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811 Responses to “Ra One and nothing else at the box office!”
jeevan i hope u having fun there. just make sure your here tomorrow and then next day and the next…i want see your lame excuses why ra.1 has broken every record in indian cinema (not just india but worldwide)
peace 🙂
Ra.One has had an excellent advance with 20-25% ticket sold for day one, this is the same as Bodyguard but as shows are more its a record amount in terms of tickets sold before release
The best advance has come in South India and this is for the Hindi version not regional version. Multiplexes in Bangalore and Hyderabad are around 80% full already. Nizam and Mysore will almost certainly set circuit records for day one. Ahmedabad is also set for a phenomenal opening with records being smashed.
In Delhi there are some multiplexes with 30-35% tickets gone while others are at 15-20%, Mumbai city on average is 15-20%.
The single screen advance is slower than Bodyguard if we look at major single screens of India like Liberty and Odeon in Delhi. Both these theatres were 90% full in advance for Bodyguard while its much lower for Ra.One.
Diwali Puja may affect more in the North and interiors as advance in places like Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Noida and Jaipur is less for shows after 1pm then the early shows but its hard to judge as other cities like Kanpur and Lucknow are similar for morning and evening.
The event film has been dominating screen space but with each release the dominance gets bigger and bigger. Ra.One has taken it to a level that there is only one screen for all the other releases to share at many multiplexes and that includes the new releases Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm.
There is no doubt that Don 2 is likely to go a step further in December even though that is not your heavily budgeted 150 crore film. Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm may have 300-350 screens but its just 1-2 shows at most of these screens.
The way the business model is heading is that in a few years we may be looking 200 crore nett extended weeks when holidays are in your favour and then around 50 crore thereafter. A few years back a 50% drop was considered a reasonably big drop and now we are heading for a situation that a 80% drop will be looked as normal with a bumper start.
Around ten years back it was tough to get tickets for the weekend for a big film and if public reports were not good the guy who wanted to watch in the weekend but could not get ticket was unlikely to comeback. The idea today is to make sure no one goes back and this limits the affects of word of mouth, if you have the hype then the job will be done before word of mouth really kicks in.
Ten years ago a superstar film could easily flop as you needed at least 7-8 weeks run and you could not get that on hype alone. In the 70’s and 80’s it was even harder as a hit film had to run for at least 100 days in big centres. Now as long as a superstar generates huge hype with an out and out commercial movie then huge business is guaranteed unless film goes totally wrong with the story being unacceptable to the public.
It was a huge achievement before for a superstar to have back to back blockbusters and it was rarity, today if a superstar picks his films well and times the release well then you can have umpteen blockbusters in a row.
Just five years back a small film like Vivah could do more business (share) than Rang De Basanti. Rang De Basanti boxoffice in 2006 was on the lines of what Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara did this year and it is unthinkable today that a small film can do the business of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. The reason why its impossible is because of the release model and it will only get harder for smaller films.
“It was a huge achievement before for a superstar to have back to back blockbusters and it was rarity, today if a superstar picks his films well and times the release well then you can have umpteen blockbusters in a row.”
Which is why Bachchan was so rare!
On a larger note it’s surprising to see this deconstructive view from BOI all of a sudden!
“A few years back a 50% drop was considered a reasonably big drop and now we are heading for a situation that a 80% drop will be looked as normal with a bumper start.”
lol BOI tactics. This is an excuse for BOI if there will be huge drop for Ra one in first week .Anyway BOI will give hit tag to Ra one even if film fails and if there is huge drop they will declare its normal thing
But this kind of hogging of screen space is not good for the industry. It seems like bullying tactics to me. Why don’t they build more theaters in India, especially north India. Considering how much of a social force movies are in India, the ratio of screens to population is baffling.
First Day Record On For Ra.One Despite Diwali Puja
Tuesday 25th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is set to release on Diwali and normally collections are hit by 25% plus as many families stay at home from around 3pm till 8pm for Diwali Puja but the buzz is so huge for the film that it could be a limited affect as many still venture out to see the magnum opus.
Last year Golmaal 3 was released on Diwali Puja and in Mumbai where there was biggest craze for the film as the first two Golmaal’s had done best in Mumbai, it was not affected and collected what it would have on a normal day. In the South, the Diwali Puja affect is minimal as compared to the North.
Here with Ra.One the craze all over is more than the craze of Golmaal 3 in Mumbai circuit so the first day 20.60 crore nett record of Bodyguard may be beaten despite Diwali Puja as long as North is 20% lower on Diwali Puja and not the 50% plus that Golmaal 3 was. Below are the the Diwali Puja day collections and next day holiday (in brackets) of Golmaal 3. Figures in Lakhs.
Mumbai – 461 (572)
Delhi/UP – 138 (249)
East Punjab – 51 (118)
West Bengal – 35 (58)
Bihar – 12 (25)
Assam/Orissa – 7 (14)
CP Berar – 34 (73)
CI – 12 (44)
Rajasthan – 34 (81)
Nizam – 45 (52)
Mysore – 33 (50)
TNK – 10 (15)
Total – 872 (1352)
It can be seen that Diwali Puja had hardly any affect in Mumbai and South as next day jumped 20-25% (normal holiday jump) in these places while at some other places the jumps were even over 100% where Diwali puja affected the film hugely.
Ra.One may well see a strong record or near record day one due to craze and 20-25% jump next day due to holiday and then word of mouth coming into play on Friday rather than the below par day one at many places and and 55% jump on day 2 which happened with Golmaal 3.
Shah Rukh Khan’s RA.One is all set to be the biggest Bollywood release ever opening in approximately 5000 screens worldwide. In India alone, the sci-fi flick will occupy over 3,500 screens, which is easily 30 per cent more than the last big release, Salman Khan’s Bodyguard, reports Mid Day.
This hasn’t left much room for this week’s other releases- Hema Malini’s Tell Me O Kkhuda and Himesh Reshammiya’s Damadamm.
The tabloid quotes Ashish Saksena of Big Cinemas as saying: “Shah Rukh’s track record for Diwali has been almost 100 percent. There is little chance any exhibitor would let go of the opportunity to play the movie as much as possible. We opened advance bookings for selected screens last week and they are all houseful already.”
Over 90% screens are reserved for SRK’s superhero flick in multiplexes. “Himesh’s last few films have done dismal business and Tell Me O Kkhuda doesn’t stand a chance competing with RA.One when it comes to star value. So the exhibitors have reserved over 90 per cent screens for RA.One. More money the multiplex makes in the first weekend, the better revenues,” trade analyst Amod Mehra told the tabloid.
After extensive promotions on TV shows and across 11 cities, SRK has thrown his last success card to ensure grand opening worldwide.
To be fair, there are a number of very favorable revies too from likes of Nahata,Taran and Khalid.
Table is set up for Ra.1 to post record numbers. Lets see what happens. I shall be watching with interest.
HMmmm Srk knew you could not pull it off why copy Tron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anonymous, mumbai, Qatar
Added 13:20 October 25, 2011the movie is boring evan it has big star imran zahoor, dubai, India
Added 12:29 October 25, 2011very pathetic movie….disgusting Anonymous, london, British Indian Ocean Territory
Added 12:05 October 25, 2011This guy (SRK) is kind of boring nowadays. He always want to be in a front line on the stage or any pictures with those funny and ugly composure …. still hungry for the fame!…. common SRK give yourself a break! Jodi, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:53 October 25, 2011The review about the film should not be given to such detail as we have not watched the film yet and are very eager to view it in the Cinema. The story and sequences should have been a secret so that it creates a level of suspense for the viewer. Aqeel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:51 October 25, 2011A complete waste of time and a rip off from the English movie MEGAMIND. Greg, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:51 October 25, 2011I have seen Ra.One yesterday but this movie seems to be the copy of Tron (Hollywood movie) I preferred Tron because it’s whole story was in correct sequence, whereas Ra.one’s story was unclear. ASH, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:42 October 25, 2011the movie is so boring but the vfx i s good mayur, akola, India
Added 10:46 October 25, 2011They made us wait longer than 1 1/2hr actually screening started at 9pm 2 1/2hrs late. The movie is ok to watch, first 30 minutes entertaining, the next 40 minutes boring and lost, the second half is entertaining. Shahrukh has tried to put in all, comdey, fiction, romance, kidi fun…a movie not for the thinkers and pure entertainment seekers.. Mustak, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 10:12 October 25, 2011All the best Sharukh… Sreejith, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
saw this movie yesterday here at Dubai.
Before interval it was ok but after interval
most of the people were bored. Few people even
left the theatre in middle of the movie.
Don’t wish to dampen spirits here, but just been tweeted from mumbai, this movie is completely trashy and has very poor execution. Does not do justice to the money spent and the hype associated.
However all is not lost Dhoni ne Brits ko dho dala again and with no Tendulkar for support/interference. Team is playing like a team.
in the initial round the major reviews are very positive.. but I don’t get the sense the WOM is keeping pace.. still early but some of the reactions have been very negative..
Just saw a tweet from
Aseem Chabra: I can’t dismiss # RaOne, but then it’s not a film that I would see again – perhaps never again! There said enough. Now to write the review.
Raja Sen: So this #RaOne? Krrish was better.
Ouch, Looks like this is swinging both ways, Likes of Taran, Komal and Khalid are giving positive reviews.
Some of the WOM is good as couple of colleagues who attended premiere yesterday had lot of good stuff to say. However, since evening have received messages from others who attended that movie is pedestrian stuff and boring. Quite confused on the mixed WOM .
Hmmm.. I’ve got the hunch that this one is okay till the interval. and falls somewhat flat in the second half.. If that’s the case, a big grosser isnt on the cards.
Too early to say still.. I’ve to watch this one first
if the WOM is credible at this early stage it seems to me that the film could go one of two ways — either the Bodyguard way where the initial is so massive that despite a big drop-off it gets to a big enough total or the Kites way where the initial is still big enough but reveals damage even in the very early period. Obviously the latter is a big flop. The former is a poor trender where the numbers flatter to deceive. Having said that with a Bodyguard people don’t go in with high expectations. They just hope for a passable Salman show. And so the disappointment can be less acute. With an RA 1 though it has to be more than this. For that matter Kites too was more silly than it was terrible (in the sense of being completely unwatchable). I obviously wouldn’t want to go to the theater for this but with Kites a certain laugh test wasn’t cleared. Some films just cannot be seen, some make the badness ‘fun’ at some level and Kites perhaps belonged more to this group. The larger point though is that not all flops are the same.
Of course it’s still early. Ra One could do a Ready do. But the reason I think it looks iffy for the film is that the reviewers that with a SRK film there is a lot more of the ‘kindness’ quotient all round. The reviewers who find it passable make it good, the ones who like it make it extraordinary and so on. It is only the uncommon reviewer who truly rips a SRK film irrespective of what it is. And so even so-so attention for this film means far worse than the same for other films. Taran and Nahata don’t count at all in this instance because they’re far too compromised. The rest of major reviews though suggest a better trendline. Here too some have been rather positive but a few have tweeted about not liking it too with reviews to follow. Either way a Bodyguard kind of result cannot be ruled out here. And the way the media/trade has set it up that would be considered a success. It really needs to fail completely for anyone to accept it as such and even there people will make excuses about how it’s made most of its money through satellite rights and what not.
By the way the second half being poor is a bad sign too because one assumes this is where all the SFX wizardry really comes into play. Nonetheless with the audience these days who knows?! Given their track record!
And in a way the likes of Taran, Komal and KJo are damaging the film by giving it a blockbuster before the audience see it, and the initial audience go with such expectations and come out disappointed. They should have just reviewed the film for what it actually is rather than giving in with their emotional inputs, I think thats exactly where the film is going to get hurt. These reviews are going to hurt the film. and I am sure it may not be a bad film at the end of the day but certainly not a milestone movie what these guys are claiming it to be.
Seems emotional quotient is really missing in the film and the special effects are no where near Hollywood quality like it was hyped.
In a few reviews they mentioned things that definitely shouldn’t be in children’s films – like gay jokes and jokes about condoms, etc. Not to mention one review mentioned that SRK’s developer character is an awful Tamil stereotype character.
This seems to be a fair piece on the film. It does touch on something important as a larger matter. I would call it the ‘burden of the colonized’. In essence people making such a film in India (not only in India) have the sense that they have to live upto certain Hollywood standards not just in technological terms but also as a matter of themes and ideas and so forth. The film becomes then a Hollywood ‘catalog’ without the skills and thought of a Leone behind it (Once Upon a time in the West) or in a more home-grown sense Sholay. The governing principle is often ‘we can do it too.. see.. this is like Iron-Man, this is like Spider-man…. etc’. The other problem connected with this is that one never tries to do more than produce a series of SFX and Hollywood references backed up by a flimsy plot. Because the ‘we can do it too’ sentiment never allows one to take the risk of first beginning with a credible genre film and then infusing it with the Hollywood references. Sholay clearly owes something to Seven Samurai or its Hollywood-inspired (and infinitely poorer) Magnificent Seven or to a film like the Professionals. There are all sorts of references in this sense but also to a larger Hollywood cultural framework from Asrani’s Hitler via Chaplin’s Great Dictator to the Ben-Hur allusion when the wheel comes off the tanga. But the mix is still very distinctively Indian. The story could only be conceived in that fashion in India. Similarly Leone makes allusions to canonical Westerns almost on a shot by shot basis in his great film but he also ‘thinks’ the end of the Western. He sees the curtain falling on this genre and the ‘cataloging’ of his film is then simply a tool to draw out that larger elegy.
But even with a more plastic and certainly inferior film like Krrish there is still a certain Bombay film logic governing the story. On the one hand the first half could be out of a 60s film. But secondly Krrish is about the new and confident assertion of the ‘global’ Indian. Here we see Krrish going to East Asia and saving the day. There is a certain Indian triumphalism of the moment evident in the film. So the Indian using Hollywood cues saves the world!
Finally super-hero films are not just about guys or gals doing great tricks and therefore the stories lending themselves to great SFX possibilities. This comic book universe is about much more than this. Michael Chabon’s Adventures of Kavalier and Clay does a good job of fleshing out in fiction some of what I’m getting at here but there are lots of important cultural studies of this popular art form as well. About how for example America of the 50s or 60s is refracted through Marvel or an earlier one through DC and so on. And this applies to other cultures as well (Japan is an obvious example). And so irrespective of the source and/or inspiration the final result must mean something at a deeper level, i.e. beyond the ‘we can do it too’ sentiment. And here Drona for all its horrible execution had the right idea. There is a massive hit to be resurrected from the ashes of Drona. For anyone who has the understanding and the imagination. And though I didn’t mind Krrish I wish Hrithik and his father would turn to something a lot more ‘native’ for another installment of the franchise (though the opposite looks to be happening).
I haven’t seen Drona, so can’t say anything about that, but I agree with the rest of your comment wholeheartedly.
This missing of the cultural context is a huge problem with any Hindi remake of Hollywood films (authorized or not), because so often I feel that the Hindi makers only look at the surface of the film — plot events only, in most cases — and are completely unaware of the “meaning” of those events.
Excellent comment Satyam. To add, I’ll say that another “terrain” that has a lot of potential (it isn’t a superhero film but let’s call it part of a “fantasy” genre) is Yamadonga — this film wasn’t very good, but the elements are epic and could, in the right hands, be an all-time classic (the original was a very successful Telugu film, but isn’t much of a film). Consider:
A petty thief curses the Lord of the Underworld in a fit of drunken irritation after a job has gone awry — for which the God (himself rather petty) punishes himself by getting him killed (i.e. his fate is changed; the deity cheats) so he can come to the Underworld and face the music. Once there, and much action (including an appearance by NTR Jr’s famous grandfather!) later, the thief steals the god’s sacred rod and busts out of the Underworld, and back to the land of the living… back to his lady love and settling scores with the bad guys…
Whatever one may say about Yamadonga, it was ITSELF, rather than derivative of something else…
Sorry to contradict you, Qalandar, but actually there have been a whole series of Telugu films where an ordinary (but clever) human goes to Yamaloka and bests Yama in a battle of wits, and then uses that experience to resolve his problems back on earth. They are all, in a way, remakes of the first one, called Daivantakudu, starring NTR. I saw this as a child (in the 1950’s) and really don’t remember much about it, except that it was very funny. I’ve never been able to find it on dvd or video. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original was destroyed or in no shape to be reproduced. At any rate, there was a later remake, again with NTR, two further remakes, one with Chiranjeevi (I think), and another with Mohan Babu (who played Yama in Yamadonga), and of course now Yamadonga. I might have missed one or two other remakes along the way. 🙂 In fact, in Yamadonga, one of my pleasures in seeing it was some tongue-in-cheek allusions to these older films. Of course it can be enjoyed for itself even without being aware of the previous film history, but I’ll have to say that it is highly derivative. 🙂 The details of the plot varied in each film, in terms of the exact circumstances of the protagonist, and how he ends up in Yamaloka, but the basic device of a not highly regarded human outwitting Yama due to his human attributes is common to all of them. And that device no doubt goes back to Savitri outwitting Yama to save her husband’s life. 🙂
Thanks sm, that’s great to know — an entire history here I was unaware of. But perhaps what I should clarify is that what I was thinking of was “derivative” in a cultural sense (i.e. all the progenitors you point to are Telugu films, and the “original” ties into the very notion of NTR Jr’s stardom, i.e. his genealogy — it’s a bit like when Abhishek dons the coolie uniform in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, he isn’t “derivative” of his father in Coolie, but it obviously IS an homage/allusion to that film. With Ra-One, from the trailers, it is simply trying to replicate a formula (in this case a Hollywood formula) — rather than pay homage to it. [In the same way, a Bunty aur Babli pays tribute to certain kind of masala movie/moment, but is not derivative in the way that an Om Jai Jagdish or Kuch Na Kaho is, in many respects simply a recycling of earlier, better films.]
Oh, yes, Qalandar, I understood what you meant by “derivative”, but that term can also be applied in the purely cinematic sense to Ra.One. From all I’m reading, the complaint about the VFX seems to be that they crossed the line from homage into copying, hence becoming derivative rather than original. In that same cinematic sense, Yamadonga, and certainly its predecessors are derivative — some of them even used the same sets and set design for Yamaloka. In the cultural sense I think what seems to be the problem with Ra.One (which I felt from the promos) was that it’s not “organic” to the culture that it purports to represent.
(There was also a lot of homage in Yamadonga, too. Several of NTR jr’s speeches in Yamaloka are riffs of speeches given by NTR in other puranic movies, as well as his political speeches while campaigning. As I said, such things only deepened my enjoyment. My spontaneous reaction when I saw NTR come on screen was, “Now I know why this was a big hit!” Unfortunately now that device has become cliched, and they regularly have NTR appear via digital magic in a number of movies, and some poor guy has the thankless task of impersonating NTR’s voice and speech patterns to deliver the new dialogs. I find it all very depressing.)
Re: “In that same cinematic sense, Yamadonga, and certainly its predecessors are derivative — some of them even used the same sets and set design for Yamaloka.”
Ah, that’s also a good distinction: visually and technically (as opposed to thematically/symbolically), even without seeing the “progenitors” I can well believe Yamadonga is derivative. That is sadly true of much of the best popular cinema (even in Hindi, barring a Sholay or an Awaara, very very few classics of popular cinema are anything other than derivative when it comes to the visuals) — but at least the best films have the thematic freshness that is nevertheless conscious of a history and a tradition, and that has a “take” on it….
PS– far from being sorry that you contradicted me, I must thank you: the “epic” elements of Yamadonga acquire an additional dimension in light of your comment. That is, to the “mythos” of the hero journeying to the underworld and being (in some sense) re-born/born as a hero, I can see that your comment adds the element of the Indian popular cinema family drama — where the (new?) star acquires an aura after wrestling with a deity (perhaps his predecessor — a nice touch that NTR Jr. wrestles with the Yama who was himself a hero in an earlier incarnation! And of course NTR Jr. is very much heir to his grandfather’s legacy in terms of looks and how he has tried to project himself, although the stature is of course not there). This kind of “intertextuality” is a far cry from the sort of “I love this film, let me make it in Hindi!” vibe I get from a Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara or a Don — note that the critical objection isn’t premised on an opposition between “native” and “foreign” (except inasmuch as a certain colonial history makes the equation of “foreign” with “worthy of emulation” within certain social classes more likely); but these films not only have nothing interesting to say about their Hindi predecessors, offering no new insight or fresh take; they have nothing interesting to say about their Hollywood predecessors too! The director of “Wake up Sid” makes that film because he believes that is the only way to make a film — the aping of H’wood (or _______) is almost unconscious — for contemporary multiplex B’wood directors, “good” films HAVE to be this way (otherwise they are films targeted at some real or imagined masses of people “not in the know”). Whereas, the same is not true of Yamadonga, but is true of the very regular, run-of-the-mill NTR Jr. starrer Kantri — the latter is completely derivative and mediocre (as would be a Singham in Hindi), but the former, even in light of your note, does not strike me as derivative.
The only thing “derivative” about Yamadonga is the device of the hero going to Yamaloka and having a battle of wits with Yama. I haven’t seen all of the earlier films in this subgenre, but i was only referring to this aspect in using the word derivative. BTW, the Yamaloka set of Yamadonga was definitely not derivative! I believe it was the largest set in all of Asia are something, and it took them over a month to take it down when all the filming was done.
As far as the intertextuality or NTR jr’s genealogy goes, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Yamadonga was his first big hit (Sinhadri, which is usually called his first hit, preceded this, I think, but it wasn’t as big a hit as Yamadonga). Because of this, he was still not only unacknowledged and ostracized by his father’s family, but was still the target of an active campaign by his uncle (Balakrishna) to evict him from the film industry. In view of that background, the call to his grandfather to confirm his legitimacy becomes all the more significant and poignant. I, at any rate, felt that the dialogs delivered by “NTR”, to the effect of, “You are my heir, what do you have to fear? You can take on anyone and everyone and defeat them!” spoke more to the real life drama of NTR jr.’s life, rather than his character’s life within the film. Allusions to real life events and relationships are not uncommon in Telugu, or other Indian films, but I thought this went beyond the usual evocations to become a proclamation, and even a challenge. Very fascinating dialogs.
The BOI write-ups are very defensive and are just setting up a potential crash and justifying that a big drop is the norm. This is total BS.
If 3 Idiots can make 120 crore AFTER its first week there are no excuses for “different” models and what not. A big crash of 80% is not even the biggest openers in Hollywood can be proud off. Lets see what happens with Ra-One because its very unclear from the early reviews whether this one is going to work big time. Always felt it was risky but the marketing has been incredible and done the trick to give the film as big as opening as possible.
Point being how does one explain 3 Idiots’ box office run with this kind of write-up?
There is clearly a different industry standard. 20 years ago a 40% drop may have been considered the norm. 10 years ago maybe 50%. 55-60% is fair game today for a big film. But 70-80% and your still talking about a film that by in large is not liked and living on first few days hype.
glad you guys are discussing yamadonga and i have once precisely asked this question to him where no one is bullish enough to make its hindi remake and very aptly there is no actor cum dancer to pull off the role
ntr junior strength has always been dancing ( and he is the best in country right now but he was very decent there to)
there are hrithik and shahid ( who are very apt in jackson style of dancing but are nowhere in terms of classical and are hardly carry that manly look and acting presence)
I don’t know how much effect the negative critics’ reviews will have on the audience. But if the viewers share these reactions, the film could end with very bad WOM, even though the collections will be good because of the initial hype. What I wonder, though, is whether and how such a scenario will affect the opening of Don 2.
Doubt it will have much of an effect given how different the films feel. The latter is also working off of the precedent of the first Don which even if I disliked it seems to have enough fans to suggest it’s a safe bet irrespective of what Ra.One does.
Yes, but what I meant is, if viewers feel cheated by Ra.One after all the hype, how ready will they be to buy the hype for another SRK film so soon after?
I tend to think this sort of thing doesn’t really dictate how audiences make their choices. I mean I don’t think they’ll feel “cheated” by one campaign deeply enough to effect their moviegoing thereafter. It’s probably naive on my part but I think the content decides whether people will attend a film, not just the star’s presence and promotional history.
Reviews are not more important than they used to be because a multiplex audience is quite cued in. But also there’s usually a general correlation between the overall trending of the reviews and the box office performance. The only exceptions to this rule are the Salman kind of masala film or the Akshay kind of comedy which the critics often sneer at even when they’re not completely negative on the films and also the Sarkar Raj kind of genre which is simply too ‘forbidding’ for a larger audience and hence good reviews don’t necessarily mean a huge box office run. But by and large I haven’t seen a film that got overall negative reviews and still did very well. For SRK though the reviews are also important in another sense. Because his films cater to a certain demographic before all else which is represented in the media as well including in an ideological sense. He stills gets the kindest reviews for this reason (i.e. pound for pound) and for the fact that he over the years fostered the best relationships in the media. So the reviewers that are not very kind on his film would possibly rip the very same films apart with someone else. There are very few reviewers who are completely neutral and simply judge the film. I am quite certain Taran and Nahata too would have been unkind on it with many other stars. They would have said ‘SFX isn’t everything, you need a story too.. and so on’. At the moment they’re calling Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia!
On Don 2 the thing is that original film had a moderate opening but remained relatively stable. final gross was alright but hardly great, specially relative to the cost of the film as well as the enormous advertising campaign. SRK himself said recently in an interview that the film did ‘theek thaak’. But if this sequel simply repeats the performance of the older film it will easily do 100 crores and maybe get into Ready territory. Ra 1 might impact that film to some degree but that will be more than made up by the fact that he will again launch the mother of all campaigns for the film. Do think the trailers are slick but the disadvantage is that this time he cannot quite get the remake hype. The sequel too doesn’t mean as much because the original wasn’t a huge success or anything. Finally Farhan Akhtar has never been the mass hit kind of director. Still once the marketing goes in full gear and coupled with the Christmas/New Year holidays he should have some big numbers and on the positive side this film is much more likely to sustain. I am certainly interested in it and unless the reviews are negative I’ll probably show up.
I don’t understand all these negative reviews. The twitter response to Ra.One seems to be overwhelmingly positive. All these critics may have to eat their words.
Business Talk With Taran Adarsh
On your mark, get set, go…
October 26, 2011 – 07:40 IST
The wait is over! Every year, a number of biggies are slated for release during the festival of lights [Diwali] and this year is no exception. Touted as the most expensive film made in India, RA.ONE invades the theatres today, Wednesday, 26 October. The film is expected to shatter all previous records and set new ones.
The 100 cr club has become a status symbol these days. You success is measured by the number of 100 cr films in the kitty. Of course, RA.ONE is sure to join this club, what everyone is keen to know is, how fast will RA.ONE attain the feat? Will it hit a century [100 cr nett] in its opening weekend itself?
While Salman is synonymous with Eid [WANTED, DABANGG, BODYGUARD] and Aamir with Christmas [TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, GHAJINI, 3 IDIOTS], Shah Rukh has an enviable and unbeatable track record in Diwali. Films like DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE, DIL TOH PAGAL HAI, KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI, MOHABBATEIN, KAL HO NAA HO, VEER ZAARA, DON and OM SHANTI OM have rewritten history, turning those Diwali weeks more festive than ever. RA.ONE is expected to cement the status of SRK as a force to reckon with.
That brings me to TELL ME O KKHUDA and DAMADAMM, the other two films opening simultaneously with RA.ONE in the festive week. Irrespective of the merits of these two films, the business of these two films is bound to get affected due to the RA.ONE wave. In fact, with RA.ONE having an extensive release across the globe, these two films have been relegated to the backburner completely. Not only is the screen count limited, even the shows have been limited at prime locations.
Here’s hoping the three Diwali releases bring sunshine and cheer for one and all. Here’s wishing a sparkling Diwali to everyone within and outside the industry.
Ra.One took a extraordinary start at the early morning shows in Mumbai circuit. To have house full boards at multiplex shows at 7 and 8 am is phenomenal. Early shows at multiplexes are mainly restricted to big cities in Mumbai circuit while North gets going around 10.00 am.
Ra.One Rocks Rajasthan
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has taken a huge opening in Rajasthan which is traditionally not a big circuit for Shahrukh Khan starrers. In Kota the very early morning shows went housefull which is extraordinary especially considering Rajasthan is die hard Salman Khan circuit.
Ra.One Is Phenomenal In Delhi: 100% Across The Board
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is off to a phenomenal start in Delhi with practically all multiplexes going housefull till 11.00am. All multiplexes opening records were torn apart in the capital.
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is off to a phenomenal start in Delhi with practically all multiplexes going housefull till 11.00am. All multiplexes opening records were torn apart in the capital.
All this would’ve been a cause for celebration but Im still very sceptical of the film.. Wasnt expecting anything extraordinary but Im still wondering whether to spend money on it.. My friend’s forcing me to buy the tickets for tomorrow. Dunno, lets see!
looks like barring a few of the “robotic” reviewers – who had pretty much decided what they wanted to write even before they had seen the movie – the others are finding it hard to digest
just came back from the film. Avearge I would say. some jokes are quiet funny…. like the lee’s 3 sisters, others pukeworthy. the cst/vt train sequence is very well executed and also a fight sequence at Mumbai airport are well done.
This will have a huge opening due to SRKs star power, but will crash after that and may just end up doing 120-130 Cr. The multiplex where I saw the film was houseful, with a substantial under-15 population… you never know whether the kids will like this or not. If they like it, this has the potential to do 150+ Cr.
so 50-60 cr just in promotion which loosely started from last year itself( when toi in its first page carry the hoarding of ra-one as this year’s diwali release ) …a movie which is releasing on more than double the print count of 3 idiots …and here we have trade analysts who are busy promoting 4-5 days before the release..
all this is good but it go nowhere when the movie itself lack content and soul
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu
Directed by Anubhav Sinha
Rating: Not even One
Science fiction is an oxymoron. And when this genre is sprinkled with moronic humour and logic takes a beating from hell, you know you’ve punched your tickets for ‘RA.One’. With metallic blue and red costumes right out of Falguni Pathak’s wardrobe, this out-of-console experience offers laughs, dances and androids touching humans in more ways than considered socially acceptable. Insert coin to read more.
The film sweeps us into a video game fantasy where anything is possible (with a 175-crore-budget, it better be). Game developer, Shekhar Subramanium (Shahrukh Khan) wants to earn his son, Prateek’s (Armaan Verma) love and respect. And the only thing that gives Prateek joy is to see his joystick twiddling to spell doom for the most vicious video game super-villain ever. So daddy makes a baddie just like that and calls it RA.One (Arjun Rampal). The game also has a not-so-indestructible superhero called G.One (an emotionally challenged Shahrukh). Please read the box carefully for the 25 permutation-combinations in which RA.One and G.One can kill each other (something to do with the heart being in the body and not in the pocket or anywhere else during combat).
Anyway, it gets nasty as our virtual warriors tear out of the game, ‘Terminator 2’-style. Also, thanks to some goofy programming, RA.One is hell-bent on killing Prateek. Naturally, G.One has to do the rescuing and being an android, do it without getting teary-eyed or romantic with Prateek’s mum, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor). But who said robots can’t ham or chant prophetic life-changing verses coded by its master? No.One!
Humour based on linguistic stereotypes may have worked in ‘Zabaan Sambhalke’ but now it hardly earns a chuckle. This is assuming the average audience intellect dictates that Tamilians don’t always say ‘Aiyoo’ or pronounce ‘keys’ as ‘kiss’. And even if they do, no amount of laughter track can make this seem funny. No.Fun!
‘RA.One’ does what no other Sci-Fi movie has done before: it mocks itself. So, the superhero who is manually stopping trains in one scene, is also burning his crotch or sneezing out metallic wires in another. No respect.
Shahrukh’s robotic expressions will remind you of his ‘My Name is Khan’ role, as he confuses machines with differently-abled humans. Kareena’s character covers the entire gamut of expressions but isn’t memorable or mentionable enough to be regarded. Arjun Rampal has bagged his dream role: an android with mechanical expressions who allows his body to do the talking. Good job, Arjun Rampal’s body!
The VFX award would go for most battle arenas, inspired from many popular games. It wouldn’t go for the local train swishing out of CST station like a PowerPoint slide.
It’s convenient to say that if you have no expectations from ‘RA.One’, you wouldn’t be disappointed. But if you feel so little for the film, why go to watch it at all?
Ra.One has taken a historic opening all over India. It was phenomenal be it multiplex dominated Gurgaon or even a small centre like Alwar in Rajasthan which opened to 100% collections. Practically every circuit is going at record pace but Diwali Puja will slow the collections from 2pm onwards. If the film was to continue at this pace all throughout the day then the first day all India record will beaten by a distance.
There is a thought that the momentum is so huge that Diwali Puja may not affect Ra.One but that looks unlikely as bookings in late afternoon and evening are slower compared to around noon shows in many places. It is certain to have some sort of affect on collections, just a question of how much.
The film is sure to set a record in Nizam as that circuit is recording collections which are well above anything seen before. West Bengal and Mysore are also likely to hit first day highs. The rest of India is dependent on how much Diwali Puja affects the collections from 2pm onwards, if its just 10-15% then there will be new records all over.
Wednesday update – I: ‘Ra.One’ has mind-boggling start, business at an all-time high
-By Taran Adarsh, October 26, 2011 – 12:52 IST
RA.ONE has started with a bang. The morning shows, which commenced as early as 7 and 8 a.m. at various places, started on a deafening 95% to 100% note, while 9 a.m. onwards, the occupancy was 100% across the board. Even at certain mass-dominated centres, where the business is not at peak so early in the morning, reported full houses.
The single screens as well as multiplexes have started on an earth-shattering note, although a section of the industry was feeling that the start wouldn’t be massive in view of the fact that Diwali is being celebrated today. Generally, film business remains low-key due to the festivities and pooja ceremony being organized at homes and offices on Diwali.
What’s noteworthy is the fact that RA.ONE has been released extensively across India. Not just the number of screens, even the number of shows at plexes has been at an all-time high, with as many as 28 to 30 shows a day being performed at a number of cineplexes. That too, at inflated ticket rates.
I think the reviews by and large are pretty scathing. The one that are overwhelmingly postivie seem contrived and superficial. Even the ones that are mildly positive seem to be very defensive.
Anubhav Sinha was a dumb choice for a director and SRK, while otherwise very smart has no script sense in a way say, Aamir does.
He seems to suffer from a misconception that one just needs to put in all crowd pleasing elements and viola – a blockbuster masterpiece is born.
I dont know if anyone watched Rajini’s cameo scene on Youtube. It looks so lame.
Hard to say what the BO fate will be as reviews dont really matter. But, safe to say that other than a potential biggest first day, no other BO records will be broken.
We have always known that Taran,Komal and BOI are very seriously compromised. This movie just underlines how shameless they can be.
That was the original plan, if Rajni couldn’t make it, but he did go to Mumbai and shoot for one day. There were articles about how SRK was overwhelmed in his presence. 🙂 But yeah, he did go.
“Shah Rukh Khan’s ungainly mannerisms as a Tamilian…”
Not exactly shocked by this but it seems to be one of the consistent points being made in the reviews. For the Hindi film media to be taking note of it, though, it must be really egregious this time around!
On a slightly different note, hope SRK learns a lesson here.
There are several ways to achieve and maintain superstardom
Amitabh did it with sheer talent and appeal where a non-existent script sense and ovetr-exposure didnt matter. Salman had charisma and a certain inexplicable connect which made an absence of real acting talent and a lack of scriopt sense/street smarts irrelevant.Aamir a decent but not a great actor, not blindingly charismatic like Salman chose to do it with smart risk taking and great chopices and an unfaltering script sense.
SRK partly due to his own tendencies and partly fed by psycophants thought it is all about manipulation,alliances,publicity and pandering – manipulate the media and the audience, forge alliances with powerful people, be a publicity hound at all and any cost and pander to whoever can positively impact his stardom- be it certain communities, age groups,mentalities etc. And, it has worked. But can sustain only to a point.
Even a lot of the negative reviews are still relatively ‘kind’ because of SRK and the ways in which he’s courted the media over the years. With most other stars the reception would be far more negative. With Abhishek in the film the reviews would be like Raavan’s (pun intended)!
Ra.One Unlikely To Break Day One Record In North India
Wednesday 26th October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is unlikely to break the first day records of Bodyguard in Delhi/UP or East Punjab. The film was off too a flyer in both circuits especially Delhi NCR and Punjab but collections were lower from around 2pm.
Bodyguard put up a total of 4.19 crore nett in Delhi/UP and 1.86 crore nett in East Punjab on day one making it a North India total of 6.05 crore.
Ra.One is probably looking at a 4.75 crore nett combined total from these two circuits obviously depending on what happens it in the late evening and night shows but even if they were go to 100%, the Bodyguard figures seem out of reach.
Down South in Nizam its a totally different story, Bodyguard collected 1.14 crore nett on its first day here and Ra.One could be anywhere between 1.25-1.50 crore nett as it is doing extraordinary. Nizam is a muslim audience dominated circuit so Diwali Puja has a much lower affect on collections
Ra.One Takes A Smashing Opening On Diwali Day
October 26th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero film, Ra.One, has taken a very good opening at the box-office windows today (Wednesday, 26 October).
In theatres playing the 3D version of the film, the opening was 100 per cent. Cinemas playing the 2D version of Ra.One witnessed 70 – 100 per cent occupancy. Don’t be surprised at the less than 100 per cent collections as today is Diwali, and traditionally the Diwali day is considered to be a little dull for the box-office as a lot of Hindus do not go to the cinemas as they are busy with pooja, guests and other festivities at home.
Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.
This whole ‘diwali is traditionally dull for movies’ is an excuse that first cropped up with Don when the opening was far less than expected. I’d never heard this excuse before this. Ever. Now suddenly there’s nothing surprising about this as people are all busy with the festivities. Not that I am denying this but if this is such a big factor and business is so adversely affected what’s the diwali release hype all about?! And again never heard this excuse before Don when it was introduced in the bloodstream by such trade types and bloggers watching out for SRK’s interests. SRK’s own diwali hits in the past never had this excuse raised. Interestingly even after Don this point wasn’t brought up for OSO because of course that film opened big and seemed to be a winner right away. Saawariya which released at the same time got big numbers over the same period and eventually tanked but it was still huge initially.
Exactly.If Diwali is being used as an excuse, why the need to release it during Diwali??
A well-liked film does get a few extra crores with a rightly timed release but a poor one ( which Ra.One ostensibly is ) does not gain anything.
However, if Ra.One underperforms in a significant way, Don 2 WILL suffer inspite of your assertion to the contrary yesterday. A significant failure dramatically alters the media narrative and this coming on top of MNIK which itself underperformed will likely affect the narrative. And, SRK is one star whose films rely a lot on what the media feeds the guileless public.
I just don’t see it that way. Logically this makes some sense but given how removed SRK has been from the narrative of his industry for the past year or so (maybe longer) all bets are off. Ra.One’s promise was/is not Don’s. I’m saying all this as if i’m defending the Don franchise. Time for a shower.
yes that’s not a bad insurance policy even if he sold this as his big film this year (though I’m sure we’ll forget this by the time the Don media blitz takes off!). In any case will be checking it out unless reviews are totally negative which is very unlikely. If anything some of the reviewers who are negative on Ra 1 will be more than ‘making up’ with Don!
until and unless bw actors learn the truth that the script is the real hero – whether it is srk, abhi, akki, big b….all are putting themselves under the axe……this is where aamir has been scoring in last 10 years…slowly (painstakingly though) but steadily….damn! u spend 80 crores on a movie and can’t get a tight script???
Satyam For some reason, I am not able to reply or post a comment with a link. Anything going on here? Wanted to post Komal Nahata’s actual review, Its just about average it seems after his initial Blockbuster claim.
After his initial views on it (after watchign 40 min preview), He is a bit moderate here after watching it in its full glory. He points out some cons here as well. Where as Taran, who labelled his 40 min preview with a review tag for the entire movie. As I said this elsewhere, is this not unethical journalism? he bascially lied to the the pyaing public, This in a sense give an indication that his review was sold, Which in turn only hurt the film. The initial audience actually went with really high expectations, and come out disappointed. I know of some SRK loyalist who have panned the movie (Aseem Chabbra being one of them). At the end of the day, It maybe an average affair as a movie on whole, But with these gimmicks they have damaged its prospects of breaking some recent records that were achieved by Salman or even Ajay.
LOL, considerably more toned down than he was earlier when he saw the 40 min! Now he’s only talking about “profits”. A low bar! which leaves Taran on a limb at this point.
On the rest Kash these guys have been doing this stuff for years. But we might be the sorrier examples for expecting ethics from the likes of Nahata!
just saw the movie in a bangalore multiplex..the second half is a huge disappointment and a colossal waste of money..there’s no emotional connect whatsoever…audiences were literally begging to be let off
i’m amazed..srk has to just mouth ten tamil lines and he can’t even get to do that properly in his own movie (the contrast with aamir is just too obvious here who i’m sure would have perfected his diction)
some of our reputed reviewers should be sued for cheating their followers
Nahata is hardly ethical anyway. Nor Taran. Even some Taran haters turned into loyalists when he praised Sinha as director.
I’m not surprised at all with the “game” played here. Unfortunately it sounds like the “game” is bad as the Ra-One game!
My heart really goes out…well not really.
With all the ticket hikes, screen space, crazy shows, months of publicity, overseas singers…surely Diwali cannot affect it so much as to not break BG’s opening day record? Especially with all those glorious write-ups by our trade analysts reporting the “unprecedented” hype, the huge bookings etc!
The theory that they have overhyped the film might be of substance. Nothing is worse then then when you think you are eating a 7 course meal and you land up with a Happy Meal, 2 for the price 1.
And before someone says I am a hater…I would like to say it is the politics and stupid asskissing and pandering that is bringing this type of response. Whether SRK is part of that machinery or not is really of no concern. The crux would be the idiots who accept the payment and/or bend over gladly to write that nonsense. They are the real crooks.
Yes, But I think Taran is the 3rd wheel in Kjo and Srk’s relationship. Karan nahi to Taran hi sahi. LOL ( I know out of the line here, but oh well, With SRK’s sense of humor I am sure he wouldnt mind it right? )
It is true that these major trade figures are much more in bed together than they pretend to be otherwise. The whole idea of coming up with different reports on a film or somewhat different numbers and so on is quite manufactured. Or else they’re just selling producer totals.
Historic Opening For RA.One
by Rohini Nag (October 26, 2011)
The first-day collections of RA.One are in keeping with predictions. Yes, the Shah Rukh Khan mega-venture is well on its way to becoming one of the highest first-day grossers of the all time. Opening on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, ticket sales are growing as the day wears on and many circuits have already reported bumper numbers. However, some tradewallahs fear that Laxmi Puja, observed in the evening, could affect collections. Others disagree as the momentum is growing stronger with every passing show.
Shyam Shroff of Sringar Films in Mumbai says, “RA.One has begun with extraordinary numbers. It has had a 100-per cent opening. The auspicious occasion has defiantly given the film a wonderful start. It will enjoy a fantastic first day.”
According to Rajesh Thadani of Multi Media Combines in Mumbai, “The opening at singleplexes is around 60 per cent and in multiplexes, 90 per cent. The numbers are only growing.”
In Delhi-UP circuit, Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says RA.One has taken a better opening than Bodyguard. “It has had a fabulous opening of 100 per cent and will create history in Indian cinema. The film will wrap up its first day with great numbers as the film is exceptional in all respects.”
