigger film? A. Way too early to talk about both films. We are more excited about Baadshaho because it reunites Ajay with his ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’ director. You can pretty much visualise Ajay’s performance as Sultan Mirza. Kaabil, well, Sanjay Gupta’s track record is iffy and Rakesh Roshan’s track record as producer only is even worse (Krazzy 4 and Kites). Click here to read PART 2 of QnA

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Q. Is there any chance for Sultan to cross 300 crore if it clashes with Raees? A. 300 crore has been achieved only twice and both films not only had fantastic release dates, but also carried extraordinary word-of-mouth. When two equally big film like ‘Raees’ and ‘Sultan’ clash, then even the 250 crore mark would be difficult to surpass, unless one film is completely rejected. It all boils down to the film that’s better liked by the audience. Star power, trailer and every other factor would pretty much be insignificant after the first day. The Genre factor could come into play if both films receive a mixed response.

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Q. Mohenjodaro announced their release date first.. but now Akshay’s Rustom is releasing on same date and they are trying to scare away competition. Is this ethical? (Neeraj) A. There are two ways to look at this. One, since there are just 52 weeks in a year and more than 200 film releases, there is no way to escape clashes. Every producer is free to pick the date he believes is right for his film. On the other hand, there seems to be no unity in the industry. When a big budget film like Mohenjo Daro was announced almost a year ago and Hrithik was returning after nearly two years, the makers of Rustom not only announce the date of their film, but also try to create perception that their film is hot in the trade by releasing posters. Akshay even went to the extent of promoting his film on Zee Cine Awards and ensured that he highlighted the ’12 August 2016′ date in every tweet. For some reason, the intention doesn’t seem to be right. The film has just gone on floors about a month ago, Akshay has Housefull 3 before Rustom (promotional campaign for which hasn’t even started). The message seems to be – not only do we want the Independence Day week, but we will go all out to try to push Mohenjo Daro (since the stakes for the film are way too high) and give Rustom a solo release. Not too sure about the ‘ethical’ part of it, but the tactics that team Rustom is using, isn’t the nicest. Q. To how much extent will there be an affect of IPL over FAN? A. It depends on how the film is received. If the word-of-mouth is good, people might skip IPL to watch FAN. The impact on business could be more if the film receives mixed to negative response. IPL matches aren’t the same as international cricket matches featuring India. Games featuring the home team are usually the most watched in that particular state and the schedule is spread out, so the impact is minimal. Q. What is the recent update on Raees vs Sultan clash? Is the clash still on or will there be a week gap between the two releases? A. The clash is still on. There is no point in giving a gap of a week between the two films, it’s the holiday weekend of Eid that both films want. If that advantage isn’t there, it’s better to release one film a couple of weeks later. Discuss: Sultan vs Raees: Which film has the edge? Q. How much FAN needs to do for HIT , Super HIT and Blockbuster Verdict ? A. Too early to comment. FAN isn’t a big budget film, but these days for big stars it isn’t about recovery but meeting trade expectations. A Shah Rukh Khan film would be a massive disappointment if it recovers costs, but finishes with business of less than 100 crore in India. It was the same with Dilwale too, SRK the producer made profits, he compensated domestic distributors.. but 148 crore was way below what was expected out of the film. FAN will be considered a solid success for SRK if it does 150 crore plus in India. Q. How many screen will be shared by both sultan and raaees on eid clash – who is having edge now and what is reason of edge? A. Again, too early to talk about screen share. Screens can get finalised as late as two days before release. Bajirao Mastani shows were finalised at select multiplexes, just a day before release which also affected the advance booking of the film. As far as the ‘edge’ is concerned, Sultan is the hotter film in the trade at the moment.  Salman has dominated Eid, Eid has become synonymous with Salman. People wait for his films during this time of the year. It’s a no brainer, really.It remains to be seen how it goes after the theatrical trailer of both films are out. But eventually though, it’s all about the content. The better film will win and the weaker might underperform. If both films are extraordinary, they’ll still lose out on 25-30% of business. Q. If Dangal prepones and releases on Independence Day, don’t you think Sultan or Raees, one of them should move to Christmas? A. News of Dangal releasing during Independence Day seems to be baseless. We haven’t heard from any reliable source about Dangal getting preponed. It doesn’t make sense either. Why would Aamir Khan want to let go of his most successful release period, which also happens to be the best time of the year to release films? So far, it looks like he will get a solo release too. No logical reason to shift to any other date. The only reason for the confusion is, the director of the film refused to comment when asked if Dangal will be shifted to Independence Day. Discuss: