AskIndicine: Live Now

Q. Robot 2 or Bahubali 2- which movie will earn more in North?

A. It’ll be close, but ‘Robot 2.0’ should have the edge in the North because of Akshay Kumar’s presence. Star value always helps. It’s a big action film too, Shankar (the director of both the films) achieved quite a lot with a smallish budget in 2010’s Robot. The sequel has 3 times the budget, larger scale and much better technology.

Q. What’s the actual collection of PRDP in Domestic and Worldwide?

A. Domestic the film finished at Rs 213 crore (including collections from regional versions), worldwide gross is Rs 392 crore.

Q. Is it true that Housefull 4 would be happening soon and Sajid Khan will be directing it?

A. Not true. He is working on a different film.

Q. What percent of box office collection goes to producers as their earning or profit including overseas?

A. To keep the answer simple, it varies from film to film. The share of the distributors is usually higher for massy films which perform well at fixed rentals. Multiplex share is highest in the first week of release, goes lower in the second week and further down in the third. So a word-of-mouth film that does well in the 2nd week, will earn lesser for the producer, as compared to a film that’s top heavy (i.e most of the business is generated in the first week). From 100 rupees that you spend at the ticket window, around 30 rupees goes towards taxes and from the remaining 70 rupees, 35 goes to the exhibitor (theatre owner) and 35 goes to the producer / distributor. Again, this can vary, depending on various things that cannot be explained here.

Q. Does Force 2 have any chance of becoming a Hit?

A. It has shown a decent trend as films like ‘Force 2’ usually tend to show a drop on Saturday, but ‘Force 2′ has actually shown some growth. So it needs to hold well on Monday and then remain steady during the remaining weekdays. It has no competition at mass centres next week, as ’Dear Zindagi’ is mainly targeted at the multiplex audience, that too in those 5-6 cities which could go to 10-15 due to SRK’s presence, but the appeal is limited. The economics of ‘Force 2’ is solid too, so it doesn’t really need to be a huge grosser to recover costs.

Q. When will Anand L Rai start shoot his next with Srk called Bandhua movie?

A. It’ll go on floors next year. The director and his team were in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) for a recce, but we haven’t received any confirmation if the location has been finalised for the shoot. There are reports that the shoot will be wrapped next year, followed by extensive post-production work. Release date – Christmas 2018. Possibly the only SRK film that has its release date announced before it goes on floors. A solo festive release will be important for the film, as it’ll be SRK’s costliest film to date.

Q. Can Toilet-Ek Prem Katha be called as a post-IPL release? How much will it be benefited by the period?

A. It’ll be a Ramzan release, so a section of the muslim audience might not watch the film. It doesn’t exactly fall in the ‘Post IPL’ period as the IPL concludes on 21st May and Toilet Ek Prem Katha releases on June 2nd. It can become a really big film if the government decides to officially support it and state governments give it tax exemption. Too early to talk about those things at the moment though. We got a chance to read parts of the script, it sounds very interesting on paper.

Q. Going by the current phase of Akshay’s career and his choice of films.. on which project would you like to put your money on barring 2.0 as it is more a Rajni’s film? His films are earning but not like other superstars film does.. So where’s the problem? Is his popularity less than them or is his movies not mass appealing or doing multiple films a year?

A. Multiple releases in only a problem when two films release too close to each other (less than 1.5 / 2 month gap). But Akshay has been spacing out his releases quite well. The gap between Rustom and Jolly LLB is going to be 6 months and then 4 months for Toilet Ek Prem Katha. The problem seems to be the choice of films and budget / scale. Jolly LLB 2 is too small a film to become a huge grosser, unless it turns out to be an incredible film that grows on word-of-mouth. A film like Airlift will struggle to cross 150 crore, even if it features someone like a Salman Khan, as it won’t appeal to a big chunk of his fan-base. It’s films like ‘Housefull 3’ and ‘Brothers’ that should’ve gone on to be big grossers, unfortunately they didn’t. About a year ago, the multiplex audience weren’t coming for his films, but now that he has earned it back.. it’s time to do more universal films. There is certainly a change in perception (both audience and trade) when it comes to Akshay Kumar, he has played the patriotic card pretty well too. His popularity across the board is rising, it’s the right time to take things to the next level.

Q. Indicine I am a daily visitor of your website as it is the best bollywood website. My question is for you that if Arjun Kapoor’s next both movies cross 100 crore mark at box office than which position will he get in your top 15 actors ratings

A. Difficult to predict at the moment because the stars above him have releases like Ranveer’s Befikre and Varun’s Badrinath Ki Dulhania. Ajay has Baadshaho just a week before Arjun’s Half Girlfriend too. So there will be plenty of movement in the ranking. Half Girlfriend will be replacing Gunday in the list, so it has to collect more than 94 crore or more for Arjun to go ahead of Sidharth Malhotra.

Q. Why does the poster of Robot 2 specifically say ‘Superstar Rajinikanth’? We don’t have Tiger Zinda Hai or any other hindi movie poster saying ‘Superstar Salman Khan’ or any other actor’s name than way.

