AskIndicine: End of QnA, 18 questions answered

Q. Can Azhar biopic atleast collect 50 – 60 crore in India? – Prince

A. It most certainly won’t collection 50-60 on the strength of its opening. Content, like we have seen in recent times, can take a film way beyond what’s expected out of it.

Q. According to you, what would be the lifetime collection of Airlift? – Pushkar

A. We expect it to collect around 140-150 crore. Our final IndicineLBO prediction is Rs 143 crore. You can check the LBO page www.indicine.com/lbo

Q. How much shooting of Dangal has been completed? What are your expectations quality wise, from the film?

A. Most of the film is complete. Only portions of the film where Aamir plays a younger and fitter version of wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat will be shot in June. Aamir will now be losing almost all the weight that he gained to play the older role. Expectations, obviously, are very high.

Q. I heard that Salman Khan again in trouble due to hit and run case. Can you please explain why? Can’t he be a free man in his remaining entire life? – Bhatta

A. The Maharastra government will be challenging the Bombay High Court’s verdict in the Supreme Court. If the highest and final court of the country upholds the High Court’s verdict, Salman will be free for life.

Q. Which film according to you will be the highest grosser of this year Fan, Raees, Sultan, Mohenjodaro, Dangal or Shivaay? – Hardik Lamba

A. If Sultan and Raees clash, then Dangal is going to be the trade favourite because Christmas is the best period to release films. Housefull 3 has a better chance than Fan and Shivaay, if it turns out to be an entertaining film.

Q. Will there be a 3-way clash on 12 August between Mohenjo Daro, Rustom and Hera Pheri 3 or will one of them back out and prospects of Mohenjo daro if a clash happens with only Hera Pheri 3? – Jaggi (similar question asked by Saksham)

A. Highly unlikely. There aren’t enough screens in India to release three big films on the same day. Atleast one film will be postponed to a later date. Hera Pheri is a hugely popular franchise, but without Akshay Kumar it wouldn’t be the same. Difficult to predict clash results, because it’s dependent on content. Even a film like Bajirao Mastani managed to beat arguably the biggest film of last year – which had everything in its favour, including star cast – director – music, except the fact that content didn’t find appreciation.

Q. How will u analyse Akshay’s career with Khans in last five years, as he has taken daring risks with OMG, Special 26, Baby, Airlift?

A. We wouldn’t call it daring because his others films haven’t performed well at the box office. In fact, nonsensical masala entertainers is the risky genre today. Also, it can be considered a risky career move only when you do one film a year and then decide to go off-beat, like Aamir Khan with Talaash and Dangal.

Akshay always has a new film to look forward to, if one doesn’t do well at the box office, he quickly moves on to his next. But for someone like Aamir Khan (Dangal) or Hrithik Roshan (Mohenjo Daro), one failure is equal to two years of their life. Having said that, Akshay is doing terrific films now. The multiplex audience is back to theatres, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can sustain the good work that he’s been doing. Also, genre doesn’t decide if a film is good or bad. Even Housefull 3 can be a good film if it manages to entertain the audience.

Q. Why is Akshay Kumar ignored in any award function? He should have got at least nomination for ‘Special 26’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Baby’, ‘Gabbar Is Back’. Do you think all the award functions are fixed?

A. In the industry, it isn’t difficult for top actors to win awards. They can win if they “want” to win. Wanting is more important. Actors like Salman, Aamir, Akshay, Ajay don’t want them, nor do they care.. which could be one of the reasons why they don’t win them.

Q. Why Salman Khan has never won any Padma awards like Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhusan?

A. Not too sure about this, but when he has / had criminal cases against him like 2002 hit-n-run (acquitted by High Court) and Black Buck Hunting case, don’t think he is eligible to be bestowed with country’s top civilian awards.

Q. Is this a right decision by Hrithik to work with Sanjay Gupta? – Mishal

A. Only Hrithik would know what’s best for him. Sanjay Gupta is a fairly good director, he has directed films like Kaante and Shootout at Wadala. If the script is good, he could make a good big budget film.

Q. Which film release on 30 September 2016? There are many holidays 2nd October, then 2nd week Dussera, Muharam, Navaratri? Sanu

A. Vishal Bhardwaj’s Rangoon starring Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Kangana Ranaut releases on 30th September.