In East Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies, adds, “RA.One has taken an amazing opening and collections are expected to grow during the evening and night shows. The film had an opening of 70 per cent and, after the noon show, 100 per cent opening. It is a very good movie and the numbers will be astounding.”
In Rajasthan, Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films says RA.One opened at 81 screens in Rajasthan circuit. “Since it is Diwali, the initial shows had an 80-per cent opening but collections improved with the noon shows. The film will defiantly have a great run at the box office. Shah Rukh Khan has made a smart choice to release the film on Diwali.”
In CI, Ashok Choudhary of Neha Movies says the film opened to 80 per cent collections, which then grew to 90 to 100 per cent by noon. “RA.One will have a better second day than opening day and will create history with its weekend and first-week collections.”
In West Bengal, Kamal Mukut of Mukutwala echoed this view, saying, “RA.One opened to 100 per cent collections and cinemas were running house full from the very first show.”
In Orissa, Jeetu Khandelwal of Movie Pioneers concludes, “RA.One opened with 100 per cent collections. The film has had a bumper opening and will generate inspiring numbers in days to come.”
@ Satyam, Going by all these early reports, WOM, BO claims, Positive and Negative reviews, and whatever info we have so far. Where do you think this is going? What do you think will be reported opposse to what it actually will be? Also, the overall picture where do you think it will stand when its at its last leg?
What is that with the clip (above) showing public review after the film?
How shamelessly it has been tampered with. Suddenly you start hearing a cricket commentary drowning the voice of the man, and then those people who said they liked it are heard to say – I don’t like the film 😀
How stupid to be so careless in their tampering.
LOL!
Well anyway, I’m off to watch the film.
The reaction (especially public – from tweets and fb) give me a sense of deja vu. It was the same during ‘Raavan’ where the harsh attacks which were extremely unfair killed the film.
But unlike then, here there seems to be a counter attack – and what we’re seeing is WAR! With Rocky and Jeevan aggressively contributing here and others taking a similar stand, but ‘quietly’.
On other places it’s the opposite. The picture is not clear at all. I guess the real picture will come out when all this dust settles – if anyone will allow it to. Hope it’s not a prolonged war.
@satyam
I read your response.
>I should make a larger point here that related to all of this is the whole subliminally communal (minimally so) ‘Khans’ argument.
I don’t agree with this communal angle.
>SRK is at the other end of this. He still gets the kindest treatment all things considered
Perhaps because they aren’t sure which way the film is going. So if it is just average, their review will pass muster and so also if it succeeds.
**I was actually talking about these tweets/fb comments which are extremely harsh.** and flood the internet as it did with Abhishek too.
I agree though that the media is also really harsh with Abhishek.
my earlier sense was a Ready like gross, possibly off a stronger initial. I think looking at things currently they would be lucky with 120 crores. The thing is that with certain films you can have a certain stability if you keep a base audience happy. With Ra 1 I doubt anyone is happy from SRK’s traditional base to those in it for SFX. with Bodyguard too there was minimal stability to get it to that week 1 number. Obviously it did a fast fade but it wasn’t the fastest possible. That’s something like Kites and it seems to me that’s the scenario we’re looking at here, after adjusting for inflation and screen count and whatever else. Doubt it will do Bodyguard numbers, I’d be very surprised if that happened (i.e. final gross). The question now is the extent of the damage.
By the way let’s look at the SRK track record after 2004, when he had MHN and VZ in the same year as well as positive critical attention for Swades. In 2005 he just had Paheli. In ’06 he had KANK which tanked badly after a great start, Don which did reasonably though never had those ‘wow’ numbers. In 2007 he had a super with OSO and CDI. An Aamir kind of deal, a big commercial grosser, a smaller critical and commercial success. In 2008 he had RNBDJ which did very well but the numbers (initial and final gross) paled in comparison with Ghajini’s. Nothing in 2009 really (Billu Barber). In 2010 a very weak Indian performance on MNIK. In 2011 Ra One which looks all set to tank and perhaps flatter to deceive with a final gross which will still be higher than most other films because of the initial (unless it’s worse than it seems right now). Don 2 should do well but Farhan Akhtar doesn’t make huge mass hits. He isn’t that kind of director. Next year he has Yash Chopra’s film on Diwali but is anyone going to bet that a stale Yash Chopra is going to break all time records or anything?! But even if he does that’s a year away. We’re looking here at a 6-7 year period in which Aamir has RDB, Fanaa, TZP, Ghajini, 3I, not to mention producer success in something like Peepli or JTYJN. Really don’t see what the comparison here is. Similarly Salman has 3 120 crore or more grossers in a row and will minimally have these with his two next year (though ETT remains tricky it will get a massive initial). So one can look at Aamir’s must longer and more sustained, even stunning trajectory or Salman’s more recent, concentrated one but where he is nonetheless producing big numbers out of nothing films. SRK definitely has the initial in his favor, he can still produce a big one with the right marketing and so on but note how Don even with all the hype did not break any huge numbers (sure it had the JeM competition but that film was always sluggish and for that matter even OSO had Saawariya which did great over the weekend but the OSO numbers were still very strong) nor did RNBDJ or MNIK. So even the initial cannot be taken for granted. Here’s Salman producing them almost effortlessly and on the other hand SRK needs these massive and very expensive campaigns. Which is not to say he still isn’t a force to be reckoned with but there are definite reinvention problems and he hasn’t solved them for a while despite all the hype.
I get back to my favorite Rajesh Khanna example. The guy had superhits, multiple ones in 1974, was getting hits after this also for a while. Obviously he didn’t evaporate overnight. His decline was dramatic but it was also hastened by the competition. It’s not as if he stopped getting initials after his peak period. But Khanna faced some special historical forces and certainly a once in a lifetime competitor. Neither holds for SRK. Certainly a guy with audience base can keep making big projects viable. But the cost of doing so is increasing. Frankly he hasn’t aged in the best possible way compared to Aamir and Salman. All these things count. He needs to now hit one out of the park with Don 2. A solid success is fine too but SRK’s ambition (a perfectly reasonable one) is not to just produce a Singam-like hit but show he can still play in the big leagues and outgun everyone else. And this is something he’s had a very patchy record on for a while. He needs to do some serious rethinking but the problem as it is for many stars in his position is that the reinvention sometimes requires a certain downgrading in one’s expectations of oneself and this is always hard. If you however keep thinking that you’re going to outgross whoever has the big numbers you make decisions accordingly and you get into trouble. Ra One could have been a very big one. Certainly the hype got the audience in. But to try and do so with Anubhav Sinha is to really start off on the wrong foot. You really need a script but even more importantly a director with strong narrative control. Even in Hollywood just SFX without an adequate script fizzles out quickly.
and again these things are also relative. I’ve anecdotally heard in many quarters that it’s over for SRK, that he’s getting old, or it’s not the same and so on. No one ever says that about Salman let alone Aamir. They’re all the same age. It’s a question of reinvention really and SRK hasn’t found the right combination yet though again it’s not that easy to do this for various reasons including the burdens of one’s own history and self-image.
For all this I will be showing up for Don. At least the trailers look slick. And even I’m over the whole remake politics and so on!
I am not counting out SRK just yet but Aamir and Sallu bhai are clearly ahead of him right now. and totally agree with what youve stated above. although that Yash Chopra film might be breaking records because last time with V-Z it broke first week records.
Now that you have mentioned Rajesh Khanna and the competitior that he had. One thing comes to mind, Again, I was very young then but one hears stories that His Aaj Ka MLA and Inquilaab were released on same day and both having a political backdrop, Rajesh Khanna feared that his movie will tank and he diid all in his power to buy bad reviews also released his movie by muscling in more movie theaters for his release, but none worked and his movie indeed tanked. Is any of this true? Or if there is any other side to it? Would love to know this.
With Yash Chopra, as mentioned maybe a bit staled by now unless its something dramatically different then his previous outings. Also, there is a competition with Khiladi 786 (whatever little that it does) it will still damage srk/yash raj prospect.
Aaj Ka MLA was a washout though the media played it up against Inquilaab. The latter wasn’t a big film by Bachchan’s standards either though it still a profitable film. It was given a B rating by Nahata at the time (note the ratings were often stiff for Bachchan). Wouldn’t call it a hit by any means (again using Bachchan’s lofty standards) but it wasn’t the failure some of the media portrayed it as either. Do think the combo of a somewhat helpless Bachchan for most of the film combined with the vigilante ending was more than at least Hindi film viewers could digest.
On Khiladi 786 I don’t see it doing much damage unless Akshay’s fortunes increase drastically. Rowdy Rathode or even Desi Boyz is one thing but this just doesn’t seem to be a very credible project. Unless I’m completely wrong about it
Satyam,
I think you’re massively underestimating Ra.one’s BO potential. How did you arrive at such a low number ie. 120 cr (or even lower than that as you suggested 100 cr might be a struggle)?
Really, despite the mixed reviews and ‘apparently’ less than positive WOM, I fully expect this movie to do 175 cr+ business. 🙂
I mean BG which just came by without much ado, had poor reviews and poor WOM almost did 145 cr!!!
The film can tank for sure. Whatever it makes will probably need to be a 2 week deal as Rockstar will definitely hurt its third week onwards performance. But I think one can only know after the weekend is done. Monday will be crucial.
yes with all this negativity it’s hard to imagine there’s no damage in the numbers at all. The question is how much. And I think,as you’ve suggested too, that BOI’s defensive reporting doesn’t portend well. It might well show a bit of a jump tomorrow in which case some of the trade pundits will exaggerate this aspect but it’s about the longer 5 day period at this point and how it does from day to day. Just mean at a relative level otherwise numbers will be big any which way.
you’ll be surprised at the final numbers here.. on 100 crores I said that would be a struggle only if the 18 crore first day number was correct and if this wasn’t maintained going forward. If it does 18 crores for the next five days it’s at 90 crores for the 5 day period. But that kind of stability would belie some of the reviews and WOM. It could be higher than 18 first day, maybe a bit higher the next day but eventually the drops will kick in. Assuming it’s 18 on day 1 and let’s say even 20 on day but then starts falling relatively rapidly the film won’t get to 100. But I have some caveats there. Consider the Kites or TMK models. Films can fall dramatically fast with all the hype if they’re completely rejected.
Also remember the BG model isn’t the right one. That kind of cinema is sneered at either way. And Salman’s films are never hyped too much. That’s the whole point about why he’s so much of a star at the moment.
On Ra One I think a Bodyguard-like scenario with a massive week 1 number and then a very sharp fadeout is probably a dream scenario to be quite frank. In other words they’d be lucky to get there. A Ready is much more likely even with a bigger than Ready initial. But again look at some of the numbers. Even in Nizam it’s barely ahead of BG with all those extra screens and so on. In the North it’s behind. All this according to BOI, hardly negative on SRK otherwise! So already even with the 3000 screens and whatever advantages this is supposed to give the film is showing some weakness. And when is the last time a SRK film was negatively reviewed and nonetheless went on to be a winner? So it’s not just the day 1 numbers but the overall picture (pun intended). On the other hand Lakhsmi Puja was apparently not a problem for either OSO or Saawariya (at least in the initial period). Meanwhile with Don the same reasoning was provided and the film never quite picked up in a big way though it remained stable.
Regardless of it making it the 100 cr in first 5 day weekend, we forget where it has to reach to even get considered average, BG< Singham, Ready etc did not cost even half as much for waht Ra.One total package consists of, So if it wants to be even an average affair it needs to make close to 200 cr in it entire leg. I guess we are all forgetting what the cost of this film is, For this one we cant really just go by what BG made, the numbers here need to be stupendous to achieve a BB or a HIT tag.
And I bet you, to cover up the likes of Taran will bring in the satellite rights and music rights etc, to broom off the disaster label under the carpet. the game is really going to heat up on saturday onwards.
Whether the diwali has really affected the film’s evening shows or not will be known from how the film does tomorrow compared to its business today.
If wed is 20cr and thurs is 22 cr, obviously diwali affected the business….. because the growth cant be due to wom. on the other hand if the thurs is 16-18cr after a 20cr wed, we know the movie has falted.
this movie had no chance since the initial promo came out in april or may. the fact that anyone was expecting an actual GOOD story and direction was living in a dream world. the moment anubhav sinha was picked to direct this movie it had zilch chance of being a good movie. then you had KJo come in and direct a scene..then you had another come in for another scene. what im wanting to find out is how ‘special’ the SFX are. given the genre it was always going to be crap with crap directing.
its amazing to see how surprised we act when these “trade analyst” turn into damn reviewers and praise a crappy film. this king of stuff has been going on ever since ive started following these guys 11 years back.
I think SRK should be lauded for putting his money where his mouth is. Not many would be ballsy enough to spend 150+ crore on a film let alone 100 crore. But that bravery is somewhat bordering on stupidity. This was never a safe project with an unproven director at the helm and a genre where only Krrish and Robot have succeeded. Always a massive risk but partly brave and partly blinded. It’s a dream project for him but I don’t think it was an inspiring ambition. The technological advancement is all great and stuff but look at Avatar – it broke ground on technology but at least its script had some kind of soul to it. Maybe that bit is missing from Ra-One reading most the reviews, as all they really mention is a technical marvel, but not much else.
yes I agree that his ambition can be celebrated but he should have minimally ensured a better director. Actually he should have picked a Southern one. Those guys know how to get this stuff right.
Jay: Anubhav isn’t “unproven”, he has actualy proved: with Dus and Cash. ‘Nuff said. Too early to write this film off at the box office, but I never understood why anyone would invest so much money in an Anubhav Sinha project (I mean SRK could have found a better director; my pick? Gautam Menon, because he has demonstrated he can do the technical gloss/cool, AND the romance/emotions)…
Q – Srk has never been known to find quality directors for his productions – farah khan gave OSO and MHN – except these 2 – all his productions have bombed at the b.o. i guess – srk is still so full of himself that he thinks that his name will sail through anything he touches – and it hasn’t worked quite well except for the movies where he has worked as a solo heroes…
It’s a combination of two things. firstly the inability to spot a winner of a script and create the right production mechanism to go with it. here he would hardly be alone. The second problem is that of believing perhaps a bit too much that it’s mostly about hype. This gets to a point Qalandar made recently but a star can have a certain internal self-loathing for his own products. Which is to say that every star, specially an important one like SRK, goes through a process of doing better films and so on and then finding out that for the most part the audience rewards mediocre fare far more often. A DTPH usually works, a Dil Se hardly doesn’t. And SRK knows the difference. He’s never even liked his own love stories. Never even believed in DDLJ. He’s a guy who went along with the box office as most stars do but what happens is that somewhere you start feeling it’s all a bit of a scam. With SRK this sense is possibly more pronounced because of course along with Johar he’s been for a long time about really hyping things or creating a certain media narrative, often quite disproportionate to the merits of the claim. You get to a point where you start believing that it’s really about selling the film and little else. The film just needs to be passable otherwise. That’s only partly true. Because even within a sea of mediocrity you need a relatively better product. Either way SRK is probably guilty of stressing the marketing side a bit too much. The weird thing here is that it is simpler to start with the proposition of making a convincing film. And then one can hype it all one wants. But if you’ve done this for years and been successful at it also you sometimes lose perspective. So OSO with all the guest appearances and other excesses still had a basic narrative frame in place. RNDBJ (even if I intensely dislike the film) had some sort of story to tell. Even with nothing Race-like genres you still need some semblance of a plot. Similarly so for Akshay’s comedies or these masala remakes or whatever. People often make the mistake of disliking a genre and then concluding that everything within it is just as bad. Not at all!
But this is where Aamir is at completely the other end. Obsessed with the script beyond all else. This was true when he was doing Sarfarosh or Lagaan and true today when he has Ghajini and 3I behind him. Few stars have that sense of sobriety though. They might not have his script acumen in any case but very few even have the introspection to try. And it begins with not believing one is God even if one might be a massive star or what not.
I guess the point is did he have a decent enough CV to throw 150+ crores at. Probably not. He definitely got a project that did not match his achievements to date. He got lucky.
Last three SRK films Taran’s rating
Ra One – Good
MNIK – Good
Rab ne – Bad
Taran gives ratings based on how he thinks the BO of the film will be. He has gone wrong with Rab ne which did very good business. But in general Taran’s ratings are more often correct than wrong.
In last few months there are very films that got good review from him, and still failed. BHTB, Force and Aaarakshan are the once… In all other cases he has been right I think.
I always wanted this movie to tank and even hope don2 does the same for sanity to kick in bollywood with a realization to tone it down and let the script/movie do the talking. Concentrate on acting
The problem is it is not going to stop here. Next up, we are going to see srk bully and capture all the award functions as host and then ridicule his own movie in the name of self deprecation.
In this whole endeavor, what troubles is the hype created with these projects from the day project is announced and that too for something totally worthless. We are watching Rowdy Rathore has already started that route and tomorrow Joker will do the same and I can safely say both will be trashy and even worse than Ra1 and TMK..
Masala just doesn’t work whichever way it is thrown to public. There has to be something to click for the viewers to appreciate the efforts. Wanted and Ghajini were very good movies and well acted. Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.
Ra1 kind of movies is just sheer waste of time, money and energy and its saddening to see the waste. It would not take much to hire a proper script doctor and cut out the trash.
Jaani Dushman (if you’re referring to the older film from the 70s) is great fun in a bad way! A rather disjointed script but a guilty pleasure all the way! Love that monster! But I also speak as a great Ramsay fan!
ah.. that one… I believe I have had the misfortune of seeing this!
By the way I’m not quite sure why the Ready kind of film suddenly becomes important when SRK is accused of doing things in bad taste. This is where the ground keeps shifting. Suddenly he is no worse than Salman or somewhat better than him when otherwise one only sneers at the Salman film! If as an Abhishek fan he does a film with Abbas-Mustaan and this is attacked for being sub-par I can hardly turn around and suggest that Bodyguard was worse or whatever. Because those haven’t been my standards otherwise!
and let’s be honest every fan of every star would love to have Salman’s current numbers irrespective of the quality of the films!
concisetrade Concise Trade
Still Ra.one would be able to break all previous records by large distance if not OF BODYGUARD . RA.ONE IS LOOKING FOR A 18 CR + DAY ONE
28 minutes ago
concisetrade Concise Trade
Ra.one had An HIstoric Day one . Opening was Massive and mind boggling till 3 pm but the collections start falling after 3-4 pm all over .
ouch…what was BG opening day figure??? the thing is..RaOne had to open much better than BG considering the holidays, the in your face promotion and the price hikes. so if it opening day record is below BG…thats the first crack…
“Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.”
Ra.one may be the worst film ever made but if the above films counts as good cinema these days, then God help us.
Ready was crap and Bodyguard was atrocious but they both created mass hysteria during the first week. It’s way too early to tell with Ra1 but SRK has a long way to go.
Agree with Henry. If Ready, Bodyguard and Singham constitute good cinema, then God help us. These films worked because they had elements that connected with our audiences, and that is all.
“Masala just doesn’t work whichever way it is thrown to public. There has to be something to click for the viewers to appreciate the efforts. Wanted and Ghajini were very good movies and well acted. Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.”
that point was made in the original post made my MSDhoni also. so that point was made.
Haven’t seen the two Salman films or their originals. Singham for fine for what it was attempting except for the climax scene which I found disturbing.
but no one’s calling these films great. Even the Salman fans are just happy with the box office. Don’t see them as celebrating them otherwise. These films are just an index of masala being back in vogue even if in this debased sense and Salman being red hot where with relatively normal publicity (no crazy hype or anything) and these bargain basement films he can nonetheless get these big totals.
RA.one might tank but I can’t imagine how boxoffice figures are not affected by Diwali puja. When I lived in India, we never watched a movie on Diwali and I don’t think anyone I knew who celebrated Diwali did. There was of course the puja, then bursting firecrackers and so many guests kept coming to our home throughout the day to give sweets, and other goodies. Oh how much I miss Diwali in India.
The point is not that these aren’t affected but that this excuse was never used historically. Diwali was just supposed to be a win-win situation for any film. The Lakshmi puja deficit is more than made up by the overall holiday/festivity period. Which is why it was celebrated as such for any movie.
Yea I think the Diwali thing is a positive overall. Otherwise why release the film during the period? Maybe its lost out business today. Only was we’ll know is tomorrow if the collections rocket up!!! But check out the BOI commentary here
“The numbers are well below the records of Bodyguard but considering Diwali Puja the collections are fantastic. All the above circuits are heavily affected by Diwali Puja.
The next day normally jumps 60% in these circuits but it will be tough for Rajasthan and East Punjab to jump that much as they are pretty high on day one itself.”
On the one hand “All the above circuits are heavily affected by Diwali Puja” and the other hand “The next day normally jumps 60% in these circuits but it will be tough for Rajasthan and East Punjab to jump that much as they are pretty high on day one itself”
So if the collections ARE affected by Diwali why can they not see a big jump (as suggested) the next day? Or if they are pretty high on the first day itself how can Diwali have affected it???
Either way BOI is just covering that naked butt of theirs.
If Diwali genuinely affecting Ra-One its simple – the collections should tick up tomorrow to the tune of 60% (according to BOI). Otherwise what they are suggesting is Ra-One’s market has already been saturated in day one itself! Just dumb stuff.
yes but if it isn’t over why so much defensiveness about day 1 numbers? Couldn’t it beat BG with apparently 30% more screens despite the puja and so on?
It was only yesterday BOI said “Ra.One is set to release on Diwali and normally collections are hit by 25% plus as many families stay at home from around 3pm till 8pm for Diwali Puja but the buzz is so huge for the film that it could be a limited affect as many still venture out to see the magnum opus.”
The feeling pre release was that the hype was unprecendented and even Diwali would not affect it. Clearly that stance has changed today a fair bit. They even wrote how Golmaal 3 was not affected in Mumbai or South. So those numbers for Ra-One vs Bodyguard will indicate a lot. There tone has changed and they have contradictory statements in there commentary. It would be better if they just said they are unsure which way the film will go!
@matrix
I’m still in the state of ‘preparing’ to leave for England to watch Ra.One.
I’m actually looking forwrd to it. Films that bomb are usually the ones I end up liking 😉
Oldgold, ohh ok ok. Thought you’re back after watching as you’d talked about preparing to go to watch Ra.one. Going to another country just to watch a movie….never imagined such a thing…haha
BTW since you tend to like movies that bomb, what’s your wish: a) Ra.one is a big hit and you don’t like it or b) Ra.one bombs but you love it 🙂
>what’s your wish: a) Ra.one is a big hit and you don’t like it or b) Ra.one bombs but you love it 🙂
Huh? I thought it had **already** bombed.
The way people seem to be going overboard here with their schadenfreude…. with their innumerable theories about the why and whereofs of SRK’s fall/finished state etc etc I thought the verdict was out, and so I said I’m looking forward to it.
Do you mean it hasn’t bombed/failed etc yet?
>Either way BOI is just covering that naked butt of theirs.
But can’t they just give large false numbers and make it look like a success?
I thought they always did that, especially for SRK films. That’s what I’ve always read here.
BTW to me it’s irrelevant if the movie does even 150 crore. This seems to be a failure for SRK because he seems to be going after prestige and missing the mark every single time. Even Om Shanti Om, for all its success, didn’t do much for him from a prestige stand-point. He needed a few more Chak De Indias to change his career for the better.
I don’t seem him winning prestige with films like Ra-One or Don 2 anyway. Your right, he needed more Chak De’s or Swades’. He won’t find prestige in Sinha.
in between his swades, billu, asoka – didn’t work at the bo.
although none of them above 100cr – but still he has done a good job at the bo consistently. Aamir – has worked wonders at bo and also in the prestige and variety dept. I think audience will not accept srk in any different roles than masala ones where he is soon reaching a stage like rajesh khanna….to me – srk is trapped in an image where he will not be able to come out and will go downhill soon….
akki is someone who has delivered many flops against few hits – he is also in a trap unless rowdy rathore kind of stuff work wonders for him…
I’ll disagree here. I think he was going in only for a blockbuster with both OSO and Ra One. Obviously something above the Ready kind of film. And he got it with OSO. The ra One fate remains to be seen. With MNIK the prestige deal was more of a factor. But other than CDI that’s the only time where one could make this point though with Johar at the helm even a prestige theme gets diluted in terms of perception. Ra One I believe was a strategy to put distance between himself and Aamir/Salman on their big grossers assuming he could catch them with the argument that he was pushing new frontiers in Hindi cinema. They would then simply be profiting off Southern remakes, a point he incidentally made in Chennai recently though without naming anyone. Of course there’s still 3I to deal with but the larger narrative would have some resonance. Also SRK isn’t a fool by any means. A lot of the things that he says he knows he can get away with in terms of his base audience. So many people in that demographic sneer at Southern masala, sneer at the remakes and sometimes sneer at older Hindi masala too. And we see this attitude in many of the media writeups as well in the blogosphere. The point I’ve always tried to make in this regard is that I too am not a fan of the Ready kind of film or the Akshay comedy or whatever but I like the fact that a space has been opened up for this cinema as opposed to the Yashraj/Johar paradigm which kept many potential segments of the audience out of the conversation. But equally importantly the Salman films might be crass at a certain literal level but otherwise many of those Yashraj/Johar films are as bad if not worse. I don’t find KHNH more watchable than something like Ready. This is not to obscure the aesthetic distinctions by any means but ultimately both are examples of ‘stupid’ cinema by and large. If one is a lover of RNBDJ one can hardly attack Salman’s films on grounds of intelligence. Or at least that’s how I see it. Not being judgmental either way. I’d rather watch DDLJ or even DTPH than most Akshay Kumar comedies or Ready or Bodyguard or whatever. But I’d also rather watch Dabanng or Singham over very many love stories!
It has been a mystery to me as to why SRK did not stick with the oso/cdi model. In other words one relatively safe blockbuster kind of deal and then a smaller film not too way out there designed for critical and commercial success. He sort of weirdly drifted after this great year he had. It was back to basics with Aditya Chopra and Johar and so on and then once again back to Don. Even if he wanted to keep producing big grosses there was already a path forward with OSO that didn’t require forgetting about films like CDI. Partly it is true (and I’ve said this for the longest time) that he wasn’t getting the Mehras of Bombay. But he was big enough to make some of this happen if he really wanted to. But he didn’t even necessarily need those sorts of names. There are younger talents coming up all the time and their films are often prestigious too. It was then just a question of getting the right subject and having just the Neeraj Pandey sort of director in charge. Somehow he never quite explored this. Perhaps he felt he got lucky with CDI but that otherwise the films wouldn’t work. He’d tried out a few in the 90s with little luck and in his own age he saw someone like Abhishek failing more often than not with ‘different’. Hard to tell what the thought process was. But I will say he could have been in a way better position after 2007 in very many ways. Even at the pure blockbuster level take something like Abbas-Mustaan’s Italian Job remake. Whatever seems questionable here because of Abhishek’s box office would be in the bank for him and in a huge way. A RAce kind of film would be massive with him. And these films would just have safety even on the worst day. There is definitely something puzzling here but stars have their demons. Consider Akshay Kumar. He was ideally placed to do masala except that he kept sticking with the comedies even when these started flopping all over the place. Even today it’s too little too late.
Happy Diwali folks
Been travelling/busy in the Americas
Btw good to note my local multiplex showing ra1 both as a 2d and 3d version –and this where even most biggies get a realeAse
Good to note this “mainstream” releAse.
Don’t go by “reviews “/ trends—may catch it in a week in 3D (hope it lasts till then )
Somehow feel like saying “allthe best” to Srk this time round …
Heard there’s some kinky stuff/gay humour / kareena “boon presss”
Not been upto date lately
What’s that ??–a rumour ? Can someone “fill in”!! Lol
I should add once more that I consider what Bombay reviews junk anyway, whether positive or negative, but they’re useful in terms of figuring out box office trending on a film.
both Hollywood Reporter and now this have been more positive than the Indian reviewers. Of course it’s also true that the NYT certainly seems to be ‘kind’ on even the worst kind of Bollywood fare!
these tweets show that kunder lacks class and he is making it seems like Ra.One is playing to empty theaters, I have a feeling the movie will sustain pretty well over the next few days
He does lack class…Did SRK make any tweets about Tees Maar Khan when his relationship with Farah Khan was at its worst? In fact, no matter his flaws, he has never made bad remarks about any films.
Diwali puja makes it seem like that a film has crashed after morning shows in many cities and Kanpur is one of them. Below are the first show figure and final daily tally in Kanpur for Ra.One.
Big Moti
1st show – 21,400
12 shows total – 1,64,316
Big Rave
1st show – 21,800
10 shows total – 1,48,219
Inox
1st show – 22,100
15 shows total – 1,97,148
Cinemax
1st show – 19,200
13 shows total – 1,01,628
Heer
1st show – 34,200
4 shows total – 1,21,584
Manjushree
1st show – 16,400
4 shows total – 41,505
Gurdev
1st show – 12,100
4 shows total – 29,660
Shyam
1st show – 12,900
4 shows total – 32,285
Jugal
1st show – 6,100
4 shows total – 12,579
Out of all the theatres only HEER finished the day well. First show was 90% and day finished at 81%. All the rest started at 75-100% and finished the day in the 35-60% range.
taran adarsh #RaOne Wednesday – Biz affected from 5 pm onwards. Pooja and post-pooja celebrations in North and Hindi belt resulted in biz slowing down.
aran adarsh #RaOne – Thursday biz should be huge/humungous. Big holiday today. Expecting to be 30% to 50% bigger than Wednesday.
target audience at this point of time is metro kids during festival but ya i forget people now claim festival undermines that
well then what is the reason for all the years for film releasing on diwali( a period where movie makers jack up the prices of tickets and public is willing to pay)
No First Day Record For Ra.One
Thursday 27th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One will not set a new first day record as the final day collections coming in are well off record pace especially in North and Central India. Some circuits are 50% short of Bodyguard while others are similar.
Bodyguard collected 20.60 crore nett on day one and Ra.One will stay well below that even if the dubbed Tamil and Telegu versions collections are added to the collections of the Hindi version.
Delhi, Punjab, UP and MP were hit hard by Diwali puja as the film went as low as 25% for some shows in these regions and even after Diwali collections were no way near the morning levels.
======================================
I guess all the Hindus of N India became extremely religious this Diwali.
these are now making fool of themselves ( indian trade is really unethical)
ya what this idoits said advanced booking is phenomanal …opening is earthh shattering citing selected theatrews( but in terms of occupancy and print count its just another picture…a point bluntly ignored)
what they said about advance booking and opening contradicts itself
just 18 cr on that much print count and occupancy is not great especially when you claimed it was great on morning
and correct me if i am wrong golmal 3 unexpectedly touch 100 cr at this time so has been many over the years in diwali right from long back ( including some of srk)
these people should come up with something constructive … did bodyguard have as much infalted ticket price everywhere as ra-one .. as much print out …
i dont think they are saying diwali period is bad for business… they are just saying that the diwali day is bad for bo. Infact the reason why films prefer to open during diwali is because of the business they can do over the 3-5 day holiday period.
If they are correct then we should see a good jump in business of ra 1 today.
cos if you can get an extra 16-20cr on wednesday, why would you want to let it go? obviously this is more than what you can get on monday…. as I said the logic will hold only if Ra1 shows jump today.
It’s going to be like the Devdas scenario all over again. Devdas producer, Bharat Shah and director SLB were all over the place claiming that the film had a budget of 50cr, which was huget at that time. It did 28.4cr (figures given by BOI at that time) and the media were calling it a hit. The week Devdas was released, was the week when percentage occupancy were stopped from being given because it was probably too easy for the lay man to judge if a movie is doing well or trending well.
Ra1 will probably finish below Bodyguard’s total but the media will still find a way to call it a hit.
Thursday 27th October 2011 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has collected around 14-15 crore nett on its first day as per early estimates. The collections are only for its Hindi version and regional version may have added around 1 crore nett.
It may turn out to be the second or third highest first day ever but around 30% less than the record of Bodyguard which released 2 months back comparing like and like and just its Hindi version.
It is a good collection considering Diwali Puja but even with huge the craze and hype, Diwali Puja affected it like any other film released over the years.
The collections fell from 1pm yesterday at most places and did not really recover with festivities on. South India has fared best comparatively while in North India the first day collections are lower than Ready and Yamla Pagla Deewana as well as Bodyguard for the films released in 2011.
So, after 6 months of agressive prmotions, the longest prmotions capaign ever, brand endorsements, all the marketing strategies, adding Rajni for a friendly appearance, releasing a record number of prints with the maximum number of shows ever for a movie, Ra 1 comes up with these first day figures. Compare it with Bodyguard where Salman was practically non-existant in its pre-release promotions because of surgery. When it comes to sheer power, Salman has beaten SRK hands down here.
The biggest film of Hindi Cinema, a film which will take the industry forward. This was painted as the ‘big’ monster of the year which was going to be a landmark not only in SRK career but in the Hindi Film Industry itself.
Now we all know the story so let’s get right into it….
– Occupancy – FANTASTIC virtually full and many ladies and kids (will elaborate on this later)
– The much talked about cameos of Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and Rajnikanth. Now the opening 15 mins pretty much involved the first two along with SRK in some kind of game world. I don’t know if PC was told to over act but she most certainly did that and more. Incredibly cheesy. Sanju just uttered some punchy dialogues which didn’t really have any effect. The whole scenario seemed tacky and it was pretty evident this was a last min addition to the film (which it was). Rajni 1 min appearance was a blink and miss kind of deal. It made no sense, no excitement nothing. I have not seen any Rajni film but I am aware of his mannerisms and his style which millions adore and follow. SRK imitates him but fails miserably.
– SRK as Skekhar is a charming man and more often than not in the first hour invoked laughs in the audience well the women did.
– SRK as G-One simply did not look convincing as a super hero. He could easily have passed off as the judwaa of Rizwan Khan (MNIK fame) and none would have been the wiser. In some scenes i.e the train sequence and fight after interval SRK does a marvellous job as G-One but in pretty much everything else he has shades of his other characters and those YRF hand movements.
– Bebo – compared to her last few films she doesn’t have much scope. However, in the scene after the interval and when she does a bit of boxing she does a fine job. Her intro invoked many laughs in the way she just uttered gaali after gaali. May I just add she looked absolutely beautiful throughout the film.
-Prateek (the kid) – I know many have appreciated him but I found him quite poor except the climax.
-Arjun Rampal (Ra-1) – In all seriousness what was he doing… he never once looked menacing infact (SPOILER ALERT) bebo does a better job in the 5 mins she’s Ra-1 and so does Akashi the Chinese guy. He has probably 6 scenes in the whole film. DISAPPOINTING.
– The songs are the come and go type minus CC which is a chartbuster in the truest sense. It also helps take the story forward.
POSITIVES
1) The chase sequence in London when Ra-1 is after bebo and the kid was extremely impressive and very well executed.
2) The fight post interval was similar to a fight in Singham and special mention to the Taxi Driver who was absolutely hilarious. He simply imitated both SRK and bebo but did it in such a humorous way that it made many laugh.
3) Train Sequence was superb no two ways about it. Yes the way it ended was a bit hmmmm won’t say but whilst SRK was running and trying to stop it it had us all hooked onto our seats.
NEGATIVES
1) The film was perfectly fine till the interval for me anyway and even into the second half it was but then it started to drag and drag. This is detrimental in the kind of film Ra-1 is, it simply could not have afforded to drag. I really think they could have done away with 1-2 songs.
2) Now many films defy logic (the recent BG and Singham come to mind) but I fail to understand why G-One had human traits I mean he would feel happy and sad and in the climax (SPOILER ALERT) he was emotional when he has to depart from Prateek.
3) The so called Father-Son relationship was pretty much non existent. His son would call him a coward and not take him as a hero so SRK decides to make a game for him.
4) The film does not hit you in the ‘HART’ none of the emotional or moving scenes had any impact and the song played whilst (SPOILER ALERT) SRK is being buried and others are crying does not make you sympathize with the characters.
5) The film was promoted as a ‘family entertainer’ my backside it’s a family entertainer. I would have been embarrassed watching this film with my parents and for the film having a U certificate is quite frankly scandalous.
6) What is it with SRK and a man’s crotch. I think on three separate occasions he makes reference to it and (SPOILER ALERT) in the climax when he grabs Arjun’s and he replies with ‘ye kya kar rahe ho’ was a WTF moment.
7) The climax was a letdown and this will hurt the film in the long run.
– they have left scope for a sequel but for that to happen Ra-One will need to click and that remains to be seen.
SOME EXTRA INFO
– Many were excited to see the film (I was not one of them having read many tweets prior to going) my friends went in with open minds and due to the rush I was interacting with quite a few people seeking there thoughts on what they expected. They were all pretty much excited namely a lady who was sat directly infront of us reserved the whole row for her family. This same lady to my surprise at the interval said I have seen enough and she along with her family (6-7) of them all left. Then quite a few left as soon as climax was about to start i.e the main fight and then very alarmingly many left whilst the climax was going on. I may be a biased fan but my friends certainly are not and they were far harsher infact abusive towards the film than what I have been here.
No rating but film will struggle and I foresee a big fall. After such extensive promotion and the film being literally shoved down our throats all I can say is IT’S CRIMINAL…!!!
Seems like you havent seen Robot. Then those three positive points will also vanish. Train sequences are far better, innovative and executed in robot and so are special effects well utilized.
As for the kid he was most irritating thing in the whole movie.
That blue look of srk doesnt work aswell atall.
Well was quite confused with biased reviews of SRK fans and also haters. This one looks like a well summed up and honest review. Not sure who is the culprit here. SRK’s poor story selection or Anubhav Sinha the director.
After KKR debacle and this one, I think SRK should realize now that instead of publicity he needs to concentrate on content.
Thanks, Naveed for your honest views.
I wouldnt write it off yet as reportedly there is a big jump and honestly would treat today as the first day as opposed to yesterday.
@ rajen – had I not seen the film then I would have been inclined to believe you but take it from me this film will fall and fall big. I rarely see such reaction as to what I witnessed yesterday. Anyway all will be clear in few days time.
With all this talk of Diwali puja, one is forced to wonder why on earth anyone chooses this day for a big release in the first place! LOL!
Aside: These days many films have inflated ticket prices, so Ra-One isn’t special in that respect, BUT on the flip side, there is no doubt in my mind that Bodyguard’s and Singham’s average ticket prices were lower (just as Ghajini’s were lower than 3 Idiots’): thus, not only is Bodyguard ahead in gross (roughly 20-25% greater gross on day 1 on 30% FEWER screens), but when one factors ticket prices in, the difference is almost certainly even greater (in terms of number of people in seats)…
PS — I might add that if Diwali pujas depress box office receipts, what about the fact that all of Salman’s big releases these days seem to be Eid ones? Muslims don’t have an Eid puja, but they do have early special Eid prayers (recall the 7AM and 8AM Ra-One shows in major metros); plus, on Eid, a lot of Muslims will spend time with family, visiting relatives, etc. Yet no one has ever suggested (not just for Salman, but for anybody other than SRK) that this sort of thing HURTS a film — if it does, then Sallu also needs a corrective bump of some magnitude to his grosses (in major urban centers like Delhi, Mumbai, Muslims are 30+% of the population, so hardly insignificant). Obviously it does not in the final analysis: the holiday and festive spirit mean people WANT to release their films on (over the last few years) Diwali (SRK); Eid (Salman); and Christmas (Aamir).
This discussion had come up once (must be in the archives), and I mentioned in my comment why Diwali (and it was not a discussion about any SRK film release) would be the least profitable as compared to Eid and Christmas.
Surely muslims and isais (christians) like Hindus also prefer staying at home on a festival day, what with friends and family. The difference is that hindu form a major section of the public, so when they stay away – it matters.
It is most probably the collection on days after that that one is thinking of rather than the day itself.
It is so simple. I’m quite astonished people are arguing about it at all.
So when its Christmas the Christians stay at home – which is not a major part of the public. The others (hindu and muslims) have a holiday to do as they please.
Same goes for eid. The number of people staying at home is again not a major part of the public.
I would say the earning *ON* the day of the festivals are as follows;
Christmas>Eid>Diwali
Ra.One (Hindi) collected 14.50-14.75 core nett approx on its first day. Mysore circuit was a first day record. Below is the first day territorial breakdown of the film.
Second biggest? It’s ahead of Dabanng with some loose change! It’s 6 crores behind BG. It’s just a crore ahead of Ready. And with 3500 screens, a figure SRK himself gave out (the earlier 3000 one was supposed to be 30% more screens than BG). And if one adjusted this for inflation and screen count I doubt it’s ahead of most of those films on the list. But even in absolute terms it’s at Dabanng’s level.
This is the old BOI trick though. First say a film will break records and what not. When it doesn’t happen say it’s still among the top 3 openings or whatever. And here blame the puja period. Today if there’s a bit of a jump they’ll go crazy claiming that they were right about the puja period!
This reminds me of something that happened during my working days. Without boring everybody, we were using computer models to show that a particular development would comply with environmental standards. When I ran the model, the prediction was above the air quality standard — hence no permit. So my manager tweaked some of the inputs until he could finally come up with a prediction that was 0.01 less than the standard — hence the client could get the permit. Since that was my first job, I said, “But the model doesn’t have that degree of precision.” And he said it was OK, because the EPA only wanted to see a number that was less than the standard. * That’s what all these tweakings to make Ra.One the second highest opening day reminded me of. 🙂
*Lest anyone start berating the EPA, there were actually sound technical reasons why this approach was justified, but I won’t go into those here.
that’s exactly what happens with a great deal of the box office reporting but especially so with SRK because he’s always trying desperately hard too beat all ‘current’ benchmarks at any given point and from the blogs to the trade guys they all reflect this anxiety.
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
Thursday trends: Just spoke to several distributors. #RaOne is all set to create HISTORY today. Figures multiply in every circuit in India.
Thursday update: ‘Ra.One’ 18.5 cr India, 6.5 cr Overseas
-By Taran Adarsh, October 27, 2011 – 16:44 IST
RA.ONE has collected approx Rs 25 cr on its opening Day [Diwali] from India and Overseas markets. The breakup is as follows:-
India – Rs 18.5 cr nett, includes Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions; Overseas – Rs 6.5 cr.
In India, RA.ONE took an electrifying start on Wednesday noon, but the business slowed down considerably on Wednesday evening onwards due to pooja and festivities. However, the business is expected to grow manifold on Thursday.
Internationally, the film is all set to create new records as it collected Rs 6.5 cr on Wednesday. The breakup is as follows:-
UK – Rs 1.5 cr, USA – Rs 1.5 cr, UAE – Rs 1 cr, Singapore – Rs 60 lacs, Australia – Rs 18.3 lacs. Many territories figures are yet to report.
alright here there’s a 4 crore gap between this number and BOI’s. The latter don’t have the regional prints factored in but claim that this could add upto a crore. So they would be in the 15.5-16 crore range. Taran meanwhile has 4 crores. And then he’s also presenting the global total. We’ve seen all this stuff before. Now sometimes Taran’s figures are higher than BOI’s but this is a very significant difference. By the time the 5 day weekend is up and if he keeps this up we might see 7-10 extra crores for the film! LOL!
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Nets Rs. 15 Cr At Opening Day Box-Office
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero movie, Ra.One (Read Review), which released yesterday (Wednesday, October 26) made Rs. 15.50 – 16 crore in all-India net collections on the opening day.
