Komal Nahta on 3 Idiots and My Name Is Khan

The whole of the week gone by has had the trade people talk about just one thing – whether Shah Rukh Khan’s My Name Is Khan is a hit or a flop and whether its box-office collections have been bigger than those of Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots.

Although comparisons are not fair and are, in fact, odious, it is necessary to talk of the two films in the same breath simply because Fox, the worldwide distributor of MNIK, has been doling out figures to the media, claiming that its film has surpassed all previous records. By implication, it means MNIK has collected more than 3 Idiots. Surprisingly, most of the media people have been buying the Fox story without so much as verifying the same. Actually, not so surprisingly. The way the television news channels had gone on and on about the historic opening of MNIK on the day it released (12th February), one was actually prepared for the continuation of the media circus. After all, the news channels had been misreporting from day one about how MNIK was running to packed houses in Bombay in spite of the Shiv Sena boycott threat when actually it was running to poor houses in several cinemas. And the weak houses of MNIK were in no way a reflection of the film’s merits. Rather, it was the fear factor at play as people did not want to risk their lives after the Sena threatened to force closure of cinemas by means fair or foul.

However, the TV channels seemed to have taken it upon themselves to blow the trumpet of My Name Is Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar even if that meant speaking white lies. It is just not clear why the news channels were so ashamed of the near-empty houses which, given the circumstances prevailing on that day, were perfectly understandable, that they chose to ‘turn’ poor attendance at cinemas into “unprecedented rush for the film”. Good for the people behind MNIK. And great for Fox, which had paid Rs. 85 crore for acquiring the worldwide rights of the film and spent another Rs. 15 to 20 crore on its promotion, marketing and prints. But bad for journalism in general.

After the first weekend got over, Fox lost no time in issuing press releases to the effect that MNIK had shattered all previous box-office records of Hindi films and had emerged as the film with the highest first weekend gross. Just one line should prove how far removed from reality this claim of Fox was: In India, the net collections of 3 Idiots in the first weekend were around Rs. 40 crore whereas the comparative figure for MNIK was Rs. 27 crore. Even if one were to assume (wrongly) that Khan made it up in the Overseas circuit, it was no secret on Monday morning that its collections in India had begun to drop – and drop rather markedly. Resultantly, as against a first week net of Rs. 80 crore of 3 Idiots, the first week of MNIK ended at Rs. 44 crore net – just 55% of 3 Idiots.

No doubt, the Overseas territories have been throwing up fabulous figures in the case of MNIK but then, even 3 Idiots had amassed a rich haul. In UK, of course, the grosses of MNIK far exceed those of 3 Idiots in the first week but the story is not the same in the US or the Middle East. Agreed, MNIK has been released and will, in future too, be released in territories abroad where no Hindi film has ever been released, but those virgin markets are not expected to yield revenues in crores of rupees.

The shocking part is that these very TV channels had lost no time in reporting the crash in collections of Akshay Kumar’s Blue from Monday onwards, but many of them pretended as if there was no fall in audience attendance in the case of MNIK. Even if some did report about the crash, they preferred to highlight the Over­seas story and underplay the equally, if not more, important India story which they themselves had been underlining till just some hours and days back.

It is to present the correct picture that we give hereinbelow the approximate first-week distributors’ shares of MNIK and 3 Idiots in India, circuit-wise:

As mentioned above, the collections in the Overseas territory of MNIK are absolutely fantastic. The first week’s share of MNIK from abroad is around Rs. 16 crore, approximately Rs. 1.5 to 2 crore more than that of 3 Idiots. But the response on home ground is definitely not upto the mark, as is evident from the sharp decline in collections from Monday onwards. This also gives the indication that whereas 3 Idiots continued to yield handsome shares for 7-8 weeks, MNIK may not be able to do it for more than a couple of weeks.

