It takes nothing less than an OM SHANTI OM to create the record for enjoying the highest first week opening ever in the history of Indian cinema. And even though the film had nothing less than Shah Rukh Khan in the lead, the man on the hot seat himself came out of the ring and aggressively promoted it wherever he could find space to put his feet or voice on.
Result? The film went on to collect more than 40 crores just from India within it’s first week itself, hence creating a record in the process.
Till about 2 weeks back, it seemed that TASHAN would turn out to be THE film which would break this record. After all the film had everything in it’s favor – Yash Raj Films banner, Vishal-Shekhar’s music and of course a deadly cast comprising of Akshay Kumar, Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. With nothing but the best expected from this holds-no-bar commercial entertainer, it was pretty much cast on stone that the film would take a bumper initial all over and hence make OM SHANTI OM’s 40 crores seem history.
But not anymore!
The film releases in 5 days from now and the truth is that as of now the hype is completely missing for TASHAN. Though bosses at Yash Raj Films are said to be under promoting the film with a purpose in order to let ‘audiences explore the film’ by themselves, one wonders if the strategy is indeed worth it?
To begin with the songs have been hardly promoted and secondly even the actors associated with the film too are hardly speaking. With a ‘we-will-keep-mum-forever’ policy, TASHAN makers have kept the buzz so low for the film that in the hindsight it seems that the likes of LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG and AAJA NACHLE were probably promotional marvels. Also, with IPL in progress (and making quite some headlines as witnessed during and after Friday’s inaugural match), audience does has a choice for an alternative entertainment avenue.
Does all this mean TASHAN would not have a good opening? Doesn’t seem likely since all said and done, there is a loyal set of movie buffs which would throng the theaters the moment TASHAN hits the screen. However, the trouble lies with the next in line of the audience – the ones which are not compulsive cine goers and only step into a theater if the film’s promotion is on-your-face.
Sadly, it seems that it would be this layer of audience, the absence of which would make all the difference between TASHAN garnering a record opening v/s a decent opening.
Article by Suhaan