Ra.One Movie Poster
The collections of the movie were affected because of the Diwali celebrations, with many Hindu families staying at home for pooja and festivities. Although the film might have failed to break the opening day record of Bodyguard (Rs. 21 crore net), Ra.One has set a new record for Diwali day collections.
However, given the hype around the film, the extensive promotional campaign and the raised ticket prices, the opening day collections of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer were not up to the mark.
Eros Clears Air Over Factually Incorrect Ra.One Box-Office Report
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
The Times Of India this morning ran a story on its front page, claiming that the first day’s collection of Ra.One was Rs. 22 crore. The report is silent about whether the figure is net or gross and whether it is all-India or all-world. The same report goes on to compare this figure with the first day net all-India collection of Bodyguard (Rs. 21.5 crore). Therefore, by implication, the figure of Rs. 22 crore is the net all-India collection of Ra.One. Well, Eros International has clarified that the report (which has quoted a so-called trade analyst as saying that “the Hindi version will collect more than Rs. 20 crore, and if one adds the collections of the Tamil and Telugu versions, it will go up to Rs. 22 crore) was incorrect. The correct first-day figure for the Hindi version is Rs. 15.5 to Rs. 16 crore. If we were to add the collections of the dubbed Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions to this figure, the total would come to Rs. 18 crore.
The misleading report was titled, ‘Ra.One snatches Day One honours’. By Eros’ own admission, the day one honour has not been snatched as the first-day record is still held by Bodyguard. Maybe, the newspaper will now carry a story in tomorrow’s edition and title it, ‘Day One Honour Snatched Back From Ra.One’
So the higher number is the producer total. But then they also have BG at 21.5 versus 20 and change that BOI are quoting. So it’s still more or less 3-4 crore differential with BG after all the regional prints are factored in.
The strange thing here is the extraordinary lengths these guys are going to to ‘clarify’ that they’re not ahead of BG. After all the hyperbole that is par for the course in these matters, all the exaggerated and distorted claims or minimally misleading ones suddenly they’ve become that ethical about being misquoted in terms of the BG comparison?!
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Sees Spike On Day 2
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Ra.One Movie Poster
The box-office collections of Shah Rukh Khan starrer Ra.One have picked-up on day two (Thursday, October 27). The collections of the film in the Rajasthan circuit, where the film made Rs. 80 lakh net on day one, were more than Rs. 1.25 crore on Thursday. A similar story played out in the C.I. circuit, where the collections jumped by 100 per cent, from Rs. 40 lakh on Wednesday to Rs. 85 lakh on Thursday.
Such is the craze for the film, that in Jaipur, Rajasthan, for the first time all three screens in Golcha cinema are showing the same film (Ra.One) in all the shows today. Collections even in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres picked up today. An official of PVR multiplex revealed to Koimoi.com, “Collections today (Thursday) are at least 30- 40 per cent better.”
Well, TOI declared that Ra.One broke Bodyguard’s opening day record on the day before Ra.One released. 🙂
(That’s the article Komal referred to earlier. The actual body of the article says Ra. One “might” break the record, it “could” be broken if such and such happens, etc. Of course TOI is notorious for running headlines that totally contradict the article that they appear over.)
Box Office: Ra.One Opening Day Collections
BUSINESSOFCINEMA.COM TEAM 27 October , 2011
MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan’s mega ambitious superhero project Ra.One failed to beat Salman Khan blockbuster flick Bodyguard at the box office on Day 1.
The net collections of Ra.One in Hindi on Wednesday stood at approx Rs 147 million (Rs 14.7 crore) as compared to Bodyguard’s Rs 210 million (Rs 21 crore).
This first day collections were low primarily due to the Diwali pooja celebrations in India. In territories like North India, U.P and Bihar, the collections of Ra.One were no where close to Bodyguard. It may be recalled that Bodyguard released on the occasion of Eid this year.
The story on Thursday is quite different though as Ra.One collections in India witnessed a jump of approximately 50-60% as per early estimates. Moreover collections in the North saw a jump of nearly 90 – 100%.
Additionally, unlike Bodyguard, Ra.One has also been released in Tamil and Telugu (dubbed version), which will add a couple of million to the total India box office. However, the first day net collections will be nowhere close to Bodyguard’s Rs 210 million even post that.
Top 5 All Time Opening Day Collections Record:
1) Bodyguard – Rs 210 million (Rs 21 crore)
2) Ra.One – Rs 147 million (Rs 14.7 crore)
3) Dabangg – Rs 145 million (Rs 14.5 crore)
4) 3 Idiots – Rs 130 million (Rs 13 crore)
5) Ready – Rs 130 million (Rs 13 crore)
While the box office performance of Ra.One will be watched closely over the next couple of days, Friday’s revenue will decide how close will Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One get to Salman Khan’s Bodyguard collections.
Ra.One fails to break Bodyguard’s record
October 27, 2011 16:08 IST
Ra.One, Khan’s most ambitious project so far, opened in over 3200 screens across the country and was supposed to beat the hell out of Salman Khan’s [ Images ] Bodyguard that had opened in 2,800 screens during the Id weekend in August.
By sheer numbers and the publicity overdrive that Shah Rukh khan had gone into, Ra.One seemed set to beat Bodyguard’s opening day collection even before it was released.
Trade pundits had predicted that the movie’s first-day collections would break all previous box office records and were positive that it would manage to cross the magical Rs 21-crore mark (that Bodyguard had set) making it the top Hindi grosser of all time.
Yet when it did release on October 26, Ra.One struggled, faltered and failed.
Bollywood trade is a slippery business. The handful of trade magazines that publish box-office collections week after week rarely agree upon the exact figures.
Yet according to initial reports it seems safe to say that Ra.One hasn’t succeeded in beating Bodyguard’s first-day collection at the box office.
Media professional and industry observer Abhijit Mhamunkar says, “The opening day collections of Ra.One are somewhere between Rs 15 and Rs 16 crores. In spite of the ticket prices being increased and the film opening in more screens than ever, the movie doesn’t even seem to come close to the first day collections of Bodyguard (Rs 21 crores).”
While Bodyguard had opened in 2,800 screens across India and the first-day occupancy ranged between 85 per cent and 100 per cent, Ra.One opened in around 3200 screens with the first day occupancy ranging between 75 per cent and 80 per cent.
To make things worse, the movie received a mixed response from the critics as well as the initial audience (that can sometimes be crucial in driving the collection). Many from the audience felt that Shah Rukh did not live up to the hype that he created.
Ra.One was also dubbed and released in Tamil and Telugu too but Suriya-Shruthi Haasan starrer Tamil film 7am Arivu and Vijay’s Tamil film Velayudham have been preferred over Ra.One.
“The reviews of 7am Arivu and Velayudham have been really positive and people in south India are more eager to watch these films rather than watch a dubbed version of a Hindi movie,” Mhamunkar says adding that one will have to wait and watch how the dubbed versions do over the next four days before passing any verdict.
One of the things that was supposed to work in Shah Rukh Khan’s favour was the 3D version of his film. According to trade pundits the uniqueness of seeing their superstar in 3D could have driven the collections in smaller towns.
However Khan and his team failed here too as the 3D prints of the movie failed to reach several cinema halls on time.
Till Monday night, it was uncertain whether the 3D release would make it in time as the producers seemed unable to meet the deadline but Shah Rukh had confirmed that they would go ahead with the 3D release on time.
Sunil Punjabi CEO of Cinemax India [ Get Quote ] also confirmed this.”There were two problems that happened yesterday. The 3D prints of the movie were not able to reach the tier-2 cities in India till late afternoon because of which we had to cancel around two to three shows in each city. Secondly, the evening collections showed a serious dip since many Hindu families stayed back at home for (Laxmi) puja and festivities.On an average the first day occupancy (in Cinemax theatres) is between 75 to 80 per cent.”
Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahta said that the movie points out that the movie may have done better had it released on October 27, a day after Laxmi Puja.
According to him too the movie has collected around Rs 15-16 crore on the first day, which he says is ‘stupendous’.
“Ideally the film should have released a day after Laxmi Puja, which is traditionally not good for business since in almost every house the puja takes place in the evening. (So it wasn’t surprising to see) the collections take a beating in the evening. Taking into consideration these factors, I feel that the first-day collection has been are stupendous,” he says.
He also suggests that ‘Although the film may have failed to break the opening day record of Bodyguard, Ra.One has set a new record for Diwali [ Images ] day collections.’
According to Boxofficeindia.com Golmaal-3 (2010) had managed Rs 9 crore, Om Shanti Om [ Images ] (2007) had Rs 6 crores and Golmaal Returns (2008) had manged to collect Rs 5.75 crore on the opening day of Diwali
It remains to be seen however if Shah Rukh Khan will be satisfied with this consolation prize. Unless Don 2 manages to do the unthinkable when it releases on December 23 this year, it is Salman 1, Shah Rukh 0.
But I really dislike this way of pitting one star against another over every minor issue. Why not just report that Ra.One collected so much, and leave it at that? What does it matter how it compares to another film’s collections?
My point is that it doesn’t really matter if Star A’s film collects a few lakhs or even a few crore more than Star B’s. Very likely the pattern would reverse with their next releases, In any case, everyone can recognize that there is a group of stars at the top, then there is a significant break before the next group of stars, and so on.
No one really seems to be buying the Lakshmi puja thing other than the trade figures selling this theory. The difference is just too great with BG, specially accounting for all the extra screens. And why release the film on this day if you don’t think you can break the record?! And why didn’t the trade analysts say this BEFORE the release? That this wouldn’t be possible?!
In terms of the ‘jump’ I suspect they’re all going to focus mostly on some small centers in the North.
Here are some other contradictions — if the films opened historically on day 1. If it was running close to a 100% as many claimed even in the morning shows, even if it was doing 70-100% (Nahata’s claim) where is the room for that much improvement?! Also if these numbers are right with that many screens why didn’t it come closer to BG or overtake it? The explanation? The film completely collapsed in the evening! No one saw it! What else could explain such a discrepancy?!
As always this stuff is just BULL and doesn’t add up.
By the way even with BG I did say at the time that it hadn’t shown enough growth over the weekend. Why? Because it did go up the second day but then down again after this and never quite had a big weekend jump. Partly when you front-load a film and go in for an extended weekend it’s hard to maintain that pace but a film that is truly liked can (3I). So BG too did a quick fadeout compared to Dabanng. And this was evident even in the early stages but it nonetheless showed some basic stability for a film that hadn’t been liked by everyone. It wasn’t a tank in the Kites or TMK sense or it wouldn’t have had even the week 1 number that it did.
The important thing to remember here is that it’s almost 2 years after 3I. Many of these films that have opened big ought to be able to do 100 crores over the first week but they fall short because the films are not liked as much. Ready did not double its week 1 number nor did BG but Singham did! And of course Ghajini did. 3I is another matter altogether. Here the surprising thing was Dabanng which became so incredibly iconic and yet couldn’t double its week 1 let alone match 3I.
The pickup today can be explained by massive corporate pre-bookings. My cousins in Pune have gotten 15-20 free tickets from their banks and business vendors. It looks like corporates went into overdrive pre-booking tickets for all and sundry. But from the looks of it, the individual junta has had a tepid response.
Salman Khan’s fanatic fan following on social media
Businessofcinema.com TEAM 27 October , 2011
0diggsdigg
MUMBAI: In a really unique experience Salman Khan’s Bodyguard is currently trending in India on Twitter, at the time when Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has just released. The power of fans that Salman Khan holds on social media is unparalleled. One Twitter user with handle @Hishh said, “So despite of al d marketin revolutions, Bhai shows who is d real daddy. #RaOne couldnt reach upto #BodyGuard first day collection is d news”.
This primarily happened because of the comparison for the opening day collection of both the movies. The Times of India reported opening day Ra.One collection of Rs. 22 crores in India only so that it may create a powerful headline. But this is completely untrue, and it has already led to a complete chaos and frenzy within the industry circles as the net collection of Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One were Rs. 14.7 Crores. (See Box Office Report)
This caused all the Salman Khan fans to start ReTweeting the correct figures, and state that actually Ra.One has not beaten Bodyguard’s opening day collection figure in India, well resulting into making #Bodyguard trend in India on Twitter.
Salman Khan today has a lot of fan power combined on entire social media, and even without his single Tweet his tremendous fan following caused his previous movie ‘Bodyguard’ trending on a day when even his film is not releasing.
I think they are publishing all these “correction” articles because otherwise the incestuous relationships between analysts and producers became just too obvious. Maybe?
Or is this article trying to insinuate that Salman fans bullied the various media outlets into posting correct figures? I can’t decide. Incidentally nowadays there’s a lot of reference to Salman’s fans on Twitter. Taran Adarsh told Salman in an interview that he’s surprised how “protective” Salman’s fans are of him, and that if he (Taran) says anything negative about Salman, he immediately hears from his fans. Anupama Chopra claimed that she was physically threatened by Salman’s fans. (I find this claim to be nonsense. A lot of wild statements are made on the net by Indians. For instance, I just read a tweet from someone that he saw and hated Ra.One, and everyone associated with it should be put in jail! In any case, Anupama Chopra’s article itself was not only nonsense, but blatantly provocative.) Or maybe it’s that they’ve comfortably assumed Salman’s fans all belong to the great unwashed “masses” and are startled to encounter them among the relatively rarefied environment of the internet?
Here’s my completely anecdotal, impressionistic view, based on the people I work with in Mumbai (our office stays open on Diwali because we are an outsourcing company, although attendance is light): no one I have met seems to think this is The Biggest Opener In History; a number of people have told me they will definitely see it over the weekend. A number of people have said they have no plans to watch it. A small group of people (not passionate haters of this or that star, but people I would consider “casual” film watchers) started saying it had flopped as early as yesterday evening; I did not hear that tag vis-a-vis Ready or Bodyguard, and certainly not this early (can’t speak for other films, I wasn’t in Bombay prior to January).
The general view has come out now.. As I hear it, the number of people who’ve disliked the film is greater than the number of people who’ve found it okay or good.
I wont be surprised if this film starts recording a fall in collections even before the extended weekend is over.
Probably a lesson for SRK and his king-sized ego. a dream project is one thing – but having your viewers taken for granted just for the sake of making a film that his son could enjoy is just not done! Even if the director was Anubhav, he could have easily got a good scriptwriter,considering the underutilized talent in the country.
If Aamir can deliver a classic out of a director with nothing to boast of except a forgettable film Game, with a relatively unknown scriptwriter, why cant an SRK?
Hopefully the film could break the myth that a film containing ‘blockbuster elements’ neednt be one!
The difference between Aamir and SRK lies in their vision of films. Aamir (not that HE intended this but however) Kareena had a substantial role in 3I (where she is the backbone of the delivery scene at the end, and bring her dad to a state to do a reality check – though never liked kareena as an actress, she did a master stroke against Boman in that scene) And then there is SRK where he grabs her Boobs, She does a sexy # referring to booty in the movie, and doing a PHD in cursing? really? That’s what these two bring to the table. I would definitely prefer to watch the former, and wait I thought Ra.one was a family entertainer? Did he really show this to his kids? with gay/crotch/boob/hole jokes? I really hope he did not.
I think that is more to do with a director’s vision. Hirani (and more so Vidhu Vinod Chopra) rarely shows skin or has vulgar references that may make familes uncomfortable.
My personal view is that everytime a movie includes such stuff, they automatically start driving away their potential conservative audiences, no matter how big the star might be. Fart-Shit jokes are diff, those are not sexual. But anything sexual brings out the level of discomfort, especially while viewing with elders.
Why is it that movies with pre-marital sex themes have never done well? The moment people find out about such references in a movie, out goes the total family outing for a majority of the conservative audiences. When pre-marital sex is referenced, it is done in a “oh that was a mistake” scenario. The moment it is done “voluntarily” in the story, out goes the conservative audience.
People are talking about DB as having displayed the acceptance of such themes. However, DB first had a A certificate. Second, Aamir himself took pains in his promotion to warn families. Mainstream U movies cannot take the conservative audiences for granted.
The biggest BBs in the history of Bwood have been sterilized dramas with no references to sex. SRK should know this better. He has never kissed on screen. Why did he have to include all those condom-gay-boob-ass jokes and drive away people. Even if it is just 5% of potential audience, isnt that a lot when they are chasing a 200cr figure?
agreed.. this is a particular problem for a star who relies on family audiences.. worse still it’s the sort of deal that parents don’t want their kids exposed to when this is the film’s primary target in many ways.. also agreed that this is probably more of a problem on the margins but in terms of the overall negative narrative on the film it plays a part..
Agred all around friend. Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying, Not necessarily Aamir intended that, But he has a vision and chose a script (and at times worked on it too) that does not go the other way, If it is a family entertainer it stayed that way. yes, ofcourse that was Raju Hirani and Abhijat Joshi’s doing no doubts about that, But my point is Aamir chose this script and Srk chose the other,(remember SRK was approached for 3I before aamir) thats the difference.
Lol kareena had a substanital role in 3i. Laughbale. If there was some other actress. It could have added few some crores probably. She is most irritating acress of this generation and general public same same opinion.
Cant forget how ‘hardcore salman my barber ‘ was skeptical of giving bodyguard a watch just because of irritating kareena.
Not sure if you read the complete post before commenting on others, But here it goes friend.
“though never liked kareena as an actress”
Agreed, she is probably the most irritating actress around, heck everytime I see her, I see Randhir Kapoor, thats a turn off for me right away. BUT, in all honesty, I cannot take away her hard work in those scenes.
1)Most of the pieces are now defensive to a laughable degree. BOI tellingly said that Lakshmi puja makes it look like a crash! Sure there might be a bit of a jump in the North especially where this is the biggest deal but I’ve never heard of films ‘crashing’ because of this! But suddenly everyone’s talking about Lakshmi Puja!
2)Some of the WOM is really not just negative but about laughing over the film. Shirish Kunder on twitter said it was a 150 crore firecracker fizzling out. A mean-spirited remark for sure and uncalled for but he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t think the film wasn’t working. Nahata himself didn’t seem as gung-ho yesterday as he was just a few days ago. Then there’s this long piece in Rediff I’ve just posted. Now it’s still early but unless the WOM was rather clear no one would jump the gun this way and certainly not for a SRK film.
3)So it’s not about a jump today or a fall tomorrow. I agree with you that even over the extended weekend the damage will be visible. It’s visible on day 1. Even factoring in all the excuses it’s hard to understand why a 3500 screen release is so much behind BG.
4)The only question in my mind is the extent of the damage. My sense is that this is more of a Kites sort of model. Certain kinds of films have no support system when they get rejected. For a variety of reasons.
5)All this doesn’t mean of course that the numbers won’t be big. Just a 16 crore average over a 5 day period would put it at 80 crores. If it cannot maintain this day 1 average over five days something’s seriously wrong. But even so week 1 will still be a very big number. Do think it’s beyond figures at this point. It’s not about whether it does 110 crores or 130 or whatever. There is just too much negativity surrounding this film. Which negativity I should repeat is still far less than it would be for other stars because of SRK’s institutional support in the media.
“But suddenly everyone’s talking about Lakshmi Puja!”
These guys tend to come up with everything and the kitchen sink to explain or excuse their BO woes. Was only a matter of time till they started to blame the gods!
Everyone is talking about the Lakshmi Puja because people pounced upon the day of Laxmi Puja as *the* day for massive collections whereas all I herad/read was **THE DIWALI PERIOD** should be good…IT WAS **NEVER** on diwali day.
It’s the word ***PERIOD** people!!!!
But, it’s actually silly to get into arguments (which I have mainly avoided) because things will get clearer by themselves without the forces of any side.
No, Old Gold, the talk was always about a massive opening day, because it was Diwali. No mentions of Lakshmi puja ever came up till after the first day’s collections were seen not to be record setting. Heck, even I remember earlier releases on Diwali where it was always touted to be an advantage. Depending on what day of the week Diwali fell, people talked about how many holidays + weekend days they would get, but nobody ever discounted Diwali because of this mysterious puja.
Look, I’ll give you a separate example. When Jaaneman and Don were both releasing on the same day – I think it was Eid – before the release, the JEM producer and Salman were all talking about how they expect a big opening because it was Eid, and people like to go out to movies to celebrate. Well, JEM had a poor opening day and Don didn’t. So they interviewed Salman at his home on Eid about the poor show, and he said, well, I always expected it would start slowly, because people don’t want to go out on the day of Eid itself. It will pick up tomorrow. It just struck me as a face-saving statement, and of course it didn’t pick up the next day, either. This whole Lakshmi puja thing strikes me in exactly the same way.
But even Don didn’t have the sort of opening day that was expected so they brought this angle up a bit (the puja) but WOM on it wasn’t negative in the same way so they didn’t make a big deal out of it and the film was stable at a lower level. With OSO which got off to a flying start and never had a problem no one brought it up.
And again the likes of Nahata and Taran didn’t say that the second day would be the biggest. They said it about the first day. Didn’t they know this was the puja day? They obviously expected the film to open bigger than BG despite the puja. Now they’ve completely changed the narrative and even if it’s a bit higher than BG today they’ll say ‘biggest opening day now that there’s no puja’!
Oh Ok.
If it’s ‘the talk’ that one wants to dwell on and analyse.
I was just stating a logical point, which won’t change no matter what theories people might have.
Personally I’ll go by ‘the diwali *period*’ to see whether it has survived or not.
I don’t see the sense in so many comments over this point. It’s **been established** that whoever thought records would be broken is now bringing in laxmi puja as a reason/excuse.
Do we need so much repetition?
Why not move on to today?
What’s the latest score?
Every time I come here it’s the same old story;
“He said this!”
“They said that”..and then theories upon theories.
It’s not what one expects on an ‘intelligent blog’.
One has to critical analyze statements that are issued in this sense. It’s not reasonable to accept things at face value when the messenger is so unreliable? Just in the statements from yesterday there were lots of contradictory things and the same holds today. Also no one said that the story here is about just 1 day. Obviously we’re going to look at the early run here, then the extended weekend, then the whole week and so on. It goes without saying. But we also have to see if people are being honest about things. If you keep saying that it’s all about day 1 being the biggest opening ever you can’t introduce excuses later. The reason why it matters beyond the contradiction involved is that if your integrity is questionable or if you’re trying to support the film at any cost this then puts a gloss on everything that you say. So for example when these trade figures want to support a film they quote centers and theaters where the film is doing best and present it as a general truth. For example isn’t it interesting that both yesterday and today almost all the examples have been offered from the ‘North’? Most of the anecdotes have been about Rajasthan. These were also the centers that were tracking behind BG yesterday. What about the rest of the country? All the major metros? I can keep multiplying the examples. This doesn’t mean that hits become flops or vice versa based on reporting but one can get a very distorted picture of what’s going on if one doesn’t know this stuff is spun. And one also cannot say that one is ignoring all of this because these are the sources. There’s nothing else out there. So you have to look at the claims and figure out whether these are making sense or not. It’s not just ‘theories’ in the absence of verifiable, hard numbers.
The first day number was a weak 1 all things considered. The second day looks to be much better but I don’t think this too will be a hugely strong one if the film betters BG by just 10% or so. However if it keeps up this pace it will obviously have been stable at least over the extended period. In other words if it can do 20 crores or more every single day through Sun it’s obviously ok for now. But even if it didn’t the numbers would still be big. That’s not the debate though. In any case we’ll know the truth on all this soon enough. My basic point is a simple one — the reviews and the WOM here seem quite negative. I’ve never seen such reviews given to a SRK film with the possible exception of KANK. Even when they’re negative on SRK they’re kind. The box office pieces are all quite defensive. So on and so forth. There is therefore a certain kind of narrative here accumulating including a piece that already dismisses the box office, including pieces that suggest that even premiere audiences (usually the most fanatical ones!) didn’t like the film in Dubai and London. All of this usually has consequences for any film. Obviously the extent of the damage remains to be measured.
When the hysterical reviews over Raavan came out I reacted against them, I obviously had a different sense of the film but I also knew that Fri morning that it was over for the film. Same for D6. There was lots of negative WOM too. But even leaving aside the latter when there are that many negative reviews and irrespective of how hard they are on Abhishek there’s usually a correlation between this and the performance of the film for most genres.
I’m not talking about the analysis or anything, just about the **repetition**. There’s nothing else to read here.
No one is talking of today.
More and more people have come in to say the same thing.
What I gather is that it was said there would be a massive collection.
It didn’t happen.
The BO number has been given as 18cr including the non hindi collection.
So what are the complaints about?
The prediction?
Why did they predict such a large amount?
Or is the number 18cr wrong?
I’m thoroughly confused by all this analysis.
Don’t worry Bollywoodfan:
Don’t mind teaching u
By the way: whose pic is it-yours?
If yes: I can assure u on satyams behalf that we will post it on the home page in a prominent location.
Maybe u can email it to satyam for that.
Or if else: they have links to “embed” or just try “sharing the link”.
And don’t forget my fees for this free advice….Lol
If Aamir can deliver a classic out of a director with nothing to boast of except a forgettable film Game, with a relatively unknown scriptwriter, why cant an SRK?
what nonsense tonymontana.Delhi belly is a bad film.
Can anyone tell me what is % occupancy for the first day? Bg was 90%. While raone with inflated ticket price, almost double print count (bg was 1900, raone 3500) and more number of screens in multiples, it still is 2/3 of bg first day collection.
My estimation says first day occupancy not more than 30-35%.
Jayshah? Wat do u say
this is hilarious-from a Tamil Reviewer-
So what is my takeaway from this most expensive abomination to hit our screens? That even SRK can fail; that while sex continues to sell, SRK doesn’t
And as PS, let me rub it in as a Tamilian. Rivals may diss Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] to score points during their book release, but at the end of the day his batting record is there for everyone to see. Similarly, you can caricature Tamils no end, but at the end of the day Rajnikanth’s [ Images ] Endhiran collections are there for all to see. Paithikkara!
Oops!!!!!!!!!!!!! above comment was wrong. Delete It
Ra.One Runs Riot On Second Day
Thursday 27th October 2011 20.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has run riot on its second day across the country. Yesterday it started like a runaway train but hit a block in the form of Diwali puja but today it started in the same way but no block.
The film is recording full houses at multiplexes and single screens across the country. If North India was slow after 1pm yesterday, today it is shattering all records. On Wednesday, only three circuit records were made for the first day but today it is likely that it will record the highest all time collections single day collections in almost every circuit of India.
Yesterday it was almost certain around 7pm that it will not beat the first day record and today around 7pm it is certain that it will be recording the biggest day in history just a question of how far ahead it goes of the 20.60 crore nett record.
still doubt this means very much unless it can keep this pace up. If it crosses BG by just a bit with loads of extra screens you’ve still talking about lesser percentages. BOI have 10.6 for BG day 1, Taran has 21.5.
Either way the film was always expected to make a boat-load over the 5 day period in any scenario. But it won’t be the 100 crores that taran and others predicted. If it did 25 crores very day from now through thu it would be at 115 crores or so. If it averaged around 20 it would get to 95 crores or so. I suspect it won’t average more than 15 crores for the regular weekend. That would still give it an overall 80 crore number of so for five days. The week would then probably reveal more serious drops.
Let’s put it this way, I’d be extremely surprised if this film kept up this sort of pace for the rest of the weekend. Even today’s numbers have to be seen. what Taran or even BOI are talking about is not a massive increase by any means for this kind of film on the second day (which according to them is not affected by puja or anything). In any case one doesn’t expect this sort of film to do 10 crores the next day. The hype sustains it for a bit, the advance and so on. But pretty certain this is in for a big fall.
Incidentally the focus seems to be on the North once again just like yesterday. As for full houses that’s the usual abstraction. At 30% more screens than BG if its running full houses it should also be doing 30% more on the gross, not a 2-3 crore differential!
We may have a lot of things to say but the box office if true is telling a very different picture at the moment.
This is certainly not a TMK or Kites and it seems SRK still does have some hold on the audience.
From Media reports and now the debates on tv ( ibn cnn – Rajdeep) , it is certain the perception battle is lost, but these huge numbers will prevent srk to change course. This will delay the introspection part which I talked about earlier.
But I am sure something good will come out of all this.
Well the film was always going to throw up big numbers even in the worst case scenario. A film with this kind of hype and scale behind it and a very major star is not going to collapse right away. It will have a few good days either way. It’s about the relative strength or weakness of the numbers here. Just a 10% growth on day 2 won’t cut it if the claim otherwise was that there was a Lakshmi puja crash the previous day! You can’t just be a bit better than that. Which is what they’re claiming though. Don’t go in for all the hyped up reporting. Look at the numbers. But leaving this aside even a complete crash like Kites with no extended weekend and hardly comparable hype had a pretty strong weekend. Once you generate that level of hype and get a certain advance going it takes a few days for serious cracks to appear. But one can read weakness into the numbers even early. I said the same for BG. It made a lot of money but did a very quick fade after the initial week and some of this weakness was evident even over the first few days when it simply did not show the kind of growth it needed to. But it did have minimal stability. I very much doubt that’s the case here. Obviously if I’m wrong I’m wrong but the perception or the WOM or some of the reports won’t be unrelated to the business. One of the two has to change. One has to be overestimated. If the former the numbers will reveal damage even when they otherwise seem strong, if the latter than WOM should get better. We already know day 1 was obviously very good but far less than expectations even if the Lakshmi Puja rabbit was pulled out. Let’s see how much better day 2 is. Supposedly this is the first full day? Then it should beat BG by a mile if its running full houses at 30% more screens!
RA.One earns Rs.18 cr on first day
IANS | Oct 27, 2011, 06.14PM IST
Shah Rukh Khan’s most ambitious sci-fi thriller hit the screens on Diwali and while some critics gave it a thumbs up for blending elegance of Hollywood with Indian sensibilities, others panned the superhero drama by labelling it just as a video game.
The reviews notwithstanding, it has managed to collect Rs.18 crore at the home box office on the opening day.
However, as predicted by trade pundits, the film couldn’t break the first day collection records of Salman Khan starrer “Bodyguard”, which earned Rs.22 crore in the domestic market on the opening day.
In the onverseas market, the Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros International co-production raked in Rs.6.5 crore.
If reviewers have a different take on the film, viewers are also reacting differently but theatre owners predict good business in the coming week.
“Although the film has got mixed reviews, the first day has been really good. We witnessed more than 80 percent occupancy,” a source in PVR told IANS.
“Moreover, the extensive marketing of the film has created a curiosity among people, who are eager to see what is the film all about,” the source added.
Cinemax witnessed an average footfall on the first day.
“There could be two reasons – the 3D version of the film was made available a little late. Although in metros it was fine, but in other cities due to delayed release in 3D we had to cancel some of the shows,” said Sunil Punjab, CEO of Cinemax.
“Also, we saw a decline in the occupancy in the evening as it was Diwali time and people were busy in Diwali puja. But today (Thursday) the response has been encouraging since morning we have had good number of people coming to see the film,” he added.
Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the Rs.150 crore film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in prominent roles, was released in as many as 3,500 screens across the world.
Even before the film reached the theatres, its makers earned money by selling its satellite rights reportedly for for Rs.35 crore and the distribution rights for Rs.77 crore.
The film’s highlight is high-tech VFX shots, which were outsourced from multiple specialty studios in London, Paris and Bangkok, as also the US.
Puneet Sahay of Spice Cinemas, however, informed that the film is not appealing to adults.
“Although Shah Rukh’s acting is good, ‘RA.One’ is basically a film for children as it boast of lot of animation and special effects. Adults are not actually liking the film. However, it is likely to do well in the coming days,” Sahay said.
“Actually, it’s nothing more than a video game,” said college student Akhil Sharma.
In the time I’ve been following the Bollywood box office (roughly ten years or so), I’ve come to learn to take all figures with a pinch of salt, and as approximations rather than exact numbers. But usually the figures from most sources (barring IBOS, which completely lost credibility to me a long time ago) agree to within a crore or so. But in the last two days, the size of manipulations seems so massive as to amount outright fraud. All these different articles in different sites (really only four — BOI, Koimoi, Bollywood Hungama, and BOC) have an air of desperation, cover up, and frantic PR drives that just wasn’t there with any other film that I can recall, no matter that various spins and agendas could be easily detected. Now for me it is no longer the academic curiosity to know how well Ra.One has been accepted by the public, but a sense of anger to see that a fraud isn’t perpetrated on the public. Of course, that’s just talk on my part, since there’s precious little I can do about anything from here, or even from India. The whole situation is mind-boggling to me.
One heartening aspect of the whole BO reporting ha been the fact there has been an alternate narrative of how the movie is faring, there are many articles pointing out the fact the BG still holds the first day record. Also ever since I have started following BO, I have never seen an SRK movie getting so many reviews. I suspect that with aamir and salman also delivering blockbusters has established some sort of balance in the Bollywood universe
I am quite interested in how the movie fares in the South, even though SRK was able to rope in Rajni to appear as Chitti, I have seen a few reports where people who have watched the movie have compared it against Robot directly and seem to have preferred the special effects in Robot vs Ra.One
Great. Glad that nearly all said they liked it. It doesn’t look tampered like the one posted here yesterday where clearly there was no sign of a channel, and one person shouting ‘Salman Rocks’ was so artificial. Of course Salman rocks, but it seemed a deliberate attempt at something.
The comments were heavily tampered as well.
“And a Tamilian caricature is rendered so outrageously that I laughed in disbelief – he returns to his home after a day at work and heads straight to a shrine, humming Vatapi Ganapatim bhajeham.
So how does one respond to Ra.One? With a silly smile – that would be my recommendation. It doesn’t take itself very seriously (which is what made Krrish intolerable; Ra.One is merely inoffensive), even if much of what it tries to pass off as comedy carries the whiff of Karan Johar’s stale leftovers. ”
AS usual Rangan is much too indulgent towards Shahrukh.
Absolutely,Utkal.
BR is being indulgent. From his review it is obvious he didnt think much ( or actually anything) of the film.But, he is not as dismissive as he can otherwise be.Still, a fun read.
Actually I did feel this is how it would be from the trailers.
I have felt all along that it could be called a neo – masala genre.
I will soon find out.
Old Gold: Given the high number of prints and increased prices, I expected Salman’s record to be broken. That wouldn’t have offended me. It’s the skullduggery that is all too evident since yesterday (for example the documented lies) that I find offensive.
Don’t forget that salman’s record too was set with greater number of prints.
Oh god. Seems like I’m getting into this war.
I’m escaping after one more comment to matrix.
oh absolutely.. no one’s denying it but the BG release wasn’t accompanied by the ‘compulsory’ expectation that it would break all previous records. The SRK films for the longest time now have had this expectation. I remember there was the D2 burden on OSO. Before this Don had that burden. And so on. Because the SRK narrative is premised on being the ‘biggest’. Hence from time to time he has to produce the biggest opening. Also while you’re taking prints into account also note that BG came with a very normal campaign. Nothing special about it in terms of volume. It was just about Salman being in the zone. That’s very different from launching the mother of all campaigns as SRK does time and again with some of his films. This too must be factored in.
and I’m hardly a Salman fan. Even with all this if you forced me to choose between Ra One and BG I’d watch the former in the theater. But it’s just about the facts here and about honest reporting not anything else. I wasn’t debating the OSO numbers except to say that I was suspicious of the D2 like initial number. And they themselves revised it downward later. Similarly I never really contested the RNBDJ performance (except that that final 85 crore total is I think the stuff of fiction.. it did well, trended well but it didn’t do that much) but my larger point was that it was drowned out by Ghajini which followed on its heels. I never bought the 50 crore Don final figure (though it was relatively stable in those days there was the whole 50 crore burden for films!), even the KANK one seemed a bit overstated. Anyway those are old debates but there are usually these patterns with SRK.
>the BG release wasn’t accompanied by the ‘compulsory’ expectation that it would break all previous records.
So you’re arguing about that? LOL!
I pity your weather man who predicts sunshine and you end up standing there in your shorts and sunglasses amidst ankle high snow and going on and on and on and on about ..”he said…he said” instead of going home and dressing for the occasion.
Old Gold, it may be too late for me to say this, but I don’t think you should read anything about Ra.One on the net — so many spoilers and dissections are posted all over that you won’t have to bother going to London! 🙂 So I suggest that you stay away altogether, and just enjoy the film in peace.
No problem. This is the only blog where I come to *read* something, and I don’t see the danger here at all.
People are only discussing the BO, and getting scandalized by numbers. 🙂
The other places I’m skimming through for headings just for the heck of it, and come across some clip or so.
People’s comments I’m avoiding as there seems to be a war going on every where. SRK must really be very important 😉
People seem to be quite taken up with my going to England to watch the film. Going thjere is like going to Bhopal from Bombay, just an hour + by plane, and I go there every now and then.
Always enjoy Rangan’s writing even when I don’t agree with him. There is an individuality and originality to his reviews, unlike the mass-produced reviews we usually get from the media.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Nets Rs 25 Cr; Breaks Salman Khan’s 2-Day Record
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Great news for the industry! History has been created!! Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has crossed the Rs. 25 crore mark (net all-India collections) in a single day (Thursday, October 27). The superhero film, which made Rs. 15 – 16 crore on the opening day, has now effectively breached the 2-day collection record of Salman Khan’s Bodyguard. While Bodyguard had netted Rs. 39 crore in its first two days, Ra.One has already made Rs. 40 crore at least. The final number is likely to go up as collection reports are still coming in.
Day One Figures: Unfair Comparison
In many ways, the comparison being made by the media and sections of the trade between the first day collections of Bodyguard and Ra.One was unfair. While both the films released on Wednesdays and public holidays, the Salman Khan starrer, Bodyguard, had released on Eid day, which is generally considered to be extraordinary at the box-office. On the other hand, Ra.One released on Diwali (Laxmi Pooja day), a day which is dull at the box-office because many Hindus stay indoors to participate in the festivities including poojas.
In that sense, the day after Diwali (i.e. Thursday in the case of Ra.One) proves to be the real ‘Diwali’ for the film industry because people come out in hordes to the cinemas on the second day of Diwali. The wonderful second day collections of Ra.One just go to prove this.
This is exactly what I mean by “fraud.” The goal seems to be to come up with some number or combination of numbers that can be bigger than Salman’s! Why is it important to beat Salman? Isn’t it more important that the film does well enough to become a hit/superhit/whatever? Now once the opening day/week numbers are cooked to beat Salman, I guess the next step will be to cook them enough to beat Aamir in the total? Sheesh! How do they expect anybody to believe what they say?
Speaking of which, Komal Nahta is going ballistic on Twitter, using very foul language to blast people – men and women. It’s not clear from his curses what the issue is, and I don’t feel like tracking down what those people said to him. But I wonder if others are expressing the kind of skepticism we have been here.
My thoughts exactly. It’s “unfair” to compare Ra One with Bodyguard and yet he starts off by saying Ra One has broken BG’s two day record! Curious. Btw, two day record??? Since when did that matter? But it’s SRK so of course the goalposts have to be shifted. smh.
The box office of RA-one is very tough to call. First 3 days huge collections are a given considering huge hype leading to massive advances. However, WOM is extremely mixed from good to disaster. I believe even Friday would be a 20+ day saturday onwards the content and general WOM would start reflecting in numbers.
I should confess that the jump is more than I would have expected. Not sure what it means in terms of legs and eventual collections. But, atleast it made a point- the buzz/hype has worked to a point.
Shailesh Kapoor made a good point when he said the first two days are not going to tell much in terms of overall BO collections. Next couple of days are the key. It sure is not like TMK or Kites. May be more like MNIK on a somewhat higher level.
The 25 crore number seems dubious to be to be quite honest. Will see how it goes from here on. It’s not the jump that I have a problem accepting, I expected it yesterday too. It’s just the scale that makes me suspicious. The Bodyguard mark has been too much debated from day 1. First Nahata and Taran insisted it would be breached on day 1. Wonder why Nahata didn’t say this would only happen on day 2 given everything he’s saying here?! They’re clearly in the tank for SRK here really going out of their way at every point. I can certainly buy a 22-23 crore figure, anything more I am skeptical about. Having said that they’re BG day 1 number is 21.5 crores. So even 25 isn’t a massive jump from this given all those extra prints. BOI on the other hand have 20.6 for BG and they are 2-3 crores behind Taran/Nahata on day 1 numbers (by the way taran and Nahata are definitely quoting producer totals which is why they seem to release them so very fast on this! the day is not even over and somehow all the numbers have been collated and so on.. when Nahata earlier announced Thu would be ahead for sure it was around 4 PM or so in India.. and he couldn’t have known in the morning since it was supposed to be massive yesterday morning and afternoon too before the puja apparently made it crash!). Either way the differential between day 1 and day 2 doesn’t seem dissimilar unless of course BOI now go along with the 25 crore number and make it a massive jump! But again just looking at both sets of numbers at face value the film has jumped 6.5 crores or so from yesterday (going by Taran and Nahata). As I said I am highly skeptical of this conveniently ’round’ figure which too is an Eros number like their previous ones but at the same time let’s also see if it can keep up this pace. If the film remains stable this might be an academic difference. If it’s not one can doubt this as well. But this is a rather common game at every level.
But your MNIK point makes sense.. let’s see.. just think that this is one of those situations where unless the film completely collapses from here on (at which point the likes of Nahata and Adarsh will give up more or less) they are likely to keep spinning stuff. The MNIK scenario is precisely where global totals are presented (though Ra One is not at all going to perform the overseas ‘rescue’ that MNIK did) or where regional totals are made magical, so on and so forth.
The thing is this sort of thing is always just exponentially worse for a SRK film. The same games are played elsewhere too but SRK and Abhishek are symmetrical opposites in terms of getting the worst out of all these sources.
But as always don’t have anything against the fact provided the facts are honestly presented!
I have a sneaky suspicion that the figure might be revised to a little more than BG’s first day. Very possible is an attempt at damage control since the first day reports have created a negative perception and this can atleast be used to sway public perception and also prevent film from totally crashing based on the negative first day reports.Wouldnt put it past Taran,Nahata and BOI.
agreed.. and we’ve seen this many times before.. OSO was doing very well but if you recall I doubted the close to 40 crore number BOI initially had. Well a long time later they revised it downward to 37 crores. Obvious 2-3 crores doesn’t make a difference in the overall scheme of things but if you keep doing this every week you have a much larger differential by the end. But they’re definitely trying to put a lid on all the negative buzz.
@matrix
matrix I was expressing my views on these parts from Rangan’s review;
“Ra.One has turned out to be the kind of film Bollywood doesn’t make anymore, the tearjerker family drama cum comedy cum action extravaganza, which, of course, was the mainstay of Hindi cinema in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. There’s plenty of talk about dil. There are special appearances by Ramlila and Karwa Chauth, and the movie borrows its philosophy from the Gita, about a soul shedding one body and entering another like a change of clothes. More moral instruction arrives through a reference to Old Bollywood, referencing the lines neki pe chalen aur badi se talen taaki haste hue nikale dum from Do Aankhen Baarah Haath. A runaway locomotive resembles a remnant from The Burning Train, and the spirit of its music composer, RD Burman, is invoked in a teera… para para refrain that underscores the action scenes. The heroine is one of those flighty creatures from the older films whose mood changes from scene to scene, less a part than a prop. The hero comes between a loved one and a fusillade of space-agey shrapnel.”
Oldgold, if the term neo-masala was used in the context of that quote from the review then it’s perfectly fine. In the context of Utkal’s coment and your reply, it seemed that you were defending/trivializing the caricaturing of Tamilian people by labeling it neo-masala.
