Rajneeti directed by Prakash Jha was expected to open to good numbers, but few would have predicted the film – released on a limited number of prints – to go on and beat the opening records of every other film except Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots.
Yes, Rajneeti starring Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai, Naseeruddin Shah and others has beaten the opening weekend figures of My Name Is Khan, Housefull and Kites.. all starring superstars like Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan!
Below are the weekend figures
- Friday – 10.25 crores
- Saturday – 11 crores
- Sunday 12.74 crores
- Total – 34 crores
In comparison, Kites – Ghajini – MNIK – Housefull all approximately netted 30 crores over the weekend.
Is it a sign of Ranbir Kapoor ever rising star power? Or was it the presence of Katrina Kaif that did the trick? Either way, Rajneeti has taken the industry by surprise and also helped get over the gloom that had set in after the Kites debacle.
It would be interesting to see how Rajneeti sustains during the weekdays. Could it bet the first non Aamir Khan film to cross 50 crores in Week 1? Also, few mutli-starrers without the presence of big stars have crossed the 70 crore nett mark in India. Can Rajneeti do so?
It’s not the starpower.. it’s not because the film was so good.. what I noticed is that any movie which talks about any issue relates to India, the government, the politics, anything describes the life in india it’d succeed, people accept it no matter what!! what’s so special about Raajniti?!! nothing.. wrong cast, Katrina’s acting wasn’t so good.. she was even better in APKGK!! Ranbir’s acting in Saawariya, Bachna E Hasino, Rocket Singh, in all his previous movies was better.. he didn’t do anything extra-ordinary in this movie.
It’s because the movie based on what happens in one of the areas in India
Ranbir wasnt projected as the main lead in any promo. . but ranbir -kat chemistry along with the fact that content is good worked in its favour .also this is very well promoted movie. positivve reviews coupled by positive word of mouth has set the tone
I am very happy for rajneeti and team.Rajneeti is an eye opener for those who think BIg stars are required to create records.
Film might end 3rd biggest hit of multiplex era after 3 IDIOTS(205 crore net) and GHAJINI(117 crore net)
my guess is 90-95 crore lifetime collections
behave yourself nano
@indicine i have asuggestion
why dont u give us aservice by omitting harsh nameclling comments by clicking on them ie the more people who dislike it click on it it omits automatically isaw it in arab and european sites what do u say indicine
Yes, makes sense Youssef.. We’ll be removing the need to login to post comments here in the next couple of days.. We’d then probably add a couple of buttons – like, dislike, flag (to report comments)
Thanks for the suggestion :)
you’ re welcome indicine
spot on fathiya ..what can i do and rubbish this movie when it truly truly is a waste of effort.. so many minises that the list is never ending..lemme give you my stats..
.. the opening naseer act ala masoom .. naseer must be tired of lesving juvenile chicks with kids behind>>> oh what an act .. and leaves without giving any satisfactory reason… the introduction of familes .. it took me quite a while to understand and so predictable names .. why are all high and mighty called bhanu pratap .. virendra pratap.. typical of our hindi films the seasoned director could have avoided these cliches..
it is so very easy to base your story on mahabharat .. u know the good guys from the bad.. so easy to make ..
the katrina show was very very pathetic .. her lovergirl act waas very juvenile unlike the modern girl of today .. it reminded me of the 50s when the heroine would come runnig sayin daddy daddy mein race mein first ayeee… uh so humdrum
the whole film is illogical .. the entire clan settles score by killing eacother ..??? this is unheard of.. just because u base the film ofn mahabharat doesnt mean that u have to kill each and everyone and justify it .. today no killing can be justified in the name of karma or dharma .. this idea is boombastic and not in sync with the times .. and anyone who kills in todays times ies either a terrorist or a murderer ..here people get away after killing people .. ranbir kappor to leaves the country after killing so many .. unbelievable .. katrinas transformation was so laugh like the famous sonia scene never happened .. she comes to a rallly gives a minute speech and disappears..!!!
all in all a disappointing and pathetic movie should be a loser .. but what to do ..the interiors will do the business for this stupid film..
also most cliched was the rally or public show after every 5 mts .. i got sick of it ..and the same sidekicks standing next to ajay devgun ..its the most crappy film beaytsa ll film thus released in 2010 hollow…my rating .oh do i have to give any rating now???? -2/5..o.k
this film should not work logically ..but indian masses always let you down when a bad product is launched.. i hope bettere sense will prevail and this film will add to the list of all time flops…!!!
how it has grossed so amny crores beats me…!!!
no review by indicine over my comments ..strange????