How much does FAN need to collect for HIT / Super Hit? Q. How big is south industry? All india pan appealing films with superstars and a big holiday are struggling to cross 300cr. While only tamil or telugu films which dont have appeal in entire south also because of different languages are crossing 250crs. How is it possible? A. Very few films in the South are collecting as much as Bollywood film. The worldwide average per film would be way lower. There is one big advantage for regional films, which is exemption from entertainment tax. Hindi films don’t get that benefit. In fact, the core markets like Mumbai / Delhi UP are heavily taxed. A film like ‘Baahubali’ which was the highest grossing South film of all time, cannot be compared to other regional films, because it was by far the highest grossing dubbed film too. It did 6 times the business of the previous Hindi dubbed south film. Yet, inspite of all the success for Baahubali, it still failed to surpass the worldwide gross of both Bajrangi Bhaijaan and PK. Q. Do you think egos and rivalry is going to increase in industry as there are so many clashes. For example, Hera Pheri 3, Rustom and Mohenjo Daro have locked the same date.. when budgets are high, it’s risky. Is it not better to release solo on a non holiday? A. For good or for bad, the result of Bajirao Mastani vs Dilwale clash has given plenty of filmmakers the confidence to take on big films. For films featuring big stars, ego does play a part, because they aren’t in a position to avert the clash. It’s the smaller film that has to. Also, every producer wants a solo release, at the same time they also want a good date to give their film the best chance to perform well. Extended weekends, national holidays is the target and since there are so few holidays in a year, every big films wants those few dates. About solo release on non-holiday vs clash during a festive weekend, it’s a debatable topic. Would Bajirao Mastani collect 190 crore if it got a solo release during a normal weekend? Possible, but unlikely. Q. Biggest non-holiday grosser? A. It’s Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, which is the 11th highest grosser of all time. The other Top 10 films either released during Eid, Diwali or Christmas Q. How many screens does India have in comparison to USA, UK or China etc? Why can’t we release big, is it because we lack universal appeal ? A. Along with content, language is probably the biggest barrier for Hindi film. English is much more widely spoken and understood the world over, as compared to Hindi which is restricted to resident and non-resident Indians. Markets like China are opening up, but only 3 films have done well there so far. As for screens, India has more than 10000 screens, but majority of them are either regional screens or single-screens. US has more than 38,000 screens and China has about half that number and growing fast. India, in comparison, has about 2200 multiplex screens. A vast country like ours, has huge potential for growth in the number of screens. The good performance of Hollywood movies like Fast and Furious 7, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic Park and Telugu dubbed film like Baahubali, is good news for multiplexes, as they are no longer entirely dependent on Hindi films to sustain footfalls. The average increase in multiplex screens every year is around 175-200. Q. What do the makers do when they watch the rough/final print of the film and realise that the film has been terribly made or the film is bad? A. There is not much that they can do, except go all out to promote it and try to recover as much as possible in the first weekend itself. They could also try and include an item number or buy the rights to a popular song and include it in the film.  Having said that, it’s really difficult to figure out what works and what doesn’t. A film like Tamasha was acclaimed by a section of the audience, but was completely rejected at B and C centres. The makers were confident it would do well, but it didn’t. Even S.S. Rajamouli was uncertain if Baahubali would be accepted, he was hopeful that it would perform well in the long run.. but the opening itself was earth shattering. Aashiqui 2 wasn’t a great film and even though it had a chartbuster song, it wasn’t expected to collect half of what it did. What clicks and what doesn’t can never be predicted in the film industry. Some bad films perform well and a few good film might tank too. Q. How will Deepika and Priyanka’s Bollywood career graph play out now due to them signing big Hollywood films? For example, is there a chance that they’ll miss potentially important smaller films, like Piku, to other actors due to the producers thinking they might be too pricey? Would love to hear your thoughts on this (Hari) A. Priyanka’s international success couldn’t have come at a better time for her. She’s 33 and it’s at this age, unfortunately, that careers in Bollywood tend to take a downward trend for female stars. Katrina is going through that phase now and older generation actors like Rani Mukerji and Preity Zinta also did. In Hollywood, female stars have longer careers and there is also scope to play a variety of roles. Deepika is at the peak of her career here and she would probably continue to remain in the mainstream, featuring in films with top actors in the country. She would probably find it harder to balance between the two films industries and working out dates could be big problem. Q. What’s your rating on the Fan trailer? (Mitesh) A. 7 on 10. Q. Which film has more chance to succeed,  single screen oriented or