An interesting tweet/SMS:
Sreeni_k Sreenivas Kamath by nikhiltiwari05 One renowned Trade Analyst just SMSed me ” Empty Theatres inside, Housefull Boards Outside ..Ra One Thursday ” ….!!!
not sure who this guy is but I’ve anecdotally heard the ‘flop’ word all around in some of the conversations I’ve had with people in India.. and these are not anti-SRK folks by any means.. they too are responding to all the SMS jokes and the general atmosphere surrounding the film.
They’re doing damage control in the trade reporting.. hoping for the film to stay stable for at least the extended period… they’re precisely trying a BG here.. hype up the initial numbers.. let the film go down later and no one will care.. however the narrative developing on day 1 was becoming very damaging.. the question is: given SRK’s most favored individual status in the media why did the narrative develop at all?!
Sreeni K is a big Salman fan & quite famous among the Salman fan community. 🙂 The above seems to be a Retweet of something someone else said.
Re damage control, they’re not exactly “trying a BG” here, are they? BG didn’t have this kind of WOM, though it got negative reviews. I think you mean they’re hoping for that kind of BO performance, where they can maximize their revenue in the first week.
well BG did a quick fade after week 1. It wasn’t as stable as some of the other big films. Singham for example started lower but doubled its week 1 gross. BG even over the extended weekend didn’t show the kinds of jumps that one would have thought looking at the Wed number though it did go up and down. Enough stability to get to a big week 1 but it was more or less in free fall after this. My point has been that this is still acceptable for a film budgeted that way. But not for something like Ra 1. However the big numbers create a splash. And yes they’ve constantly been about maximizing things in week 1. BG definitely had worse WOM than Ready but it wasn’t like this. Also I think there’s a question of expectation. The bar is always much lower for the BG kind of film and do disappointment here is far less than for the Ra One sort of deal.
This comes up every time. Even during the time of MNIK.
If you all say there are people manipulating in favour I’m absolutely sure there are people ***equally manipulative on the other side as well.****
What with these phony public reviews etc, and now this tweet.
This blog is part of this attack in the war.
I used to feel quite comfortable here inspite of all the anti feelings, but suddenly the atmosphere feels very sinister.
If it was a star you supported like Abhishek you would have sensed something foul in this tweet.
C’mon Oldgold we’ve had lots of these box office discussions.. LOL, you’re now finding the atmosphere ‘sinister’ here. What next? You’re going to unearth a big conspiracy here! Wish we were that important but somehow don’t think the fate of Ra One depends on what we say here, ‘sinister’ stuff or not. And because this is just ‘online’ stuff hopefully you won’t feel ‘unsafe’ here even if ‘uncomfortable’!
It seems many SRK fans and even partisans in media are finding this ”backlash” against Ra 1 or criticism of SRK as ”unfair” or ”harsh”!
See the tweets of some film critics and journos on Twitter! Some like Namrata Joshi of Outlook have already started ”Defend SRK” mission and are deliberately dragging Aamir’s, Bachchan’s, Salman’s names, trashing them and their movies to defend SRK!
Namrata Joshi brings in Delhi Belly to defend or justify vulgarity in Ra 1, forgetting that DB was an A rated film, never promoted so widely, and people were warned in advance about the kind of content it would have. It was never promoted as a family entertainer!
Another film critic says people should not be so harsh on poor SRK, and just close their eyes for a while, imagine that it is a Rajini movie which they are watching and then simply enjoy Ra 1 for what it is, without thinking too much! Good! Wonder why they don’t say such things for Salman or Akshay Kumar films and trash those stars are dumb?!
Tweets showing how much they try to defend SRK and cover up his failures or his film’s faults, and how, no matter what, they’d try to project him as biggest or best, even if it means trashing all other stars! They are being so easy on him and his film!
With all the scam scandals going on in India, and all the questions raised by these analysts’ figures, I can see this would be the perfect setting for a very Kafkaesque film! 🙂
You surprise me sm.
You suddenly appear at this juncture to talk about BO!!!
Never thought that interested you not even when Salman was setting records.
Did you suddenly appear to support the people here or are you afraid for Salman?
Whatever. It surprises me no end. It’s almost like you were not sm.
Ha, ha, usually I’m not into BO, especially the nitpicky discussions that are a staple of many Bollywood forums. But this time there has been blatant and obvious manipulations of bigger magnitude than I have ever seen before. It is that that has drawn me in, to try to understand what is really going on.
I do follow BO, enough to know what type of biases and fudging are the norm. But this has been way out of the norm, hence attention grabbing.
But you seem to be taking a more than normal, and if I may say so, rather aggressive part in the discussion.
>But this time there has been blatant and obvious manipulations of bigger magnitude than I have ever seen before.
My astonishment over your discussions here is still the same.
You mean blatant and obvious manipulation of bigger magnitude ….IN ONE DAY: 18cr is too much?
Isn’t that exaggeration of great magnitude?
I still ask, is 18cr a wrong figure?
Why did they stop at 18cr and not at 25cr (now that would have been You mean blatant and obvious manipulation of bigger magnitude ) to declare the first day record broken? After all, what they had to do was hang House Full signs outside the empty halls and give a high total.
Just to respond quickly, yes 18cr is a wrong figure, because it includes the Telugu & Tamil versions, which is not done for any other film (e.g., Veer, Krrissh, and most famously Robot). People, especially producers, always try to push the number that’s most favorable to them, giving gross instead of net, “worldwide” figures instead of India, etc. Usually the “respected” trade analysts like Taran and Komal at least separate these out. This time they are not. BOI often focuses on small centers if that’s all that’s positive for a film, but focusing on Rajasthan and CP for an SRK film, especially one that’s about high tech, is very suspect. It’s the “tone” of the commentary that’s reeking of hypocrisy. And I always object to hypocrisy.
Just to add, while everyone here is making a point of the increased ticket prices for Ra.One, I seemed to be the only one to mention that during the time of 3 Idiots’ release and the orgasmic reporting around its collections. I may not have been “aggressive” about its box office collections, but only because there was a much greater issue to be “aggressive” about, namely the semi-plagiarism of Chetan Bhagat’s novel and all the associated brouhaha.
IMO, the 25cr number is very encouraging. With about 800 screens more than BG, It still does not beat BG in terms of avg/screen. But it at least leads to the possibility of a minm 150cr total to be on the cards now.
well.. 22 crore+ is an impressive figure.. I went for the tickets in the evening and couldnt get any.. despite a show every 50 minutes.. if it manages good collections till Sunday, this one will be a big grosser..
The reactions are extremely mixed.. Ill post some of them, from my friends’ circle on Facebook:
1) Gurpreet Kaur: Ek Hi kutta ka bacha hai puri duniya main aur woh hai “THE GREAT SHAHRUKH KHAN”. What the fuck!! What kind of fucking asshole movie he has produced….saala publicity isliye kar raha tha takin chale! Don’t dare to watch it guys!! It will piss off your mood like hell…like it did to me. Not worthy to even watch it at home..Keede pade saale ko….my raings…0000.5/5. 😦 😦
2) Kuashik Sen Sharma: All The Video Game Lovers, Ra.One Is Gud To Watch…!
3) Taksh Mathur: Ra.ONE, G.ONE…..pretty Good ONE..Leave the story behind…The Entertainment value of the movie is Huge..!!It should be seen by every ONE !!:)~
4) Varun Verma:
Dear Anubhav Sinha,
You have proved that you are just worth directing stupid Sonu Nigam songs and flicks like Tum Bin..
You moron, with such good sfx, vfx and fantastic SRK you couldn’t manage to direct and sequence the movie and finally made the movie a video game!! All the efforts of the action director and currency spent by SRK gone for a toss
Ra-One, wonderful star cast, wonderful effects and action, but pathetic direction and even more pathetic sequencing!!!
5) Ava Suri: liked it a little more than the reviews say. The movie was good fun, dances were good, songs were good, and everyone looked great
6) Nandita Oberoi Sharma: My take on Ra one. I loved it. May be coz I am a SRK fan. But if u love video games, you’ll enjoy the movie too. If you a South Indian movie fan and try comparing SRK with Rajnikant then you won’t like it coz he is not imitating him or actin like him. He made this movie for his son so you need to watch this movie with a kid’s heart.. And if you not kid at heart I am sure you’ll hate it. But the moral of the story is one movie cannot make or break a person and to be honest he’s above all this criticism. Thumbs up to SRK. You are a super hero for your son. You haven’t let him down.
Songs, the kid and Arjun Rampal are to look fwd to. Well my rating will be 4\5.
7) Samia Naz: Just come back from watching RA-ONE 😀 All I can say is “Wow” It lived upto all my expectations and more! Loved it! 😀
It will be hard to predict anything for the movie even if the negative reports suggest a failure. Even the media isn’t on SRK’s side like they were in the past with MNIK and OSO. But SRK in an audience-friendly commercial vehicle is hard to dismiss .. Last thing I remembered, with the exception of MNIK which underperformed in India, he scored with RNBDJ and OSO despite the films being strictly mediocre and being despised by a huge film-going public. SRK Fnas are enough to make his ventures safe for him.
Still too early to predict. Lets see what happens by Monday. What will be more interesting to see would be the first week total here..
But the problem with SRK is that his narrative depends on getting the biggest numbers not just hits. This started earlier on in the past decade when SRK was increasingly being challenged on the prestige front by Aamir beginning with Lagaan, there was also the Hrithik hysteria and so on. When confronted with the prestige deal he would often cockily say that his films made the most money. And he could say this for a number of years because even when he had a poor year his peers weren’t consistently outgrossing him. So Hrithik had a number of flops later on but when he then returned with KMG he started doing less and less and more or less took himself out of the conversation despite his great 2006. But in any case that gross argument started ringing hollow over time and certainly Ghajini and then 3I were the last nails in the coffin and since then Salman has been doing some on his own!
As I’ve said before if SRK simply wanted to get a hit it wouldn’t be an issue. But he tries to outgross the competition in every sense. This is where all the problems and all the trade nonsense arises. Don taken at face value opened moderately well relative to the hype and so on but was then fairly stable. On pure trending this could be called a success but the standard was to get the biggest gross and to get minimally 50 crores and so on. It is here that the trouble starts. Similarly SRK is never happy with the RNBDJ kind of deal that does far far less than Ghajini in every sense. In all these years I have actually seen him look truly happy only after OSO because this film genuinely made a lot of money though even here the D2 burden was a big one. So as long as you operate that way there’s an issue. If you’re trying to get a success out of Ra One that’s one thing. But if the whole game is about getting the biggest day 1 or day 2 and idiotic headlines about records being shattered (which headlines we incidentally see with every other big film these days) then you have to spin things. The Ra One tickets on average are much greater than BG’s but no one wants to talk about this even as other comparisons are being done. There are the more expensive 3D tickets as well. So on and so forth. But SRK has for a number of years lived with this burden. It wasn’t this way in the 90s when he was actually at his peak. The whole of the past decade for him has really been about creating the right media narrative in every which way. It’s been a remarkable machine and it has certainly aided him in significant ways. But it’s also led to this craziness where there can never be a normal big SRK release. You always have the trade making the most exaggerated predictions before release, following these up with more when the film releases, changing the standards, on and on. These guys never stop the propaganda. With a Salman hit you might disagree on some of the numbers, you might some of the commentary overdone and what not but it’s hard to disagree with the ultimate result by too much. With SRK it’s just ‘unfair’ stuff at every turn. For example have you ever seen such a big deal made out of Lakshmi Puja except with Ra One? Ever? Tons of movies released on Diwali, did well or didn’t without comment. But only with SRK do these things matter. Because it’s just a constant spin operation resembling a political machine more than anything else. The whole thing is set up to arrive at a certain gross by hook or by crook and then unless the film is the worst flop around it is celebrated as some kind of success using some yardstick or the other. And then these claims are hammered like pure propaganda.
We see so many other 100 crore hits. Is there ever this kind of structure attached to them? So one can’t believe a lot of this stuff to begin with. This doesn’t mean that the film is a complete tank but what are the standards here? We have trade figures comparing the film’s day 2 to BG’s day 1 and using all kinds of spurious logic. Contradicting their own earlier claims.With all this if a negative narrative developed on day 1 one has to assume there was enough negative buzz about it for this to happen. And now they’ve gone into damage control. Because this sort of narrative in a 24/7 media cycle can completely overwhelm a film. Not that a hit becomes a flop or vice versa but a decent flop can be turned into a disaster specially when these days it’s about the first weekend or extended weekend more than anything else for even a hit film. If you dent those numbers what are you left with?!
Ultimately though this is just about selling a story. In my experience most people don’t really buy this stuff. Specially talking to people from India they just assume that every claim is a corrupt one. Believe it or not I’ve had conversations with people about SRK’s films where I’ve been defending their box office and they haven’t believed it. They think I’m an idiot for believing media claims. So people don’t buy this stuff the way one might think if one follows all the online stuff and so on. But even beyond this the most important figure here is the distributor or the investor. He doesn’t care what Taran or Nahta report. he knows how much he has profited or lost on the film. He’s not into BG comparisons or what happened on day 1 or day 2. He’s just looking at his returns. One can sell this stuff in the media and maybe persuade some people but the trade reacts to these things. There’s a reason why over the past half decade or more it is very hard to spot a SRK film that is true prestige material in terms of the director and so on. It’s mostly stuff made by cronies with an exception here or there. Supposedly the biggest star around but he’s never part of a prestige deal with one of half a dozen or so directors. the SRK campaign has just been about creating these monstrous hype machines for the most part. You’ll see it again with Don. IN a 24/7 cycle this works. And it especially works for him because no honest accounting is done for his films on the financial side.
All of this doesn’t at all mean Ra One cannot do decently or better than expected. We’ll see the results over the next few days. But the game is so unbelievably rigged. And what amuses me here is that many people take this stuff at face value but otherwise question every other institution in India for its compromised or corrupt ways. Somehow we see these great national scams but we are made to believe that the likes of Taran and nahata and whoever are just honest brokers. Sure these are the only numbers we have. But I think one can make an educated guess about things. And you don’t accept a known liar’s version of a story just because you don’t have alternate versions!
Ra.One sets a new record in Rajasthan bu having the highest collection ever on a single day and its two day business is just short of Bodyguard for which Rajasthan was an out performing circuit. Below are the first two day figures from Rajasthan.
So a record setting second day of the highest single day collections ever is still not enough for the combined total of the first two days to beat BG’s combined total? At least the reporting for this film is giving everyone good math exercise. 🙂
Ra.One has created history in East Punjab on its second day. Not only is it a record collection for a single day in the circuit but it is the first time that any film has crossed the 2 crore nett mark in a single day.
The East Punjab collection for Thursday is likely to be around a humungous 2.25 crore nett.
It was three years ago that Singh Is Kinng became the first film to collect 1 crore nett in a single day in the circuit as it collected 1.10 crore nett on its first Sunday.
Records are falling all over the place on day 2 but it must be noted down South the jumps are not as big as the North as the first day was comparatively better in the South.
I doubt the jumps are that big even in Bombay or ahmedabad or Calcutta and so on. The major metros.
They continue to obsess with Rajasthan. 95% of all evidence for the jump has come here. Doesn’t this strike people as odd?
and why not report even the centers where the jumps have not been that big?
It’s about small centers that don’t affect the overall gross in a big way. The game so far has been to present an overall picture but then offer Rajasthan as the only evidence! Or occasionally one theater in Delhi (golcha) or E punjab is a BOI favorite anyway.
To show real jumps wouldn’t one go to the obvious major metros first?!
Well Satyam.. Despite the mediocrities of the film under question, let us not belittle its achievement.. The Rajasthan focus does seem a bit odd but in DLF Saket (Delhi) the film was a Housefull in every show (note that one show was conducted every 50 minutes or so) as I witnessed. I dont know if the theatre had an empty audience inside, though!
Like I said, a Week 1 total would present a clear picture in this scenario. That way one could total up every day’s totals and smell something fishy if there is..
Tony.. there are two separate arguments getting mixed up here. I am NOT arguing the numbers are not big. Obviously 15 crores or more on day 1 is a very big number irrespective of what the record is. Even before release I didn’t really think absent a complete tank that the film wouldn’t even touch 100 crores. For these sorts of films big numbers are a given. The question is about relative strength or weakness. If every theater in Delhi was sold out like the one you’re referring to the film would have made a whole lot more than BG on day 1, Lakshmi puja or not! Similarly I don’t doubt a jump on day 2 but what kind of jump is it? If you’re saying the puja affects things then a 10-20% jump doesn’t mean anything. It’s more or less the same number. And by only referring to small centers in Rajasthan or the like aren’t you admitting that you can’t say the same about Bombay or even Delhi city? BOI have admitted as much about the South! So that takes out two major metros for Hindi cinema in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
So it’s not about big numbers but about tampering with the same to make them bigger. we’ll know over the next few days what the trendline here is. Obviously if they say it’s 20 tomorrow I’m not going to say it’s 10! And so on. One can usually tell. But while there is ‘hope’ they’re manipulating some numbers. 25 crores isn’t impossible but it’s very suspect in my view. On day 1 too there’s a discrepancy. BOI have close to 15 crores and suggest that the South would add a crore or so. Meanwhile Taran has 18.5 crores and this is producer number (and we know how these work!). Suddenly it’s a nice and round 25 crore figure the next day!
Don’t mean to beat this to death but I just want to be clear that I’m not into some conspiracy theory here about empty theaters or whatever. You will see many houseful theaters even when a film does 10 crores in one day or less than this depending on the theater you go to!
True satyam.Even 1st day also no one clearly said what exact total was. some said even 21 cr then 18 cr and now 14.63 cr .Even trade guys like taran nad komal are also not providing correct numbers .Think 2nd day will be between 15cr -20cr and I think they will do this propganda of inflating number this whole week.
So far all Srk’s big budget movies are manufactured hits even those movies did average business in India but they will never say average .
50 crore devdas which made around 28 crores trade declared hit beacuse movie was big hit in overseas
then 50 cr don declared as semi hit even it did less than 50 cr and 50 cr KANK – technical hit and recent MNIK also hit .Now even Ra-1 did less than 100 cr trade will declare hit adding overseas,brands,music rights, satellite rights what not .Shameless people.
so its all manufactured.
the numbers are here for everyone to see.
its 16 something for the first day and including regional numbers adds upto around 18.
2nd day-historic 25+.
good no. for a supposedly bad film.
btw i myself dint like this movie
Rajen, didn’t you read that the numbers will go down *especially in the North* due to Laxmi Puja?
So the difference has to be more there I would assume.
this blog is the best blog ever.
so conclusion of the discussion….
RA.one cant have 25 crore single day.just cannot means cannot.srk is an idiot who asks theatre owners to put housefull boards in empty theatres and because of thsi planning and plotting tony montanna has to return without watching this film.
bodyguard and 3i figures are actually less than what they actually did.
ra.one figures are 20-30% more than wat it actually has done.
whole media is in srk’s pocket.
inflated ticket prices,3d and all these factors are now taken into consideration but forgetting that ra.one is thrice as expensive as bg or 3i(so ticket prices are justified)but what people forget is inflated ticket prices restricts multiple viewing.
Its understandable that you guys have something against SRK but its ok to sometimes acknowlegde somones good deeds…
this film imo is a sheer waste of opportunity thanks to poor script writing but this kinda of efforts should be appreciated.
satyamji……a fan of ur writing..instead of discussions on boxoffice can we have a piece on how ra.one or for matter films like oso impact srk as a superstar
Indian BO is a casee of too much heat, not enough light and in case of Ra.one it seems all heat, no light at all !! With all said and done, I’ve some basic criteria to judge Ra.one’s BO:
1. Anything less than 125 cr —-> disaster.
2. Less than BG and Dabang ——> humiliation for SRK.
3. Less than 155 cr —–> dissapointment.
4. 155 cr – 175 cr ——> MNIK zone
5. 175 cr – 190 cr ——> Success, still a feeling of unfulfillment
6. Surpasses 3I ——-> All time Blockbuster
To be honest, there is a binary paradigm (either or paradigm) which can be used to gauge Ra.one’s success or lack there of. This movie was made to break 3I’s record. If it doesn’t then even a figure of 185 cr will feel a bit hollow. On the other hand if it surpasses 3I its success can be celebrated using any grandiloquent language you can think of!
PS: The 191-202 cr range is like a limbo! But I think priests Komal, Taran and company will make sure Ra.one doesn’t end up in this limbo by briefly suspending the rules of number system whereby after 190 comes 203! Even if that is the case more power to Ra.one!
They’ll sell anything north of 140 crores as a big success. Obviously assuming week 1 is not 115 crores! Because it’s then a tank. But if it’s the BG kind of deal they will push this storyline and in fairness I would say at that point that the film was able to sustain at least with pockets of the audience. Though BG had a fast fade films can fall much faster than this as we’ve seen with some films.
Satyam, much as they might sell I don’t think many will buy that @150 cr it’s a big success. A devoted fan will buy it, but your average person won’t. Because he has been through the unprecedented hype that is Ra.one. All along he has been fed that it’s a 150 cr movie, he has been led to believe that it will break records. An average person can add 2+2, so when he finds all Ra.one did was 150 cr and 3I still holds the record of 202 cr, he’s bound to say: THEN WHAT WAS ALL THAT PRE_RELEASE NOISE ABOUT! No amount of spin is going to detract him from drawing this simplest of conclusion.
fair enough.. and it is true that with the negative narrative developing here they would need an unquestionable hit to get over this hump..but I do think that at 150 crores they will hype it like crazy.. they will say stuff like ‘biggest other than 3I’ and so on. The thing that shouldn’t be underestimated here is the SRK camp’s ability to tailor the message to the situation. And then unless it’s a total flop they keep spinning it. Even when KANK tanked dramatically in week 2 they were still calling it some sort of success, when MNIK didn’t do well in India they focused on the ‘global’ gross. So on and so forth. Plus here you’ll see the standards change. BOI admitted it was a 175 crore film inclusive of costs. 30 crore films have to do a lot more to justify their costs but this one will be justifying them at considerably under that number. But again I do agree with you that the credibility of the film hasn’t been established in the initial stage and now it needs a really genuine to convince people that it did well.
RA.One mixed verdict: Are the audiences divided?
Rohit VatsRohit Vats, IBNLive.com
New Delhi: The initial responses to ‘RA.One’ have divided the audience fraternity into two distinct groups. Not only the audiences but film reviewers are also separated into two factions.
The first group is of the opinion that ‘RA.One’ has brought the level of Indian films at par with Holywood films in just one stroke while the other group is complaining about the flawed script.
The rating points given to the film also ranges from 1.5 to 4.5 which describe the effect of ‘RA.One’ on the viewers’ minds.
IBNLive
Almost everyone has prises for special effects visible for the first time on Indian screens but the traditional movie goers have felt the need of an original script which appears to be the amalgamation of several foreign films.
Further, the opening collection book of ‘RA.One’ does not boast of grand income but it’s a long weekend and thus the overall collection can amount to an impressive sum. ‘RA.One’ banked upon mammoth promotional drive in order to pull the audiences to the theatres and therefore mixed reviews actually have brought down the ‘RA.One’ fever a bit.
Such marketing gimmicks are not a new thing for Shah Rukh Khan who has done ferocious promotions of ‘Om Shaanti Om’ and ‘Main Hoon Na’ in the past. He has simply refused to trust the word of mouth publicity since some years.
Shah Rukh invariably talks about his loneliness in interviews and also cares to explain why he needs to raise the standard bar all the time. His inner urge to claim the supreme spot of the Hindi film industry comes out via words in different chat and reality shows. This anxiety was visible even when Shah Rukh appeared on ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ with Amitabh Bachchan. It seemed that Shah Rukh wants to make his presence felt more than Amitabh Bachchan.
With his trademark sarcasm filled wit, Khan works tirelessly to achieve a position where he can safely call Rajinikanth as the number one star. Khan clearly knows the fact that the podium battle is among three Khans and one Roshan and Rajinikanth does not fit into this Bollywood line up.
Shah Rukh has reached an age where any sort of competition should ideally stop but Salman Khan and Aamir Khan with their respective fan following have claimed the top spot in last three-four years, leaving Shah Rukh Khan with a strong desire to reclaim the position.
Probably this is the reason behind making ‘RA.One’ a spectacular film rather than a good story. The focus on technical fineness has made ‘RA.One’ an experience worth watching but the hype around the film has begun to fizz away.
It would have been better if Shah Rukh Khan had not promoted the film so heavily. In that case movie enthusiasts could have taken the film a little lightly with only entertainment in mind. The fan base of Shah Rukh Khan would also have felt satisfied with a magnificent show.
This strategy of over hyping the film also has the potential of harming Shah Rukh’s reputation in a longer run. Some more mediocre films and his entire prestige as an actor will be on stake.
Great Review of the above show- see the show and then read the article- good take-
Rampal provided particular clarity on why Ra.One was a “great film”, a step forward for Bollywood. “You can create the revenue,” he explained enthusiastically. “Different revenue streams through partnerships… show different revenue streams, different avenues of making revenue. That’s the leap of faith that we make in Ra.One… hopefully it will encourage the industry to make film with larger budgets.” On the film’s actual quality, defiantly: “I like it, I don’t care.”
To his credit, Chaubey wasn’t buying this. “I’m just wondering Arjun. I thought cinema was more about content,” he murmured. But Rampal and Kapoor had no intention of addressing content. Shah Rukh, said Rampal, got “the best technicians in the world to work on the biggest film in the country, to make sure that everyone will go there and see it. He’s a one-man powerhouse.” Brilliant. Hopefully at some point, in between tweeting the poster and arranging to book half the CGI guys in California, SRK got to read the script.
It was good TV when Chaubey asked, desperately, “But where is the plot?” It was great TV when he got Kapoor to reveal Bollywood’s desperate lack of ambition: “What gets the cash registers ringing is song-and-dance, when the hero tries to save the actress…. and we should not try to change that.”
Currently in a somewhat ZNMD-style (but not znmd insoired) american sojourn–so Not been following this closely and won’t pass any judgments till I see the movie myself
Some of the movies I really like are the ones that “tank” and vice versa.
But these” conflicting “reports are enuf .
Unless there is a MARKED upswing —as far as Bollywood sweepstakes and the top honours aree concerned —this is probably the OFFICIAL end of an era ….
This was my personal curiosity .
I mean–when salman khan in bodyguard trumped ra1 opening?
Nuff said..
When I read that ra1 opening has got “affected” by diwali to explain the subpar opening–the writing is/ was on the wall…
SRKs is not in the business of producing superhits—his business has been to be the BEST–
He is still among the best but not THE best
And this is the first official confirmation yet—
So quite significant…
The “tug of war” between Srk pros and antis can go on till Dawn —but though I’m somehow hoping for a good showing by ra1– the “point” has already been made!!!!
you’re right here.. to even get into these debates of first day and second day and what Bodyguard did in Rajasthan smacks of desperation. The other thing here is that these marks are crossed so often these days that Salman will cross these again with ETT and Dabanng, then there will D3. So on and so forth. So this whole insistence on creating history when that history is being created (supposedly) every other week. And here it is true that the credible film is much more important. As opposed to doing a Bodyguard-like quick fade and then this negativity surrounding the film it is far better to have a 100 crore film where no one questions the box office and so on. For example Singham. And purely as a business proposition the trade would rather make its money off BG where the profits are much greater and the risks much lower as opposed to this kind of deal. Which is why as I said before this cannot be a path for SRK going forward even if the film does well. It’s not a Lagaan kind of moment where the film does well but ultimately the prestige transcends the gross and nor the Enthiran (Robot)/3I kind of deal where you have the biggest gross ever. Falling between these stools might be fine on a normal day but not when you present it as reinvention. But anyway let’s see how this film does from hereon.
Also time to “rescue” folks here from this Srk /ra1 obssession..
Cmon: there’s life beyond ra1 lol
Anyhow finally got to complete a film I could only watch in Parts earlier but now savoured in totalilty and in the right “setting”
Paris –
-romain duris was better than I expected, even acting wise
Needless to say: Paris was captured brilliantly and stands out like more than a character
Juliete Binoche again proves how good she is…
Fabrice luchini was awesome –brilliant
Melanie Laurent continues to be the alluring, appealing and dangerously charming …..
A character that stayed with me was the” bakery owner “— who wasnt exactly racist but subtly opinionated like most Parisians
The psychoanalysis of fabrice where he “opens up” was well done.
This film is nowhere near the “tree of life” but had a certain language and grammar that is immensely likeable and endearing.
Binotte and Laurent both “perform” brilliantly in different ways
^^^ thats what too much of Anubhav Sinha or Rohit Shetty or kjo or anees bazmi (even as a critic) affects one lol
Read an interview sometime back , was it kamal Hassan, who said he has become very strict with the things and sensibilities he endulges in nowadays —to avoid the “inadvertent influence”
Having said this: nothing is better or “highbrow” than something else…..
Couldnt resist hijacking this ra1-masturbathon lol
Better to put ads in the “popular channels” haha
Got really “refreshed” by this film and creatively “stimulated”.
Whats it about the french: When it comes to the evocative, reflective, penetrative albeit subtle, they can trump the british/american sensibilities.
It just comes naturally to them what needs to be “forced” in the english/american way.
Anyhow something about the Binoche/laurent type (noth not devilishly beautiful) allure rather than the over-the-top “beauty” abounding in hollywood/bollywood.
Having said that: most bollywood patrons find this stuff “slow” and “boring”–which is why at the very hint of something worthwhile like a dhobi ghaat, they desert the ship (and go to golmaal) lol
H’mm, Kevin Thomas hasn’t said much beyond summarizing the plot. It’s not a full review, so perhaps that’s understandable. His review for Bodyguard, while also brief, was a little longer than this, and equally “kind.” I don’t know how Henry can call this review “very positive”. It’s more neutral than anything else.
But the Salon and Variety reviews linked by Munna are not “positive”; they make the same points as the Indian reviews, namely, that the special effects are outstanding, but the story and characterization weak. The universal consensus seems to be that the special effects are, in fact, excellent, which should please SRK, since this seemed to be his main objective.
On the question of the “kindness” of American reviewers, it’s mostly due to the journalistic standards of U.S. publications, which do not allow the kind of personal attacks that are unfortunately the norm in the Indian press. Also, American reviewers do not think that “to critique” means “to carp.” I find it interesting, though, that sometimes the Hollywood Reporter has a reviewer of South Asian descent, who follows all the petty and vicious ways of the Indian critics.
A long time ago, the entertainment editor of the L.A.Times was Charles Champlin (Kevin Thomas began his stint at the LAT under Champlin). He was often accused of being a filmi Will Rogers, who “never met a film that he didn’t like.” Champlin always explained that it takes enormous effort to make even a bad film, and he always tried to be mindful of that in his reviews. I’m glad to see that Kevin Thomas is keeping that tradition alive.
But, interestingly, all the reviews, whether from India or the U.S. are consistent on three things: the special effects are great, the screenplay is weak, and there are logical holes along the way. So I think that can be taken to be true.
Oops, I somehow thought Satyam said “kind” not “positive”, so I went off on a lecture about kindness. Since I can’t edit my post, please excuse my digression.
But I still do wonder: what do you see to be so “positive” about these reviews? They are polite, but they do point out the flaws of the film as well as its virtues. Is it the contrast with the Indian reviewers that has struck you both, Satyam and Henry?
Once a movie becomes butt of jokes and this phenomena achieves a critical mass, nothing can help the movie in the multiplexes. IMO jokes at the expense of a movie are much more damaging than straight forward trashing. And here twitter with its 140 word limit is the perfect weapon.
Ra.One created three circuit records on day one in West Bengal, Mysore and Tamil Nadu for the first day collections.
On its second day the film has set new highs for a single day in every circuit apart from Bihar, CP Berar and CI. These circuits have many small centres and Ra.One being a sci -fi film is probably why the records have not come in these circuits.
The late arrival of 3D prints also helped proceedings on Thursday as 3D shows only started yesterday at many B and C centres. In places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore it shattered all records by big margins.
Ra.One (Hindi) has collected around 23 crore nett as per early estimates on its second day. It is the highest collection of all time for a single day.
The first day had collected around 14.75 crore nett taking the two day total to 37.75 crore nett. The regional version collected 1.35 crore nett on its first day and day two is likely to be 1.75-2 crore nett.
The all India jump is 55% on day two which is exactly the same jump that Golmaal 3 had on its second day on Diwali.
The film will drop today as films do after a big holiday. Bodyguard came down to 13.60 crore nett on its Friday but this should remain higher as it is still a holiday in some parts of the country.
Is this what it’s come down to? Golmaal 3? Man I’m no SRK fan but let’s not insult him this way!
Nice mix ‘n match going on here.. we’ll take G3 day 2, then we;ll take BG’s day 3, and oh yeah give us Wanted on day 4 and Kites on day 6! Hell we’ll even take Raavan on day 9! It even sounds the same!
So BOI have it at 37.75 crores in 2 days while Taran and Nahata have 41 crores or something. Big differential here. Think BOI are closer to the truth here though they’re of course spinning it like crazy now.
Whether its 23 or 25 Cr, it’s a damn good single day number. My sense is it will cross 85 Cr BG extended weekend but 100 is impossible as earlier touted by many!
let’s say it is higher than BG on day 3 and does 15 crores or something (I’m dubious if it will match day 1 but anyway..).. that will give it about 52 crores over the first three days. That just leaves Sat and Sun then for the extended weekend. If it then kept up the same number over those two days it would have 82 crores. If it is somewhat higher on Sat or Sun it could match the BG 85 crore total or be a bit higher. But I think this is pretty much the best case scenario at this point. Tomorrow’s numbers should tell us what to expect in this sense. So with 30% more screens than BG it would be lucky to end up in that range.
Ra one may have created biggest day record, but if we consider two days combined total of both movies (Hindi version) which I think is more fare, BG is almost 1 to 1.5 crs more. Ra one numbers are indeed impressive but well short of expectation. With 30% more ticket rates and 30% more screen space, this is not an achievement for this hugely hyped movie.
Editor’s Note: Ra.One is THE film this Diwali and getting wall to wall coverage. It might not have broken Bodyguard’s opening day collections but it’s still got the rest of the holiday weekend to gather steam. But eminent playwright Mahesh Dattani says despite the hype and the special effects, this is a movie we can do without. Especially for a film that pegs itself as a family film. Here are five reasons why.
This model of an Indian kid we can do without.
This film is made for a pan Indian audience. How many kids in India can afford these kinds of games? How many Indian kids can relate to gaming heroes? And why is it that being a ‘dood’ is supposed to be ‘cool’ for Indian kids? Why can’t Indian kids be cool eating with their fingers? Also why do they have to look and dress in such a way that they can ‘pass’ for a white American kid? The kid’s deepest concern is that his father is not cool. His dad eats with his fingers and says ‘dude’ instead of ‘dood’. The kid is a gaming junkie with attitude. He doesn’t like fat kids and does nasty things to them, but we are supposed to like this kid. The disturbing thing is that kids in the audience do like him. And the film does not develop into any moment of realisation for the kid except that he ought not to think of villains as cool. But by the very absurd standards he sets for a regular Indian kid, he is truly the villain of the piece.
This model of a South Indian protagonist we can do without.
I really thought the ‘Ayayo’ kind of caricature of a South Indian person went away with Mehmood. Mehmood was at least witty and his characters had the wisdom of a Shakespearean fool. Mr. Khan’s South Indian nerdy male act is a direct assault on one’s sensibilities. No matter how jaded and socially incorrect you wish to be, you will find this gross representation sickening. He eats noodles with curds using his fingers the way North Indians think South Indians eat. Or more precisely, the way Mr Khan thinks South Indians eat. While one does not expect him to be a method actor, he only needs to open his eyes and see. But artistic representation is the least of his concerns. Getting a few laughs is all that he cares for.
Every move of his on screen screams out “Love me, I am Shah Rukh Khan”. With this sales anxiety occupying his every single thought, he suddenly remembers that he has a vast South Indian market that his company needs to make capital of. So you have a hastily added scene with ‘Rajni sir’. Kareena Kapoor even does a prayer when he appears on screen. Clearly the sales anxiety has been passed on to the director Mr Anubhav Sinha. But the producers undermine the intelligence of a South Indian audience, who know when they are being laughed at.
This kind of sexist, suggestive smut we can do without.
screengrab/ibnlive
Five minutes into the film we have a scene where Shah Rukh Khan’s character is in the game and in enemy territory. The enemies are three Chinese females who are called – hold your puke– Iski Lee, Uski Lee and Sabki Lee. Parents and kids in the audience laugh in complicity with the demeaning attitude of the super hero towards women. It just doesn’t seem to be an issue amongst parents.
I wonder if Mr Khan is okay with the fact that his children could grow up thinking a woman’s identity is nothing more than her sexual organ. Looks like he has many Indian parents for company in this regard. Also, Kareena Kapoor’s character is happy to be the yummy mummy who can magically transform from caring mother to chamak challo and then to damsel-in-distress. Isn’t there an organisation giving out a Rakshas award to sexist filmmakers? Ra.One definitely deserves a Rakshas award.
This sort of screenplay by numbers we can do without.
I know Bollywood is at a crossroads where the old paradigm does not work anymore and a new one is yet to be discovered. But there seems to be a certain join-the-dots kind of approach that is still in place. Alas it doesn’t work if it is used as clinically as it has been used here. The ingredients that go into the soup pot are: A villain and a hero. Next, a comedy track that comes and goes but never adds to the story. Throw in some mandatory car chases and body part jokes. The sure hit formula now is to marry Hollywood silly with Bollywood silly. I am afraid two sillies do not an engaging film make.
This kind of hard sell we can do without.
My neighbour’s child has already made up his mind that he wants to see the film twice. He doesn’t possess video games but now he wants one of those gaming consoles that his parents have to now consider shopping for. Undoubtedly Shah Rukh Khan has some kind of charisma that attracts many adults and children. Also, maybe his heart is in the right place going by some of the scenes in the film.
The best part of the film is when he tosses away a cigarette saying ‘Thousands of people give up smoking every year, not because they read the warning, but because they die.’ There are those occasional gems in the film that makes one warm up to him. If only he wouldn’t sell things. Maybe if he is made aware of the grave consequences of his actions, he might change his mind. But then who is to tell the Badshah of Bollywood that his subjects are better off without his wares?
Mahesh Dattani is a Sahitya Akademi award winning playwright and director and the author of many acclaimed plays including Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man and Tara. He directed the films Mango Souffle and Morning Raga.
The first three are objections I would likely share (the first two were apparent from the trailers). I don’t think it is fair to single out SRK/Ra-One as far as the last two are concerned.
Well said Mahesh Dattani. Your article needs to be publicized. I am a Tamilian–and I have had it with caricaturing of regional groups by Bollywalas. Loved these words from Dattani–
He eats noodles with curds using his fingers the way North Indians think South Indians eat. Or more precisely, the way Mr Khan thinks South Indians eat. While one does not expect him to be a method actor, he only needs to open his eyes and see. But artistic representation is the least of his concerns. Getting a few laughs is all that he cares for.
And the brat kid–we don’t need such role models for our kids.
I wish a filmmaker would make a film about an Indian kid comfortable about being whoever he or she is…not a wannabe, not somebody ashamed of his parent.
these guys pretend to be great progressives but you scratch the surface and all the old attitudes come out. The Tamilian stereotypes, the Gujarati ones (KHNH.. the guy who says obscene stuff because of mispronunciation), the sexist stuff (KKHH.. the girl only becomes acceptable once she ‘feminizes’ herself and starts wearing sarees), the ‘foreign’ paranoia (this rather surprisingly from Johar but MNIK has a post-9/11 representation of the US that looks like Nazi Germany at points!), so on and so forth. A lot of this stuff was par for the course in an earlier cinema though Dattani is right about this being mediated in some ways (even if calling those characters Shakespearean fools is going a bit too far! at least in most instances) and certainly the characters were often individualized. Having said that in some ways this kind of ‘global’ notion of progressive behavior often rests on an ‘obscene’ underside of stereotype, conservative or otherwise. We see this in Hollywood too. Actresses are often much more stereotyped today in major productions when they’re not rendered as simple objects of desire than then were in an older age. Many critics have made this point about this industry. It’s some other stuff too.
Re: “The Tamilian stereotypes, the Gujarati ones (KHNH.. the guy who says obscene stuff because of mispronunciation), the sexist stuff (KKHH.. the girl only becomes acceptable once she ‘feminizes’ herself and starts wearing sarees), the ‘foreign’ paranoia (this rather surprisingly from Johar but MNIK has a post-9/11 representation of the US that looks like Nazi Germany at points!)…”
Plus the xenophobia vis-a-vis the Chinese (the offensive “lee” sisters in Ra-One if reports are to be believed); the contempt Kajol casually displays for her white neighbor in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (or perhaps that is simply Johar’s contempt for his audience); and I seem to recall anti-Chinese moments in Kal Ho Na Ho as well.
The “liberalism” of very many contemporary films is simply LIFESTYLE liberalism — i.e. as long as sufficient markers are shown, symbols deployed, to drive home the point that a particular social class is being represented, nothing more need be done. Thus, pre-marital sex not because of any commitment to human freedom, but simply because that’s what people “of a certain type” DO.
Ra.One Final 2-Day Box-Office Score: Rs. 43 Crore
1 hour ago by Komal Nahta Comments ( 4 )
The final figure for first two day’s collections of Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One is finally out. As reported, the superhero flick collected Rs. 25 crore (all-India net collection including the collections of the Hindi, dubbed Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions) on Thursday. Considering that the film had made Rs. 18 crore on the opening day (Wednesday, October 26), the two-day total is Rs. 43 crore.
To put into perspective the comparisons being made between the collections of Ra.One and the Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard, one has to consider a couple of facts: a) Ra.One has released in about 1000 screens more than what Bodyguard had releases in and b) The ticket rates for Ra.One, for both the 2D and 3D versions, are higher than the ticket rates of Bodyguard.
Nonetheless, Ra.One has done phenomenally well both in Indian and the Overseas circuit
Weird that Komal would mention the number of screens and ticket prices, and not mention that Bodyguard has only the Hindi version, while Ra.One has three versions.
sm,
It is not weird but is called the ‘cheque effect’.
My, oh my. We have such ‘sinister’ conspiracy theories here. I am afraid for my safety in this ‘sinister’ place!
Rather amusing.. What Nahata says about the ticket rates and the extra screens accrues hugely to BG’s advantage.. but after saying it he nonetheless calls the Ra One numbers phenomenal!
a) Ra.One has released in about 1000 screens more than what Bodyguard had releases in and b) The ticket rates for Ra.One, for both the 2D and 3D versions, are higher
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Can you increase the revenue (collections) by increasing the price (ticket rates) ?
I am an economics student, and we studied that it is not possible to increase revenue by increasing the prices. because if the price increases, customers stay away from the product. If they still buy the product at the higher price, then this price is the ‘actual’ price of the product…. and it is a serious blunder to sell a product at a price lower than its actual, because you are let go off the free revenue.
The 1000 extra screens will not help Ra One in the total revenue but it will certainly help in getting the biggest single day ever– which is actually a short term gain.
The reason why a big film will want to open on large print count is just to safeguard itself from a very bad wom scenario– nothing more than that. Ra one’s wom isnt that bad…. and in the long run those extra 1000 prints wont help it anyways.
