AskIndicine: Live Now (9 October 2016)

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Q. Why are you including ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ Telugu + Tamil version collection in Hindi’s version collection?

A. The collections that we release on the website includes business from all versions, Hindi plus regional. The reason for this is, releasing a film in Telugu can have an impact on the business of the Hindi version in Andhra/Nizam circuit. Also, the cost of dubbing the film into regional versions and releasing it, is included in the budget.

Q. Which film do you think will have more TRP ratings – Rustom or Mohenjo Daro?

A. Star Gold (Mohenjo Daro) has wider release and is the bigger channel too as it commands (on an average) around 20% higher viewership as compared to Zee Cinema. It’s impossible to predict which film will get higher ratings, although Mohenjo Daro should appeal to a wider section of television audience. We’ll be putting up the TV ratings of both films in the 3rd week of October. Ratings of Ki and Ka will be put out this week. The number of Sultan will be out this month end, it should easily top.

Q. How’s Tubelight shaping up? Any internal report?

A. Way too early to talk about reports. The film has just gone on floors. We came across a video of Salman practising a song from the film. It was first posted on Instagram. Check it out

Q. Ajay Devgn has now supported ban on Pakistani actors for the time being. How much it will be fruitful for his upcoming movie Shivaay and how much it will affect ADHM?

A. We don’t think the impact is going to be huge. It’s all going to boil down to the content of the two films after the first day. Controversies and PR games can probably only make a difference on the first day. After that, the film that the audience like will eventually emerge as the winner.

Q. What do you think about Raees? Do you think that ongoing Pakistan-India war and banning artists will affect it’s collection and Kaabil will benefit from it. What’s your expectations?

A. There is still quite a lot of time for ‘Raees’ to release, more than 3 months. Before Raees we have a film like ADHM. IMPPA (Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association) has sent appeals to political parties to let ADHM and Raees have a controversy-free release, because both films were shot before the Indo-Pak relationship took a bitter turn. If there are protests and disruptions, the Indian producers are the ones who will lose money.

Q. Can you please give the approximate cost of production of ADHM and Shivaay?

A. ADHM is 72 crore (not including marketing). Shivaay is an expensive film with cost of production alone at 100 crore plus. Shivaay has to get somewhere close to Ajay Devgn’s highest grosser (Singham Returns – 140 crore) to recover costs.

Q. You said that the sneak peek is average but some trade experts in twitter are claiming that its awesome.. Are they being biased towards Raees?

A. We can only report what we hear from the exhibitors who were shown clippings of the film. On Twitter, every unreleased film is hyped like it’s the next classic. The recently released Mirzya is an example. Almost every review that was put out before release was extremely positive, including celeb reviews which noone trusts. But we all know what happened post-release, don’t we?

Q. When will Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Music Album release? When will Dangal Trailer release?

A. The music album of ADHM is expected this week. Dangal Trailer in the third week of October.

Q. Please give some details of the Darr Remake titled “Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna” I’ve heard TV actor Karanvir Bohra is playing SRK’S character but who is essaying Sunny Deol’s role? Also according to you which is a better biopic film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag or Dhoni?

A. It’s not a remake of Darr. Different story, but the makers have been calling it a ‘spin-off’ on Darr, just to give it some publicity. As for the better biopic, it’s better to a poll and let the readers decide.

Q. Salman is not good actor but has great stardom how he achieved that and was there any superstar in history which does not know acting but got stardom ?

A. A bad actor can never make it big in the industry. A bad actor will also fall flat in films like Tere Naam or even a Andaz Apna Apna. He was outstanding in Sultan too. It’s just that his screen-presence and charisma overshadows the actor in him.

Q. How is the inside report of Raees from the distributors exhibitors and the Raees team? Is it worth the clash on a normal weekend?

A. It’s always better to opt for a solo release. If there is a clash, both films will find it difficult to collect as much as ’MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ did in its first weekend (65 crore). Even the combined weekend collections of the two films might not cross 100. A solo release during a normal weekend, should easily get the film closer to the 60 crore weekend mark. But the big question is, which film will move? Rakesh Roshan is superstitious and feels he shouldn’t change a date once its announced. Raees can’t move because it’s already been delayed. And even if they move, there are no dates left. It’s a stalemate, unfortunately.

Q. Will Raees be postpone again.. due to the Pakistani actress Mahira Khan?

A. Not true. We tweeted about it as soon as there were rumours. The media is making it a habit of creating baseless rumours and then rubbishing it the next day. Ritesh Sidhwani has confirmed once again yesterday that Raees WILL release on 26 January 2017. It’s the final date.