multiplex oriented? I’m not consider universally acceptance A. Any ‘A-grade’ film will struggle to recover costs just from single-screen business. Whereas quite a few multiplex-targeted films are very successful - Airlift, Neerja, Queen just to name a few. Even for universally successful films, the ratio is more than 70 : 30 in favour of multiplexes – the ticket prices are higher, so one ticket sold in Noida could be equivalent to 10 tickets sold in Bihar. Q. How much potential you see in Ranveer Singh to stand tall in Bollywood after Bajirao Mastani? I personally think that he doesn’t have some extra charm above acting to woo audience as SRK, Salman, Aamir have. A. Ranveer Singh has immense potential to be a top star in the industry. We would even give him an edge over Ranbir Kapoor, because Ranveer also has the potential to be a massy star. Ranbir’s appeal at smaller centres is currently limited, even though YJHD did well. And it doesn’t make any sense to compare him with SRK, Salman or Aamir. He doesn’t even need to be as big as them. He has his own USP, he has plenty of energy and now the ‘acceptance’ factor will give a huge boost to his career. In all his previous films before ‘Bajirao Mastani’, he was liked, but he wasn’t universally praised and appreciated. His performance wasn’t hailed as incredible or flawless. When the audience ‘accepts’ an actor, it increases his confidence and this translates into improved performances on screen. Q. How does T-series Generate Revenue by launching online video songs? (Sanchit Sachdev) A. Youtube (owned by Google) shares revenue from ads that are played before videos or when the viewer clicks on ads displayed at the bottom part of the video. Since T-Series generates millions of views, it’s good money. Q. Chances of Baahubali: The Conclusion and Robot 2 beating PK worldwide? (Amish) A. Not sure about Robot 2, but since we know what to expect from Baahubali 2, it has every chance of surpassing PK worldwide. In fact, there are expectations that the Hindi version of the second film could do 200 crore or more! It’s the biggest release of 2017, easily the most anticipated. Q. You never answered my questions. But I cannot deny that everyone has better ones than me. Any tips? A. Try asking questions not related to SRK, we get a lot of questions on him every week. But now since we answered, why would you need a tip? Q. Who do you think will last longer in Bollywood. An actor that chooses quality over quantity or someone that churns out as many films as he can? A. It’s going to be all about good films in the future. Even for top stars, if they need big 300 crore plus grosser, it has to be a good film. Bajrangi did 320, PRDP did 210. Salman was the common factor in both, the difference was one film was universally liked, the other found acceptance only at select centres. Q. Which is the highest ever March grosser? Can rocky handsome break it? A. Highest is Race 1 (63 crore).  Both Kapoor & Sons and Rocky Handsome have a chance, but it’ll be difficult. Kapoor & Sons will be competing with World Cup cricket matches and on Saturday of its release, there is India vs Pakistan. Q. What could be the opening day figures of Housefull 3 since Akshay kumar is returning after big success of Airlift? A. Should be 20 crore plus, because even Welcome Back without a top star, did 15 crore on opening day. Q. Are you in contact with Taran Adarsh because every time I see the box office collections or any type of news posted by you and him are exactly same? (Mian G) A. We publish producer figures and he does the same. The difference is, we have to write articles, he has to tweet, which is always faster. Collections of released by production houses like Eros, Red Chillies, T-Series etc. We don’t publish the same news as him. Q. Why Vidyut Jamwal is being ignored by Bollywood and on the other hand Tiger Shroff is being supported? A. It’s always easier for star kids in the industry. But Vidyut Jamwal is doing Commando 2. Q. How has been the response of the first look posters of Rustom? Do the makers looks very confident that they had started promoting the movie well in advance. A. The response to Rustom has been terrific so far. Early promotion is not about confidence, but to try and build pressure on makers of Mohenjo Daro to push their film ahead (our opinion, could be wrong). Q. What might be the verdict of Ra.One if it starred any other star other than SRK? A. Flop, because it wouldn’t have collected as much as it did. Q. Arrange the acting skills of the actors like Shahrukh, Salman , Aamir, Ranveer Singh, Ranveer Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Hritik Roshan, Akshay Kumar? A. Impossible to rate them because all are good. We would instead pick our favourite performances in order of preference: Aamir (PK, thought he was simply extraordinary), Sanjay Dutt (Vaastav), Shah Rukh (Chak De India), Ajay Devgn (The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, OUATIM), Ranbir (Barfi), Hrithik (Koi Mil Gaya), Ranveer (Bajirao Mastani), Salman (Tere Naam), Akshay Kumar (Airlift). Q. What is the trade verdict of Ghayal Once Again? A. Below average grosser. Q. Who will win today’s match? (Yuvraj) A. Since we have a 80% success ratio with FBO prediction, trying out luck with cricket – India will win both the Asia Cup final and upcoming T20 world cup. We wouldn’t mind getting a couple of FBO / LBO predictions wrong, if the cricket predictions go right. And on that note, it’s time to end the QnA and watch the match. Thank you for joining us for QnA. Remaining questions will be answered through the week.