I agree. I have always questioned the prinicipal theory that higher ticket prices IMPLY higher revenue. In an elastic price-demand model this does not work. In an inelastic one does. But rightly stated in the latter if this is the case, it implies something meaningful about that product, the “willingness” to pay the extra premium.
Higher prices also price people out. Lower prices may bring more people in.
In the end, revenue dictates the story in my opinion. If Ra-One is gaining from higher ticket prices, then well done. Someone is paying and that person is willing to pay it. Unfortunately people do get priced out…but this is a business model.
The xtra prints do help. Implicitly, the film may gain from wider coverage points, better screen allocation etc. But again I would say all of this is cloudy. 1) Expansion is a legitimate positive for the film. 2) the film is a big film so one would expect better screens and wider release. Here its a question of artificial and non artifical growth. The former gives it the edge over former films, the latter doesn’t.
The second day performance is great. Its a new benchmark, a record, so its achieved something. But call me a party pooper, I am sure SRK was aiming for bigger things which he could still achieve…but lets see.
For the big blockbuster kind of film it’s clear that you can raise prices, certainly in the multiplexes without being adversely affected in terms of the audience. Often the prices come down in a week or two but by then the revenue has been generated. Obviously they don’t increase it to the point where they lose the audience. At the same time the audience wouldn’t be willing to pay the extra amount for every film. But yes it’s a tradeoff because there’s a certain cross-section of the audience that already finds the tickets too expensive. Or even if affordable they would certainly not see the movie twice at those rates (another factor that affects trending even for a film that has very positive WOM). The question is precisely about the balance here. I personally think it’s smarter to err on the lower side than the higher but the thing is when you make these expensive films and when you are also not assured of strong trending on most films for one reason or another you try to get as much as you can in the initial run.
Komal and Taran are giving numbers that are much higher even if it is combined of Hindi and non-Hindi versions. BTW, when did we start looking at combined revenues? We never did it with Raavan.
Komal is the most crooked and shrewdest of all these faggots.
Anyways, falls today are going to be substantial.Love the way, BOI sets things up for the next day,so that it doesnt look too bad when it actually happens. They claim it is normal and expected.
Golmaal comparision is apt as that is what SRK can hope for.
I would be greatly surprised if this can surpass BG.
Taran’s Tweet for Friday Business : #RaOne Fri trends: Biz was back to normal [read strong] from 12.30 noon/1 pm. Wed+Thu total [India] is Rs 43.60 cr nett [all languages].
Latest tweet-
SRK spent 150 crores just to touch the Crotch of Rampal ……lol
Hritik’s Tweet– for Rampal
DUDE!!! U’ve taken it to a WHOLE new level!! INSANE!!! BEST negative performance EVER! World class body aesthetics! BRAVO!!
Kunder’s Tweets-
1.Ab main nahin boloonga, duniya bolegi
2.Bodyguard is trending. Everything else is pending
3.”I’m being targeted” – Dart Board
LOL, as someone pointed out yesterday once you fail the laugh test for your film and the twitter world gets you it’s very hard if not impossible to recover. In a sense we too miss the point often by talking about the reviews. These are a good metric to judge the box office but these tweets can often be brutal. And a multiplex audience is certainly tweeting or is on facebook and this ‘WOM” can be more definitive than anything else.
Satyam and Q bhai, I know will not be happy with the analogy but this is akin to Anna movement where the aam janta are tweeting/ facebooking and clearing the web of lies being spread by Nattha and NoAdarsh .
Not unhappy at all! The whole social media thing is a great democratizing tool. At the same time it can have its excesses. Much as even normal democracy can sometimes simply be about ‘mob rule’.
Rockybhai: you mean, I’d be unhappy that you’re likening SRK Inc. to a corrupt status quo?!
🙂
Kidding aside, I have lots of reservations about the Anna movement, but it has gotten harder and harder to support this government…much harder than in 2009.
Whoa, is that an actual tweet from Hrithik? I honestly thought someone was mocking his glazed, over-the-top yet strangely simultaneously muted turn on that dance show he judges. That’s one of the weirdest English-language sentences ever: why doesn’t he just say Arjun Rampal was looking amazing, or kick-ass or something? WTF is “body aesthetics”?! Something tells me Walter Pater just sat up in his grave…
That odd phrasing probably, (in Hrithik-land) equates being in great shape to delivering a terrific performance. Of course in a world where such logic applies there’s litte difference between Hrithik and Day-Lewis.
Fantasy novelist Samit Basu encounters Ra.One. Exclusive to Rediff.com
I spent a lot of time this year wandering the wilderness of Bollywood trying to put together a film adaptation of my last novel, Turbulence, a superhero novel set in India and England.
Whether it’ll ever get made is a question that hasn’t been answered as yet, but meetings with a few of Bollywood’s movers and shakers have taught me many things about the way the Bollywood collective mind works when it comes to high-budget action blockbusters.
So here are some of the axioms, three Golden Rules based on which Bollywood blockbusters get made. They might help put your Ra.One experience in perspective.
It’s disturbing for anyone who plans to make a living as a writer to hear this, but an alarmingly large percentage of B-wood power-brokers said this with absolute confidence. I still believe this is not true, but hey. The ‘audience’ is seen largely as an amorphous, slack-jawed blob with the collective intelligence of a not-very-intelligent 11-year-old.
I suppose this holds true for Hollywood as well; it would explain many of their biggest commercial successes.
People will go and see any film that has been marketed with a great deal of pizzazz; it doesn’t matter what’s in the film as long as it’s hardsold to them and stars someone they like.
There has to be at least one song that goes viral. The most worked-upon thing in the movie has to be the hero’s abdomen. There have to be one or two ‘dialogues’ that people can repeat at each other ad nauseum.
Location is important.
It’s distressingly cynical, but this rule works very often; just look at most of our recent Bollywood mega-hits and you’ll see that this works.
It could be said in Ra.One’s defence that it wasn’t yet another cynical, brainless ‘South masala’ remake. But in between the splendidly-put-together action sequences, look at the utterly moronic jokes, the endlessly crass attempts at humour, the barrel-bottom-scraping homophobic/racist jibes, the numerous plot holes, the many logical inconsistencies, and you’ll realise that this is a film that does not expect any degree of mental ability from its audience.
Like the aforementioned dim-witted 11-year-old, the audience must be told what to do. And what to like. If Ra.One works commercially — and I hope it does, because I have a personal stake in wanting Bollywood to make more superhero films — it will be yet another sad confirmation of this Bollywood principle.
Like they say, ‘Film’s purpose is to entertain. Don’t overanalyse.’
‘The Indian audience is not evolved enough for anything that Bollywood hasn’t done before.’
This one was a particular shocker when I heard it the first time, because it goes against everything I’ve believed in eight years as a full-time writer.
But again, look around you — television, movies, books — and you’ll see this is largely true.
As one Bollywood top maven told me with utter certainty, ‘People want to sit in the hall, relax, enjoy themselves. Nobody wants to struggle with new ideas. It makes them angry.’
Fair enough — if money wasn’t a consideration, I’m sure everyone would be happy to be wildly experimental. But big movies mean big money, and big money means big risks, and if you don’t give the audience what you already know it wants, you stand to lose everything.
The bigger the budget, the more the film must conform. None of this is new information.
The saddest part of the Ra.One experience is the growing realisation, as you watch the film, that the intentions of the team behind it were probably good when the whole epic project began. That at some level, it wanted to treat its audience as smart, and ready to see things it hadn’t seen before.
There must have been, at some point, a genuine desire to push the envelope, to give quality-starved Indian audiences something new. And in the technical departments, Ra.One achieves that — the VFX and sound are excellent, the crack international team behind the film has done its job well.
Yes, most of the action sequences and character designs are wildly derivative, but the same criticism could be applied to any number of successful Hollywood movies.
The problem with Ra.One is, though, that while it might have started off with the urge to push boundaries, it ended up being a confused mix of tried-and-tested and desperate-to-please. Worried that the film wasn’t familiar enough, they stuck in gratuitous audience identification points — Karva Chauth references, Ganesh idols — and unnecessary celebrity cameos from Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and the already superhuman Rajnikanth.
And the audience, already informed about these guest appearances by endless publicity, cheered dutifully — and gave up any involvement they were feeling with the film’s actual story.
It’s easy enough to blame the writers for Ra.One’s many flaws — the most clear problem is the bad script. But while the writing was undeniably terrible, varying between cliche superhero/sentimental speeches and inane attempts at comedy/melodrama, let’s not forget these writers were unlikely to have made any of the key decisions about the way this film was made — there are probably lengthy debates about the marketability of every single line when the stakes are this high.
What we end up with, though, is a film that wants to be new and familiar at the same time, and does not know whether it wants to be compared with Iron Man or Dabangg.
It tries to be both, and fails at each; a film that was supposed to be ambitious and groundbreaking but at the very peak of its ambition, aspires to match a level of technical competence that Hollywood takes for granted.
What our esteemed Bollywood kings seem to be forgetting is that the application of these two axioms — assuming the audience is sub-normal and hates change — is exactly what has led to all of Bollywood’s innumerable flops. If anyone knew what actually made films work, they would be bottling up that essence and selling it at malls.
For Bollywood films above a certain scale, you can only raise money if one of the top five heroes of the moment agrees to do the film. And heroes are sensitive creatures who do not like sharing screen space, and like calling all the shots on their films. And physically being in most of the shots in their films.
This rarely yields good results in terms of quality, though it seems to work fine for the legions of love-crazed fans who flock into theatres and spew hate on the Internet in defence of their gods.
The chief problem with this axiom is that it imposes very dangerous constraints on films — there can only be one central character, everyone else is window dressing.
In superhero-specific terms, it means we’ll never have an X-Men/Avengers style multi-starrer superhero movie until this changes (On a personal note, every producer I met warned me that no hero would want to do an ensemble movie, and my script would have to be about one man only, regardless of the book it was based on).
Ra.One is unapologetically a Shah Rukh Khan vehicle, and it must be said the man tries everything — he pulls off his most famous poses, tries out a range of facial contortions, hairstyles, costumes, accents, all in this vast, multi-crore attempt to please his son on and off screen.
But no amount of the Khan’s much-vaunted histrionic abilities can hide the fact that the characters he’s been given to play are flatter than his abs.
That said, Ra.One is not as one-actor-minded as, say, Ghajini, Singham or Bodyguard, and this is a good thing. Most of the praise that has come in for Ra.One can be reduced to ‘Kareena and Arjun Rampal look amazing.’ Excellent, but why bother with a story, then?
Surely it would be more economically viable to have people sit in theatres and look at slideshows of all these hot people. I might just have hit upon the Next Big Thing here.
An even bigger drawback of the hero-is-everything approach is that films which aim to be ‘mass entertainers’ usually feature heroes who are invincible even if they are flawed; Nietzschean Ubermenschen who stride through their stories casually beating up people while flooring heroines with their charm, supporting and entertaining their families, singing, dancing, nipple-baring and never, ever letting the whistles in the audience die out.
More superheroic than any superhero Hollywood’s come up with yet, unbeatable musclemen, walking wish-fulfilment fantasies of millions of not-especially-Alpha Indian men.
Shah Rukh Khan does try to break this rule — his real-world character is called a coward by his son, and we are repeatedly told that his video-game hero is weaker than the villain (though we see no real evidence of this.) Sadly, this is the biggest risk the film takes.
In a few weeks, we’ll find out whether Ra.One is the biggest commercial success of all time or a huge flop. Like all Bollywood films of its scale, the essential quality of the film will be irrelevant either way, as frenzied fans and rival stars’ fans battle it out across comment sections all over the Internet.
If Ra.One succeeds commercially, there will be a sudden explosion of superhero films; if not, no one will try one for the next few years (well, unless the sequel to the equally flawed Krrish is a box office smash).
Either way, given that Bollywood essentially has no idea about the basic tenets of superhero films, here are a few blindingly obvious guiding principles for those brave souls attempting the next one, whenever it happens. Click next to take a look.
It feels sad to have to say this to people who are presumable a. professional writers and b. literate adults, but the fictional world you create must have rules, and these rules must be consistent.
In a superhero/scifi/fantasy story, you can stretch the laws of physics, but that’s really all you can do. After that, you have to work hard, even harder than in a ‘real-world’ movie, to ensure that the rest of the world you create is logical, that everything else makes sense.
You can’t just do whatever the hell you want with the plot, the characters, and the world your story is set in just because your heroes are more than human. If you have no internal logic system, you lose any member of the audience who is not a zombie.
The set-pieces in Ra.One are extravagant, executed by professionals who’ve done this sort of work before, and are something the rest of Bollywood should emulate — though the hundreds of deaths that train action sequence would have caused leaves me in severe doubts as to the hero’s competence, if not that of the VFX artists.
The rest of the film seems to have been put together by bumbling incompetents.
Are Ra.One and G.One humans? Robots? Or life-sized mannequins that come to life? And whatever the case, why do they have superpowers? I put software in my USB drive all the time; it hasn’t started chasing me around the world and trying to kill me, at least not yet.
What are Ra.One and G.One and why do they have powers in the real world?
No one knows. No one seems to care. Even if one accepts that a piece of software escapes a video game and finds form in the real world, it is really rude to your audience to not even provide a semblance of a pseudo-scientific explanation as to how, unless you specifically mention that no one knows how it’s possible, or explain it away by saying it’s magic.
It’s not enough to copy scenes from the Terminator movies; if you’ve seen them, you know there’s a whole deal of elaborate explanation of how their bodies work the way they do.
G.One seems to be made of metal (hence, the horrible pierced groin in the metal detector scene) but surely someone at Dalip Tahil’s video game company might have noticed that they’d made an incredibly complicated cyborg?
There’s some brief introductory technobabble about how the gaming company creates tangible 3-D holograms, but then film ignores its own half-hearted attempts at explanation when the software, instead of just manifesting physically, proceeds to enter physical replicas of the video-game characters. Complete internal logic shutdown.
At various points in the movie, G.One and Ra.One exhibit super-strength, super-speed, mind control, energy radiation, shape-shifting, self-healing and self-cloning abilities.
These powers crop up conveniently when the problem they’re facing requires them, and disappear otherwise. Which indicates a. an utter contempt for the audience and b. really, really bad writers.
Most superhero films have villains who are physically stronger than the hero; hence the hero has to struggle to overcome them.
This is a standard feature of a superhero film, not a breathtaking innovation the way Ra.One makes it out to be.
Ra.One’s hero makes video games. His greatest achievement is a video game where you have to pretty much be a fully trained ninja/acrobat to defeat Level One.
I know Kinect controllers and the like require movement, but if you’re planning a game where success is based on real-world acrobatics, you’re looking at a seriously niche market.
Most video games involve sitting on a beanbag and pressing buttons. I suspect the Ra.One video game will require exactly that. If not, it is not going to be a commercial success.
While it is clear Team Ra.One knows nothing about superheroes, it would be nice if they knew anything about video games.
What does our supervillain, Ra.One, want?
World domination?
Nuclear warfare?
The destruction of Facebook?
No, he wants to kill a small boy who was kicking him around in his videogame.
Granted the small boy was extremely annoying, and Ra.One had my sympathy for most of his few appearances, but you know what? This is not the kind of earth-shaking conflict situation you base a superhero movie on, unless it’s a flat-out comedy or parody.
If you met Ra.One on the street, you could just get out of his way; he wouldn’t bother you otherwise, unless you were foolish enough to buy what looked like a terrible game and take him on in it.
We also never really know what G.One wants, apart from protecting said annoying small boy from Ra.One. Once that’s accomplished, it’s difficult for us to care what happens to G.One, because, well, we don’t know what he is!
Is he capable of turning human or otherwise giving Kareena Kapoor the loving she clearly needs?
Is he going to be locked in eternal combat with Ra.One in a video game that will presumably be cancelled by its makers since we know it’s capable of unleashing real-world mass destruction?
Why should we care?
Again, internal logic=good. You can have an interesting cross-film cameo from Cheeti the robot from Endhiran. You can have a celebrity cameo from Superstar Rajnikanth. You can’t have both. Sorry. Not even for the reality-bending Rajnikanth.
In the end, how you feel about Ra.One depends entirely on what standards you’re using to judge it. Does it measure up to the best of Hollywood, or to similar films made in China or Japan? No.
Is it better than the worst Hollywood superhero films? Certainly.
Is it a step forward for Bollywood? Absolutely.
But it’s still unclear as to whether it’s in the right direction.
Re: “People want to sit in the hall, relax, enjoy themselves. Nobody wants to struggle with new ideas. It makes them angry.”
This is a very telling observation when it comes to the audience. Note that the chap quoted doesn’t say people are close-minded, or that they don’t understand new ideas — he says new ideas make them “angry.” I can attest from personal offline experience this is true (in my personal experience, i.e. not talking about the internet as it seems to be populated by fanatics of all kinds) of very many people in the audience, and in my experience it seems to be MORE true of an urban, bourgeois audience than of others — and as these films have increasingly started to focus on peddling a certain lifestyle, the intolerance is increasing. Because any comment against such a film is interpreted as an attack on a certain lifestyle. Salman and SRK films are a case in point: no Salman fan I know is offended if I say Ready is a bad film, but a much larger percentage of SRK fans I know react negatively, i.e. aggressively and in an overtly hostile manner, if someone says he/she doesn’t like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This isn’t because SRK is per se more likely to have intolerant fans — it’s because Karan Johar’s films peddle a certain lifestyle, whereas Ready doesn’t in that overt a way. SRK simply has more of these films, but when he doesn’t, the same holds true of his films too: if I tell a SRK fan Devdas or Asoka is a bad film, I am not likely to get an aggressive response; but I might well for Kal Ho Na Ho — the former simply isn’t a lifestyle film in that sense. But SRK is the first major star associated with this sort of thing (QSQT didn’t peddle a lifestyle; neither did Deewana — but by Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kal Ho Na Ho and Mohabbatein we are squarely in the new paradigm). And now, with the rise of multiplex cinema, there are more such films — try telling someone who likes those films that you don’t like Wake Up Sid; or Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara, and you might get some nasty responses (I certainly have; in the case of the former my interlocutor sneered and snapped “That’s because you’re not from Bombay; only a Bombayite can truly appreciate what Wake Up Sid really means”; I first wondered why they bothered releasing the film elsewhere in the first place, and, second, wondered what would have happened had Manoj Kumar followed the same logic with Kranti — perhaps only those who rebelled in 1857 could have been the target audience; oh wait, they’re dead). Don’t mean to idealize the past, but I never got the sense that some dude thinking Agneepath sucked in 1990 was offensive to Bachchan fans in quite the same way…
RA.ONE had a slow start on Friday morning and noon as Bhau-beej was celebrated. Consequently, the business slowed down considerably in several circuits till noon, but the business was back to normal [read strong] from 12.30 noon/1 p.m. onwards.
Meanwhile, the film has collected Rs 18.50 cr nett on Wednesday [the highest ever Diwali day collection] and Rs 25.10 cr nett on Thursday [the highest collection ever on a single day] in India, taking the 2-day total to Rs 43.60 cr nett. The total includes the business generated from all three versions — Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
this diwali period has been brutal to SRK. every day a new festival ruins his box office chances! It’s going to be tough tomorrow and after too. All the Diwali celebrations will leave people exhausted. You can’t expect them to make it to the theaters.
I think Ra.1 would have been even a bigger hit if people didnt have to breathe,brush their teeth,shave,shower,have sex or sleep . These are coming in the way of it being a block buster.
Collections of Ra.One have dropped today (Friday, October 28) which is the third day. The drop wasn’t unexpected as many Hindu families stayed away from cinemas in the morning and noon shows due to Bhai Dooj festivities. Also, the mixed reports have begun to tell on the collections. However, collections picked up again after the noon shows.
Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. What’s more, the next weekend may also favour the film since there is not a single major or big release scheduled for next Friday.
Besides, the film is getting good reviews in its 3D version and that may run for the next five to six weeks. The kids and the youngsters especially are talking positively about the film which is about a video game. What is standing the film in good stead at the script level is the family values it talks about. Like a cinema manager of Bombay summed it up, “There are bound to be mixed reports of Ra.One but a lot of people are liking the angle of good triumphing over evil and the lesson imparted to Shah Rukh Khan’s kid in the film – that it is the hero who is to be emulated, never the villain.”
Totally this guy is a muppet. He is just so far up SRK’s payroll that he will make anything remotely negative sound like “its ok”, “nothing wrong” etc. What is this nonsense about Hindus staying away and what not. I thought “Diwali” is mine meant the collections were meant to rocket up during this period. Not a different festival every day to keep people away.
The warning signs are in this report. Whether they materialise is another matter. In a way its better to be a bit like sitting on the fence – the only problem is other stars don’t benefit from this soft, gentle commentary – he’ll save it for SRK but take others to the gutter.
What is this guy saying?! Just a year ago, he was saying that Diwali is the biggest period for Bollywood films! Earlier in an interview to TOI Nahta had said ”There is NO better period in India to release movies than Diwali!” See the excerpt:
”The best time for a film’s release is during Diwali.
But why is this so? Can’t other festivals rake in as much moolah? No, says film trade expert Komal Nahta. ”Diwali is unique in that it is spread over four days. Raksha Bandhan, Eid, Christmas are one-day holidays and hence you do not get the same numbers. There is no better period in India than Diwali for a film.””
“I think Ra.1 would have been even a bigger hit if people didnt have to breathe,brush their teeth,shave,shower,have sex or sleep . These are coming in the way of it being a block buster.”
and by the way people think this is conspiratorial stuff but we see an example here. How is the guy able to get that many seats in a ‘houseful’ theater? How are there empty rows in such a theater?
can be corporate bookings where people decide not to turn up with the clients and lose the potential business deal! I find this less plausible with individuals because you’re not likely to spend that kind of money on tickets and not show up because of bad reviews. At least not the majority. But where this happens it shows how miserable the WOM is. To be honest not suggesting this is happening all over the place but these are old tricks of the trade in this sense. Not as effective anymore because of piracy and so on but one can try and hold things together for a day or two. Note that if there were bookings and people didn’t show up Nandy wouldn’t have been able to buy tickets. Because the theaters wouldn’t know this before the film started! Even into the movie they could hardly have done this because people come in late all the time.
I had Frnds which have 8 tickets of ra1 wid him given by him by HSBC, And One Investment firm, another has 4 tickets from Western Union. Wat we are seeing is Nothing but bulk corporate bookings n now Theatres can be empty as ppl r afraid to turn up for this RA1 :)… It is Same story everywhere… Simply running on Corporate bookings till Sunday… as Amod Mehra has just saID THAT RA 1 will see big Crash on Monday as it has lost all steam .
LOL Gryfindor thanks for posting– great one specially the following-
And there is not truth in the claim that it is a movie for kids, what with all the condom-condom talk and Tere-Parents-Ki flying around. Not to mention the occasional crotch touching(going by current stereotypes, I’ll assume that those scenes were the contributions for which Karan Johar was thanked in the credits
The media and Shahrukh should simply accept RA.one as a failure and move on but I think they are just trying to squeeze out a few more crores out of it until the bad word-of-mouth really spreads if it hasn’t already. In any case, big stars and marketing can only give you good openings which more or less RA.one did get. If a film is completely disliked, then no one can save it – HR couldn’t do it with Kites, SRK can’t with RA.one, and even Aamir will fail if he happens to do another Mela again.
But how is it a “failure”? It may not have had as big an opening as hoped for, but it’s not exactly a small opening, and we’re still in the opening stages. Too early to write it off.
nothing to disagree with here.. I think though what happens is that even when the writing seems to be on the wall you have this hope that it can be somewhat stable at the very low end in which case the biggest possible initial can help. Which is when you get these frantic efforts. However once WOM also collapses completely I think it’s really a losing battle. You can do all of this with a film that has been liked to a degree but for various reasons doesn’t quite have the box office numbers to back it up. In such a scenario the ‘hey it’s doing great’ narrative can have some resonance. But otherwise it’s very hard. In general the days of Nahata and Taran dictating the terms of the debate by disseminating their narrative in the media and so forth are really over. The online world from blogs to social media can just take apart the numbers, examine the contradictions, poke fun at things in a very viral way, etc. And here I think that for all his savvy at this stuff perhaps even SRK (or someone like Johar) underestimates this aspect of things. Because they’re still in the 90s paradigm of keeping control over the print and TV media whereas now it’s the Wild West of the online world! Today you have someone who watches Ra One in an early morning show and immediately texts/tweets everyone about it even before the movie is over. You have people who tweet several times during a film. It’s very hard for anyone to combat this. And so the whole 25 crore claim is also a waste of time. No one’s going to talk about this for a film that doesn’t have good WOM. But also there will lots and lots of stories like Pritish Nandy’s basically implying it’s all a hoax and so on.
And yes there are still some old-fashioned truths in the world. One of these is that the biggest stars in the most hyped machines cannot save a film that is being rejected by the audience.
Movie is still collecting more than 14 Crore a day .. so no point to write it off. The day collection will drop to > 50% and total collections till that day if is less than 110 Crore .. we can easily write it off.
There have been more than murmurs about Srk having lost the top slot since the ghajinis,dabangs, 3I,
Boduguard, reddy etc etc
But somehow Srk was tactfully avoiding a major release for some time and was trying to “shy off” a head on battle where stuff can be verified
What ra1 dies from now on depends on the merits of the film and umpteen other things…
But what even most Srk die hard fans will admit secretly is that now he has formally and officially lost the top spot in verifiable terms–
Nothing else (not even Diwali or the genre or the musk or pheromones in the air) can justify ra1 opening falling below bodyguard (Which was the weakest of salman/aamir recent blockbusters)
Trying to justify that ra1 is still a “superhit” is face-saving but doesnt achieve much to rescue the facade or Srk-“the best”
Alex,srk was not No1 by 2007. Akshay is No1 from 2007.
Akshay has been consisitent in giving hits and his total net of successful films is more than any other star.
Srk era has officially ened now.But many people realised it when welcome outgriossed OSO in 2007.
Even earlier, Krissh, Dhoom 2, Koi Mil Gaya, Gadar, Kaho Na Pyar Hai were much bigger hits than SRK’s films. All of Salman’s films trumped SRK’s films in the year 1999 too. What ”era” was there?
true sunil – akki’s last hit was in 2007 and from then onwards –
on planet earth – he has given flops/superflops/disasters and he is
definately no. 1 in this aspect since 2007 🙂 check IMDB Akshay Kumar and see how many hits he has given from 2007 to remain on no. 1 – where as sallu, aamir, ajay all are doing absolutely nothing to remain in nos. game 😉
Ra.One (Hindi) collected 22.75-23 core nett approx on its second day. It was a record collection for all India for any single day. Below is the second day territorial breakdown of the film.
just going by BOI numbers they had BG at 20.6 crores for the opening day. Here it’s 22.8 crores for day 2. With all those extra screens, all the ticket hikes, isn’t it obvious that even on the second day it really isn’t ahead of BG?
Ra.One (Hindi) is likely to set the opening record for the first three days which is 52.60 crore nett set by Bodyguard this year. After the first two days Bodyguard is just edging it with a 1.50 crore nett lead over Ra.One (Hindi).
Bodyguard was 39 crore nett after two days while Ra.One (Hindi) is 37.50 crore after two days. Diwali puja hit Ra.One for around 8.50 crore nett otherwise first two days would have been similar as both days were holidays.
The morning and afternoon collections on its third day have seen drops at places but strong at other places especially in the North due to Bhai Dooj holiday. Gujarat and Delhi/UP is likely to have a strong third day.
Superheroes sans spandex
The superhero comic and the movie are deeply linked to American history and the country’s mythology about its place in the world
Stall Order | Nandini Ramnath
Shah Rukh Khan returned to the screen this fortnight after what seems to be a century by retooling a very American idea. In Ra.One, he plays a superhero named G.One who seems to have been assembled out of parts that originally belonged to the Iron Man and The Terminator. Khan’s costumes in Ra.One, however, are far more sophisticated than the baggy pants that Puneet Issar wore in the 1987 movie Superman (cotton should never ever be used in place of spandex). In keeping with Indian conventions, Khan’s bionic man sings, dances and even indulges in a bit of romance alongside saving the earth from the evil Ra.One. Superman faced many challenges in his lifetime, but shaking a leg to Chammak Challo was never among them.
Dressed for the part: In Ra.One, Khan plays the superhero G.One.
Dressed for the part: In Ra.One, Khan plays the superhero G.One.
The Issar film, which also starred Dharmendra in a Jor-El-inspired part, was an early attempt at importing the American superhero genre to India. It is kindly described these days as cult (usually a synonym for massive flop). There haven’t been too many attempts since to create local avatars. Shekhar Kapur’s Mr India had a truly extraordinary arch-villain but a fairly ordinary hero whose only trick was that he possessed a bracelet that made him invisible. Krrish, directed by Rakesh Roshan and starring Hrithik Roshan, was another brave attempt to Indianize the genre, but Naseeruddin Shah’s evil megalomaniac who builds a machine that can predict the future was an odd idea for a country that has its share of astrologers and clairvoyants.
The superhero comic and the movie are deeply linked to American history and the country’s mythology about its place in the world. Besides, why on earth do we need Hollywood superheroes when we have Bollywood superstars? Hindi film heroes have mostly been all-rounders at the very least, if not endowed with near-divine powers. They have never needed shiny capes or sparkling gadgets to activate their extraordinary powers. The Hindi film hero has had the supernatural ability to woo the woman of his choice (the exceptions depend on whether the story has a tragic or a happy ending), sing (in different voices) and dance (in different styles without practice). Our heroes can unite warring factions, win wars and save the nation from dastardly enemies. They triumph in all the fights they get into, regardless of the physical strength of their opponents.
Some of our heroes have been getting a bit more realistic of late. They actually run in the opposite direction from toughies and weep when their hearts break. It’s not surprising that disgusted audiences are embracing the antics of bare-bodied heroes. The pretence of putting up a defence against the likes of Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn has been all but abandoned. Salman Khan’s “Robinhood Pandey” in Dabangg and Devgn’s Bajirao Singham in Singham are men of extraordinary talents who don’t need to prove it by wearing shiny underwear on top of tights. Stripped of its self-importance, the superhero film is really a hyperbolic action movie. Indian heroes seem to manage just fine without implants or extraterrestrial powers. A police uniform can be just as empowering as a superhero suit.
Ra.One released in theatres on 26 October.
Nandini Ramnath is the film critic of Time Out Mumbai
Most of Ra.One’s underhand charm comes from director Anubhav Sinha’s mismanagement, says Poorva Rajaraman
Ra.One opens with a genuinely funny superhero parody dream sequence: a hyper comic book version of Shah Rukh Khan has to save Desi Girl (Priyanka Chopra) from a lurking Khal Nayak (Sanjay Dutt channelling Munnabhai). He is only moderately successful by the time his wishful son wakes up with a jolt. Little Prateek Subramanium, played by Aman Varma in the happy tradition of androgynous children in SRK movies (the Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna boy as actually a girl), does not believe his father can be a hero.
Turns out, his father is not a hero, but a bumbling South Indian computer programmer, Shekhar Subramanium. The cause for you to celebrate is simply this: short of a spoof, Ra.One is probably the lightest superhero film you’ll see.
If Ra.One had a genre-abiding screenplay the movie would subject us to deep emotional ties; the soft, laconic romance between the protagonist and his wife, the tender bordering on troubled relationship with his son, the genuine inadequacies a socially awkward man in a fast-paced world—a man like many others, who has to suffer the desolation of ordinariness.
And that movie might still be made by the thoughtful and brave, but the first 30 minutes of Ra.One coast along on the sheer novelty of a Shah Rukh Khan playing a South Indian. At least someone protests: “Dad, I don’t do inge va”, says little Prateek.
Its hard to avoid the fact that most of Ra.One’s underhand charm comes from director Anubhav Sinha’s mismanagement. On the subject of good and evil, Ra.One’s dialogue is imponderably stupid. The movie has a very jumbled cultural grasp on South India. It makes Padosan look authentic.
Ra.One does, however, pose a serious question to serious movie watchers. After the sophistication of the recent scripts like Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara or Delhi Belly, how can it be okay for Ra.One to lead us back into the dark ages of screenwriting? The answer is related to the film’s lavish insincerity. It has the most desperately feeble attempts to make you care about death or grief. It doesn’t bother with scenes, Ra.One is string of scenarios.
All these things might make Ra.One a truly Indianised superhero movie—no achingly real character arcs, no saving whole cities or the civilised world, no childhood foreshadowing adulthood, no romance beyond lusty dance numbers, no Matrix explorations of free will in the cyber age, no psychologically mutant villains, no explanations, no real stakes. Put another way, Ra.One is an emotionally lively video game.
Ra.One has a redeeming streak of madcap on constant simmer. At one point, Kareena Kapoor (Sonia Subramanium) is typewriting a feminist thesis that will liberate all Indian women. She also wants to be the world’s most famous writer. Of course, this happens before she becomes an evil train driver, but that is a spoiler for another day. At school, her son Prateek uses his technological mastery to project the poledancing-in-leather skills of his teacher. The sexual humour doesn’t end there—condom jokes, robot-men saying c**t on loop and a son sexually harassing his mother by tweaking the cyber incarnation of his father.
Shekhar, whose day job is to plan appallingly conceptual video games (when did just shooting things go out of style?), has launched a new game called Ra.One. This is when, in a delightful twist of attention deficit modern parenting, Akon’s Criminal starts playing and Sonia and Shekhar dance (their “booty going pop pop pop”) while their son’s video game alias Lucifer, is being thulped in by the evil and increasingly sentient Ra.One.
On Prateek’s prompting, within the labyrinthine schematics of the videogame called Ra.One, the villain is always stronger than the good guy G.One and can only die if lots of micro-conditions are met. So, when Ra.One transmogrifies into the real world, things begin to suck. He kills Shekhar and Lucifer/Prateek is in mortal danger. Who will save Lucifer from the bad guys? Its time for G.One to transmogrify with the help of an under-utilised Shahana Goswami. But, as the long-suffering Sonia exclaims (presumably with the audience) “Yeh sab kaise ho sakta hai?”
Indeed. This is a world in which a sophisticated self-propagating computer program can attain autonomous, corporeal selfhood, but Kareena Kapoor can’t book a taxi to meet her at the Mumbai airport. At this particular juncture of the movie, you might want cede your misgivings to its internal logic.
Why would she book a taxi if she were illegally smuggling a superhero into India with her? Also what use is a taxi in a world where Rajinikanth will meet you at arrivals? And nothing must rid her of the lush NRI fantasy of beating up overcharging taxi drivers.
Ra.One is far easier to watch when the action moves to Mumbai post-interval. India is also where we meet a ravishing Arjun Rampal who finally gets his turn to play Ra.One. He has competition from Kareena Kapoor, who does immense justice to her few minutes as an evil possessed-by-Ra.One train driver. She is on a mission to persecute the most self-convinced demographic of any urban context: angry commuters.
The 1933 King Kong is a classic because it further etched the New York skyline into cultural history and memory, Ra.One does this well with Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. What is the best way to assert the cultural significance of something? How can you ensure that cinema archaeologists from the future will find the cultural touchstones you place in your movie? How can communicate the deep symbolic value of a building like CST to a jagged cityscape?
Blow it up.
If anyone is still idealistic enough to wonder why books don’t have 50 crore weekend openings or why cinema is and will stay a deeply hegemonic medium, they should watch Kareena Kapoor drive a local train off the tracks into the edifice of CST. Oh, and they should probably stick around while the building clatters to the ground. Why does this happen?
Perhaps its a profound commentary on architectural imperialism. Perhaps it is a sly suggestion to Danny Boyle not to consider a Slumdog Millionaire sequel. Perhaps Ra.One is retroactively telling the Shiv Sena that they needn’t have bothered with nomenclature protests against the erstwhile Victoria Terminus.
this is a great read! Will say on the VT point that this is closer to Hollywood paradigms where typically disaster movies revel in blowing up iconic sites and symbols! And note how this kind of move is in its conceptual defacement not that far from the whole terrorist delight in doing the same.
My comment elsewhere in response to the claims of Ra.ONE beating BG’s three day numbers:
LOL.
Too bad, it took 1000 more screens,jacked up ticket prices, unprecedented marketing blitzkrieg and friendly BO reporting to achieve it.
It is like saying India surpassed England’s total in cricket but they did it with 15 batsmen, a shorter boundary and friendly umpires. And some batsmen were allowed to bat twice.
When a main stream journalist like Pritish Nandy claims that he went to see the movie and there was a Houseful board but he managed to get six tickets and a lot of front rows were empty ( and more became empty later), I guess it says a lot.
By 100% Drop he mean .. almost empty houses .. not necessarily no body .. and he is cinema chain owner .. check his earlier tweets, he was hoping for excellent weekend based on advance and also he said earlier that advance is better than bodyguard …
Samit Basu’s write up reveals the hollowness of Rangan’s review. He fails to point out the basic failures at the script level. This business of glorifying the masala films of 70’s is lazy writing. There are good msala films and there are bad masala films. There are good 70’s films and bad 70’s films. And the bit about all our heroes being superheroes is another piece of lazy thinking. Not true. Chitti in Endhran works. So does Krissh in Krissh. Because the films and the character have adhered to the need for internal logic that Samit Basu spelt out. There is clarity about what Chitty is and what are the limits of his power ( need for charging is one, inability to understand finer human sentiments is another)) . Rangan fails to point any of these, in his eagerness to defend Sharhulkh..suggesting that a silly smile would be the right analgesic to go through what is obviously a painful film.
will say once more that SRK’s nemesis here turned out to be his original sin of taking Anubhav Sinha as director. He had the material, he clearly had the marketing blitz in place to get the biggest initial, but he just forgot who the director was. And with this sort of subject it often seems easier than it is. Which is why Krrish should always be studied closely as a model of how to get it right. One doesn’t have to be exactly as old-fashioned as Roshan but once should learn from this. And of course more to the point one should really examine Shankar’s film and figure out the distinctions. The problem is that whether you’re SRK or a fan of a star if you think that it’s all the same and it’s only about SFX you stumble. The same errors are made by people in other genres. So Akshay might have been doing stupid comedies but as he’s learnt over time some are better than others. Similarly Ready and BG might seem to be the same stuff but it’s not. Now one might not care for the entire genre, that’s a different thing but one cannot paint everything with the same brush. Much as I dislike a certain kind of multiplex fare and even though I had very many of the same objections with ZNMD I still found it much more engaging as a watch than most others. So on and so forth.
Getting back to Ra One the single biggest reason why I was never going to watch this in the theater was the director. The advertising campaign confirmed this for me. I still would have changed my mind with the right reviews but that of course didn’t happen. On the other hand for all my problems with the politics of remakes and so forth I am interested in Don 2 because the longer trailers are very slick. So it always helps to start with a more credible director. Doesn’t have to be a Farhan Akhtar with more auteurist tendencies. It could be a pure masala filmmaker but there has to be a great degree of competence for this kind of venture.
And to repeat once more SRK should really have turned South for someone to handle this film. There actually aren’t many I can think of in Bombay besides Rakesh Roshan (if any!) to handle this sort of very commercial deal with this subject.
the only one director in india who can handle this genre still remains to be……shankar…..and no one else on horizon can do this in my opinion….shankar offered robot to srk earlier, but it didn’t happen….and now this seemingly “crap” ra.one – srk has very little sense of choosing a script/director i would say and he is purely relying on his safe-territory-successes of the past….rajesh khanna’s history might just repeat here….srk is definately going down the hills – as an actor!
i lost all respect for Rangan when he failed to recognize Rakesh Roshan’s talent for storytelling ( making both Koi Mil Gaya and Krissh work is no mean feat, when you see the younger lot like Goldie Behl , the Love 2050 guy and nowAnubhav Sinha) . And mentioning Endhiran in the review and not appluading Shankr’s fecund imagination and ability to create characters and character motivations that engage is a sin that I will never forgive.
Easy, Utkal.
Sometimes we forget that a critic’s job is NOT to just agree with us or think exactly like we do.As long as it is a viable view point, it is OK even if it tends to differ from ours. My objection is to manufactured reviews which we see all the time.
It is not about agreeing with us, it is about us agreeing with him. If I think Dickens or Dostoevsky does not get London right or the human subconscious right will I consider them great writers? Obviously not. That’s why I don’t think much of Salman Rushdie or Ayn rand. Writing wel is not enough. You have get the insights right. And who judges if he has got the insights right? Obviously it is I , if I am the one giving the opinion.
Haha kash vvvthe “encountered” ones are safe n sound–more in the “harem” the better…lol
Havent read b rangans review but he seems to be losing it sow what lately –began with delhi belly…
Feel people in general are underestimating rakesh Roshans indianised Krish etc
They were cunningly done keeping special care not ronalineate hritik fanbase or kids or the urban crowd whilst keeping it relatively simple fun…
Heard there is some kareena “boob press ” , “condom ” , “gay jokes” stuff here–I mean: what are these jokers trying to achieve here—killing their own patrons –truly to be kool
Sometimes it’s difficult NOT to do too
Much and that restraint is rare
@utkal
LOL! I can see who your next victim is after Guzaarish.
Normally one appreciates a critique when it expresses things that one wants to hear.
I thought he expressed himself well about Ra.One, *but* I thought he desrves to be put into the museum along with the other dinosaurs for ridiculing a ‘girl’ saving SRK and herself from a situation. Indian men will never get over their so called definition of what makes a man. I also have this opinion that it was really sporting of SRK to do the scene.
Well WOM is indeed bad. Just chatted with acquaintances in Dubai who have dropped plans to see it today (it being Friday which is a holiday in Dubai) due to the negativity. They said “its a headeache inducing movie”!.
Now, I am seriously reconsidering my plans to take family tonite to my local Loews.
You are right there, I have a couple of co-workers (die srk fan’s) who went with their wives on wed, They had nothing but horrible things to say about the movie. And this coming straight from a die-hard srk fan. SRK is not only loosing interest with neutral fans, but even his loyalists are giving it a big F to this one.
My friends in England (and India) have nothing but good to say about Ra. ONe – as a full time entertainer.
They went with their families. They said that now some oftheir office workers have decided to go and watch it with their families.
And as one knows here, I’m going with friends this weekend (I will comment on it here some time on Tuesday /Wednesday).
And I am going all the way to England.
Or don’t I, my friends or acquaintances count.
“On the whole, Ra.One opened to below expectations response due to wrong release day (Diwali). Having picked up handsomely on second day, it started its slide on third day. The appreciation being poor, the film’s box office potential stand hugely challenged.”
The other big thing here unlike KANK and MNIK is that overseas numbers just won’t be that impressive to have a counter-narrative of any sort. These sorts of genres aren’t huge anyway with the overseas audience, at least so far, and here it’s a bigger problem. Nor is there the fact that MNIK got very positive critical coverage. To put it in perspective SRK has never had such total failure on a comparably hyped project. I can’t think of anything really. There is just no escape hatch on this one.
Inside scoop– there are some anecdotal scoops about fee tickets/passes being dished out for ra1–in the name of corporate tie-ups .
Will have to confirm it and difficult to fully prove it conclusively since there are many ways of fudgIng certain figures by playing with certain figures.