Hi all,
A well written article By Tarun Vijay. A must read because what he has stated is 100% unadulterated truth which most of us refuse to accept and find difficult to digest. . . . . FORWARD IT TO EVERYBODY YOU CAN..
My name is not Khan, I am Mr Kaul
Tarun Vijay, 22 December 2009, 08:55 AM IST
I am not Khan. My name bears a different set of four letters: K A U L. Kaul. As those who know Indian names would understand I happened to be born in a family which was called Hindu by others. Hence, we were sure, we would never get a friend like KJ to make a movie on our humiliations, and the contemptuous and forced exile from our homeland. It’s not fashionable. It’s fashionable to get a Khan as a friend and portray his agony and pains and sufferings when he is asked by a US private to take off his shoes and show his socks. Natural and quite justifiable that Khan must feel insulted and enraged. Enough Masala to make a movie.
But unfortunately I am a Kaul. I am not a Khan.
Hence when my sisters and mothers were raped and killed, when six-year-old Seema was witness to the brutal slaughtering of her brother, mother and father with a butcher’s knife by a Khan, nobody ever came to make a movie on my agony, pain and anguish, and tears.
No KJ would make a movie on Kashmiri Hindus. Because we are not Khans.
We are Kauls.
When we look at our own selves as Kauls, we also see a macabre dance of leaders who people Parliament. Some of them were really concerned about us. They got the bungalows and acres of greenery and had their portraits were worshiped by the gullible devotees of patriotism.
They made reservations in schools and colleges for us. In many many other states. But never did they try that we go back to our homes. They have other priorities and ‘love your jihadi neighborhood’ programmes. They get flabbier and flabbier with the passing of each year, sit on sacks of sermons; issue instructions to live simply and follow moral principles delivered by ancestors and kept in documents treated with time-tested preservatives.
They could play with me because my name is Kaul. And not Mr Khan. I saw the trailer to this fabulous movie, which must do good business at the box office.
There was not even a hint that terror is bad and it is worse if it is perpetuated in the name of a religion that means Peace. Peace be upon all its followers and all other the creatures too.
So you make a movie on the humiliation of taking off shoes to a foreign police force which has decided not to allow another 9/11.
The humiliation of taking off the shoes and the urge to show that you are innocent is really too deep. But what about the humiliation of leaving your home and hearth and the world and the relatives and wife and mother and father? And being forced to live in shabby tents, at the mercy of nincompoop leaders encashing your misery and bribe-seeking babus? And seeing your daughters growing up too sudden and finding no place to hide your shame?
No KJ would ever come forward to make a movie, a telling, spine-chilling narration on the celluloid, of five-year-old Seema, who saw her parents and brother being slaughtered by a butcher’s knife in Doda. Because her dad was not Mr Khan. He was one Mr Kaul.
Sorry, Mr Kaul and your entire ilk. I can’t help you.
It’s not fashionable to side with those who are Kauls. And Rainas. And Bhatts. Dismissively called KPs. KPs means Kashmiri Pandits. They are a bunch of communalists. They were the agents of one Mr Jagmohan who planned their exodus so that Khans can be blamed falsely. In fact, a movie can be made on how these KPs conspired their own exile to give a bad name to the loving and affectionate Khan brothers of the valley.
To voice the woes of Kauls is sinful. The right course to get counted in the lists of the Prime Minister’s banquets and the President’s parties is to announce from the roof top: hey, men and ladies, I am Mr Khan.