A. The aura of Rajnikanth in the Tamil film industry has always been in a different league when compared to others. He is incomparable. It’s a well-accepted fact that when it comes to sheer fan-following and craze, he is way ahead of the rest. Even the craze that ‘Kabali’ generated cannot be compared to anything that we have seen even in Bollywood. To add to his aura, he is 65 years of age and still commands the same level of following that he did a couple of decades ago. His films still get the biggest initial. So it’s befitting that we see ‘Superstar’ in the opening credits and also in the posters. His fans love it, the industry accepts it and he did not put it there himself, it was a producer’s idea.

Q. Is it true that SRK will do a cameo in Salman Khan starer Tubelight?

A. No.

Q. I have been asking since a long time why do people love Salman so much? And why do mass audience love him?

A. Why people love or follow an actor cannot be explained because there could be hundreds of reasons. Salman is probably the only actor who appeals to every section of the audience, the rich, the poor, the youth, the family audience and also the kids. His physique, good looks, action image, charisma all add to his appeal. Also, there is still a huge section of audience at smaller centres in India that doesn’t like to watch kissing or what they call ‘vulgar’ scenes in films. Salman doesn’t do those and the audience know it, so they come. A lot of actors don’t realise this, but there is a huge audience for clean family entertainers, both in theatres and on television. Superstars are made out of such films, urban films can never make an actor a superstar.

Q. Highest Grossers in the month of June, July, August, September and October ? Which movies in 2017 have a solid chance to dominate in their respective months?

A. We will update the old article and put our predictions in that.

Q. Is Anushka Sharma the number one actress today?

A. Definitely in the Top 2. Not quite the incredible run that Deepika Padukone had, because two of Anushka’s films like Dil Dhadakne Do and NH10 just about recovered costs, while Bombay Velvet was a huge disaster. But she has featured in big films like PK, Sultan and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Deepika isn’t doing enough films, so Anushka could soon take the top spot if the film with Imtiaz Ali and Shah Rukh Khan does well.

Q. First Bajirao Mastani announced for Xmas release 2015 and later Shahrukh Dilwale announced for Xmas release. Bajirao Mastani didn’t postponed or preponed by a week. Both film clashed. Now, Rani Padmavati announced for Xmas release 2017 and later Tiger Zinda Hai announced for Xmas release but Rani Padmavati preponed by a month.when it comes to Shahrukh it didn’t postponed but when it comes to Salman it preponed by a month. Why is this happening with Shahrukh Khan. Why is this not happening with Salman Khan.

A. At the domestic box office, Salman Khan is the numero uno star. No other actor can take him on at the moment, not even Aamir Khan. That’s a well known fact within the industry and trade. Not only would ‘Padmavati’ struggle to get screens at smaller centres, but YRF + Salman will ensure the clash is one-sided at multiplexes too. It would’ve been a suicidal clash, which they wisely averted.

As for Bajirao Mastani, Sanjay Bhansali and Eros were extremely confident of the film succeeding at the box office. It was definitely a risk, taking on a big commercial film like Dilwale is never easy, but they pulled it off.

Q. Do you think Befikre can do 150 Cr business in India?

A. No. It’s a urban youth film, such films have limitations. Befikre would be a big success if it does 100 crore or more.

Q. Indicine who is the Winner of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil & Shivvay First Day Prediction Contest?

A. The winners were picked and tickets were sent to the winners in the second week after release. The delay was because there was a technical issue with Google Forms (which we use to collect the predictions) because of the number of entries we received – which was more than 45,000. The spreadsheet wasn’t searchable, so we had to manually go through every entry before picking the winners. The process was completed, but before we do more contests in the future we need to sort out the issue. Going through every entry manually is time consuming and we cannot declare the winners on time.

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Q. Now after success of ADHM, will trade see Jagga Jasoos positively?

A. That would depend on the trailer of Jagga Jasoos. But even though it has been delayed for such a long time, we don’t think they could’ve timed the release better. Had Jagga Jasoos released after Bombay Velvet or Tamasha, it could have struggled at the box office. But now, it’s not only coming after the success of ‘ADHM’ but will be the first film to release after GST tax system comes into effect. So ticket prices could be lower and business could well be a little higher. There are no major releases between Badrinath Ki Dulhania (March 10) and Jagga Jasoos (April first week) too. So it’ll also get the ‘Post exam’ period audience. It’s a very good release date, which will help the film if the content isn’t rejected.

2 more questions to be answered:

Q. How much impact SRK’s presence will make to Dear Zindagi’s opening?

A. SRK’s presence could help the film double its opening day collections. A film like ‘Dear Zindagi’ would probably collect around 4-5 crore on its opening day if it was just Alia. Now with SRK’s presence it could go anywhere between 8-10 crore. But there is uncertainty at the moment because of demonetisation and last few promos. ‘Take 1’ and ‘Take 2’ were received well, but the other promos haven’t received the same response.

Q. Won’t it be a good idea to release the tentatively titled “Ring” on Good Friday next year ? Because all other major holidays are blocked by other stars.

A. No, because the film may not be ready and Fast and Furious 8 is releasing on that day.

That’s it for today. Please join us next Sunday and do read the three articles on Robot 2.0. Two posters are out, we’ve also published an article on the Diwali clash.