Plus one shouldn’t be critical if benefitting lol
Anyhow : hope ra1 “lasts” on it’s own…
All th best
Typo–*free not *fee
Is this how “houseful” status is achieved–hmmm
Next time-one may ask for free nachos/beer combos and what about celebrity company–
& yes: Srk /Arjun won’t do& definitely not kareena
Heck–this one doesn’t even have an exciting celebrity to “lend”
By the way–have noticed that some “hardcore” Srk fans have suddenly gone onto hiding..
Cmon guys– we are neutrals and here to help/hype
I think I will certainly enjoy it sm even if I think it’s not a great film. From all that I’ve heard from acqaintances it is a great entertainer.
One can take the greatest of films, even one like Pathar Panchali and make jokes. This is the reason why I think the people aren’t being genuine, but attempting to spread negativity and to sabotage.
Most SMS or Twitter jokes are either inane or somewhat mean-spirited, and are endlessly repeated/resent. However, they are also spontaneous, and I doubt any intent to sabotage anything.
I’ve just read a review by an extremely die-hard SRK fan on another forum, who didn’t like it and was very disappointed. I must say I found that much more shocking than anything else I’ve read, since I’m familiar with her level of devotion. So I think some real SRK fans also genuinely don’t like it and were hugely disappointed. The ones who do like it (SRK fans or not) are almost universally praising it for its special effects and for “taking Bollywood films forward.” The ones who don’t like it complain that there is no story or emotional involvement. So it seems to me that the special effects are the only thing that people have liked.
Haha good one kash
Seems u have retained your sense of humor even after marriage.
Credit to your better half–is she looking after u well / or vice versa…
Is she not a ra1 fan lol?
Thanks Brotha, She is great, Oh I feel like I married a chef (amazing cook – which I knew of, but not to this extent) gaining weight by the day need to hit the gym soon. Tell you what, to prove how much of a fan she is. Time and again I have ended up taking her to really bad movies (indian) which kind of took away my credibility of “knowing” my films. She says no matter how much the hype or good word we always end up watching a really bad movie in theatres, So to take it further, she goes to me “you know how our record has been of watching bad films in the theater, lets go watch ra.one” LOL. I told her “I dont think we need to do that, SRK has already made a bad movie” LOL.
Ra.One Creates Records Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm Suffer
Saturday 29th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One released on Wednesday opened to superb response all over and has just edged out Bodyguard and set a new high for the first three days. The film has mixed reports and mass centres are likely to see drops while urban centres will have a good run for two weeks.
Damadamm and Tell Me Oh Khuda opened to a poor 0-5% response on Thursday. Both film will go unnoticed due to the Ra.One wave.
The other releases like Mujhse Fraandship Karoge, Rascals, etc had an abrupt end to their run with the release of Ra.One on Wednesday.
Ra.One Collections Drop… But Pick Up Again
October 28th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Collections of Ra.One have dropped today (Friday, October 28) which is the third day. The drop wasn’t unexpected as many Hindu families stayed away from cinemas in the morning and noon shows due to Bhai Dooj festivities. Also, the mixed reports have begun to tell on the collections. However, collections picked up again after the noon shows.
Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. What’s more, the next weekend may also favour the film since there is not a single major or big release scheduled for next Friday.
Besides, the film is getting good reviews in its 3D version and that may run for the next five to six weeks. The kids and the youngsters especially are talking positively about the film which is about a video game. What is standing the film in good stead at the script level is the family values it talks about. Like a cinema manager of Bombay summed it up, “There are bound to be mixed reports of Ra.One but a lot of people are liking the angle of good triumphing over evil and the lesson imparted to Shah Rukh Khan’s kid in the film – that it is the hero who is to be emulated, never the villain.”
“Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. ”
does anyone every say this about a successful film?! These guys are tying themselves up in knots!
.
Just got back from a 3D show of Ra.one
First a Background of myself. Those who are familiar with me, know that I am first a BigB fan, then an ardent admirer of Aamir, and an ardent critic of SRK over the years. I consider myself the Aam Junta, the quintessential middle-India values person, who always is won over by simple thought provoking or visually enhancing material packaged in the true bollywood package. In my experience, SRK has always delivered paisa-vasool entertainment, with a few missteps such as Billu, Asoka, MNIK. But after watching this movie, I can attest that he has had balls the size of watermelons to attempt something like this. THE MOVIE IS KICKASS (JHAKASS IN HINDI), except for some really dimwitted decision-making to include some really questionable material. It is beyond exhilarating in parts, and totally frustrating in those dimwitted moments.
I dont need to accentuate the positives. All the VFX, the Ra.One-G.One first confrontation, train sequence, etc is totally breathtaking for a regular BW viewer. Forget Hwood for a moment, we are witnessing a desi flick folks.
Now the negatives:
I am beyond frustrated to understand why the heck he had to put in all the sexual innuendos, the gay jokes, the crotch jokes, the boob-butt grabs..all that simply kills it for the major target audience: such as me, the quintessential middle-Indian conservative values viewer. When 3I was the chase, why do it by bursting one of your tires with such tripe?
Also, another peev: Maybe he was trying to court the South Indian audience (and the paltry 1.5crs a day) with the Shekhar act. That entire Tamilian track is distracting, to say the least. It adds nothing to the narrative. When the need was to do a Suri, why do a Shekhar?
A major script flaw: How is it possible that they perform SRK’s funeral, and go through a time of perhaps at least a week, but yet not discover the mayhem at the Game-company headquarters, with the rotting body of the Chinese guy? They show Prateek and Goswami discovering the body after what seems to be at least a week or more?
And lastly, the climax is a bit underwhelming. IMHO, instead of the face-off in the artificial game-feel world, the face-off shouldve been an even more exhilarating version of the first face-off when they are blowing up cars, etc. It shouldve been a fight in the open with them causing real destruction, like of Nariman Point, India Gate, etc, instead of in those closed doors.
I truely believe, that had it not been for those distractions and questionable sexual innuendos, this movie would make 250crs minimum. I feel these distractions have minimized the potential. I dont know how Komal Nahta feels that this is a kids movie. I for one felt embarrassed with my kids watching the condom-condom stuff, the constant crotch crap, that totally uncalled for gay airport joke. Why, oh Why did SRK have to spoil the tempo with that bullshit? Also, maybe its fine in India, but out here in the US, a kids movie would never have that Chinese killing his mom scene with that slice of her neck. That falls in PG-13 territory, not in R.
Aside, I saw this movie in a Loews, where there never has been a desi movie played before. Interestingly, there was no Interval!!. I had to miss the airport scene to go to the loo, but came back in time to see Rajnikanth..lol.
Another thing, this movie has been playing since Wednesday with 4 shows daily. I dont know who the distributor is, but he sure will lose money here. My smalltown does not have even 500 desi families, God knows who will fill all these shows. I went to a 7:30pm show, and it was barely 25% full.
Anyways, I support the SRK fans. Kudos to SRK for attempting this. Bravo SRK. But, please also accept my brickbat for all that uncalled for crap.
Having said all this, I really feel that this movie will cross 160-170 minm in India. It may or may not cross 3I, that all depends upon the Indian audience acceptance of all that uncalled for filth.
RE: “Aside, I saw this movie in a Loews, where there never has been a desi movie played before.”
Boss, which Loews? In NYC, I have seen dozens of Hindi movies in two Loews (the one in Times Square; and the one on 3rd Avenue between 11th and 12th streets) — it is not true that a desi movie has never played in a Loews. In fact this isn’t even the first SRK film to play in a Loews: Don played at the one on 86th street and Broadway, and I am pretty sure KANK was on in Times Square.
Thanks for the write-up. On the jokes, this has to be something psychological, since we saw this even in Kal Ho Na Ho, and we saw a bunch of such humor when SRK and Saif were hosting the Filmfare awards. I can’t put my finger on it, but he seems to trot this out everywhere…
RDB played at the west side Loews on 34th near Macy’s….years ago Bluffmaster, Asoka, Company and others played in the Loews beneath the old Virgin Megastore in T Square. It’s definitely not a first..
Oh that’s right, forgot about that Loews near the Virgin megastore — I saw Bunty aur Babli in back-to-back shows there in 2005…man that was a sorry ass cinema.
Yeah it was crummy, but I had a soft spot for it. Among other things, it was the first theater where I saw Lal on the big screen on this side of the Atlantic! Incidentally there was the Gramercy on 23rd and Lex (now a concert space) where I saw my first Adoor film (Nizhalkuthu) in a cinema back when MOMA was showing international fare there.
I remember that theater in Gramercy when it used to show Hindi films…went there several times in the 1990s…it shut down soon enough (until recently, you’ll recall this was a recurring problem in NYC, with “Bollywood cinemas” shutting shop every few months, and the films would appear at a new location)…
Absolutely. Most recently as you may recall that dilapidated old warhorse, the Eagle Theater, shut down, only to see a new Jackson Heights cinema pop up showing Indian films. This would have been yet another footnote in the history you’ve cited were it not for the very welcome fact that they show Tamil and Telugu films! This is where I saw Enthiran a number of times and where I (hopefully) plan to see 7aam Arivu this weekend.
That theater is a godsend — in Mumbai I don’t know of any place that shows sub-titled Tamil/Telugu films; if it is still playing I might catch 7 Aum Arivu when I show up in NYC in November (short 4-5 day trip)…I saw Enthiran there, and might even have seen Raavanan there (or perhaps that was somewhere in NJ)…
Do either of you have any info on Velayutham? That is, is it worth seeing? I have a chance to see it on Sunday, but it will be difficult to squeeze in. I was originally going to go just to support the guy who’s bringing it, in the hopes that he might then bring 7am Arivu. But he said he will be bringing 7am Arivu anyway, so maybe I can skip this. 🙂 Any info or recommendation will be greatly appreciated.
Q: Yeah, Raavanan was in Jersey. Also I find it sad that Mumbai doesn’t do this…
Unfortunately sm the only information on Velayudham I have is the obvious – Vijay’s in it, which pretty much precludes my seeing it on the big screen short of a glowing set of reviews which isn’t the case here anyway. Only half joking on this score! Not that 7AA has been getting universal accolades or anything but this one at least has a lot going for it. Personally I’d wait for 7AA.
Thanks, GF & SK. I knew Vijay was in it, which was why I thought I’d check it out, since I’d never seen him on screen. But I didn’t know it was a Nagarjuna remake, which is enough to keep me away. 🙂 I’d read somethingt that said Velayutham was a “superhero” film, so I thought it would be interesting to compare three superhero films, Velayutham, AA, & Ra. One. But right now I don’t have time to go to anything, so will probably skip Velayutham, and catch AA later, since I’ve also not seen Surya on screen.
Its in Fishkill, way north of NYC. This is Upstate for you city folks!! I was pleasantly surprised to see it play here, otherwise I wudve had to drive an hour to Rockland to see the movie at the AMC in Palisades.
In KHNH, there was one gay reference. Here, he went overboard with the crotch mishaps, Kareena gaalis, boob-butt-condom-poweryoga etc etc. Funniest is the one when he grabs Arjun’s crotch so that the game can proceed from Level 2 to Level 3 !!! That really makes me think SRK is a weirdo.
Why include the Criminal song, with the constant in your face booty-shakes. Arre bhai, aapke ghar mein maa-bahen-beti nahin hai kya? Its uncomfortable to view all that with females. The movie was for families with kids, but he certainly ensured that the single bachelor audience too got their fill of carnal pleasures.
This is a very encouraging report, NyKavi. I was planning on seeing Ra.One to check out its VFX, but I really can’t go for a couple of weeks, and was beginning to doubt if it would stay around that long. Now I’m pretty sure it will.
Ra.One (Hindi) did well on its third day by collecting around 16.50 crore nett as per early estimates. the film has set a record three day collection of 54 crore nett. Bodyguard was 52.50 crore nett approx and Dabangg was 48.75 crore nett approx. These are the only three films to collect around the 50 crore nett mark for three days.
The regional versions of the film saw a big fall on Friday. The film is likely to be driven by multiplexes from now on. Single screens will get a boost on Sunday but overall appreciation is better in the multiplexes of big centres.
The weekend is looking to settle in the 85-90 crore nett region as Saturday may well see a drop although business will be up and down depending on the circuit.
The third day of Ra.One (Hindi) has come in lower than estimated earlier at 15.50 crore nett. This makes it a three day total of 53 crore nett. It is a record for first three days but by a very small margin.
The Tamil and Telugu versions have collected around 4 crore nett over three days which gives it a 57 crore nett all languages total.
The regional versions have performed better than any Hindi film before in just three days but there was big drop on third day and for the number of prints in play for regional version its an average performance.
So with almost double the number of prints and double the number of shows, the film manages to collect the same as Bodyguard in three days. For a film which was supposed to break every record in bollywood history by big margin, this performance can be termed as pathetic only.
Cine-goers have given their verdict. They have not been fooled by the so called trade experts (say chamchas of SRGay – Komalangi, Torna and others). Writing is there on the wall for every one to see. With all the hype and hoopla this film now most definitely is not going to cross 130 crores in India. Thats for sure now.
and why dont we count overseas when we talk abt opening.
even there movie is watched by human beings.
just because other stars have very less iinfluence there so theier fans dont keep overseas no. in mind.
including overseas RA.ONE has beaten previous record by a huge margin.
they have BG at 52 crores and change. So again they’re just making it somehow edge out BG and calling it a ‘record’. With all those extra screens and so on it is actually doing worse than BG.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Makes Rs. 16 Cr On Day 3
October 29th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One made Rs. 16 – 16.5 crore (all-India net collection) on day three (Friday, October 28) from all the three versions (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu).
The movie, which netted Rs. 18 crore and Rs. 25 crore on days one and two, saw collections drop on Friday morning before they picked up later in the day. The third day’s collections are lesser as compared to the first two days, but they are still good enough.
they all seem to be on the same page at this point. Taran has the same ‘combined’ number. BOI have the Hindi number separate and therefore it’s lower by a crore or so.
since when has Singham been a box office ‘hurricane’. It opened way lower than the Salman films though sustained better than the latter to get to 100 crores but it would hardly otherwise be in any such discussion!
Again as I said yesterday this stuff is tiresome because it just does not matter at this stage. No one buys the ‘success’ of this film other than Nahata and Adarsh! Even some of the other trade analysts have been blunt about its prospects. Anyway the fact once again is that it isn’t keeping pace with BG. If it were with some of the advantages it has it should have been way ahead. It’s like 3I had some advantages over Ghajini including ticket hikes and so on. It should have been way ahead and was! What if after all this the film had barely touched Ghajini’s numbers? But even with those two films the screen count disparity wasn’t as great as it is here.
Think they’d be lucky to get to the Ready total at this point. Let’s do the math — according to BOI it’s a 53 crores through Fri. Let’s assume it keeps up this Fri number over the weekend. The film would then be at 83 crores for the 5 day period. It would have to do better on the weekend to get to 90 crores. And even that number would leave it 30 crores or so short of the Ready total. A film that by many estimates is looking to crash. As some have pointed out the corporate bookings are still making the current numbers a little better than they are.
Saw this last night. Its not a bad attempt. In parts its quite enjoyable like the Ra-one entry scene, Car chase, Train sequence, G-one RA-one first encounter all these are top quality and well shot. However, the rest of it is a drag. Another irritating part is the forced boob, butt jokes and especially the climax fight scene between G-one and Ra-one where SRK holds Arjun’s crotch in between the fight cmmon how stupid is this as this is climax fight with the so called deadliest villain and u plan to defeat him by holding his crotch it somewhat dilluted the effect of a deadly climax showdown for me. Overall WOM was average to bad. With kids having some fun. But I would take this to a Bodyguard or Ready anyday.
And btw heard the loudest cheer yesterday in a Dubai cinema. No it was not on entry scene of G-one or Ra-one but on the special entry of Superstar Rajinikant. Guess there were members of Rajini fan club in the cinema and they went beserk at his entry wit claps and whistles. I can only imagine what kind of reception he generally gets in South cinemas.
“The half-baked film also reflects a larger uncertainty that has been seeping into the SRK star persona—the inability to carve out a new niche for himself in Bollywood’s changing landscape, where Salman and Aamir are now calling the shots. And SRK surely has not been able to reinvent himself with Ra.One. If anything, SFX stunts and SRK add up to a rather odd, displeasing combination.”
‘RA.One’ fails to surpass ‘Bodyguard’ at the box office
mid-day Mid-Day.com
Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘RA.One’ released on Wednesday, amidst festive frenzy. And despite all the hoopla surrounding the release, the opening figures of the film didn’t match up to the numbers of his arch-rival Salman Khan’s Eid release, ‘Bodyguard’.
It’s another thing, however, that the superhero and special effects extravaganza in the former made new records of highest numbers at the BO during Diwali. However, trade experts are biding time till Monday to give their verdict, whether it is a hit or not, on the film directed by Anubhav Sinha.
At the onset, veteran trade analyst Amod Mehra states that there’s no comparison between ‘RA.One’ and ‘Bodyguard’. “Shah Rukh’s film has about 800 screens more, and therefore, more shows. The ticket prices have been hiked and it’s playing in 3D in many theatres,” he points out, adding that as far as first day collections are concerned, “RA.One has lost in the opening numbers.”
IBNLive
“It earned about Rs 15.5 crore (Rs 14 cr from Hindi and Rs 1.5 crore from Tamil, Telugu) as against over Rs 21 crore netted by Bodyguard on day one,” he says, attributing the figures to low turnout in evening shows due to Laxmi Puja.
However, the film’s distributors peg their first day India figures at Rs 18.5 crore and Rs 25 crore on Thursday.
Sharing Mehra’s opinion that Laxmi Puja was bound to affect the collections of ‘RA.One’, Komal Nahta, trade expert and editor, koimoi.com, asserts, “Due to Laxmi Puja, you should compare first day numbers of Bodyguard with second day earnings of RA.One. By that benchmark, RA.One has earned more than Bodyguard.” Nahta, who pegs the first day collections at Rs 18 crore, is sure that in five days, RA.One’s net collection will surpass Bodyguard.
However, both Mehra and Nahta, share the opinion that the overseas numbers will give the best idea of the fate of the film, said to cost Rs 150 crore. A Mumbai-based distributor, on condition of anonymity, wondered where would ‘RA.One’ stand at the end of nine days, coming Thursday.
“Although everyone seems to be happy with the opening numbers, they’re not exactly confident of making a decent profit,” he said, pointing out that the first two days’ collections are not strong on their merit. “Considering more screens and shows, exhibitors are in panic mode over RA.One in the coming days.”
Another distributor based in central India said that the reports were not good, thereby causing a drop on Friday. “Never mind if it’s Bhai-Dooj, the concept of the movie has been rejected,” he said, declining to be named. “I don’t know how much it will sustain on Saturday-Sunday. It’s another Tees Maar Khan.”
However, Suniel Wadhwa of 52 Weeks Entertainment Inc is optimistic. Dismissing comparisons with Bodyguard, he says, “RA.One is high on graphics and visual effects. So the cost is more than double of Salman’s film. It’s not right to compare the revenue aspect but ignore the costs. Going by the current trend, it looks to cross Rs 90 crore in five days.”
Delhi-based distributor Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts Ltd tells us that Friday morning registered a drop of about 20-25 per cent due to Bhai-Dooj. Further, he feels that SRK’s film could net Rs 100 crore in five days. “However, if it drops on Monday, then it’s a cause for concern. More so, because it’s an expensive film.”
RA.One has to maintain the momentum till November 11 to make money over and above its high investment,” he declared. No wonder, the favourable verdict of the film lies with the overseas fans of SRK. As Mehra puts it, “Shah Rukh is a huge star overseas. Over there, there’s no comparison between him and Salman.”
RA.One
26th October, Diwali
Cost: Rs 150 crore (including print and advertising)
3,500 screens
1st day India net: Rs 16-18 cr
2nd day India net: Rs 25 cr
5 day projection: Rs 90-100 cr
Bodyguard
31st August, Eid
Cost: Rs 60 crore (including print and advertising)
“Although everyone seems to be happy with the opening numbers, they’re not exactly confident of making a decent profit,” he said, pointing out that the first two days’ collections are not strong on their merit. “Considering more screens and shows, exhibitors are in panic mode over RA.One in the coming days.”
Another distributor based in central India said that the reports were not good, thereby causing a drop on Friday. “Never mind if it’s Bhai-Dooj, the concept of the movie has been rejected,” he said, declining to be named. “I don’t know how much it will sustain on Saturday-Sunday. It’s another Tees Maar Khan.”
Ra.One: Shahrukh Khan’s movie turns a profit in 3 days
MUMBAI: Ra.One, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s expensive sci-fi flick, has turned in a profit just three days after release, the head of the production company said on Friday.
Kishore Lulla, the CEO of Eros International, which produced the movie, told ET that Ra.One has broken all box office records for Diwali so far. “I am already into profit ,” Lulla said. Shah Rukh Khan’s riskiest and most expensive film so far opened on Diwali, Wednesday amidst much expectation about its box office numbers and how it will stack up against rival Salman Khan’s Bodyguard, a huge hit when it was released a few months ago.
Bodyguard raked in Rs 21.5 crore in the first day, a record number. Lulla says that RA.One made a net collection of Rs 18.5 crore on the first day, and Rs 25 crore on the second day. Gross (excluding entertainment tax) two-day collections were Rs 67 crore. RA.One’s first day collections led many to believe that the movie had underperformed expectations.
The move received mixed reviews and social media, internet chat rooms mobile phone inboxes were abuzz with jokes, sarcastic one-liners about Shah Rukh’s labour of love supposedly falling short of viewer expectations. Shah Rukh also had another mountain to climb — none of his movies so far have crossed Rs 100 crore in revenue, while all three of Salman’s biggest hits managed to cross that magic figure.
Bollywood trade figures on Friday are also a shade lower than Lulla with many saying that first day collections were Rs 15.5 crore while the second day was Rs 22-23 crore. But Lulla poo-poohs such comments saying that the movie has set a new record for Diwali with first day collections of Rs 18.5 crore, much higher than Golmal 3, which netted Rs 8.5 crore.
Lulla says that his firm will still end up with 53-55% share of the revenue after the multiplex operators and single-screen theatre owners take their share.
Much higher than Golmaal 3? Wasn’t this the film which was supposed to trash 3I records in just first week of its release? Now they talk about numbers being ”much higher than G3”? Why talk only about 100 crore grosser? What happened to the 200 crore mark achieved by Aamir’s 3 Idiots, which this film was always supposed to cross?
All theaters in Kochi witnessed a massive rush on Wednesday, as the much-hyped Shah Rukh Khan, Suriya and Vijay films finally hit screens. At the end of the day, certain trends are emerging. It appears that the response to ‘Ra. One’ and ‘7 Aum Arivu’ are quite mixed at this point. The reviews too have been lukewarm.
Apart from the two multiplexes, the highly anticipated movies were released in more than two theatres in the city. ‘7 Aum Arivu’ was released in Shenoys, Little Shenoys and Padma theatres.
Meanwhile ‘Ra.One’ was screened at Sreedhar, Savitha and Sangeetha. ‘Velayudham’ was premiered at two huge capacity theatres Sarita and Kavitha. ‘Ra.One’, a do-or-die deal for Shah Rukh, given that over 175 crores have been invested in it, does not seem to have clicked in a big way. The film had a very good opening, but many feel that the story is a disappointment, while the technical parts stand out.
“Ra.One is technically perfect but after the first half, it feels like watching a video game,” says Rajesh S, who is working in an MNC. There is no twist in the story since the central theme comes before intermission. The response was somewhat similar for ‘7Aum Arivu’ as well since the film does not appear to have met the high expectation. “The story line is novel and different but it is not as good as we thought it would be. We expected more from the Suriya- A R Muragadoss team. I will say the film is definitely above average but a certain spark is missing in the film,” says Nujum Noohu, an engineering student.
Even though I have nothing against SRK,I am happy that this film is turning out to be a flop..This type of business model where entire screen space is taken up by a single film not giving audience a choice(add to that hyper inflated ticket prices) at important festival seasons is not at all good for film industry..Add to that the high decibel marketing campaign which started months ago..It was really irritating to see Raone popping up every time you visit any web site..
My views and my experience with Ra.One.
Some rambling notes:
Saw it in Queens on Friday evening. Usually any major Bollywood release, it is always jam packed here. I was a little delayed and had some friends joining. So asked my wife to get there early and pick up the tickets and meet the frineds. And, she calls me when she gets there 15 min beofre the show time- there is no body here. It is empty. I quickly asked here to make sure it was not the time for Diwali Puja or Bhai-Duj ceremonies. She assured me it was not. In the end, it was about 30 % full. Next show, as we were leaving was less than 20%. I can confidently say, the BO sotry is now written both in India and abroad. This will not surpass BG. And, even overseas is not going to be what was being predicted.
Now,coming to the film. Stricly ok. Not a stinker and better than BG.
I think inspite of a brave attempt, SRK gets undone by trying to be too smart. The film works somewhat as a SFX driven ,sci-fi thriller but falls flat otherwise. Missed first five minutes but the opening saequence where SRK’s son was dreaming sets the tone. It is hard to take seriosuly when the film itself doesnt take it self seriosuly. The three girls in this sequence were called- Iski Lee,Uski Lee,Sabki Lee. Trying to be too cute and it didnt evoke any laughter. The whole 0TT Priyanka-Sanjay Dutt sequence is very,very flat. And, putting up the tunes of DesiGirl,Khalnayak and KKHH – just sounded so forced and too pat. It is an odd and an unfortunate way of setting the ball rolling. The first forty minutes is nothing short of disaster. Dalip Tahil is painfully OTT. SRK as Tamilian is supremely unfunny. The film stabilises once Ra.One emerges.
G.One aka Rizwan Khan is bearable. Kareena looks very good. The rest of the film is watchable even if not supremely entertainign. Some of the sequences are well executed, tho one can see it is a new concept that the director is grappling with. Some of the scenes and SFX seem random and forced. The SFX are quite good and the best seen in India bar Robot.But, not quite on par with Hollywood. I wasnt that impressed with the trai nsequence .Fairly good but somewhat unimaginitive.
What rankles is the unseemly obsession with the crotch or the ‘main part’ as they refer it to. Someone should tell SRK that the main part is the heart and not the crotch. The larger problem with the film is that there is no vision beyond an idea of an SFX driven vehicle crammed with crowd pleasing ( or what they thought would be crowd pleasing) moments. But, it doesnt work. Sinha is too inept.And,SRK tries to be too smart and too cute for his own good.A recurring theme which is played out in his off-screen life too. The kid is not bad even if a little effiminate. Kareena looks fab. SRK struggles as a Tamilian but is on firm ground as G.One ,even if it is an extension of Rizwan. Chamak Chhalo lives up to the expectations.Rest of the music is forgettable.
On the whole, I still command SRK for the thought and the willingness to take a gamble. But, none for the shoddy execution and for the predictable and now tiresone jokes.Rajini sequence is an insult to Rajini and the audience.
I dont think the SFX/VFX are quite at a level where a majotr Hollywood studio will be outsourcing them to SRK’s studio.
Yes, they didnt get SRK’s order to mix it with the Diet soda in their concession stands.
Kya yaar, except for a few superlative words, you and I have said the same thing.
Dua sirf doston ko hi nahi di jaati, aap yeh bhool gaye.
Dushman ki deedar-e-taareef se aap pareshan ho gaye.
Thanks rajen — pretty solid write-up here — and loved your first paragraph (“I quickly asked here to make sure it was not the time for Diwali Puja or Bhai-Duj ceremonies. She assured me it was not.”)
By the way, the box office discussions have done what all the pandits and pujaris never managed to: make everyone supremely puja/teohaar-literate. 🙂
Ra.One has recorded the third highest third day ever after recording the highest second day ever and second highest first day ever. The highest third day nett collections are as follows.
Spin too should have a half a brain to it.. this kind of stuff produces exactly the opposite result.. it’s not even keeping up with Ready forget Dabanng! But leaving this aside the game clearly is to shadow BG! The problem though is that the latter itself showed some weakness in this sense (this is precisely what I commented on at the time) and which then made the quick fade not very surprising. If Ra One is behind Ready on vastly greater screens one can figure out what the trending pattern here is!
Shailesh Kapoor, the Ormax media guy, the one who’s hardly a SRK foe, he’s in bed with BOI these days as well, writes pieces regularly mauling the Bachchans and praising SRK and Salman and so on to the skies says on twitter that looking at the trends a second week 30 crore total is unlikely. Says that even were it possible that would hardly be big for a film of this scale but in any case it’s unlikely. This too has been framed rather diplomatically.
Guyz it’s only going to be downhill from now. To add insult to injury the overseas numbers are not much to shout about either. This is pretty humiliating for SRK considering the promotions etc and the claims he made. His fans next time should also be careful saying things like this film will crush 3I and post 250.
I was never expecting a huge performance from the overseas audience for this genre. Historically fantasy hadn’t done as well here. So for example Krrish did well enough but it was way behind its Indian performance. But because of the remarkable hype surrounding Ra One I suppose there was a possibility to better this.
Ra.One might be a flawed dream, but hats off to SRK for trying, says Sanchari Bhattacharya
I should add a disclaimer at the very beginning: I am a devoted fan of Shah Rukh Khan and therefore can’t even pretend to be objective while reviewing any movie of his. I have been hopelessly and unapologetically in love with the man since I saw him, eons back, standing on one leg to woo the object of his affection in one of his Doordarshan serials.
At that time, SRK was gangly and awkward and had a god-awful haircut. But I still thought he was smashing.
My faith in him was further strengthened by the slew of borderline corny but hugely enjoyable movies he consistently delivered over the years — Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [ Images ], Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [ Images ], Kal Ho Naa Ho, Om Shanti Om [ Images ] and dozens of others.
But, and I have to admit this, some of his movies have also been beyond forgiveness.
I have cringed at his hyperbolic Bengali Babu act in Devdas. I have walked out of a screening of Mohabbatein because I couldn’t stand his sweater-loving professor character spewing romantic gyan. I have stared in disbelief as he rescued an entire fake village from an equally fake hurricane in My Name is Khan.
Yes, SRK is human and he too makes mistakes.
But Ra.One is NOT one of them.
After reading the reviews of many of my esteemed colleagues, all of whom trashed the movie mercilessly, I went for the movie with a sinking heart.
My much-respected colleagues had a problem with Ra.One having too much of Shah Rukh Khan, of it being a manifestation of the superstar’s mid-life crisis or of it allegedly caricaturing south Indians (!!!).
“It is going to be a bad movie but I am a SRK fan and I will sit through it,” I told myself.
The plotline or premise of the movie has been repeated and analysed ad nauseam. And I agree with some of the reviews partly — the first 20-30 minutes of the film, when SRK tries to act as the goofy Shekhar Subramaniam, falls flat on its face.
But then, once Ra.One and G.One enter the scene, you have to strap yourselves in and get ready for the exhilarating ride.
I don’t think Ra.One has ever aspired to be anything other than an entertainer, and for the most part, it does entertain.
Ra.One has superlative special effects, a stunning leading lady, several jaw-dropping action sequences, some genuinely quirky moments and a chillingly sinister villain.
And of course, it has the leading man in several versions — the blue-eyed superhero, the nerdy south Indian scientist and my personal favourite — the Asian superhero who saves the damsel in distress.
For years, Shah Rukh Khan has been heavily criticised for not stepping outside his comfort zone and sticking to his stock characters of Raj and Rahul. It has been said that SRK can only play SRK, the romantic hero with his arms wide open and twitching face.
When he does dare to step out of his comfort zone, when he does try to experiment, when he does try to go where no other Indian actor has gone before, he is ripped apart for his efforts. And then his critics wonder why he chooses to do Karan Johar [ Images ] and Yash Raj type of films over and over again.
We manage to forget our brains while watching a brawny superhero’s burgeoning muscles tear off his shirt, in an unflattering ode to the Incredible Hulk. We blank out reason when another superhero (and a self-proclaimed intellectual one at that) bashes up ten goons double his size, suffering a memory loss right in the middle of the fight sequence. We do not puke while watching lesser superheroes act in regressive and raunchy comic capers where they act like oversexed buffoons.
Why then do we go all holier than thou on SRK? Because he fails to deliver to (some of) our sky-high expectations?
We never ask how Spiderman can climb buildings effortlessly or why Superman wears his underwear over his tights. They are Hollywood’s superheroes and therefore venerable to us. But Ra.One and G.One fighting it out by throwing red and blue power rays at each other — that we find juvenile!
Oh come on!
A superhero movie, by definition, defies logic and requires suspension of disbelief. In a world where almost nothing goes right, it reaffirms our belief that Good does trump over Evil.
Shah Rukh Khan has never pretended to be an actor. He is here to entertain the masses and make money for himself. Nothing wrong with that!
He could have taken the tried-and-tested route and done yet another goofy, romantic lover boy movie. That film would have raked in hundreds of crores at the box office, made a newer generation of women (and men) swoon over him and helped him buy yet another plush building in suburban Mumbai [ Images ].
But instead of taking a role he could have sleepwalked through, SRK decided to follow his dream of making India’s [ Images ] first superhero film. It might be a flawed dream — the Michael Jackson [ Images ] sequence, British thugs speaking in Hindi or G.One being lectured on Karva Chauth are of the so bad it’s good variety — but hats off to the man for trying.
Ra. One is escapist entertainment at its finest. For those who wanted a more textured film with depth and insights, well, tough luck folks
The author could have saved us a lot of trouble by simply saying — if you’re a hopelessly-in-love-with-SRK fan like myself you’ll love the film and then we can convert every weakness of the film into a plus point!
Which is not to say one cannot enjoy the film but one shouldn’t resort to the kind of silly reasoning presented here. One could take apart every line pretty much but why bother?! Enjoyable read nonetheless for all the silliness in it!
So this whole film was designed to be a marketing tool for SRK’s special effects studio? Fine if he wants to go courting Hollywood studios for outsourced effects. But why does he think no one else in India can do this kind of work? I haven’t seen the film yet, so I can’t make comparative statements, but (1) Hollywood already outsources a lot of its animation and some of its VFX work to India. What is new or innovative about this, then? (2) I have discovered to my surprise in the last five years or so that many Tamil and Telugu film use a lot of visual effects more or less routinely, and they are of good quality, too, if not quite on par with some Hollywood films. So again I ask, what’s new in this?
And what on earth does SRK mean by saying reviewers “were looking at other aspects of film production”? So they were only supposed to ooh and aah at the special effects (which they all did) and not say anything about story or screenplay or characters? Amazing.
It is really interesting battle. As per BO, three day highest total.
Praksah Jaju has already declared it as flop. Even it twitter, they say tickets are available everywhere. It seemsseriuos manipulation is going on..
SRK needs one more Yash Chopra movie to get back..
@Old Gold, I admit that I posted these more for their comedic value than because I really care about box office. But when Rajasthan and CI were held up as proof that SRK was beating Salman in his strength areas, then the drops should also be acknowledge, no? So Rajasthan and CI were blazoned abroad to show that the Thursday collections doubled those of Wednesday. Fine, but then shouldn’t they point that the Saturday collections are half of the Thursday collections? It’s this blatant dishonesty that caught my attention this time. Otherwise I don’t judge a film by its box office collections. But here the point was consistently made that the film is the “best” because it was getting the “highest” collections.
Anyway, I doubt that we’ll hear any more about collections from any quarter from now on.
“His fans next time should also be careful saying things like this film will crush 3I and post 250.”
c’mon fans can never be careful…. their excitement comes through these kinds of over expectations, and you should allow and enjoy these. This being a very pro-bachchan, i have seen some members expecting BHTB to beat some records at bo. some were modest in their expectations, they predicted just 60cr…. the film eventually did less than 20cr.
latest update from distributors – there was some jump in collections from 10-15% in Mumbai and Delhi circuits. rest all circuits no jump. Sunday expected 16Cr assuming similar trends for evening shows.
Ra.One (hindi) dropped on its fourth day as it collected around 14-14.25 crore nett as per early estimates. The major drops came in the North India and Central India as these places dropped around 15%. West Bengal and South had similar collections to the day before while Mumbai circuit was a bit less.
The film has now collected 67 crore nett now after four days which is exactly the same same collection Bodyguard had after four days. The regional version has collected 4.50 crore nett in four days and is dropping fast.
The 5 day weekend record of Bodyguard will be a photo finish if Ra.One shows the normal growth expected on Sunday. This is comparing like for like and the Hindi version only.
Sunday is likely to tell where the film is going, a good 25% jump will mean it will do good on the weekdays but if it is flat or just a 10-15% jump then weekdays are likely to see dropping collections.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One 4-Day Total Rs. 75 Crore
October 30th, 2011 by Komal Nahta Comments ( 0 )
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has made an estimated Rs. 16 crore (all-India net collection) on its fourth day (Saturday, October 29) at the box-office. The film has previously collected Rs. 18 crore on Wednesday, Rs. 25.10 crore on Thursday and Rs. 16 crore on Friday. This takes the 4-day total tally to Rs. 75 crore.
Ra.One is expected to to net another Rs. 15 – 17 crore on Sunday since the morning and day shows are reported to be seeing good audiences. However, Sunday night’s shows will probably not be as good as Saturday night’s.
The fact that BOI and Taran are now taking pains to separate out the Hindi collections from the total collections seems to be in reaction to feedback they must have gotten from their readers/followers. The BOI report especially sounded rather defensive on this point.
I’m glad to see that they are responding to feedback.
Shah Rukh Khan’s over-ambitious superhero project RA.One received quite a few negative reviews in India. Talking from Los Angeles, where the actor was on tour with his film team until Saturday, he says, seeming rather upset, “I was reading some reviews and they were silly. They are looking into some other aspect of filmmaking.”
Internationally, he claims that the Anubhav Sinha directorial got a great response. “LA Times has carried a fantastic movie review,” he insists, before adding, “We presented the film to a lot of people from Fox (Fox Studios, US) and we spoke to the foreign press on the technical aspect of RA.One. It’s important that we promote this ideology and explain to the world that we can do it.”
Within this week, the actor has travelled to Dubai, London and Toronto, before arriving in the US. His promotional rampage in India too made headlines. But the real challenge he claims to face is “showing the world that India too can make high-tech films.”
And to facilitate the same, he has set up a technically advanced studio in the city, which he used for the postproduction of RA.One. “The good news is that the studio is two or three years ahead of any other. This is the first step in that direction,” says the actor-producer, adding, “This is the time to bring this genre to India. And I have started it. Instead of cribbing, if you want to modernise and make different movies, you have to use this technology.”
Till Friday, RA.One had collected over Rs 60 cr at the box office in India, the film’s spokesperson claims. “I feel relieved to see it open well. I’ve been travelling, so I wasn’t able to follow the figures much. All my partners now feel that they’ll be able to recover their money.”
The film, which also stars Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor, released on Diwali, October 26 and was made for a reported budget of Rs 150 crore. Ask him about the sequel, and he says he’s leaving it all to time: “Let’s see how it fares. It’s lot of hard work. I’m happy how people have responded, despite mixed reports. Once it has come to the fore, I’ll give it a thought.”
Khan will be seen in Farhan Akhtar’s next directorial Don 2 in December, and will start shooting for Yash Chopra’s film in January 2012.
Legal row? Utter nonsense: SRK
A few days ago, screenwriter Yash Patnaik accused Shah Rukh Khan and his film’s writer-director Anubhav Sinha of copyright infringement over the concept and story of RA.One. Says an unfazed Khan, “That’s utter nonsense. With all due respect to what all is happening, I don’t want to give it any credibility by commenting on it.” The case is still pending. Khan’s production company has deposited Rs 1 crore with the Bombay High Court to acquire permission to release the film.
SRK once again uses the classic political ploy here — ‘hey if you didn’t like the film or are criticizing it you’re against progress’!
The truth is that even the negative reviewers have praised the SFX!
On the silliness I’m sure some of them deserve this characterization though the positive ones his films have received over the years warrant the adjective far more! Even on Ra One was there any review sillier than Taran’s?!
Well, an ambition cannot succeed unless you back it up with at least a decent story.
I wonder what was his ambition on making a high on VFX film when it is certain that no matter what you do, it simply cannot be done.
An ambition should be a plausible one. It would make a lot of sense if he had rather aimed for a film that’s on par with Hollywood in terms of quality film-making. Chasing the dream that he’s hoping for would only make him a laughing stock..
Ra.One (telugu) performed well initially but fell from Friday. It is the highest grossing Hindi film dubbed into Telugu but performance is well below par for the amount of prints it was released in. The Hindi version has done extremely well in the Andhra belt. The daily figures are as follows.
Wednesday – 70 lakhs
Thursday – 70 lakhs
Friday – 30 lakhs
Saturday – 25 lakhs
TOTAL – 1.95 crore
The Tamil version has grossed a similar 2 crore nett in four days.
I think the paid parties like Komal,Taran,BOI and SRK apologists are all at this time directing their energies and efforts in bringing it close to or may be overtaking BG’s long weekend/first five days. I dont think it will, atleast on the strenght of the Hindi version.On top of it, it is a pretty meaningless milestone as BG was nowhere near as hyped, had far fewer screens and was a much less expensive film overall. No amount of dressing up can cover the fact that the BO performance has been pretty dismal so far and am not even sure if it will cross Ghajini. To make matters worse, overseas collections are also coming in much lower than expectations. And, am sure after the lacklustre BO performance, the TV deal for the reported 40 crores, is going to be off. So, recovery here is going to be pretty much impossible. I was hoping SRK wont lose money here as I still want to give him props for the risk and the gamble and somewhat confused ambition. But, it is still hard to feel very sorry for him, given how shamelessly manipulative and cocky he can be.
hoow does no. of screens matter the collection.people dont come to watch a movie considering no. of screens.i mean increment in no. of screens is done keeping in mind the convienience of the audience.it surely doesnt help in gaining more public.
its very sad to see how people are undermining ra.one’s collection by giving all these theories.
and why are not people considering tamil and telugu version.why???first of all opening shpuld be considered worldwide.but here you guys are simply ignoring tamil and telugu numbers.
you guys have to downplay it no matter what
if SRKs all films number are fake wh would any distributor buy ra.one for such a huge price because they know and understand the star power because they are in the actual business.
if by any chance SRKs manipulates the number and has everyone from the chaukidar of theatres to top mediapersons in his pocket then give him the due credit there and call him the most powerful and most influential.even that you guys wont do.
recovery here in case of ra.one will be difficult.no one has doubts over this but atleast appreciate its opening numbers which are record breaking
ofcourse not in that sense……
but who asked bodyguard to relese lesser no. of prints….and since when no.of screens became proportional to collections…..
The saddest part for Khan is that he could have gotten these type of collections (if not better) from any run-of-the-mill love story. To have spent so much (both effort and money-wise) and gained so little…
BTW this is one big SRK blockbuster I have decided not to see on the big screen.
Ra.One has found it hard to make any headway on Sunday. The film may end with Sunday collections not much higher than Saturday.
Normally films jump at least 10% on Sunday but it seems unlikely in the case Ra.One unless the markets in South India West Bengal are really strong.
The trend is not encouraging for Sunday in North India and when a major segment like North is finding it tough, it will be a huge surprise if the film manages to come out with a strong Sunday.
The overall weekend is still likely to excellent but the trend suggests the film will struggle in the long term.
Think the Sunday trend confirms the initial impressions.
Whateve one may say—this is the end of a “phase” and SRK is officially not the best
Obviously the film has far from tanked or under performed but the relative numbers have shown enuf trends already ….
