QnA: What if PRDP clashed with Bajirao Mastani?

Continuation of our QnA.. Read the page if you haven’t

Q. What if Prem Ratan Dhan Payo clashed with Bajirao Mastani during Diwali? – Neeraj

A. Interesting question. Any clash between two big films will divide the number of available screens and shows both at multiplexes and single-screens. Ratio will differ, but business will be divided.

There are three stages for a big clash; One, getting a good release which includes booking single-screens in prime areas and ensuring that your films not only gets good amount of shows at multiplexes, but also gets shows at the right time slots (because evening / night shows perform better than morning / noon). Second stage is the opening, the period when star power ensures high occupancy in theatres. The third stage is when the word-of-mouth comes into play. The film that has the advantage in the last stage, should, in most cases, win the clash.

PRDP would have probably won the first two stages, but it’s in the third that Bajirao Mastani would have taken the lead. Also, the Salman starrer would have lost around 30-35% in its first weekend.

The advantage for a solo release is, the audience has no other choice. You either watch PRDP or you don’t watch a film. When there is a choice between two films, the film that finds appreciation among the audience, will automatically become the first choice, irrespective of the star cast. So to answer your question, PRDP would have easily lost around 60 crore if it released with Bajirao Mastani.

Q. Considering mixed response to Dilwale, what would have been lifetime collections had it released solo on 25 December? It would have easily crossed 100 crore in 3 days. What about lifetime? – Amit Jain

A. Like we mentioned in the last question, when there is no other choice, any big film has a serious advantage. If Dilwale released on 25th December, it would have taken a record opening, possibly the highest of all time.

Q. Dear Indicine, is box office collections everything nowadays? Is that the only way to count an actor’s greatness? Few days back I saw a Hrithik fan asking you to post an article on comparison between Bang Bang and Dilwale.. So that he can say Hrithik is better than SRK. I mean seriously, SRK has achieved everything that a other actor only can dream of.. But in the end the only thing is matter is crore clubs?

A. There are several ways to look at this. For the normal movie going audience, box office collections shouldn’t matter. If you like a star or like the trailer of a film, go and watch it. But for the same audience, box office collections could tell them whether to watch a film or not. If a film has opened strongly and sustains well, it means the audience is liking it.

From a star, there is nothing bigger than box office. If your movie is not collecting, people won’t invest in your films. These 100 crore and 200 crore clubs are very very important. Because if an actor is capable of delivering 200 crore grossers, producers can invest upwards of 100 crore on his films. With this, the scale, production design, big directors, world class technicians and everything else becomes more affordable. If you aren’t a star in India, but a great actor like Irrfan Khan, you can’t make a superhero film like Krrish. It won’t even collect 20 crore and the cost of production for such films becomes far more than what ‘talented actor but non-stars’ can recover.

Fan wars is something different altogether. Everyone likes to see their own favourite star at the top of the ranking and box office gives the correct picture of the current standing of an actor. About Hrithik vs SRK. Current standing and legacy of an actor are two different things. In a few years from now, if a young actor emerges and delivers bigger results, he will be compared. Even Ranveer Singh could challenge Salman/SRK at the box office in the future, he could be bigger some day, but that doesn’t mean his achievements and legacy are the comparable to those two.

End of QnA.