Q. Why PK was so huge in China? Do other movies not release there and if they release then why don’t they collect well there? – Abhishek Vishwakarma

A. China has a limit on international films releasing in the country. In a year, not more than 34 foreign language movies are given permission to release in China and most of the foreign language films that release there are Hollywood films. Apart from Aamir Khan, no other Indian actor has managed to make a mark in China. 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3 and PK are by far the biggest grossers.

Q. If both Raees & Sultan get huge appreciation from the general audience, & carries that “Must Watch on Big Screen” tag (Neutralizing the Piracy effect to some extent). Can’t they both exist & become Blockbusters? – Tanumoy

A. There is always a possibility of both films doing well; Lagaan and Gadar, Taare Zameen Par and Welcome are examples of two films doing well. But when both commercial films release on the same day, business will be affected. Aiming for a longer run doesn’t always prove to be beneficial because distributor’s share reduces quite considerably after the first and second week. It’s always better for two big films to avoid clash and aim for a solo release, even if that means a non-festive weekend.

Q. Don’t you think Indian films overseas success is highly overrated in media and among fans. Don’t you think we should take those figures with less interest – Sky

A. Domestic collections is what is most important. If local distributors don’t recover their investment, a film cannot be considered successful irrespective of how well it performs overseas. That’s how it has always been, and except rare cases, that’s how it’ll always be. Overseas business is a bonus, films should perform well back home in India – which is still the biggest market for 99% Hindi movies.

Q. Can Shivaay collect 250 crore in domestic without clash? – Akash

A. It’s funny that people these days have such unrealistically high expectations out of films. Only 3 films have crossed the 250 crore mark and those are PK, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Dhoom 3. Two of those were arguably the most universally acclaimed movies in the last 10 years and featured top superstars in the lead. The other was the biggest franchise in the industry. Ajay Devgn films, apart from Singham Returns (which was a huge brand + holiday release), don’t really open big at the box office. His second best after Singham Returns is Bol Bachchan which did 12 crore. Shivaay would have to be beyond extraordinary to do 250 crore. A realistic target to start with would be 100 – 150 crore domestic. Long way to go though, the trailer would give us a better idea.

Q. What difference can one good movie make on an actor’s stardom? Can a good movie take SRK to the top again? And how Dilwale’s underperformance has affected SRK’s stardom and trade expectations from him?

A. Ranveer was struggling after Kill Dil and the trade wrote off Bajirao Mastani before its release. But in 3 short weeks, Ranveer is now being touted as the next superstar, has swept top acting awards this year and has a big film in Aditya Chopra’s Befikre. That’s how quickly career’s can turn around in this industry. As for SRK, he is in the late stages of his immensely successful career. One or two films falling below expectations won’t make a big difference to his career. He’s already too big to get bigger. It’s all about doing good films now. He has probably wasted a lot of his talent in films like Chennai Express, Happy New Year and Dilwale. None of those films actually gave him a chance to perform and we wonder if they gave him creative satisfaction. Only 3-4 films in the last 15 years or so have made use of the acting talent that he has and those would be Chak De India, Swades and My Name Is Khan. Fortunately, both his upcoming films promise good performances.

Q. Till now Airlift has IMDb rating of 9.4 with 12.5k votes. Is there any chance that Airlift will be Highest rated movie on IMDB beating Shawshank Redemption [9.3]?

A. Absolutely no chance. For several reasons. One, IMDb ratings tend to drop over a period of time. Secondly, they only consider ratings from ‘regular users’ when ranking a film in Top 250. Thirdly, it has to receive minimum of 25,000 votes from ‘regular users’. IMDb doesn’t reveal what ‘regular users’ mean, it could be people who review a lot of films and those who have registered a long time ago. If Akshay Kumar fans register and vote in big numbers, it might increase the rating of the film, but it won’t take it to Top 250.

Q. Even though films like Dilwale, PRDP, Jai Ho, Talaash made their distributors in losses, why are they called as semi hits? Why not disasters?

A. How can films grossing nearly 400 crore worldwide be disasters? Even Talaash and Jai Ho did more than 170 crore worldwide. PRDP was more than a clean hit. As for why some films are declared above average / semi hit, it’s simply because some investors make money, some lose, some just about recover. Most verdicts these days are not ‘strict’, most are given on perception.

That’s the end of QnA for today. Hope you enjoyed reading the answers. Thank you.