Haven’t seen the film yet but I’m a bit surprised by the negative reactions and the slightly tepid response
Expected it to do better irrespective of the merits of the film (or lack of it)
yeah a film that is lower on Sun versus Sat is quite simply being rejected. And of course the Sat itself showed no growth from Fri. The film’s trending has been weak throughout. There is no single day that has been huge here relative to expectations given the screen count and so on though of course the numbers are otherwisee big. Even breaking the record by 10% on Thu doesn’t mean much given all the other advantages the film had over BG.
It’s barely going to do 80 crores or so through Sun. I frankly doubt it’s going to get to the 120 crore Ready total. It will require some stability just to get to that number. It’s possible but I think unlikely.
that’s true but in my opinion even with no competition a film needs minimal stability at the low end of things to take advantage of this. And Ra 1 might have it. Which is why I said that 120 crores was possible but less likely. The latter because I see this as less of a genre that can overcome all the negativity to stay afloat at some reasonable level. But it’s certainly possible. I should say that my initial prediction was somewhere in this range. Simply because I though Sinha would mess it up, this kind of thing was just beyond his pay grade and I think he’s probably proven that here.
Alex: everybody I am meeting in Bombay is referring to the film as a flop. These are by no means SRK-haters, but typically ordinary folk who like to go and watch big films, and never read film blogs etc. It is by now a pretty consistently-held view in my experience.
You should check it out and give us your views.. to be honest I’d check it out myself for some of the SFX but I have almost no tolerance for some of the family proceedings here (as evident from the trailers). Never had it at the best of times. Remember being bored to death watching KHNH. RNBDJ was hard to watch even at home! OSO was on the other hand fine though hardly my favorite film.
Rajen, I know SRK is down right now but I am pretty certain he can get big numbers easily with an even half-decent romantic film. For a love story, his target audience always shows up. I remember most people calling Veer-Zaara stale and boring, but it was houseful in its 7th week in Toronto and the much-maligned Rab Ne didn’t do badly either.
Not saying it’s gonna break records but it will easily match RA.one and won’t burn a hole in the producers pocket.
SRK would certainly get big numbers in the romantic genre. However Yash Chopra is a tricky proposition in terms of trending. RNBDJ trended very well but VZ made 45% or so of its gross in week 1 which was poor trending for 2004 (by today’s standards it seems fantastic but then so does MP!). Also in the single biggest market of Bombay it performed a very fast fade. The point I’m trying to make is that in the 90s his iconic films were big for every cross-section of his base. But over the last decade that base has splintered. Which is why RNBDJ opened behind Ghajini and grossed a bit less than it even in the US! Couldn’t have imagined this some years earlier. and even in India there was a huge difference on the initial and the final numbers. The problem then isn’t getting a hit or big numbers but sustaining. Also remember that the only two times that he’s been on course for massive initials have been OSO and Ra One since KANK. MNIK never got big numbers in India nor RNBDJ nor Don (which was also hyped like crazy). So the more pertinent comparison here might be Salman getting these huge numbers with minimal advertising. Aamir is much more media savvy these days but still his films don’t require a heavy investment in marketing (he does it in some other ways). On the other hand SRK has to first thrown in everything including the kitchen sink in his films and then hype them to death to get those numbers. Obviously every star cannot get those numbers even doing things this way, so no one’s denying he’s still very big and has certain roots with the overall audience. But the opportunity with him in terms of getting those big numbers is far greater than with Aamir or Salman. On the Yash chopra film I expect big numbers. Whether it can really put the box office on steroids remains to be seen. Even with Ra One he has certainly proved he can get the biggest initial out there. Obviously WOM was bad from the get-go and affected numbers right away. But with good WOM this could have done real wonders. It’s still not something where he could completely beat the competition. A few months later Aamir or Salman would beat him again or whoever else. The reason this is crucial is because his brandname has always been about outgrossing the competition. And so what’s happening is that he can’t just match them. Aamir and Salman are not seen as having a downward trajectory but somehow finding their zone (obviously I don’t see Salman as being able to maintain this for as long as Aamir or be viable for as long no matter how careful he is with his films.. because he just cannot attract the kind of prestige film Aamir can) and being ‘ascendant’ at this point (Aamir for a longer time). SRK meanwhile has the downward trajectory where he’s seen as struggling to keep pace. People show up for the hyped films but they don’t necessarily think the same things about them. Often discussions about simply box office numbers obscure this aspect of things. SRK in any case feels this pressure and so he is more drawn to the sort of film from time to time that lends itself to that kind of hype. And so he’s not necessarily making the best decisions for his reinvention. He’s trying to do the latter but in a way where he keeps his initial intact or matches the greater standards of his peers. This is hard. Plus there’s a prestige gap. He’s just not doing the sorts of films that rightly or wrongly have prestige even with most of his base. And in a purely commercial sense the Salman films or something like Singham, being part of a new return-to-masala wave (even if of the bargain basement variety) has a certain buzz to it.
Do think there’s a way out for him. He needs to take it easy for a while and think about the longer game. Someone will always be producing the biggest initials. It’s a question of how one adjusts. Tom Cruise was once arguably the biggest Hollywood star. Then one day Will Smith had tons of 200m grossers in a row. If Cruise had literally tried to out-initial Will Smith or outgross him it would have been a problem. When a star is in the zone these things happen easily. Salman is doing it really in nothing films. For everyone else it’s much more complicated. If I were advising SRK I’d tell him to forget about the biggest initial or hyping things to death and simply focus on commercial hits (Don 2 can do this, the Yash Chopra film too and so on) and on the other hand on somewhat more prestigious films that have commercial potential. Whether these films do 100 crores or 150 crores or 80 crores a certain credibility for these films is far more important. SRK could be taking doubles right now, instead he aims for a home run and sometimes gets caught in the outfield. As a larger matter I’d also say that beyond a point the biggest gross isn’t that important. Raja Hindustani grossed as much as KKHH, assuredly sold more tickets, and certainly grossed more than most of SRK’s iconic hits for many years with the exception of DDLJ. But it didn’t matter. Because the narrative and the audience weren’t with RH. Today the tables have turned, this has in fact been true for a number of years. But in this scenario whether you get Ready or Bodyguard or Singham doesn’t make a huge difference. The audience isn’t obsessed with the extra crores. This stuff is for blogosphere losers like myself! Most of the time the audience even today just has a sense of a hit or a flop. Sure the numbers are now made available on TV or guys like Taran and Nahta have their shows but even this gets lost amidst a sea of 24/7 stimuli of sound and images. In an odd sense the prestige film is even more important today because that is the only thing that has any chance of recall after a while. Otherwise you have records being broken every other week. No one cares. It makes for a good media story, it adds to the hype and its forgotten.
Somewhere along the line SRK became a star only about marketing. Not being harsh at all here. I think he was ahead of everyone in terms of figuring this out but he went too far with it. Being a major star he could do a great deal with the right projects and the right marketing and he certainly pushed a certain narrative successfully in the media which was not always about the sheer merit of the argument. But after a while it was only about selling a film. Sure it’s a Hollywood phenomenon also and by now a global cinema phenomenon. Films are made for consumption. Designed for little more than great initials. But in Hollywood no one star obsesses with just this aspect of things. However if you keep saying ‘I am the king’ there are certain consequences and one of these might have precluded authentic reinvention which of course is the hardest thing for a star to do in any case. Because there is that point in a star’s career when the star is general currency and people are willing to show up but the ‘specific’ agenda is not as ‘saleable’ as it once might have been. SRK is the huge star without a base genre. Again this happens with all stars. Salman has just found the right genre at an age when he couldn’t as a younger star. Or not to the same degree. He’s just lucked out in this sense. If this return to masala had waited another 5 years he wouldn’t have been able to profit from it. Aamir meanwhile has for the longest time built his prestige on the product, something very different. There is no quintessential Aamir film.
To sum it up I’ve been saying for a while that the RA One/DOn genres are not the most productive ones for SRK because even though he deviates from his base genre this cannot be a long term deal for him. Even if its successful. There has to be something which keeps his base with him while gently taking him into the future. But the balance is hard to strike and candidly it perhaps requires greater dozes of humility than SRK has ever been able to summon up. But forgetting the whole ‘Baadshah’ deal would be a start.
Here he just has to meet the graph of the first film to get an easy 100-120 crores. Don’t think it’s a very high bar though I do admit that the remake hype won’t be there this time and the sequel isn’t as much of a deal for a film where the first one wasn’t necessarily loved by anyone. Still the long trailers here have been slick. I’m interested in watching it. It’s not review-proof for me by any means so yes a fairly good film will have to be made. Again if I were SRK I wouldn’t hype this to death. Farhan never makes mass-oriented films anyway. No point in going crazy over it. He’s releasing it during the Christmas/New Year period. He’ll get good numbers anyway if the film is worthwhile.
Just hope that the Christians dont go for celebrations in each others’ homes or become too religious causing fading collections on the open day itself in Rajasthan!
Ha, ha. Someone on twitter mentioned that Bodyguard opened on Eid but the second day was Ganesh Chaturthi! You know, when people are all busy with pujas, visiting, etc. And in Mumbai at least (as well as parts of Hyderabad) this festival goes on for nine days. Similarly what about the films that release during Navratri/Dussera? That’s a 10 day festival, with pujas and visiting every night! As for this idea that the Hindu population is greater than the Muslim population, so Eid won’t affect collections as much as Diwali, I remember reading some time ago that the Muslim population is closer to 50% in the Hindi belt. So even on this count this argument won’t wash. But it was fun while it lasted. 🙂
Re: “I remember reading some time ago that the Muslim population is closer to 50% in the Hindi belt.”
That is completely untrue, but as I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the blog, in the major urban centers, Muslim population is 30% or more — and these centers generate much of the revenue (hence the Bollywood tradition of not releasing major films in Ramzan, because many Muslims will not go to the cinema during that month). Especially in an environment where most films flop, no one wants to give up even slight advantages, so the notion that we should only talk about a Diwali disadvantage but not an Eid disadvantage simply because there are more Hindus in India, is not logical. [My own view is the opposite, and obvious one: I agree with the producers who release their films during the festival seasons! They’ve been doing it for years for a reason!]
first of all wom of ra.one was negative.so how on earth will you prove 2nd day being the biggest of all.this laxmi pooja theory somehow fits well here in this case.
Qalandar, what is completely untrue? The 50% figure for the percentage of Muslims in the Hindi belt, or the concept that there are more of them there than in other parts of the country? Since you have mentioned 30% in urban areas, it is obvious that there isn’t a uniform distribution of all the different religious populations all over the country. Obviously some are concentrated in some parts of the country more than in other parts. So just because overall Muslims make up 15% of the total population, one can’t assume that they make up no more than 15% of the Hindi film viewing audience. That’s the point I was making.
Re: “Qalandar, what is completely untrue? The 50% figure for the percentage of Muslims in the Hindi belt…”
Yes, I was ONLY referring to that other person’s claim that 50% of the Hindi belt’s population is Muslim. It actually isn’t even half that (after Jammu and Kashmir, the state with the highest % of Muslims is in fact West Bengal, at 24-25%. In the “Hindi heartland” of U.P., Bihar, M.P., it is 15-20% in EACH of those states, and in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab it is much less than that (many people would be surprised to learn that even in Delhi it is less than 30%). Among the Southern states, it is greatest in Kerala (I believe this is something like 23%) followed by Andhra (~14%; if a separate Telengana were ever formed, the Muslim % here would be north of 20%, perhaps even 25%). On the wider point you were making — about the non-uniform distribution of Muslims — I completely agree. That was in fact the point I have made earlier also, rebutting those who pooh pooh an Eid impact on Salman’s releases while trumpeting the Diwali impact on other releases (although my own view is that Diwali and Eid are both overall positives for whoever releases big films): in the major Hindi-speaking urban centers of India, Muslims are DISproportionately represented (probably 30+% in Mumbai; 25+% in Delhi; and 30+% in a host of “tier 2” cities like Lucknow; Kanpur; etc.; heck, in Hyderabad they are about 40% of the total, but almost certainly a comfortable majority of the HINDI-film audience). Given that the contribution of major urban centers to Bollywood receipts is huge, Muslims are far more economically important to Bollywood receipts than their numbers in the Indian population would suggest — i.e. they are disproportionately important NOT because they are Muslim, but because they are disproportionately urban.
Thanks, Qalandar, I thought of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as soon as I read your first post. But I wasn’t aware that the Muslim population was so low in states like UP and Rajasthan. Very interesting.
Re: “But I wasn’t aware that the Muslim population was so low in states like UP …”
That doesn’t surprise me: a lot of people aren’t aware of that, because of two reasons (at least in my view): (1) Muslims are CULTURALLY very significant in places like U.P., because of the history, the influence on language, cuisine, etc., and as a result, people tend to over-estimate the demographic strength (you see a similar situation where Goa is concerned: ask most Indians who are not from Goa, and they are quite likely to say it is a Christian-majority state; whereas over 60% of Goa’s population is Hindu; and I have met many Hindus who say Kerala does not have a Hindu-majority population, but that is also untrue; finally, ask anyone to estimate the % of Sikhs in India’s population, and most North Indians would guess a lot more than the 2% reflected in the census figures; and don’t even get me started on the number of times I’ve had to explain to people that the Telugu-speaking population of India is not vastly lower than the Tamil-speaking population); (2) Most people on the internet/in urban India have little to no contact with rural India (and one is especially unlikely to have contact with the rural portions of a state that isn’t one’s own), and Muslims are disproportionately represented in U.P.’s cities: in places like Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Aligarh, Kanpur, Varanasi Rampur, etc. etc., Muslims are a lot more than the 15-20% they are state-wide. Thus, based on the fact that one sees Muslims “everywhere” whenever one visits a city in U.P., people unwittingly leap to some conclusions.
The upshot: nearly two-thirds of India’s population is rural, but a disproportionate number of Muslims live in urban India (and this trend is pretty true of U.P. as well) — hence the “illusion” (but hence, also, the importance to Bollywood).
RNBDJ released at the end of November/beginning of December, while Ghajini released during Christmas. So both would be subject to snowstorms, Ghajini more so because of the advanced winter season. Unless you can recall a specific huge snowstorm that affected RNBDJ and not Ghajini, on the average, this factor would cancel out for both films.
RNBDJ released in December only. December 12, 2008. Just 2 weeks before Ghajini. Not end of November.
SRK partisans claim he was unable to promote the film much due to recent terrorist attacks. But at that time, they were spreading articles in media saying how people would only prefer to watch sweet light hearted films like RNBDJ after terror attacks rather than violent or ”gory” films like Ghajini!
It’s shameless how they used the terror attacks thing to explain the underperformance of the film (in comparison to Aamir’s Ghajini).
Terrorist attacks are a serious issue. Do they mean to say that people were under effect of terror attacks around December 12, but the effect wore off by the time Ghajini released around December 24?
Salman did minimal promotions for Ready and Bodyguard still the films broke records. Whereas SRK team keeps complaining about ”inability” to promote film, hence lower collections than Ghajini! [SRK did do lot of interviews and channels like NDTV, Sahara News kept showing making of RNBDJ several times a day for weeks! Still they claim they didn’t promote it!]
RNBDJ was released in december 12th 2008.I was being told by some US NRIs that snowstorms where Indians live in december affected RNBDJ’s collections.I am not srk,aamir fan.Ghajini released in last of december and by that time weather cleared.
Ra.One does phenomenaly well in Rajasthan but is 5% less than Bodyguard. The extended weekend collections in Rajasthan of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
that’s an interesting question because the Mysore collections could well be mixed.. but otherwise BOI have given the Hindi ones separately unlike Taran and Nahata who’s mixed up everything.
Ra.One (Hindi) had a huge extended five day weekend of around 81 crore nett as per early estimates. The regional versions were around 4.50 crore nett making it 85.50 crore nett.
The Hindi version fell around 4 crore short of the total set by Bodyguard which also had an extended five day weekend.
Ra.One had a huge Thursday by recording the highest day in history and even Friday was good but the film did not go through on Saturday and Sunday as collections hardly showed a jump on both days.
Saturday is okay but Sunday is expected to grow but here Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all in the same region.
The weekend trend suggest a drops in the weekdays but the film has already got a healthy total in five days and it has regional holidays in the weekdays which may help collections in some parts
records are always for all india collections..this is a good business strategy to release films in regional lang.so ra.one surpasses bg…congrats to SRK
The box office collections and verdicts for Hindi films are always based on the business done by the Hindi version alone, if there are multiple language versions.
From a producer’s point of view, it makes sense to release multiple language versions, to recoup whatever money can be gotten from other markets, but it does not affect the Hindi box office verdict.
but undermining SRKs starpower by using all these tricks is imo not justified as people who went to watch tamil or telugu versions would have watched hindi version if not given that choice if they understand hindi.
and this is what star power is-how many people watch your movies.first of all imo worldwide number should be considered.but even if you take only india then all regional versions should be included.
In case of DB.did anyone care abt its hindi collections or english collections?
it was always taken collectively.
Re: “and this is what star power is-how many people watch your movies”
Really? If that is so ticket prices ought to be considered, as only then will we arrive at the number of PEOPLE who watch a movie (rather than the number of rupees a film has generated). [Aside: in past years whenever I used to argue in favor of looking at ticket sales in addition to receipts, several SRK fans would attack me, on the grounds that the money was what mattered (the overseas receipts always added a considerable amount to the Indian rupee grosses of those films, since tickets in the West are very expensive when converted into Indian rupees: it takes far fewer people watching a film in the UK/US to generate 10 crores than in India; and even in India SRK films were among the first to exploit the market potential of jacked up ticket prices, from the days of Devdas and earlier.]. Bodyguard is almost certain to win that opening-week battle (i.e. number of PEOPLE as opposed to amount of RUPEES) hands down, given average ticket prices were noticeably lower. Even Singham would have had a much larger number of people associated with its gross than many other films making the same amount of money.
These are not “tricks” nor is anyone trying to undermine SRK’s star power. This is the way box office collections have been reported till now for all other Hindi films. The only “trick” has been to depart from this established practice. As I mentioned earlier, the Telugu collections weren’t included for Veer or Krrissh, nor the Tamil collections for Robot. That’s why BOI’ classified Robot as “below average”, even though it was the highest grossing Indian film ever.
You raise an interesting point about Kites and DB, since these weren’t originally filmed in Hindi, but later dubbed. I don’t know how their collections were calculated. It wouldn’t change the verdict of either film if only the Hindi collections were considered. Now the verdict of Ra.One would also be not affected if the Telugu and Tamil collections were included or not, since obviously the bulk of the revenue is coming from the Hindi version. These miniscule other collections are only being dragged in to claim that it has set a record, which is not correct.
According to some posts on Twitter, Nahta has added Hindi net to Telugu gross and Tamil net, or vice versa — in other words, a mishmash of gross and net collections, to come up with his “record-breaking” total.
Some posts on NG pointed out that Taran had higher totals for BG than BOI, which were equal to what he is now claiming for Ra.One, so by his own figures for both, Ra.One didn’t break BG. It only has broken records if we take Taren’s current numbers for Ra.1 and compare them with BOI’s for BG.
it must have been a leaked version which was later blocked.. but yeah this is Abbas-Mustaan’s biggest project.. from the Arctic Circle to NZ they’ve really covered the gamut for this one.. the same for all kinds of stunts as well.. this does have to be marketed in a big way.. these ‘pre-teasers’ they’ve put out would seem to point in the right direction on this score.
“..Shah Rukh Khan has been dominating every form of media over last few months, whether on television, print or online.
But films today seem to need more media after the release than before it — to persuade the media about the film’s success and leave it to them to convince the rest of the world.
In this regard, things have become even simpler since the invention of advertorials — pay and park your story in your own words!..”
btw rediff has taken a different stand on all things RA1, good that they didnt join the Taran and Komal bandwagon. Not sure what the deal is here though!!! Maybe they werent treated well by Srk.
Its a good sign though, to have different voices.
How is this a “good” article? it’s rife with contradictions!
“Ra.One fell far short of the target, collecting about Rs 14.6 crore. The fault lies in the day chosen for release. Diwali [ Images ] is not exactly the best day to release a film, especially if you want to shatter records”
“Bodyguard released on Eid. The next day was also a holiday in some parts of India [ Images ], thanks to Baasi Eid/Ganesh Chaturthi, and the film made the most of these two days.”
Diwali is not a good day to release a film, but Bodyguard “made the most” of Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi?
The rest of the article is as muddle-headed as some reviews have claimed the plot of Ra.One to be!
they were atleast not cheerleading like the rest with false collections….
But major sites like this are now atleast talking abt the PR stuff that goes on behind the scenes, “…to persuade the media about the film’s success and leave it to them to convince the rest of the world….pay and park your story in your own words!..” Isnt this what is happening each and every time!!! Thats why I felt good abt this article.
Ofcourse not sure if rediff holds the ground for all movies…come next month, they might throw all this in dustbin and report PR numbers as usual.
This was one of the most interesting pieces I’ve read on the film. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else ask what made G.One (the character) ideologically good. That nastiness to “outsiders” that the reviewer picks up on is something I’ve noticed in quite a few of the glossy Yash Raj rich films.
And it seems even in the one star reviews, Kareena Kapoor really walks away smelling like roses.
Ra.One (Hindi) grossed a huge 81 core nett approx in its extended five day weeeknd. The film set a new record for business in the first three days. Below is the extended weekend territorial breakdown of the film.
from Taran to BOI all were claiming prior to release that film could do 100-115 crores in this 5 day period specially taking screen count into account. Now BG has become everyone’s lifeline!
In an odd sense they’ve done BG a favor. Here’s a film that did a relatively quick fade, certainly did not have the strongest trending but by constantly upholding it as a standard they’ve canonized the box office achievement far more than would otherwise be the case! And by the same token haven’t done as much for Raz One. Because if you start off by saying this will throw up the biggest numbers ever and then you have to settle for just nudging BG or getting one ‘biggest’ day that is so by just 10% (assuming one doesn’t buy the contributions Nahata and Taran have made from their own trust funds) and then if you have to make festival excuses each of the remaining days and what not you start sounding very desperate. I won’t even get into the WOM angle!
As for Ra.One Monday update, Ra.One Monday Morning and Noon shows are poor and huge drop is registered. Evening and Night shows advance booking is average to poor, and if it doesn’t improve rapidly, huge crash is awaiting for Ra.One.
Nowadays as opening weekend indicates, how big the opening was of a particular movie, similarly Monday indicates, whether the movie will sustain or not in coming weeks. Since, today volume of screening is enormous, from Monday movies generally see a drop. But the drop showing for Ra.One in many places is huge and showing tremors already.
Already Ra.One has not collected as expected in its opening weekend and this early Monday update will cause further damage in the recovery of the huge investments. No doubt Ra.One broke all opening records and collected 91 crore nett all India in its opening extended weekend, but it was expected to collect much higher as per trade sources (Opening Weekend Expected – 100+ crore nett at least).
We are still hopeful, evening and night shows will pick up and healthy Monday figure will be on the cards.
RA one is a goner no matter how much these analysts are trying to paint a different picture fact is it will collapse badly. Excessive marketing is a double edged sword as audience expectations skyrocket and then if the product is just below average like in the case of RA one it gets rejected. This will hamper SRK future projects as have not seen so much negativity around him ever. But Don 2 seems a classy product and theatrical trailer was mighty impressive however due to the negative response to Ra one many would now wait for its reviews rather than blindly turning up for his film so intial could be low.
He’s been pushing inflated numbers from day 1 even. This leaving aside the problem of adding the dubbed versions. Doubt it’s more than 4 or 5 crores on Mon. Not that it makes a huge difference at this point.
Not only Taran even Komal also provided inflated numbers ..E 5 day total 92 cr from 3 languages is deliberate attempt to break BG 5 day record .No territory break up .Really shame less people.SRK says in public he never cared for Box office collections But he managed all top trade analysts and BOI
As per information available with Businessofcinema.com, the movie’s Hindi version garnered net collections of approximately Rs 800 million (Rs 80 crore) in India in its first five days. On the other hand, the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions of the movie brought in approximately Rs 45 million (Rs 4.5 crore) taking the total to 845 million (Rs 84.5 crore).
Salman Khan’s highest grosser ever Bodyguard, which also saw a five day extended weekend, saw net collections of approximately Rs 866.1 million (Rs 86.61 crore).
Going by the distributors’ verdict, on current trends the film is going to suffer losses in Nizam, Rajasthan, CP, CI & entire eastern circuit ( More territories could very well be added if current dismal trend continues ! ) Interestingly, on one hand trade wallahs like Amod Mehra & Vinod Mirani are openly & confidentlly commenting on the debacle…while on the other hand distributors & multiplex owners are speaking out only on condition of anonymity !! This is just shocking … are these guys so afraid of offending SRK and his camp ??
Ra.One (Hindi) has grossed around 6 crore nett as per early estimates on Monday. The collections on Monday are pretty decent as when Sunday is lower than Saturday, a huge crash is expected but considering the 13.25 crore nett collections on Sunday, the 6 crore nett number is more than the film could have hoped for on Monday.
The film has now collected 87 crore nett in its first four days and should get to around 100 crore nett over its first week.
The Sunday figure suggested it could go into in its second weekend with very low collections and little hope of taking any advantage from the four day second weekend but now it may be able to have a decent collection from its extended second weekend.
The collections are being helped by holidays in Gujarat and the star power of Shahrukh Khan in circuits like West Bengal and Mysore. The regionals versions are down badly and are hardly collected on Monday.
So were there expecting 2-3 crores on Mon? THis is the classic straw man argument! Plus if they were expecting a crash on Mon they certainly did not let us into the secret earlier!
How come the holidays of the second extended weekend are going to help the film, when the holidays of the first extended weekend supposedly hurt it? More confusion!
Reminds me of Zizek’s take on the old folk tale of the borrowed kettle (“I never borrowed your kettle; but your kettle was blue, not black; and, it was broken anyway”): the purpose of all these verbal contortions is to hide the very fact that the contortions testify to (the truth they betray; i.e. at the very moment this sort of lie is uttered, it is already exposed in a sense AS a lie and a cover-up): the film is not doing well, and one cannot find anyone in the public who is saying it is doing well — that’s my personal experience, and believe me, I’m asking.
Re: “The collections are being helped by holidays in Gujarat and the star power of Shahrukh Khan in circuits like West Bengal and Mysore.”
LOL, this is like Soviet propaganda: why wouldn’t SRK’s star power help them in Gujarat? He’s surely more than the Badshah of West Bengal and Mysore! They’re tying themselves up in knots, but at least there’s comedy for the rest of us.
BOI: ‘The film has now collected 87 crore nett in its first four days’
So, now from last Wednesday to this Monday, they are counting that as only 4 days having elapsed! They are either trying to fake 6 days totals into 4 days totals now. Or they have simply lost their minds with this unexpected disaster that has hit them so hard.
prakashjaju Prakash Jaju
In history of Indian cinema distributors would not have suffered so much loss as they will in Ra1, many will be forced to shut their shops
Box Office: Ra.One King Khan kingdom goes down as flaming flop
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Shahrukh Khan is not having a particularly good decade at the box office. Ra.One arguably the most hyped film of 2011 in trade media appears to be going down in flames on a crash pattern.
After the last few set of costly underperformers, Shahrukh Khan went for the superhero/supervillain genre this year and has come up on the same end of stick at the box office as the film’s heterograph, Raavan.
Though Khan’s film isn’t the box office disaster that the Abhishek Bachchan starrer was over a year ago, nonetheless safe to say it will be a while before costly movies on anything remotely sounding like Raavan will be attempted on in India.
Ra.One, billed as a videogame/superhero caper along the lines of Rajnikanth’s Robot started on a decent note on Wednesday, though below expectations for a movie of mass release. It collected around estimated 33 crores the first two days. The film has however been on a steady decline since. With an underwhelming sunday and an outright weak Monday of 4-5 crores on oversaturated prints, Ra.One’s chances at recovery are slim to none. The distributors are set to suffer heavy losses.
claims 180 crores have been spent on Ra One (60 of those on marketing) but his production cost is 120 of those. Also says the satellite rights were sold at less than 40.
There have been big budget flops before and Ra.One is one more. Not very charitable to take much pleasure in someone’s failure but human mind is such that one cannot feel too sorry for the cocky Khan and his insufferable fans.
Much greater pleasure is to be derived from not just egg but the poultry farm that has ended up on the cunts of trade reporting. Am not sure if Komal and Taran will command any respect or will be able to muster any credibility after the shameless way they have gone about, abdicating any kind of responsibility as so -called trade experts. I would call them whores but that would be an insult to prostitutes. BOI hasnt fared much better. Their overall numbers have been a bit more believable but they are undone by their commentary. Am not sure why they dont realise that no amount of fancy footwork and contortions will allow them to hide.
This is exactly the type of arrogance, scratch that, MISINFORMED arrogance that prompts fans of other stars to rejoice in SRK’s failures!
Ra1 will struggle to reach Ready’s total with a budget 3 times the size of Ready. Can people at least be honest and look at the numbers for what they are?
The “regional” distributors are already counting their losses. Is this an exaggeration? Every single source is saying that the film has tanked completely in its dubbed versions.
ra.one is nearing 100 crore in week one.. plus 35-40 crore overseas… let it end its run and then we can compare its worldwide gross with the guards and readys.. its a fucked up movie..but the only thing working is the box office in some sense..
Re: “Ra1 will struggle to reach Ready’s total with a budget 3 times the size of Ready.”
Saket: it’s remarkable how little anyone discusses opportunity cost, let alone investment, when talking about box office grosses. The former makes your (completely accurate) statement even more notable: that is, in the cost of Ra-One, Sallu has produced Dabangg, Ready, AND Bodyguard (and in a timeframe since SRK’s last major release) — compare that investment and return on investment to Ra-One’s, and we see why distributors might have issues.
This is 2011, and with modern stars and their corporate machinery, you won’t find many, heck likely not any, who will flame out the way Rajesh Khanna did with several flops; or the way Anil Kapoor did in 1990-up. One’s analytical tools also have to keep pace: certainly not suggesting SRK is flaming out, but the logic of the last five years is inexorably clear: IT SIMPLY COSTS HIM MORE AND MORE TO KEEP PACE WITH HIS RIVALS. This isn’t only about a particular star, but even about films: Singham; Rajneeti; the Aamir and Salman films; Golmaal Returns. I mean, these are NOT ultra-pricey films. Of SRK’s recent big films, only Rab Ne Banadi Jodi was likely a relatively inexpensive film.
[Every time I used to bring up ticket prices in years past, many netizens said the important thing was the money, not the number of people per se — but they don’t even want to talk about money (i.e. the economics of the business) in a serious way; what is offered instead is the pornography of numbers, the invitation to delight in the mere recitation of large figures.]
On the subject of ticket-prices, though not a fan of Salman Khan, one has to quite easily give him the crown of the Khan with the most attendance, i.e. number of people as opposed to the amount of money made. For Dabanng, Ready and now Bodyguard, he’s the only star I can think of who had consistently lowered the ticket-prices for his three consecutive releases. Your argument also of ROI with respect to him having made three films at the cost of one Ra.One is extremely valid.
Salman did not lower the ticket prices he simply did not hike them and I don’t expect that to change. He has in several interviews mentioned that the prices as they stand are already too high.
Anshul … Shaan was top grosser of 1980 .. still labelled as under performer .. because of its high budget. Ra.One is not even top grosser .. and expectations were sky high based on budget, promotion etc .. so calling it Flop is not big deal.
Bollywood Box Office, and I’m making huge assumptions here, for lack of proper breakdowns available, can now be divided into two extremes:
1) The Multiplex Audience — for whom there is no bigger star than Aamir Khan, followed by the rest.
2) The Single Screen Audience — for whom Salman Khan is #1, followed by daylight and then the others.
I think it’s a safe assumption to make. And if this assumption is correct, the biggest threat (actually, beyond the point of threat) to SRK has always been Aamir Khan. Sure, there’s a crossover among audiences but Salman has clearly not hurt SRK the way Aamir has. Salman has cornered a base that was already his for the taking. Aamir has worked the whole past decade (some would say since the 90s) in creating a brand name for himself. He’s so far ahead in the prestige sweepstakes (the multiplex “hook”) that SRK would have to give multiple CDIs to even think of coming close.
This is the current situation and things can obviously change in the future. But the interesting thing to note is that when Aamir attempts a Ghajini, he also brings the single screen audiences onboard. That makes him a clear winner, all things considered equal.
It’s probably the only American movie I’m looking forward to at this point along with Cronenberg’s next and McQueen’s Shame with Fassbender. Certainly the one I await the most…
Watched Ra.One last Sunday in London.
It’s a commercially entertaining film, and I’ll judge it on those grounds, keeping it as short as possible.
Pros
1.
Ideologically, it satisfied me. Satyam, was wondering (mocking rather) at my expectations of finding soul in the film. I did. Not talking about the evil vs good, but, something else.
Kids (boys mostly) and grown ups who remain children (men mostly- the ones waiting impatiently for the Don2s and D3s to watch their heroes play villains) think bad/kickass etc is cool, so you have Akon singing He’s a troublemaker (not in the film, just saying), while the boy Prateek in the film calls himself Lucifer (devil) on the net. 😉
Prateek had to learn it the hard way that what looks cool is no longer cool when you are at the receiving end. Liked the way he takes part in helping G.One to vanquish Ra.One but cannot help beyond level 2 because he hadn’t played at level 3 (the root of all the problems).
Spotlighting this in the film is enough for me to show benevolence toward it.
2.
The VFX (this point in cons too)
Seemed pretty good from what knowledge I have which is limited to watching it dispassionately on the TV screen when channel surfing.
Personally, I *do* think the film brings in the novelty of VFX and it shouldn’t be just dismissed.
3.
There were some funny moments (this point in cons too), like the man-reading-newspaper-in the back of the bus while the car crashes through the empty front. LOL.
Kareena choking on the ring, the Chinese mother who thought Ra.One was her son and was talking away in Chinese (probably telling her son to get married or something LOL), of course what followed wasn’t funny.
4.
Satyam may try to smear SRK with accusations of propagating a life style (NRI/or whatever) my appreciation for SRK had started because I found his films very Indian. I had watched a string of his films (paheli, Ashoka, CDI, Swades, MHN, devdas, Veer Zaara and later RNBDJ) which were very Indian. MNIK setting wasn’t, but neither was it glorifying any lifestyle. KANK and KHNH yes, but these are only two. There may also have been some very earlier ones. This number is not more than any other actor’s.
Coming back to the film, in spite of being shot in London the first half, “it felt very Indian”. The father’s quoting of V. Shantaram’s film to give good advice to his son, (done in a way not to sound preachy) though it made no difference to mother and son). There’s even a *sad* song at the death scene.
5.
Child artistes like Honey Irani and Daisy Irani have gone forever…but SRK revived it in Ra.One. It adds to the charm of the film though several people are so not used to children in films that they have labelled the film for them.
6.
The fighting scenes. It was really the type one sees in AB’s films and others’ of that time. No blood and gore….well, obviously. Hahahahahaha.
7.
People keep saying the end was predictable. Of course it was. Evil had to be vanquished. But what would happen to G.One, I couldn’t predict. Even the Kareena bit at the end was eerie.
Now the cons
1.
The scenes involving the VFX were overlong. The fight scenes, the chase scenes, went on and on. It seemed like they were given this toy, and they couldn’t stop playing with it. After some time it begins to drag (excellent VFX or not). Thank goodness chitti arrives at the airport and everyone gets so distracted that the fight ends.
2.
SRK as a south Indian wasn’t consistent. I guess this will not be a problem in the dubbed versions 😀
3.
Those adult jokes were out of place there. They weren’t part of the narrative. I wish SRK would give up this kind of humour. In spite of just sprinkled in for a fleeting moment, It gave many people the straw they were looking for to hang on to.
But I have to mention here that SRK **did not grab Kareena’s boobs**
He puts his arm across her to protect her from the attacks/bullets (?), and his hand covers her boob, as being ‘not’ human types he wouldn’t know. Of course it was deliberate, meant to be a joke, but by using the word ‘grab’ brings this act down by several levels.
4.
Unfortunately, most of the people who can see what the film is trying to show with the video game will be the ones who will feel superior and sneer at it while those who ‘would’ need an explanation will not really get it, which is a pity for the film, because these are the people who would then enjoy the masala action and contents.
That I hardly ever have this feeling of repeating a contemporary film shouldn’t go against Ra.One. The only contemporary film I repeated was ‘Dor’. It had left a great impression on me.
thanks for your views Oldgold.. why are you getting so defensive though?
For the record I didn’t mock your expectation of finding soul in the film but having this expectation after not finding the same in Avatar and Inception.
I won’t get into an argument about some of your other claims here (including the one on the kind of cinema SRK does and how Indian it’s been) nor will I ask you to compare the “adult humor” of this film to the stuff in 3I and DB!
I think you haven’t seen the film. The scenes are there for less than a minute (3 of them in all, I think), not very explicit, including the hand/boob scene. To think it’s anything like DB shows your ignorance. As for 3I, i don’t think it had adult jokes, just toilet humour.
LOL! Satyam, if for even a second you think that what you say damages my opinion and self confidence in it, you are mistaken.
You sound as though another person (me in this case) isn’t capable of having firm strong opinion (like you in this case) based and supported by facts as they see it – and *will* see it.
You are welcome to say what you want and I won’t think it’s unkind. I’ll just think *there he goes again*. 😉
I liked the films listed because I found them Indian, and I find that SRK has acted in a whole lot of them which out numbers the other kind.
Some Trivia
1. –
The Crab Mentality
It set in with vengeance, with people wanting to minimize, mock, and pull it down, just because SRK dared to do something different and shout it from the rooftops.
They have not even left his children alone. Now these are king crabs.
2.
Quite a few reviews in the west are very positive, with the FT of London saying the film has taken Indian cinema forward. 😉
3.
Everyone looks good. SRK looked very very attractive at the end when the credits rolled.
4.
Spreading negativity works (and this blog did its part)
Booked tickets online at a cinema in Leicester Square London.
– reached there and thought ;
*oh, no* the film failed, and they had to show it in this seedy looking corner of this area. Anyway, went in.
-There was no sign of Ra.One. It wasn’t listed there, no poster, no nothing.
‘Oh, no’ they have removed it, because it failed
-made enquiries. The tickets were booked in Leicester (a totally different town) *not* Leicester square in London. ‘
‘Oh no’. Now what!! We were told to go to Marble Arch where it was playing. Decided not to haggle over the wrongly booked tickets in Leicester (they were not to be blamed), and let Ra.One have the extra collection
-next day went early in a very nice area. The notice there said ‘Booking starts at 12.15’. No one came. By now I was quite paranoid.
‘Oh, no’. It has been removed because it failed so no booking, quite forgetting that there were other films playing too. From among the crowd waiting suddenly someone remembeed it’s winter time -change today. We should come later.
4. The 12.40 2D show was about ¼ full, but the later 3D show seemed quite full judging from the crowd ready to go in.
Tho, ofcourse it is par for the course.
Re: It’s a commercially entertaining film, and I’ll judge it on those grounds, keeping it as short as possible.
What does that mean?
How does one get ‘commercially entertained”?
Is this some novel way of trying to justify the crap fest?
Is the bar artificially lower for a ‘commercially entertaining film?
Boob grab/boob press- same difference.
The review sounds hollow and the praise forced.
Even, I did like some portions but didnt need to adorn my review with incoherent defensive justification of large chunks of the film that are pitifully pathetic.
Sorry to butt in your conversation, but just felt like responding to some points in your comments:
”Child artistes like Honey Irani and Daisy Irani have gone forever…but SRK revived it in Ra.One. It adds to the charm of the film though several people are so not used to children in films that they have labelled the film for them.”
SRK revived it? I hope you remember Darsheel in TZP (Aamir made child artiste the main actor of the film!), Shweta Prasad in Iqbal and Makdee – best examples in current times. Also, in Fanaa, the kid in second half is instrumental in causing change of heart in Aamir’s character and bringing Aamir and Kajol closer. Kids had prominent roles in films like HHRPK, One 2 Ka 4, Mr. India, KKHH, Raja Hindustani, Zakhm, Tere Mera Saath Rahe, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic, Raju Chacha, Gopi Kishen and even KNPH. The little kid in Gadar also has significant role post interval in the film. Salman’s Partner, Biwi No. 1 and Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya have also shown some bratty/mischievous kids.
– ”just because SRK dared to do something different”
What is so different which he has ”dared” to do? I saw many SRK fans talking about ”different/daring” stuff. Kindly elaborate what it is? Superhero films – we have had Krissh which was the no.1 or no.2 biggest hit of 2006. Sci-fi films (or Indian filmi style sci-fi) Koi Mil Gaya and Robot are there – both successful examples.
I can understand if Shekhar Kapur and Anil Kapoor were lauded for daring to do something different when they made Mr. India in 80s! What was so risky and daring for Ra one?
– ”Spreading negativity works (and this blog did its part)”
Madam I think you are highly mistaken. No blog or tweet can spread negativity or stop a film from doing well! Blogs were trashing Bodyguard, Ready, Dabangg – left, right and centre! Reviewers were panning those films. Yet those films succeeded. When Ghajini released in 2008, I don’t know if some of you here are aware or not, but TV channels like NDTV, Sahara News, Star News, Aaj Tak left no stone unturned to spread negativity against it! They kept reporting how ”gory” it was that no one should watch it, how it should have got A certificate, how Aamir ”disappointed” and was not expected to come up such a film post TZP, they never reported about its record breaking collections and only kept repeating how it was a ”nakal” of a Tamil film, how Aamir was fake perfectionist and only turned out to be ”nakalchi bandar” with Ghajini!
They and some sites like Oneindia, gave worst reviews to Ghajini and also accused Aamir of lying about its collections, reporting about ”fake records” just to prove his film’s supremacy at BO over SRK’s RNBDJ! They kept playing up the so-called war between Aamir-SRK and accused Aamir of trying to sabotage RNBDJ, using SRK for publicity and whatnot!
Still the film survived all negativity and broke all records!
Media spread negativity for 3 Idiots too. Especially TV channels here in India, started reporting only about credit controversy and later took some suicide cases and said 3I was ”encouraging students to commit suicide”! [Even though students have committed suicide earlier, and the film only gives message against suicide, not for it!!] Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN kept accusing Aamir and makers of 3I of promoting irreverence against teachers and education system, she not only did programs on this on TV but also kept writing op-eds trashing the film.
Did any of that harm 3 Idiots? Did it make a dent in its popularity, acclaim or BO collections? NO!
Certain sections of media had also attempted to spread negativity against RDB, saying it encouraged students to resort to violence or rebel or promoted irreverence for elders and the system. But nothing could stop RDB. It struck a chord with people and made big bucks at BO too.
Blogs, tweets, even published pieces from popular journos or critics can make NO difference in case people find the film entertaining or connect with it some way. These days, there is plenty of negativity for every star’s film.
As for Ra One, there are not just blogs or tweets. It has become a butt of jokes in SMSes too. Indeed Ra One SMS jokes have taken over Rajini jokes in India as of now.
But then, joke pages for Aamir/Salman and their films are also on FB and Twitter (made and nourished by talented SRK fans). But those jokes never spread far and wide. If ordinary people are taking to Ra One jokes and forwarding them to each other, then they surely must have found it worth joking about. Otherwise, Aamir/Salman jokes, never made it out of FB and Twitter despite incessant re-tweeting, sharing and re-blogging by his fans across social networks.
