Update 4PM: A delay of 15 minutes as we wait for the server to stabilise a bit. We have been received excess traffic is morning. Q. Do u think SRK can make a robust comeback and achieve the numero uno position in domestic market? If so what genre and which directors does he need to work with? – Pritampanda A. He has been in the industry for more than 20 years now. He knows the pulse of the audience and the market trends better than most in the industry. If you have been noticing, he has signed films with Maneesh Sharma and Rahul Dholakia. Both FAN and Raees aren’t those typical mindless entertainers, both have a story to tell. Moreover, he will be working with directors, who he hasn’t worked with in the past. A film with Gauri Shinde also starring Alia Bhatt. A rumoured film with Anand L Rai. There is a lot in the pipeline and each will be different. But to return to the numero uno position, he has to find scripts that balance between the masses and classes. By the way, his look from Guari Shindhe’s film has leaked onto the internet. We have attached it below, a separate article will follow. Q. As Airlift was a humongous success would Akshay Kumar get nominated in award shows this year? A. Long way to go for awards, we are only 2 months into the year and Akshay himself has 2 more confirmed releases. Q. Which film had the best word-of-mouth in this decade so far? – Jassi A. Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Q. Is it true that Sultan’s Teaser / Trailer will come with FAN? A. They haven’t officially announced it, but logic says it would. Both are YRF films and FAN will be watched by a lot of people, attaching the trailer will ensure that it gets a lot of eyeballs. Irony, Shah Rukh will be promoting a film that he will take on with Raees in less than 3 months. Q. Is there a proper update yet about ‘Bahubali – The conclusion’ release date as there are lot of ‘X’mas 2016 release’ thing doing rounds now? A. There hasn’t been an official confirmation. The only thing we know is that they are ahead of schedule. Q. What’s the release date of Kabali release date? A. Rajnikanth’s Kabali is scheduled to release in May and the teaser will be out in March. It was first scheduled to release with FAN in the second week of April, but has been postponed. If your question was about Hrithik’s Kaabil, then it releases on Republic Day (Jan 26) 2017. Q. Will Jagga Jasoos get shelved as it is continuously getting delayed? And if it releases this year when can it release? A. A lot of money has already been invested on Jagga Jasoos for it to be shelved. The question is no longer about release date, but when and how they will complete the shoot. Q. Our critics always criticise our own Bollywood commercial movies, but are always praising illogical and crap movies of Hollywood? Why? Riju Basu A. They consider themselves to be the intellectuals, the elite class. The atmosphere at press screenings is probably the worst and even if a film is good, preconceived notions make you dislike it. A bunch of these intellectuals gather and discuss how they are made to sit through such films on a weekly basis, even as they munch on free samosas and popcorns. It’s different when you’re watching a Anurag Kashyap or Dibaker Banerjee movie though – movies that the general audience don’t even want to watch in theatre. As for liking Hollywood films, we as a society have always looked up to and been influenced by the west, haven’t we? It’s the same with the English journalists and news channels too. They behave as if they are the most influential people in the country, but Hindi News channels get nearly 90x times more viewership than top English news channels. There is a big disconnect with the masses. Q. Pick according to acting talent Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Kangna Ranaut, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha? A. Difficult, but here’s our pick: Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut (terrific, but can’t be called the best because she can’t play conventional roles), Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Sonakshi Sinha, Sonam Kapoor. Did we miss out on any other ‘actor’, don’t think so. She works hard, beautiful, but can’t act to save her life. All credit to Katrina for topping the industry. Q. PRDP 40 crore on Day 1, but Neerja + Dolly Ki Doli less than 10 crore. Happy New Year 44 crore on Day 1, but Piku + Finding Fanny less than 15 CR. My question is, what difference does the lead actress of a movie makes in the first day collection of a big movie of a big actor? A. Opening of a film depends on a lot of factors. Jai Ho 16 crore, Kick 27 crore, PRPD 41 crore. Every film had Salman, didn’t it? Talaash 13 crore, Dhoom 3 36 crore. Dhobi Ghat was 2.75 crore. All were Aamir Khan films. FAN won’t open as well as Dilwale, Don 2 didn’t open as well as Ra One. So it’s not just the actor’s presence, but the entire package that works. Only when a big superstar is put in a commercial film, that has good songs, a beautiful heroine, a bit of comedy and romance.. do films open well universally. If it’s a popular franchise, then it’s a huge advantage because even PK under the industry’s best director couldn’t match upto the collection of Dhoom 3 on Day 1. Both films had Aamir Khan, but Dhoom ensured 30% better opening. The exact percentage of an actresses value cannot be ascertained, but if you put Daisy Shah (with all due respect to her) in Kick, it wouldn’t have added the value that Jacqueline Fernandes did. The lead pair has to click, their pairing has to be pleasing to the eye. These things, like it or not, do make a big difference at smaller centres. Even runtime probably does, as there was a belief not too long ago, that very short film (less than 2 hours) was not considered ‘paisa vasool’ by single screen audience. Q. What do you think, will the intolerance comment affect ‘FAN’ and ‘RAEES’? A. There is unlikely to be cancellation of shows this time around. Red Chillies themselves have said both the centre and state governments were supportive during the release of Dilwale and eventually the film released all over. People who decide not to watch a film starring Shah Rukh, might not watch