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24 Comments

  • Great article . i was pissed off the wrong stories of MNIK and the SRK chalisa all these news channel were chanting while i was reading that MNIK hasnt done well in india . thank god somebody came up with the truth

  • Komal Nath, If u write that Srk movie was more the media hyped than a good movie than u must first wash ur face & then need to write your views.

    To those u didn’t liked the movie are people who live in this world only for entertainment of foolish actors like Akki.

    Comparing 3 Idiots with MNIK is totally nonsense, bcoz in 3 idiots there is a effort of 3 actors & 1 actress & in MNIK only 1 SRK has done his masterpiece of work. The story of the film makes sense that there are good people & bad as well, but good people do succeed. Terrorism in the film has been shown in a sensible manner, the story teaches that terrorism cannot effect a muslim if he is good human being. Hats off to Karan, SRK, Kajol.

    My name is ” Chirag Gandhi” & I am a Hindu by religion, but I do feel that there are some people in this world who discriminates between religion & sensible movie like MNIK will clear many peoples mind. I am big fan of SRK & Aamir, but felt that SRK has done a bit of good job than Aamir ( 3 Idiots ). I only think that a movie if gives a msg of love & peace is very brilliant than what boxoffice figures are shown ( 100crs, 200crs, 300crs etc.).

    I have seen this movie 2 times & I am loving it to watch for the third time.

    SRK – U may or may not make 250crs to break record of 3 Idiots, but u have made my mind with peace & love with this movie.

    Karan – From now stop making movies such as Dostana etc, this is the best of all that u have made till now. So, keep making MNIK types of Sensible movie.

    Kajol – Love U & not more than that. Ur presence makes diffrence for a film.

  • So by now it’s clear that mnik is a hyped movie by media and rejected by d audience so stop thnking about d hyped coll

  • main president sahb ko batana chahtu hoon.. said with head bowed and in the familiar lingo looked ridiculous.. the situations were made to suit the protagonist .. and kajos scremy screachy behavior is one thing i cant stand .. the preachy way the film goes all about is alsoa negative factor.. i forebode all around me to give this movie a miss and i was thanked for it too.. this is second disaster after veer

  • People r with positve mind & negative also & those who say that it was media hype, charge srk are people who listen to others comment & start murmurring in this kind of reviews.

    Srk said that there r good & bad people in this movie MNIK, I think some of them are here in this site criticising the controversy & the film which has been bounced from over there head.

    Movie is sincere effort to give message that good people have lots of hurdle in there life & make peace among the people who mislead many innocent people to be terrorist.

    We daily say that we r fed up of Terrorism, but when a person makes a effort to make peace in minds of people in a very sincere manner bad people do come across like some of the reviewer in this site.

    For me SRK’s Dialoge ” my name is khan & I am not a terrorist” dose not means that Srk is defending muslims or made this film for muslims. I think he has given some message that muslim people r fooled by some greedy people in the name Jihad & if u r a good human being ( hindu or muslim) & have the courage to fight then u will win one day & there will be peace every where.

    SRK & Karan – Indian audience are very intelligent & will like this movie ( only those who r good human being).

  • @chirag ghandhi.i totally agree with u.ofcourse MNIK is the best movie and better than 3 IDIOTS.hatts off to srk,karan and kajol.we love these legends.

  • shame on media channels especially ndtv people.they have made fun of themselves by showing two crontradicting report on the box office collections of mnik.in the hindi news version of ndtv they showed that mnik was behind 3i in terms of bo collections in india whereas in their english channel they reported that mnik has beaten 3i by aroun 14 crores which is quite comprehensive.the quality of journalism is quite appaling to say the least.

  • Is this report authentic??
    Indicine team..pls justify..

    It’s a spectacular win win situation for Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar and Fox Searchlight. ‘My Name Is Khan’ became the third film in Bollywood history to bag 150 crores worldwide, and in doing so has ushered itself into a supremely select group of films. Trade sources are already hailing it as the highest Shah Rukh Khan phillum, ever.