Q. How much FAN needs to do for HIT , Super HIT and Blockbuster Verdict ? A. Too early to comment. FAN isn’t a big budget film, but these days for big stars it isn’t about recovery but meeting trade expectations. When a Shah Rukh Khan film releases, it comes with certain expectations. Exhibitors expect his films to significantly increase footfalls at theatres. And his films would be a massive disappointment if it recovers costs, but finishes with business of less than 100 crore in India. It was the same with Dilwale too, SRK the producer made profits, he compensated domestic distributors.. but 148 crore was way below what was expected out of the film. FAN will be considered a solid success for SRK if it does 150 crore plus in India.

We will be creating separate page with 3 questions on each page. This is to allow discussion in the comments section as QnA pages get 500 plus comments. Please don’t ask questions on this page, it won’t be answered. Q. Mohenjodaro announced their release date first.. but now Akshay’s Rustom is releasing on same date and they are trying to scare away competition. Is this ethical? (Neeraj) A. There are two ways to look at this. One, since there are just 52 weeks in a year and more than 200 film releases, there is no way to escape clashes. Every producer is free to pick the date he believes is right for his film. On the other hand, there seems to be no unity in the industry. When a big budget film like Mohenjo Daro was announced almost a year ago and Hrithik was returning after nearly two years, the makers of Rustom not only announce the date of their film, but also try to create perception that their film is hot in the trade by releasing posters. Akshay even went to the extent of promoting his film on Zee Cine Awards and ensured that he highlighted the ’12 August 2016′ date in every tweet. For some reason, the intention doesn’t seem to be right. The film has just gone on floors about a month ago, Akshay has Housefull 3 before Rustom (promotional campaign for which hasn’t even started). The message seems to be – not only do we want the Independence Day week, but we will go all out to try to push Mohenjo Daro (since the stakes for the film are way too high) and give Rustom a solo release. Not too sure about the ‘ethical’ part of it, but the tactics that team Rustom is using, isn’t the nicest. Q. What is the recent update on Raees vs Sultan clash? Is the clash still on or will there be a week gap between the two releases? A. The clash is still on. There is no point in giving a gap of a week between the two films, it’s the holiday weekend of Eid that both films want. If that advantage isn’t there, it’s better to release one film a couple of weeks later. Q. How many screen will be shared by both sultan and raaees on eid clash – who is having edge now and what is reason of edge? A. Again, too early to talk about screen share. Screens can get finalised as late as two days before release. Bajirao Mastani shows were finalised at select multiplexes, just a day before release which also affected the advance booking of the film. As far as the ‘edge’ is concerned, Sultan is the hotter film in the trade at the moment.  Salman has dominated Eid, Eid has become synonymous with Salman. People wait for his films during this time of the year. It’s a no brainer, really. It remains to be seen how it goes after the theatrical trailer of both films are out. But eventually though, it’s all about the content. The better film will win and the weaker might underperform. If both films are extraordinary, they’ll still lose out on 25-30% of business.

Continuation of QnA Q. Is it fair to say that trend of Bollywood films is changing? From commercial potboiler like Rowdy Rathode, Ready, Chennai Express,  Ghajini to more content driven movies like PK, Bajrangi Bhaijan, Airlift.. (Rohan) A. Trends always change. There was a time when comedy films used to work well at the box office. Priyadarshan would churn out 2-3 films every year and this was also the time when Akshay Kumar was at the peak of his career. Then the trend shifted to south remakes, what with Ghajini going on to be the first film to earn 100 crore in India. The trend of masala entertainers with larger-than-life heroes gave a new lease of life to Salman Khan, who churned out films like Wanted, Dabangg, Ready, Bodyguard, Ek Tha Tiger.. all going on to be blockbusters.