Reports of Shah Rukh Khan's #Raees moving to a different date is not true. No plans currently of postponing the film. 26 January 2017 it is.

— Indicine.com (@indicine) October 1, 2016

Q. What went wrong with Mohenjodaro other than VFX? Do u think Mohenjodaro would have collected more at box office with better VFX?

A. When the promos are dull and boring, any film, irrespective of stars, will find it difficult to find an audience. But the presence of a major star can add some sort of respectability to the total, 60 crore lifetime is very poor for a film costing 100 crore plus, but it isn’t outright rejection either. Else we’ve seen how poorly a film like Mirzya has performed even with an acclaimed director like Rakesh Omprakash Mehra.  As for visual effects, better VFX can never save a bad film, it would’ve perhaps helped the film collect a bit more.

Q. What do you think? Is ‘The Ring’ a movie like PK, Sultan, CE (masala entertainer) and BB that has been made for all including the interior circuits and the big cities? Though it isn’t a masala entertainer, but do you think it has a wider appeal like BB, Sultan, CE to all section of audience?

A. The Imtiaz Ali film cannot be compared to Sultan or a Chennai Express. It won’t be massy. It’ll be a Punjabi entertainer, which the family audience and youth will enjoy. It has the potential to do 200 crore plus, if it manages to get a good date. It could be huge if it turns out to be Imtiaz Ali’s career best film. But such things cannot be predicted until the release of the film. It’s a commercial family entertainer for sure, not niche like Tamasha.

Q. Trade and media thinks 100 cr is no more big achievement for Bollywood, if so why only 6 movies have crossed that figure so far in 10 months?

A. It depends from film-to-film, it can’t be generalised. 100 crore is still huge for young stars in the industry, but too low for stars like Salman or Aamir. A Varun or Ranveer or Arjun will take 100 crore hands down, if you tell them that’s the expectation from ‘Badrinath Ki Dulhania’ or ‘Befikre’. But it isn’t good enough for bigger films – a Housefull 3 for example was expected to collect a lot more than it did. 60 crore is disastrous for Mohenjo Daro, but excellent for Pink. Depends on budget and star cast (because stars increase costs and there is the perception factor too).

Q. Any update on Padmavati? Is it clashing with Tiger Zinda Hai or releasing one week earlier?

A. No film will clash with Tiger Zinda Hai.

Q. What is the current scenario of Raees-Kaabil clash? Has Raees backed all single screens due to Anil Thadani’s support?

A. Anil Thadani’s clout, along with ‘Raees’ being a massy film and Shah Rukh being one of the top stars, will ensure that it gets a bigger single-screen release as compared to Kaabil. It’s also going to be easier, because Thadani will be distributing ‘Baahubali 2’. Having said that, Rakesh Roshan has been in the industry for long enough to know how to play this. If Kaabil has a good trailer, things will even out.

Q. Why is Akshay Kumar not working with bigger actresses? Is it that they don’t want to work with Akshay?

A. There is no actress in the industry who wouldn’t want to work with Akshay. But date hassles are the single biggest reason. Akshay gives bulk dates and completes most of his films in less than 2 months. So all he has to do is, work his dates out and not be dependent on another actor’s dates. It also helps keep the costs down, because someone like a Deepika Padukone can increase the budget of his films by 15% or more.

Q. How is Commando 2 shaping up ? And Is Ok Jaanu an expensive film as music is given by A.R. Rahman and being made under Dharma productions ?

A. No reports on Commando 2. Ok Jaanu is not an expensive film.

Q. Seeing the poor trend of Mirzya, it looks the film will not cross 20 crore in it’s lifetime. What are your views?

A. Very poor collections, poorer trend. It may not cross 10 crore. Our LBO prediction is 9 crore.

Q. We know Ranbir Kapoor is not the star he was in 2013 after YJHD release but can we say Varun and Ranveer are somewhere that kind of stardom ?

A. Not quite there yet. Ranbir was at the peak of his stardom between the time Barfi released to the opening day of Besharam. He was huge at cities with the youth and his following with the family audience was steadily increasing too. It’s at that time he made a few poor choices. While Roy was an extended special appearance, Bombay Velvet was a huge mistake. It’s a disastrous decision for any top actor to sign a Anurag Kashyap film. As long as Ranveer and Varun (or any of the popular young stars for that matter) don’t do the kind of mistakes that Ranbir did and are careful when it comes to the kind of films they do, they’ll continue to grow as stars. Both have a following now and if films like Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2 (big film) do well and exceed expectations, Varun could well reach the level that Ranbir did in 2013. It’s those 15 crore plus opening on a non-holiday that separates the big stars from the lesser ones.