    Only SRK could have managed this triumph. In Februrary, cold weather and exams in parts of India are often cited as dampeners for cine business. ‘MNIK’, however, as vaulted itself to fame, despite the blasts and controversies. Within a span of 10 days, ‘MNIK’ earned the distinction of doing business double the size of any Bollywood movie released in February.

    It’s raking in the lolly by the bushels across international markets. ‘MNIK’ is already being hailed as the biggest Bollywood film of all time within 10 days in the UAE, South Africa, Holland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, East and West Africa, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Mauritius.

    In the Middle East, the film has not only smashed all existing Bollywood records within 10 days, but has even beaten Fox Searchlight’s previous highest grosser ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE and Egypt.

    Fox Searchlight is pleased as punch with their spectacular win and according to Mario Haddad, Head of Empire International Middle East, “The drop in the second week is less than 10 per cent. Due to the demand, we are opening in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria on March 10th.”

    In the UK, the film has become the fastest film to cross GBP 2m, managing the feat within just 11 days. The strong run in UK continues even in the second week, and is on its way to breaking the all time record of ‘K3G’ in the UK, quite soon.

    In the US and Canada, ‘MNIK’ is already being hailed as the highest grossing SRK film of all time, within just 10 days of release.

    Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios says, “We are delighted to be entering this elite group with our first major Bollywood venture. The film was created for a global audience and continues to break records worldwide. It is truly proving to be India’s first global Bollywood film.”

  • Media , Critics, Srk , Kjo & fox association all LIERS . They have no respect for normal people . Shame on them.

  • @chiraggandhi , you are wrong

    Bollybusiness : Bollywood boxoffice

    MNIK twoweeks collections are 58 Crores

    MNIK 3rd week 5 Crores

    Rest of life 2 Crores

    Total 65 Crores

    Mnik need 75 crores+ to get hit status .

    Verdict – Below average or Flop

    @ chiraggandhi, this is my challenge to you that MNIk sure shot flop in India .

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  • Bristii,

    the report you mentioned is actually eyewash. Yes, film is highest grossing film in UK and UAE, but other markets mentioned in the report are very tiny markets and revenues from these markets is quite insignificant.
    And, the more important fact is, the film is way behind 3i in north america which is the biggest overseas market. At the most, the film can do 60% of 3i business in north america.
    Overall, in overseas, this film will emerge as big hit but still will remain second to 3i.
    Combined India and overseas, the film should appear as hit but fails because of high price.

  • Below are the true story about MNIK:::
    Friday:7.92 crores…
    Saturday:9.5 crore…
    Sunday:12 crore…

    Weekend::29.5

    Week 1::- India::-46.5 crore…
    Oversees::-39…

    Week 2::-India::-17…
    Oversees::-18…

    Total:::::–India::- 70 Crore…
    Oversees::-70 Crore…

    Verdict:::::::::
    india::Average
    Oversees::- All time blockbuster
    overoll:: Hit

  • Bad news for all SRK fans

    Bollybusiness : Bollywood boxoffice

    MNIK

    MNIK 2 weeks collections are 58 Crores

    Meanwhile MNIK dropped heavily today and show occupancy as low as 5% . 15th Day of MNIK should end up making 30-35 Lakhs.

    Verdict – Flop or Below average

  • veer and mnik should be awarded the worst movie of the year prize for jan-march.. there can be nothing worse than theses two films .. mnik is so utterly silly that everything fades into oblivion..
    it is like that 450 rs buffet lunch of jiggs kalra where name is big decor is good public is also there bbut the food is irrlevant .. people are coming and eating food cos theyve heard of the place and will go saisfied too cos paise kharch kiye hain ..but the fact is ..the food isnt that great…
    mnik is so silly that if u try and go for a rpeat visit ..most likely the words marry me will irritate u ..why this movie was made at all i wonder???

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  • My name is khan is a super hit movie and acting of srk in this movie is awesom and msg of the movie is also good & story of movie is reality.i proud of you srk you are “king”of bollywood.

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