IndicineQnA: Is Varun Dhawan a bigger star than Akshay Kumar?

Q. After looking at the opening day collections of ABCD 2, is Varun Dhawan a bigger star than Akshay Kumar? Why didn’t ‘Gabbar Is Back’ collect well even though it released on a half-holiday? – Sujit

A. It’s a difficult question to answer, simply because Akshay has been in the industry for more than 20 years and Varun is still a newcomer. As far as the current standing is concerned, the footfalls (tickets sold) of ‘Gabbar Is Back’ were probably a little higher than ‘ABCD 2’ on Day 1, but Varun’s popularity with the urban youth gives him a huge advantage at multiplexes in cities. Both ‘ABCD 2’ and ‘Gabbar Is Back’ had various factors working in favour and against them. Gabbar Is Back was facing tough competition in the from of Hollywood film ‘Avengers – Age of Ultron’ at multiplexes and the IPL season too affected business, but the film had a partial holiday and the trailer was received well too. ‘ABCD 2’ was affected by rains in Maharastra, but was a sequel to a successful film which is always an advantage. In short, Varun is ahead when it comes to fan-following amongst the youth in cities, but at mass-centres he has a long way to go before he can even get close to Akshay Kumar.

Q. How was the trailer of ‘Katti Batti’ received? Will it also sink without a trace like Gori Tere Pyar Mein or will Imran make a good comeback? – Aayaz

A. Kangana Ranaut’s new found stardom has ensured that ‘Katti Batti’ is a film that a lot of people will look forward to. The trailer has done well and the film should taken a reasonably good opening of 5-6 crore too. If a couple of songs do well, the opening could be better!

Q. Doesn’t it make better business sense to cast youngsters like Varun, Sidharth, Ranveer or Arjun Kapoor, who charge less than 5 crore, as compared to someone like Akshay who charges 35 crore per film and Ajay who charges 25 crore? – Purohit

A. First of all, those figures of 35 and 25 crore that you mention are not true. Akshay has reduced his fee and has started producing films to keep the costs under control. But yes, for a production house, if they can package a film well, it makes much more business sense to cast young but bankable stars like Varun Dhawan or Sidharth Malhotra. Packaging and casting is the key, because otherwise a film can tank like ‘Gori Tere Pyaar Mein’ or ‘Daawat-e-Ishq’.

Q. In how many screens was the Hollywood film Avatar released worldwide? – Ravi

A. Avatar initially released on 14,604 screens in 106 territories worldwide. Out of that the highest grossing Hollywood film of all time, released on 3457 theatres in the United States of America. The worldwide collections of ‘Avatar’ in Indian currency stands at Rs 17,698 crore, 25 times more than the highest grossing Indian film i.e Aamir Khan’s PK! Another interesting fact, the budget of ‘Avatar’ was about Rs 1,500 crore i.e around 18 times more than PK.

Q. Can Shahrukh Khan’s films in the future break 3 Idiots record in overseas, if not Dhoom 3 or PK? - Jahapnah

A. Most certainly. The overseas record of 3 Idiots is well within Shahrukh Khan’s reach, as even a film like ‘Happy New Year’ which received a mixed response all over, did business in excess of Rs 100 crore. Even Dhoom 3 can be surpassed with a good film, but it would take something extraordinary to beat PK – the China collections of which, is more than the lifetime overseas collections of Happy New Year.

Q. Any chance for Hamari Adhuri Kahani to emerge as a success at Box Office? – DDD

A. The film has shown a huge drop in business on its 2nd Friday, which has pretty much sealed its fate. It held well during the weekdays, but the 2nd weekend business will be around the 2.5 crore mark, which will take the total to around 30 crore. The film will finish at 32-33 crore. Below average grosser.

Q. Is ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ a success or a failure? The media has already started calling it a successful film – Sejal

A. ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ will fail to recover costs even after revenue from satellite and other rights are added to the theatrical business of the film. It had to collect around 90-95 crore minimum to be called a success, but the drop in week 2 was bigger than expected. The reason could be the release of ‘Jurassic World’, but Zoya Akhtar’s 3rd film hasn’t lived up to expectations as far as its theatrical business is concerned.

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