The biggest apartheid the state observes is to exclude those who cry for Kauls, wear the colours of Ayodhya, love the wisdom of the civilisational heritage, dare to assert as Hindus in a land which is known as Hindustan too and struggle to live with dignity as Kauls. They are out and exiled. You can see any list of honours and invites to summits and late-evening gala parties to toast a new brand. All that the Kauls are allowed is a space at Jantar Mantar: shout, weep and go back to your tents after a tiring demonstration.
Mr Kaul, you have got a wrong name.
A dozen KJs would fly to take you atop the glory – posts and gardens of sympathies if you accept to wear a Khan name and love a Sunita, Pranita, Komal or a Kamini. Well, here you have a sweetheart in Mandira. That goes well with the story.
And you pegged the movie plot on autism.
I wept. It was too much. I wept as a father of a son who needed a story as an Indian. Who cares for his autistic son, his relationship with the western world, his love affair with a young sweet something as a human, as someone whose heart goes beyond being a Hindu, a Muslim or a proselytizing Vatican-centric aggressive soul. Not the one who would declare in newspaper interviews: “I think I am an ambassador for Islam”. Shah Rukh is Shah Rukh, not because he is an ambassador for Islam. If that was true, he could have found a room in Deoband. Fine enough. But he became a heartthrob and a famousl star because he is a great actor. He owes everything he has to Indians and not just to Muslims. We love him not because he is some Mr Khan. We love him because he has portrayed the dreams, aspirations, pains, anguish and ups and downs of our daily life. As an Indian. As one of us.
If he wants to use our goodwill and love for strengthening his image as an ambassador for Islam, will we have to think to put up an ambassador for Hindus? That, at least to me, would be unacceptable because I trust everyone: a Khan or a Kaul or a Singh or a Victor. Who represents India represents us all too, including Hindus. My best ambassadorship would be an ambassadorship for the tricolour and not for anything else because I see my Ram and Dharma in that. I don’t think even an Amitabh or a Hritik would ever think in terms Shah Rukh has chosen for himself. But shouldn’t these big, tall, successful Indians who wear Hindu names make a movie on why Kauls were ousted? Why Godhra occurred in the first place? Why nobody, yes, not a single Muslim, comes forward to take up the cause of the exiled and killed and contemptuously marginalized Kauls whereas every Muslim complainant would have essentially a Hindu advocate to take on Hindus as fiercely as he can?
If you are Mr Khan and found dead on the railway tracks, the entire nation would be shaken. And he was also a Rizwan. May be just a coincidence that our Mr Khan in the movie is also a Rizwan.
Rizwan’s death saw the police commissioner punished and cover stories written by missionary writers. But if you are a Sharma or a Kaul and happened to love an Ameena Yusuf in Srinagar, you would soon find your corpse inside the police thana and NONE, not even a small-time local paper would find it worthwhile to waste a column on you. No police constable would be asked to explain how a wrongly detained person was found dead in police custody?
Because the lover found dead inside a police thana was not Mr Khan. No KJ would ever come forward to make a movie on ‘My name is Kaul. And I am terror-struck by Khans’.
Give me back my identity as an Indian, Mr Khan and I would have no problem even wearing your name and appreciating the tender love of an autistic son.
hi megha this review is biased and full of prejudice this writer hasnot watched the movie so how can he comment on something he has not seen
listen megha the most thing i hate in this world is prejudice and preconception because they are alwways wrong the german philospher kant spent 11 YEARS trying to make his dissetation on pure mind so that he can save reason ina way to get rid of prejudice
the sentence
Rizwan’s death saw the police commissioner punished and cover stories written by missionary writers.
proves that he hasnt seen MNIK
rizwan doesnt die at all
also in the film srk says on the tongue of rizwan
whosoever kills anyone he killed the whole human beings and whosoever jogged/ live up anyone he liven up the mankind all
this is koran/ the holly book
so this shows that islam is innocent of the ones who kill people with no reason
and what happened to mr kaul is one specific specimen not to all groups or ethnicities
whereas what happening to muslims is predominant
hi megha ihope you are not mrs kaul also
but mrs cool
why doesnt he go to kjo to make his story cinematised