Q. Rank these weekends, Eid, Diwali, Christmas, Republic Day, Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti and Post IPL according to how big they are in terms of box office.

A. Christmas, Eid, Diwali, Post IPL, Independence Day, Republic Day and Independence Day – ranked based on performance of films in the last few years. It’s not all about the period of release though, you need big stars and good films to increase the potential of these weekends.

Q. Sultan or Dangal? Your bet on highest grosser of the year

A. Right now, we’d put our money on Sultan. 300 crore is a huge total. It was quite surprising the way Sultan eased itself past 250 crore and eventually crossed 300. The word-of-mouth wasn’t as good as Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Dangal has to be a very good film to do 300.

Q. Which other holidays which are not big box office weekends can become one according to you?

A. These weekends have been created, so if there is proper planning and strategy, new weekends can be created. For example, why can’t someone like Shah Rukh make the Bakrid or Gandhi Jayanti weekend his own? Have one release ready for those weekends every year, use your PR to hype it. It’s what Salman did with Eid too. Of course you need good films to back it up, but it’s worth thinking about instead of fighting over a weekend like Republic Day. The trend of wanting big weekend is hurting the industry, good friends are now fighting with each other just to get their film a good date.

Q. Has Hrithik signed Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s next ?

A. No.

Q. Why do you think Baar Baar Dekho didn’t get an initial? If I look at it with surgical precision, it’s promo clicked, songs became a huge rage across the board, star cast was impressive and had a backing of a production house which enjoys the reputation of churning out novel stories. Thus, why the dismissive response on the very first day? Thank you!

A. Baar Baar Dekho got a better initial than Kapoor & Sons. The morning shows had higher occupancy. But the problem with these metro-city multiplex films is, the word-of-mouth spreads very quickly. Ticket prices are high, so if friends don’t recommend the film, the youth won’t go out to watch it. That explains the slide from a fairly good initial in the morning to hardly any growth evening onwards. Kapoor & Sons took the other route, opening slow, but grew. Shaandaar suffered the same fate, even though the music of Baar Baar Dekho was in a different league as far as popularity is concerned. Unfortunately (or fortunately for those who spend), when people can watch song promos on their mobile phone, why pay to watch it in theatre if the film is not upto the mark?

Q. How many SRK films are slated to release next year ? Is he doing a film with Aditya Chopra ?

A. Two films in 2017 – Raees and the film with Imtiaz Ali, starring Anushka Sharma. Not confirmation on film with Aditya Chopra. SRK has spoken about it, but it won’t happen before 2017 end / 2018.

Q. Hi indicine, do you think that this is a both good and bad time in the industry as i feel the taste of audience is changing towards content based cinema. ex- airlift, neerja, pink only this year. But at the same time its also scary as big films are failing at the BO. what do you think should be the approach of filmmakers to make smart and profitable films?

A. It’s been a tough year, with quite a few big films biting the dust. The problem with films like Neerja and Pink is, they not only have to have good content, but they have to be promoted well and media backing is needed too. Angry Indian Goddess was a good film too, concept similar to Pink, but not many have even heard of it. It wasn’t marketed well and didn’t get coverage in media. There are many good small films like these that are good content-wise, but don’t manage to find an audience.

As for the ‘smart strategy’, there is a huge section of audience out there that has been deserted (smaller centres). Films with wider appeal, those that deal with an social issue, a film that has a human story to tell.. or even films that are shot in India and have that homely rustic feel, are the ones that are finding it easier to find an audience in today’s times.

Q. Which would be the biggest grosser of SRK in next 2 yrs? Raees, The Ring, Anand L Rai film?

A. Aanand L Rai film has the best chance. It’s being made on a big budget, has a interesting concept and they have blocked a best festival period of the year too.

Q. Is it true that Entertainment tax will not come under GST Bill?

A. Entertainment tax will come under GST. All India average could drop by around 50%.

Q. Did Kambakkht Ishq break the opening(weekend) collections of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi? Can you also provide the BO figures?

A. If we remember right, Kabakkht Ishq and RNBDJ were at similar levels, with Rab Ne being slightly ahead. However, Ghajini was the film to beat back then.

Q. What is your view of Emraan Hasmi’s acting talent?Can he reclaim the the super star status that he once had in 2012?

A. He’s a good actor, but no longer a bankable star.

That ends the QnA for today. Thank you for joining us.