it. The impact of that on business is difficult to put in numbers. But as long as shows aren’t disrupted, there shouldn’t be a problem. Q. What is the box office potential for Captain America Civil War, Batman vs Superman: Dawn Of Justice in India.. After the spectacular performances of other Hollywood releases? Mayur A. Almost every big Hollywood release after Fast and Furious 7, but none have managed to surpass it. Avengers came the closest, but opening day was 10% lower than Furious 7. So it’s difficult to predict Hollywood films. Action / superhero is by far the most successful genre and Batman vs Superman trailers have received a good response, so it should take the best opening. Q. Now that Jagga Jasoos has been postponed, will Housefull 3 get solo release? A. Yes, it’s a solo release for Housefull 3. Post IPL period belongs to Akshay Kumar this year. Q. What’s your expectation for year-on-year growth in gross business as well as number of footfalls as this year almost every big actor is having releases? A. At the end of February last year, the total collections of all film releases was Rs 378 crore. So far this year, thanks to a big grosser like Airlift, the net collections is around 345 crore. This does not include Neerja and the other remaining releases this month. Neerja is expected to cross the 50 crore mark, so we are looking at a total of 430 crore plus if Tere Bin Laden 2 performs well. Business is up from last year, but we have to also remember that 2015 was a poor year for the industry. Q. Your LBO for both films of Tiger Shroff is above 50 crores? Does he have that potential and are those films hot in trade? A. The one factor that works in favour of Tiger Shroff is that he carries mass-appeal because of action. Heropanti did well at the box office and Baaghi under the same team (Shraddha is the addition), is fairly hot in the trade. 54 crore is on the higher side, but for all our ‘early predictions’ we assume the film will get a mixed to good response. Q. What’s the buzz for FAN after the song, will the trailer help gain more popularity? Aman Agar A. The way the song has been picturised and the energy that SRK has brought to it, has been liked. Music, we believe, could have been better. Reports for the theatrical trailer is fantastic, but we still believe it won’t be a huge opener. Unless the trailer gets a phenomenally good response, the opening should be under 20 crore and then depending on how the film is liked, it should sustain / grow over the weekend. Q. How many movies will be Hit, Super-Hit, Blockbuster & All Time Blockbuster in 2016 ? – Debraj Som A. We don’t have an astrologer in our team, sorry. But seriously, how do you expect us to give answers to such questions? Even after the release of Neerja, we cannot tell with certainty if it’ll be a blockbuster or not. Q. The song of Fan has generated very good interest among the people. Feels like SRK of 2000’s is back. My question is even if Fan is not a commercial masala film if the content is good doesnt it have chance to enter 300 crore. As of now all are positives for fan, (trailer,song,inside industry reports) – Vinshal A. There is no realistic chance of FAN doing 300 crore. Even 200 would be surprising. It’s become a trend to quote these unrealistically big numbers, but a film doing even 200 crore is a big deal.  No film that has released outside the festive weekends of Eid, Christmas and Diwali has even crossed 190. Q. I heard Bajirao Mastani is going to release in China on 6000 screens. Is it true? If so, when and what is the film’s potential there? Can it get at least 50 crores, or even challenge PK’s 100 crore record? – S A. Both Aamir and Rajkumar Hirani have a following in China. 3 Idiots was the first hit, Dhoom 3 did very well and PK was earth-shattering. No other film has even got a initial there. We would have to wait and see how the release goes, and if the Chinese audience like a film like Bajirao Mastani. The genre is untested and there is no face-value, hence it’s unpredictable. Q. Ghayal once again delayed for a month or more because sunny deol thought that vfx was not up to the mark and need to work more in it. but still in the movie it seemed immaturish. Do you think cartoonish climax was main reason for Ghayal to flop? A. All sorts of reasons were given for the delay, but Sunny later confirmed that he wanted to be 100% satisfied before releasing it.  VFX was not the reason why it did not perform well, the multiplex audience did not come to watch the film. Single-screen business alone is not enough to sustain films today, multiplex business is crucial. Q. Where can one find the Original DVDs of acclaimed and award winning films which have won National awards etc., like Court, The Good Road, Mani Kaul’s films? Do you have any idea about? A. It’s available on Amazon India. We have added links below. Court DVD The Good Road DVD Mani Kaul films Q. Did Mastizaade failure affect the Sunny Leone’s career? – Aadi A. Failures always affect careers, whether it’s top superstars or actors who are trying to make a mark in the industry. Erotic thriller / sex comedy were Sunny’s (not Deol) best bet, but the censor board is unwilling to pass movies with a lot of sexual content, so she has very few options left. Having said that, Aamir has said he would love to work with her, so who knows? Q. Why Airlift with the excellent word-of-mouth collected 125 crore in india and Jai Ho with negative word-of-mouth collected around 120 crore.. same as like Airlift? A. Salman is the top actor in the industry, so the footfalls even for his mediocre films will be higher than the rest. We cannot write off a film like Jai Ho calling it negative word-of-mouth, because it did perform fairly well at smaller centres. Word-of-mouth should not be confused with the perception created on the internet or social media websites. There is an audience at mass centres that watch and like films like Jai Ho, Himmatwala and Tevar. As for Airlift, it was a hugely successful film given its limited appeal. Like we have said before, it should probably be compared to a film like Talaash and not the more commercial entertainers. That ends the QnA session for today. Thank you for visiting.