It’s just amazing how his fans on one hand call him world’s most powerful man or biggest star on earth and then feel he’s being victimised or people are trying to sabotage his films!
Actually there were lots of children in films throughout the 70s.
Of course some of these ‘virtues’ are rather arbitrary ones in the Ra One context. It’s like saying I love Fanaa because a girl hadn’t been blind in Hindi cinema for ages! or that I love Ghajini because no one lost their memory in a Hindi film after the 70s.
Thanks for posting your thoughts. How did you find this vis-a-vis Enthiran (Robot) which I think (?) you also saw? I’m mainly interested in the effects which I’m sure were better in Ra.One but did you feel that they were as imgainative as what Shankar created? Of course my question is a bit leading and presupposes that you thought the effects sequences in Robot were imaginative…but in any case since you seem to have come away with a reasonably strong impression on the VFX, thought I’d ask.
I liked the scenes of Robot towards the ending, and honestly speaking they both look different from each other.
Ra.One seemed more aesthetically done.
But as I also said the use in scenes was overdone in length.
“IT SIMPLY COSTS HIM MORE AND MORE TO KEEP PACE WITH HIS RIVALS.”
I think he can still easily belt out big grossers with love stories but he seems to be genuinely interested in the Hollywood-style SFX stuff. So I think it’s a choice on his part, not a compulsion to do expensively budgeted films.
I don’t know why he just does not follow the CDI and RNBDJ model. These were perfectly budgeted films which made lots of money and still kept his rep in tact.
I believe he will just go out for bigger and bigger films instead of affordable cinema.
Ra.One in the context of what Qalander said is right.
Or another way. Aamir has made Lagaan (30 crores), TZP (15 crores), JTYJN (15 crores), Peepli Live (10 crores), Dhobi Ghat (5 crores) and Delhi Belly (25 crores). These are approx. budgets. Together that is 100 crores as production costs. The net gross for these movies is 250crore just from India!
I think even if SRK is feeling the pressure from Salman/Amir , in his mind his competition is with AB. He has a king size AB complex and is preoccupied with the idea of somehow equalling or surpassing the preeminence enjoyed by AB ( and same goes to some extent for his fans too). While quite popular with certain demographic groups, he does not enjoy the kind of near-universal adualtion and respect that AB does. Nor can he possibly think of any way to attain those.
So, he operates with the idea of – Bigger is better. Let me deliver the biggest bloack-buster while at the same time successfully attempt something never done before. It is this blinding ambition and competitive spirit that drives him.
Agree CDI model was good both commerically and artistically while RNBDJ was good commercially.But, that doesnt do enough for his massive egotrip. It is a different matter that now even RNBDJ model will work commerically. As he has alienated large chunks of audience with brashness,arrogance and cockiness. and carerless remakrs. And the perceived ambivalence on Indo-Pak issue and some rather shameless pandering. Combine that with rapidly declining looks and a certain boredom on part of the public with his romantic image and even those romantic films are not a sure bet they were a while back.
He has painted himself into a corner and needs to reinvent himself. Given his limitations in term of vision, it is going to be a difficult if not an impossible task.
The explanation is actually quite simple. CDI & RNBDJ, although profitable, don’t support his self-proclaimed ‘baadshah’ of BW theory. The numbers aren’t big enough. What RNBDJ made in 2 weeks, Ghajini made in its first extended week! CDI wasn’t big enough to challenge Krissh or Dhoom 2.
The reason why SRK went all out with Ra1 was because he too wanted to prove a point. He spent 60 crores marketing the film! That’s the amount that goes into making a Salman film that anyway ends up making more than Ra1.
Ra1 was always going to be a loss-making/face-saving exercise. Even if he somehow could trump the numbers of the latest Salman/Aamir blockbusters, SRK knew he wasn’t really making a profit out of it. His real aim was to win the ‘perception’ battle. Prove to the world that he is *still* the king.
Unfortunately for him, not only did he lose the perception battle, he basically has ruined quite a few distributors/exhibitors in the process. And this, isn’t the least bit surprising. Marketing can only take you this far. In fact, by this deluge of marketing he might have harmed the cances of Don 2, because there’s certainly going to be a backlash.
This also ties in with what most people have been saying on this site all along — that SRK does NOT have the numbers, at least in India, to justify blowing his trumpet every now and then. He hasn’t been first among equals for a long time now.
Most SRK fanatics try to portray that SRK dominated the whole of 90s, but consider these facts:
When SRK’s KKHH clashed head on with BMCM, the latter had a better first week!
In 2000, when Mohabbatein clashed with Mission Kashmir, the latter again had a better first week! Imagine, not even a year old star (Hrithik) beat SRK’s decade long, supposedly #1 reign at the BO.
To be fair, SRK did win the box office clash with Salman’s Jaan E man and also against Saawariya, but the latter had newcomers in the film. The tables have turned though, and how. Today, if SRK directly clashes with Salman, he’s going to get an even bigger reality check!
In fact, I’m willing to be that Rockstar will end up making as much or MORE than Ra1! That ought to be even more humbling for the self-proclaimed King of BW! And just to reiterate, there’s no malice involved in all of this — if you throw down the guantlet, you’ve got to back up your swagger. SRK’s record indicates otherwise, for most part of the last decade and even earlier than that period.
Good, balanced review Oldgold. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like a dramatically compelling film. That’s more important to me than great VFX. I have not even seen films like Iron Man 2, Thor or any of the Transformers films because they just looked boring. To be frank, I am a bit tired of the superhero genre in general. But SRK must be commended for putting his money where his mouth is – how many stars have the balls to spend that kind of dough and try to improve the VFX quality in Indian films? Moving forward, if such films take cue from RA.one and have better VFX, then SRK has already succeeded on a very important level.
Re: I think he can still easily belt out big grossers with love stories
I think that claim rings hollow.
Anyways, expecting good things from J.Edgar. Loved the trailer shown with The Ides of March. J.Edgar is a difficult subject to pull off and I felt Eastwood was trying to find some redemption in Hoover’s character which seems misplaced. De CAPRIO’S GET UP IS ACE THO.
And, when exactly was RNBDJ?
THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN WHETHER YOU WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT OR NOT.
I will not be surprised if Yash Chopra has second thoughts.
The reason I am saying this is the amount of negativity towards SRK I have seen amongst netiezens as well non-netizens.People, overall are very dismissive of SRK saying he is old, looks unhealthy, is so far behind Aamir etc. This is a significant change since two years ago.His fan base more or less might be intact. But 80-100 crore grossers are not achieved relying solely on the fans. The average cinema goer who is not a star struck fan contributes to a large degree.
In other words for SRK, the world today is different than when RNBDJ released. Hence, I am saying that it is not a given that he is going to score in a romantic love story.
One can’t say so till his full-fledged commercial film releases. And that is Dhuan or whatever that film is called and fails to do well. At least it won’t be outright flop as some Akki films were.
So far, his name alone has been enough to make films like PL, DB as hits! Even DG has made most money for an art film!
Those who call Aamir as ”over” simply on the basis of DG, which was not even promoted till 6 days before its release, which did not even have Aamir as main lead nor any other known face in the cast – are all too desperate and deluded.
Aamir I am sure will be back. Not to hurt on Salman’s achievements because he has taken two purely average films to big grossers, but if Aamir’s films clicks – the big commercial ones, one is no longer talking about beating 100 crore marks, it is automatically north of 150 crore because he can open a film on a par with Salman – just his script sense will give the film way more longer legs in theatres.
Box-office collections have still been respectable. It’s definitely not a Kites or Tees Maar Khan, Raavan kind of colossal collapse.
To be frank, the amateurish promos suggested srk will not be able to even open the movie this time around. However failure of this movie will surely affect Don2, and this time its going to hit the opening itself.
Crux of the matter – no one is willing to accept srk in hammy roles anymore – period.
As I said earlier, rejection of these two movies will be a wake up call for srk and his cronies who buy anything he says or does with no criticism whatsoever. SRK’s look with that big nose in the initial sequence of Ra1 with sanjay/priyanka was awful to look at and definitely someone should have pointed out to him to change the angle / look or whatever needed to be done.
All is not lost though and it is here, we would all learn about his true character. He did face a bit of rejection in 2000 but came back stronger and wiped out all competitions for a considerable period of time.
Working with strict senior directors will do him good. There is just no room for anymore ham / ott. He was fairly good in that cameo in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance and came across very much controlled so there is still a faint chance before he goes the Kaka Rajesh Khanna way …
A lot many people including me had a problem with Rizwan kind of postures and mannerism as G-One. Hammy for me also means not staying in character throughout the movie. He was all over the place trying to play a south Indian. Lungi and curly hair does not mean your job as an actor is done.
One of the reason I liked Robot was due to Rajni and his believable authentic character throughout the movie. Even the stiff Chitty kept me engaged with his one tone act till the end.
It’s not speech but a behavior which becomes hammy for me – like that Raj of Rab ne or reincarnation of OSO in 2nd half OTT is okay sometimes but then one must stay in character till the end.
This is not to credit salman with any acting chops, but in Dabangg the guy stayed Chulbul Pandey till the last reel. Wanted is another good example o staying in character.
Though Sallu was hamming in Bodyguard and going through the motions.
SRK is lucky in a sense since he starts to shoot his next movie in Jan 2012 which is after the release of Don2 and the subsequent feedback on that too. His next movie does not carry any backlog and is a fresh start. If smart he is going to wake up and smell the coffee and to pay attention to what’s going on.
He still remains the biggest superstar of India in terms of overall package and in many ways than others including Aamir and Salman..
How ridiculous is this.
People seem to be equating BO *expected before release* = success.
And if this expectation isn’t fulfilled it’s a BO failure.
Come on! The daily numbers it’s getting are not that common.
To make it look like it would be a success ONLY if it broke records of 3I and others is being devious.
LOL! But I have always maintained that personally I’m not concerned with what the distributors make.
At the end of its days I like to know the total amount a film makes.
I’m not a distributor so what do I care. I don’t get anything when they make crores nor do I lose anything when the lose crores.
So the total as the earnings from the film is enough for me.
Is that lack of intellectual curiosity or fear of finding out?
It is like saying I dont care if the necklace is made of steel or gold because I am not a jeweller , I just want to know the price!
No, because it is all a contrived affair of didtributors earning in the first week or something, then the cinema owners, or something.
Maybe you are right. I’m not at all curious about who earns how much. The total counts (if at all, for me). This stance of mine can be verified in several comments of mine over time on this blog.
But didn’t I read somewhere that the film was sold for 77cr?
77 Crores is the distribution cost. The distributor’s share is around 50% of the nett. So if Ra1 has earned 90 crores so far, the distributors have only earned 45 crores!
In other words, the film needs to make close to 145 crores nett to just break even!
Well it is the fault of Ra One’s marketing team. They were claiming to have beaten 3 Idiots even before release and were dragging 3 Idiots comparisons in every article, claiming to have beaten it. SRK’s fans also did the same, they kept saying 3I overall records will be trashed in one week.
It is not the fault of other people now to compare it to 3I! All media outlets were hyping it up as SRK’s year. Filmfare anointed him as Actor of 2011 in December last year! Simply because he had two big projects in this year which were ”expected to shatter records”. India Today also declared SRK would ”rule this year”.
So if his own PR has hyped up things so much and promised the Sun and the Moon, then how come now everyone is being blamed of being harsh on the film or burdening it with expectations to cross 3I?
I remember in 2009, a magazine called Starweek had declared that MNIK already looked like it would become biggest grosser in history BUT ”response to 3 Idiots first look was not so good and it was not expected to even match up to Ghajini”! [I remember that article now and have a good laugh! :D]
Blame it on SRK’s sycophants in media for belittling others’ films and declaring his films as ”on its way to become” biggest grossers ”ever” even before release! They sound like it is a given that 100 crore nett or 200 crore nett are ”no big deal” for SRK and it’s a given that his film would break all records, it just needs to release to officially get biggest grosser tag!
The trade analysts and journos like Jitesh Pillai of Filmfare, were already declaring ”expect records to be broken”, ”king is back” and whatnot on Twitter for months.
Why are SRK fans now ignoring all this and accusing others of deliberately comparing Ra 1 with highest benchmarks?
Before release comparison was 3 Idiots. Then it was Dabangg total. Then it was Bodyguard weekend total. Now its Bodyguard total. And tomorrow it may well be Ready total. If it totally collapses it will be Ghajini total. Thank god for Ra-One it has achieved something for SRK – it will beat his previous best effort of 3 years ago.
I don’t know why but I don’t think that DON 2 will be that big either at the box office….nothing to do with RA 1 or anything but I doubt this one is getting to 150. Again, without single screens in play, it’s hard to get to a 150 type of total. DON 2 is a multiplex movie if there ever was one so a total of around 120-130 is all I think it will get.
agreed here.. don 2 would have to significantly improve the performance of the first Don to be able to get 150. Farhan Akhtar isn’t the sort of director whose films excite the box office in that mass sense. But a 100-120 crore gross could be on the cards here if the film is just good enough to repeat the performance of the earlier work.
Into 2nd week, Ra.One faces near-empty halls
Varada Bhat / Mumbai November 2, 2011, 0:57 IST
Theatre occupancy for Ra.One dipped to 15 to 20 per cent in weekdays after 90 to 100 per cent occupancy over its release weekend. The superhero science fiction movie had attracted considerable pre-release publicity with mega star Shah Rukh Khan going on a marketing overdrive with a ten-month 360-degree campaign — the first of its kind for a Bollywood film.
That tempo, though, seems to be now losing steam. “The film started off very well due to the curiosity factor, with virtually packed houses, but couldn’t even sustain over the weekend,” says a senior executive of a leading multiplex chain that has exhibition halls across the country. “The occupancy started dropping since Sunday.” The weekday occupancies for Ra.One are much lower than it was for Bodyguard, a Salman Khan-starrer released two months ago, he added.
Another official and independent distributor confirmed that there was a huge drop. “The occupancy on Sunday was about 40 per cent, and Monday was about 20 per cent,” he said.
Eros International, which holds the worldwide distribution rights, said the 160-minute movie has grossed Rs 170 crore (net collections Rs 87 crore at domestic box-office) globally in the first five days in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The overseas collection stood at Rs 33 crore.
The movie, produced by SRK’s wife Gauri Khan, was released on 4,600 screens worldwide in both 2D and 3D format. Bodyguard, which was released in 2700 screens on August 31, has grossed Rs 88 crore.
According to Boxofficeindia.com, Ra.One’s Hindi version netted Rs 80.9 crore from Indian box-office in its opening weekend. It is a little less than Bodygaurd, which collected Rs 86 crore. The dubbed versions collected around Rs 7 crore, which make it a total of Rs 87.9 crore.
A closer look at the earnings break-up ever since its opening day shows that Hindi version Ra.One earned Rs 14.85 crore on day one, while Bodyguard collected around Rs 21 crore (Wednesday). The collections that followed stood like this: Rs 22.90 crore vs Rs 17.5 crore (Thursday), Rs 15.30 crore vs Rs 13.25 crore (Friday) Rs 14.55 crore vs Rs 14.85 crore (Saturday), Rs 13.30 crore vs 19.5 crore (Sunday) and Rs 5 crore vs Rs 7 crore (Monday).
The content of the film, directed by Anubhav Sinha and starring Kareena Kapoor opposite SRK, has met with diverse response. Some did love the world-class special effects, while others simply disregarded it as a Hollywood imitation.
The marketing hype, though, paid off well. The producers, after all, recovered a little over Rs 100 crore even before the film released — by selling all the necessary rights such as cable and satellite rights (Rs 5 crore to Star India), music rights (Rs 15 crore to Tseries) and the marketing rights (Rs 52 crore).
Eros, on its part, expects that the international exposure of Ra.One will continue to grow in the coming months as it continues to take the film to many more countries. The film is scheduled for theatrical release in the first quarter of 2012 across several territories. They include South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine, Brazil, Spain, Italy and Greece.
the numbers are pretty good. The per screen average of more than 8k is not bad for this genre specially given the history. Yes the screen count is double what it would be for most films, even the big ones but nonetheless this is not a bad number.
The numbers are kinda low for a SRK movie after a two year wait.
MNIK made more in three days on less screens than Ra.One in 5 days – $1,944,027, 120 theaters, $16,200. MNIK in five days made $2,384,598. So Ra.One is about 30% less than MNIK already.
According to a post in NG, Dookudu (Mahesh Babu’s latest) got $1.2 million in two days on 60 prints. I’m not sure if this gross or net collections. In any case, it indicates how Telugu and Tamil films are eroding the overseas market for Hindi films. This is probably one reason why they are now searching for “unconventional” markets.
also talks about doing a bit of a face touch-up as Rajni did for Robot. This is actually evident in the film anyway when he’s G.One but I wonder if Oldgold will object as much here as she seemed to with Aamir for 3I!
Ra.One (Hindi) Collects A Huge 91.75 Crore In Seven Days
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) has had huge collections in the first seven days as it has collected nearly 91.75 crore nett. The film dropped around 15% on Tuesday as mass belts dropped heavily.
The film may fall a little short of 100 crore nett in its extended nine day week but it has an extended four day weekend in its second week to put up good numbers.
The best numbers have come from West Bengal, Mysore and TNK where it will emerge the top grosser for 2011. Rajasthan has also done well considering it is more of a big city multiplex film.
The numbers in the North are a bit lower comparing with the rest of India. Both Delhi/UP and East Punjab have under performed compared to other markets
In other words they’re not even expecting 4.5 crores per day for these remaining two days to get it to 100 crores. According to their previous numbers the film collected just 4 crores on Tue. Which is why they’re not mentioning it and just presenting it as a total.
as for having a second extended weekend it might help at the margins but how much difference could it make when even the first weekend didn’t help the film much once it started cracking?!
SATYAMSHOT
October 24, 2011 at 11:22 PM
So the journey has started.
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October 25, 2011 at 5:16 AM
The apt title should be
Ra One and nothing else will remain in front of it at the box office.
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October 25, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Yup .. nothing will remain in pocket of distributors after its run.
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October 25, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Yeah Damadamm and Tell me o Khuda’s distributors are gonna be sorry for releasing their movies. But, y’know, Ra.One’s just gonna pwn!
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October 25, 2011 at 5:44 AM
the early reviews coming in are not good.
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October 25, 2011 at 6:01 AM
Yes, real reviews are coming with poor storyline and poor performances.
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October 25, 2011 at 6:59 AM
I hope it’s not a washout like Kites.
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October 25, 2011 at 7:16 AM
Ra-one is poor show all the way ..
http://www.naachgaana.com/2011/10/25/ra-one-and-rockstar/
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October 25, 2011 at 7:17 AM
Ra-one has disaster storyline .. http://www.naachgaana.com/2011/10/25/another-review-of-ra-one-praising-its-vfx-and-action-scenes-but-dissecting-its-story-610/
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October 25, 2011 at 7:48 AM
jeevan i hope u having fun there. just make sure your here tomorrow and then next day and the next…i want see your lame excuses why ra.1 has broken every record in indian cinema (not just india but worldwide)
peace 🙂
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October 25, 2011 at 8:21 AM
Read the comments from viewers – http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/film/cinema-reviews/ra-one-shah-rukh-khan-has-another-winner-1.918235
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October 25, 2011 at 8:26 AM
Ra.One Advance: Excellent
Tuesday 25th October 2011 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has had an excellent advance with 20-25% ticket sold for day one, this is the same as Bodyguard but as shows are more its a record amount in terms of tickets sold before release
The best advance has come in South India and this is for the Hindi version not regional version. Multiplexes in Bangalore and Hyderabad are around 80% full already. Nizam and Mysore will almost certainly set circuit records for day one. Ahmedabad is also set for a phenomenal opening with records being smashed.
In Delhi there are some multiplexes with 30-35% tickets gone while others are at 15-20%, Mumbai city on average is 15-20%.
The single screen advance is slower than Bodyguard if we look at major single screens of India like Liberty and Odeon in Delhi. Both these theatres were 90% full in advance for Bodyguard while its much lower for Ra.One.
Diwali Puja may affect more in the North and interiors as advance in places like Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Noida and Jaipur is less for shows after 1pm then the early shows but its hard to judge as other cities like Kanpur and Lucknow are similar for morning and evening.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Ra.One Sets A Precedent
Tuesday 25th October 2011 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The event film has been dominating screen space but with each release the dominance gets bigger and bigger. Ra.One has taken it to a level that there is only one screen for all the other releases to share at many multiplexes and that includes the new releases Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm.
There is no doubt that Don 2 is likely to go a step further in December even though that is not your heavily budgeted 150 crore film. Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm may have 300-350 screens but its just 1-2 shows at most of these screens.
The way the business model is heading is that in a few years we may be looking 200 crore nett extended weeks when holidays are in your favour and then around 50 crore thereafter. A few years back a 50% drop was considered a reasonably big drop and now we are heading for a situation that a 80% drop will be looked as normal with a bumper start.
Around ten years back it was tough to get tickets for the weekend for a big film and if public reports were not good the guy who wanted to watch in the weekend but could not get ticket was unlikely to comeback. The idea today is to make sure no one goes back and this limits the affects of word of mouth, if you have the hype then the job will be done before word of mouth really kicks in.
Ten years ago a superstar film could easily flop as you needed at least 7-8 weeks run and you could not get that on hype alone. In the 70’s and 80’s it was even harder as a hit film had to run for at least 100 days in big centres. Now as long as a superstar generates huge hype with an out and out commercial movie then huge business is guaranteed unless film goes totally wrong with the story being unacceptable to the public.
It was a huge achievement before for a superstar to have back to back blockbusters and it was rarity, today if a superstar picks his films well and times the release well then you can have umpteen blockbusters in a row.
Just five years back a small film like Vivah could do more business (share) than Rang De Basanti. Rang De Basanti boxoffice in 2006 was on the lines of what Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara did this year and it is unthinkable today that a small film can do the business of Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. The reason why its impossible is because of the release model and it will only get harder for smaller films.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:28 AM
“It was a huge achievement before for a superstar to have back to back blockbusters and it was rarity, today if a superstar picks his films well and times the release well then you can have umpteen blockbusters in a row.”
Which is why Bachchan was so rare!
On a larger note it’s surprising to see this deconstructive view from BOI all of a sudden!
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October 25, 2011 at 10:24 AM
“A few years back a 50% drop was considered a reasonably big drop and now we are heading for a situation that a 80% drop will be looked as normal with a bumper start.”
lol BOI tactics. This is an excuse for BOI if there will be huge drop for Ra one in first week .Anyway BOI will give hit tag to Ra one even if film fails and if there is huge drop they will declare its normal thing
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October 25, 2011 at 8:34 AM
But this kind of hogging of screen space is not good for the industry. It seems like bullying tactics to me. Why don’t they build more theaters in India, especially north India. Considering how much of a social force movies are in India, the ratio of screens to population is baffling.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:28 AM
First Day Record On For Ra.One Despite Diwali Puja
Tuesday 25th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is set to release on Diwali and normally collections are hit by 25% plus as many families stay at home from around 3pm till 8pm for Diwali Puja but the buzz is so huge for the film that it could be a limited affect as many still venture out to see the magnum opus.
Last year Golmaal 3 was released on Diwali Puja and in Mumbai where there was biggest craze for the film as the first two Golmaal’s had done best in Mumbai, it was not affected and collected what it would have on a normal day. In the South, the Diwali Puja affect is minimal as compared to the North.
Here with Ra.One the craze all over is more than the craze of Golmaal 3 in Mumbai circuit so the first day 20.60 crore nett record of Bodyguard may be beaten despite Diwali Puja as long as North is 20% lower on Diwali Puja and not the 50% plus that Golmaal 3 was. Below are the the Diwali Puja day collections and next day holiday (in brackets) of Golmaal 3. Figures in Lakhs.
Mumbai – 461 (572)
Delhi/UP – 138 (249)
East Punjab – 51 (118)
West Bengal – 35 (58)
Bihar – 12 (25)
Assam/Orissa – 7 (14)
CP Berar – 34 (73)
CI – 12 (44)
Rajasthan – 34 (81)
Nizam – 45 (52)
Mysore – 33 (50)
TNK – 10 (15)
Total – 872 (1352)
It can be seen that Diwali Puja had hardly any affect in Mumbai and South as next day jumped 20-25% (normal holiday jump) in these places while at some other places the jumps were even over 100% where Diwali puja affected the film hugely.
Ra.One may well see a strong record or near record day one due to craze and 20-25% jump next day due to holiday and then word of mouth coming into play on Friday rather than the below par day one at many places and and 55% jump on day 2 which happened with Golmaal 3.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:49 AM
On other note,
HAPPY DIWALI TO ALL THE SATYAM BLOGGERS!!!! 🙂
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October 25, 2011 at 9:00 AM
thanks Amit.. same to you and everyone else here..
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October 25, 2011 at 10:21 AM
Happy Diwali to all.
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October 25, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Happy Diwali ALL!
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October 25, 2011 at 4:15 PM
Happy Diwali & Nutan Varsh Abhinandan to all.
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October 25, 2011 at 9:58 AM
RA.One to open in 5,000 screens worldwide
Shah Rukh Khan’s RA.One is all set to be the biggest Bollywood release ever opening in approximately 5000 screens worldwide. In India alone, the sci-fi flick will occupy over 3,500 screens, which is easily 30 per cent more than the last big release, Salman Khan’s Bodyguard, reports Mid Day.
This hasn’t left much room for this week’s other releases- Hema Malini’s Tell Me O Kkhuda and Himesh Reshammiya’s Damadamm.
The tabloid quotes Ashish Saksena of Big Cinemas as saying: “Shah Rukh’s track record for Diwali has been almost 100 percent. There is little chance any exhibitor would let go of the opportunity to play the movie as much as possible. We opened advance bookings for selected screens last week and they are all houseful already.”
Over 90% screens are reserved for SRK’s superhero flick in multiplexes. “Himesh’s last few films have done dismal business and Tell Me O Kkhuda doesn’t stand a chance competing with RA.One when it comes to star value. So the exhibitors have reserved over 90 per cent screens for RA.One. More money the multiplex makes in the first weekend, the better revenues,” trade analyst Amod Mehra told the tabloid.
After extensive promotions on TV shows and across 11 cities, SRK has thrown his last success card to ensure grand opening worldwide.
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October 25, 2011 at 10:16 AM
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/review/14208/index.html
there is always a sense of deja vu when you read taran’s reviews….somehow they all sound the same
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October 25, 2011 at 10:18 AM
To be fair, there are a number of very favorable revies too from likes of Nahata,Taran and Khalid.
Table is set up for Ra.1 to post record numbers. Lets see what happens. I shall be watching with interest.
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October 25, 2011 at 10:38 AM
HMmmm Srk knew you could not pull it off why copy Tron!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anonymous, mumbai, Qatar
Added 13:20 October 25, 2011the movie is boring evan it has big star imran zahoor, dubai, India
Added 12:29 October 25, 2011very pathetic movie….disgusting Anonymous, london, British Indian Ocean Territory
Added 12:05 October 25, 2011This guy (SRK) is kind of boring nowadays. He always want to be in a front line on the stage or any pictures with those funny and ugly composure …. still hungry for the fame!…. common SRK give yourself a break! Jodi, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:53 October 25, 2011The review about the film should not be given to such detail as we have not watched the film yet and are very eager to view it in the Cinema. The story and sequences should have been a secret so that it creates a level of suspense for the viewer. Aqeel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:51 October 25, 2011A complete waste of time and a rip off from the English movie MEGAMIND. Greg, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:51 October 25, 2011I have seen Ra.One yesterday but this movie seems to be the copy of Tron (Hollywood movie) I preferred Tron because it’s whole story was in correct sequence, whereas Ra.one’s story was unclear. ASH, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 11:42 October 25, 2011the movie is so boring but the vfx i s good mayur, akola, India
Added 10:46 October 25, 2011They made us wait longer than 1 1/2hr actually screening started at 9pm 2 1/2hrs late. The movie is ok to watch, first 30 minutes entertaining, the next 40 minutes boring and lost, the second half is entertaining. Shahrukh has tried to put in all, comdey, fiction, romance, kidi fun…a movie not for the thinkers and pure entertainment seekers.. Mustak, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Added 10:12 October 25, 2011All the best Sharukh… Sreejith, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/film/cinema-reviews/ra-one-shah-rukh-khan-has-another-winner-1.918235
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October 25, 2011 at 10:57 AM
saw this movie yesterday here at Dubai.
Before interval it was ok but after interval
most of the people were bored. Few people even
left the theatre in middle of the movie.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-has-srk-delivered-with-ra-one/20111025.htm
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October 25, 2011 at 2:30 PM
Don’t wish to dampen spirits here, but just been tweeted from mumbai, this movie is completely trashy and has very poor execution. Does not do justice to the money spent and the hype associated.
However all is not lost Dhoni ne Brits ko dho dala again and with no Tendulkar for support/interference. Team is playing like a team.
MSD – Honest , straightforward and full frontal.
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October 25, 2011 at 2:39 PM
in the initial round the major reviews are very positive.. but I don’t get the sense the WOM is keeping pace.. still early but some of the reactions have been very negative..
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October 25, 2011 at 2:55 PM
Just saw a tweet from
Aseem Chabra: I can’t dismiss # RaOne, but then it’s not a film that I would see again – perhaps never again! There said enough. Now to write the review.
Raja Sen: So this #RaOne? Krrish was better.
Ouch, Looks like this is swinging both ways, Likes of Taran, Komal and Khalid are giving positive reviews.
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October 25, 2011 at 3:31 PM
Some of the WOM is good as couple of colleagues who attended premiere yesterday had lot of good stuff to say. However, since evening have received messages from others who attended that movie is pedestrian stuff and boring. Quite confused on the mixed WOM .
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October 25, 2011 at 4:32 PM
Hmmm.. I’ve got the hunch that this one is okay till the interval. and falls somewhat flat in the second half.. If that’s the case, a big grosser isnt on the cards.
Too early to say still.. I’ve to watch this one first
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October 25, 2011 at 5:07 PM
if a film has to have a weak half it is far better to have the first one as such as opposed to the second one.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:50 AM
exactly what I was thinking.. Its the after-effects of the second half that are going to stay with the audience when they move out
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October 25, 2011 at 5:17 PM
if the WOM is credible at this early stage it seems to me that the film could go one of two ways — either the Bodyguard way where the initial is so massive that despite a big drop-off it gets to a big enough total or the Kites way where the initial is still big enough but reveals damage even in the very early period. Obviously the latter is a big flop. The former is a poor trender where the numbers flatter to deceive. Having said that with a Bodyguard people don’t go in with high expectations. They just hope for a passable Salman show. And so the disappointment can be less acute. With an RA 1 though it has to be more than this. For that matter Kites too was more silly than it was terrible (in the sense of being completely unwatchable). I obviously wouldn’t want to go to the theater for this but with Kites a certain laugh test wasn’t cleared. Some films just cannot be seen, some make the badness ‘fun’ at some level and Kites perhaps belonged more to this group. The larger point though is that not all flops are the same.
Of course it’s still early. Ra One could do a Ready do. But the reason I think it looks iffy for the film is that the reviewers that with a SRK film there is a lot more of the ‘kindness’ quotient all round. The reviewers who find it passable make it good, the ones who like it make it extraordinary and so on. It is only the uncommon reviewer who truly rips a SRK film irrespective of what it is. And so even so-so attention for this film means far worse than the same for other films. Taran and Nahata don’t count at all in this instance because they’re far too compromised. The rest of major reviews though suggest a better trendline. Here too some have been rather positive but a few have tweeted about not liking it too with reviews to follow. Either way a Bodyguard kind of result cannot be ruled out here. And the way the media/trade has set it up that would be considered a success. It really needs to fail completely for anyone to accept it as such and even there people will make excuses about how it’s made most of its money through satellite rights and what not.
By the way the second half being poor is a bad sign too because one assumes this is where all the SFX wizardry really comes into play. Nonetheless with the audience these days who knows?! Given their track record!
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October 25, 2011 at 5:27 PM
And in a way the likes of Taran, Komal and KJo are damaging the film by giving it a blockbuster before the audience see it, and the initial audience go with such expectations and come out disappointed. They should have just reviewed the film for what it actually is rather than giving in with their emotional inputs, I think thats exactly where the film is going to get hurt. These reviews are going to hurt the film. and I am sure it may not be a bad film at the end of the day but certainly not a milestone movie what these guys are claiming it to be.
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October 25, 2011 at 4:53 PM
I know I’m far from unbiased but…
Here’s another: http://www.bollywoodlife.com/news-gossip-buzz/ra-one-quick-movie-review-story-is-all-about-g-one-not-ra-one/
Seems emotional quotient is really missing in the film and the special effects are no where near Hollywood quality like it was hyped.
In a few reviews they mentioned things that definitely shouldn’t be in children’s films – like gay jokes and jokes about condoms, etc. Not to mention one review mentioned that SRK’s developer character is an awful Tamil stereotype character.
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October 25, 2011 at 5:40 PM
Aseem Chabra’s Review on Rediff,
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/why-ra/20111026.htm
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October 25, 2011 at 6:01 PM
This seems to be a fair piece on the film. It does touch on something important as a larger matter. I would call it the ‘burden of the colonized’. In essence people making such a film in India (not only in India) have the sense that they have to live upto certain Hollywood standards not just in technological terms but also as a matter of themes and ideas and so forth. The film becomes then a Hollywood ‘catalog’ without the skills and thought of a Leone behind it (Once Upon a time in the West) or in a more home-grown sense Sholay. The governing principle is often ‘we can do it too.. see.. this is like Iron-Man, this is like Spider-man…. etc’. The other problem connected with this is that one never tries to do more than produce a series of SFX and Hollywood references backed up by a flimsy plot. Because the ‘we can do it too’ sentiment never allows one to take the risk of first beginning with a credible genre film and then infusing it with the Hollywood references. Sholay clearly owes something to Seven Samurai or its Hollywood-inspired (and infinitely poorer) Magnificent Seven or to a film like the Professionals. There are all sorts of references in this sense but also to a larger Hollywood cultural framework from Asrani’s Hitler via Chaplin’s Great Dictator to the Ben-Hur allusion when the wheel comes off the tanga. But the mix is still very distinctively Indian. The story could only be conceived in that fashion in India. Similarly Leone makes allusions to canonical Westerns almost on a shot by shot basis in his great film but he also ‘thinks’ the end of the Western. He sees the curtain falling on this genre and the ‘cataloging’ of his film is then simply a tool to draw out that larger elegy.
But even with a more plastic and certainly inferior film like Krrish there is still a certain Bombay film logic governing the story. On the one hand the first half could be out of a 60s film. But secondly Krrish is about the new and confident assertion of the ‘global’ Indian. Here we see Krrish going to East Asia and saving the day. There is a certain Indian triumphalism of the moment evident in the film. So the Indian using Hollywood cues saves the world!
Finally super-hero films are not just about guys or gals doing great tricks and therefore the stories lending themselves to great SFX possibilities. This comic book universe is about much more than this. Michael Chabon’s Adventures of Kavalier and Clay does a good job of fleshing out in fiction some of what I’m getting at here but there are lots of important cultural studies of this popular art form as well. About how for example America of the 50s or 60s is refracted through Marvel or an earlier one through DC and so on. And this applies to other cultures as well (Japan is an obvious example). And so irrespective of the source and/or inspiration the final result must mean something at a deeper level, i.e. beyond the ‘we can do it too’ sentiment. And here Drona for all its horrible execution had the right idea. There is a massive hit to be resurrected from the ashes of Drona. For anyone who has the understanding and the imagination. And though I didn’t mind Krrish I wish Hrithik and his father would turn to something a lot more ‘native’ for another installment of the franchise (though the opposite looks to be happening).
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October 25, 2011 at 8:05 PM
I haven’t seen Drona, so can’t say anything about that, but I agree with the rest of your comment wholeheartedly.
This missing of the cultural context is a huge problem with any Hindi remake of Hollywood films (authorized or not), because so often I feel that the Hindi makers only look at the surface of the film — plot events only, in most cases — and are completely unaware of the “meaning” of those events.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:51 AM
Excellent comment Satyam. To add, I’ll say that another “terrain” that has a lot of potential (it isn’t a superhero film but let’s call it part of a “fantasy” genre) is Yamadonga — this film wasn’t very good, but the elements are epic and could, in the right hands, be an all-time classic (the original was a very successful Telugu film, but isn’t much of a film). Consider:
A petty thief curses the Lord of the Underworld in a fit of drunken irritation after a job has gone awry — for which the God (himself rather petty) punishes himself by getting him killed (i.e. his fate is changed; the deity cheats) so he can come to the Underworld and face the music. Once there, and much action (including an appearance by NTR Jr’s famous grandfather!) later, the thief steals the god’s sacred rod and busts out of the Underworld, and back to the land of the living… back to his lady love and settling scores with the bad guys…
Whatever one may say about Yamadonga, it was ITSELF, rather than derivative of something else…
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October 26, 2011 at 4:31 AM
Sorry to contradict you, Qalandar, but actually there have been a whole series of Telugu films where an ordinary (but clever) human goes to Yamaloka and bests Yama in a battle of wits, and then uses that experience to resolve his problems back on earth. They are all, in a way, remakes of the first one, called Daivantakudu, starring NTR. I saw this as a child (in the 1950’s) and really don’t remember much about it, except that it was very funny. I’ve never been able to find it on dvd or video. I wouldn’t be surprised if the original was destroyed or in no shape to be reproduced. At any rate, there was a later remake, again with NTR, two further remakes, one with Chiranjeevi (I think), and another with Mohan Babu (who played Yama in Yamadonga), and of course now Yamadonga. I might have missed one or two other remakes along the way. 🙂 In fact, in Yamadonga, one of my pleasures in seeing it was some tongue-in-cheek allusions to these older films. Of course it can be enjoyed for itself even without being aware of the previous film history, but I’ll have to say that it is highly derivative. 🙂 The details of the plot varied in each film, in terms of the exact circumstances of the protagonist, and how he ends up in Yamaloka, but the basic device of a not highly regarded human outwitting Yama due to his human attributes is common to all of them. And that device no doubt goes back to Savitri outwitting Yama to save her husband’s life. 🙂
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October 26, 2011 at 6:09 AM
Thanks sm, that’s great to know — an entire history here I was unaware of. But perhaps what I should clarify is that what I was thinking of was “derivative” in a cultural sense (i.e. all the progenitors you point to are Telugu films, and the “original” ties into the very notion of NTR Jr’s stardom, i.e. his genealogy — it’s a bit like when Abhishek dons the coolie uniform in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, he isn’t “derivative” of his father in Coolie, but it obviously IS an homage/allusion to that film. With Ra-One, from the trailers, it is simply trying to replicate a formula (in this case a Hollywood formula) — rather than pay homage to it. [In the same way, a Bunty aur Babli pays tribute to certain kind of masala movie/moment, but is not derivative in the way that an Om Jai Jagdish or Kuch Na Kaho is, in many respects simply a recycling of earlier, better films.]
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October 26, 2011 at 6:23 AM
Oh, yes, Qalandar, I understood what you meant by “derivative”, but that term can also be applied in the purely cinematic sense to Ra.One. From all I’m reading, the complaint about the VFX seems to be that they crossed the line from homage into copying, hence becoming derivative rather than original. In that same cinematic sense, Yamadonga, and certainly its predecessors are derivative — some of them even used the same sets and set design for Yamaloka. In the cultural sense I think what seems to be the problem with Ra.One (which I felt from the promos) was that it’s not “organic” to the culture that it purports to represent.
(There was also a lot of homage in Yamadonga, too. Several of NTR jr’s speeches in Yamaloka are riffs of speeches given by NTR in other puranic movies, as well as his political speeches while campaigning. As I said, such things only deepened my enjoyment. My spontaneous reaction when I saw NTR come on screen was, “Now I know why this was a big hit!” Unfortunately now that device has become cliched, and they regularly have NTR appear via digital magic in a number of movies, and some poor guy has the thankless task of impersonating NTR’s voice and speech patterns to deliver the new dialogs. I find it all very depressing.)
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October 26, 2011 at 6:29 AM
Re: “In that same cinematic sense, Yamadonga, and certainly its predecessors are derivative — some of them even used the same sets and set design for Yamaloka.”
Ah, that’s also a good distinction: visually and technically (as opposed to thematically/symbolically), even without seeing the “progenitors” I can well believe Yamadonga is derivative. That is sadly true of much of the best popular cinema (even in Hindi, barring a Sholay or an Awaara, very very few classics of popular cinema are anything other than derivative when it comes to the visuals) — but at least the best films have the thematic freshness that is nevertheless conscious of a history and a tradition, and that has a “take” on it….
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October 26, 2011 at 6:24 AM
PS– far from being sorry that you contradicted me, I must thank you: the “epic” elements of Yamadonga acquire an additional dimension in light of your comment. That is, to the “mythos” of the hero journeying to the underworld and being (in some sense) re-born/born as a hero, I can see that your comment adds the element of the Indian popular cinema family drama — where the (new?) star acquires an aura after wrestling with a deity (perhaps his predecessor — a nice touch that NTR Jr. wrestles with the Yama who was himself a hero in an earlier incarnation! And of course NTR Jr. is very much heir to his grandfather’s legacy in terms of looks and how he has tried to project himself, although the stature is of course not there). This kind of “intertextuality” is a far cry from the sort of “I love this film, let me make it in Hindi!” vibe I get from a Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara or a Don — note that the critical objection isn’t premised on an opposition between “native” and “foreign” (except inasmuch as a certain colonial history makes the equation of “foreign” with “worthy of emulation” within certain social classes more likely); but these films not only have nothing interesting to say about their Hindi predecessors, offering no new insight or fresh take; they have nothing interesting to say about their Hollywood predecessors too! The director of “Wake up Sid” makes that film because he believes that is the only way to make a film — the aping of H’wood (or _______) is almost unconscious — for contemporary multiplex B’wood directors, “good” films HAVE to be this way (otherwise they are films targeted at some real or imagined masses of people “not in the know”). Whereas, the same is not true of Yamadonga, but is true of the very regular, run-of-the-mill NTR Jr. starrer Kantri — the latter is completely derivative and mediocre (as would be a Singham in Hindi), but the former, even in light of your note, does not strike me as derivative.
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October 26, 2011 at 6:50 AM
The only thing “derivative” about Yamadonga is the device of the hero going to Yamaloka and having a battle of wits with Yama. I haven’t seen all of the earlier films in this subgenre, but i was only referring to this aspect in using the word derivative. BTW, the Yamaloka set of Yamadonga was definitely not derivative! I believe it was the largest set in all of Asia are something, and it took them over a month to take it down when all the filming was done.
As far as the intertextuality or NTR jr’s genealogy goes, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Yamadonga was his first big hit (Sinhadri, which is usually called his first hit, preceded this, I think, but it wasn’t as big a hit as Yamadonga). Because of this, he was still not only unacknowledged and ostracized by his father’s family, but was still the target of an active campaign by his uncle (Balakrishna) to evict him from the film industry. In view of that background, the call to his grandfather to confirm his legitimacy becomes all the more significant and poignant. I, at any rate, felt that the dialogs delivered by “NTR”, to the effect of, “You are my heir, what do you have to fear? You can take on anyone and everyone and defeat them!” spoke more to the real life drama of NTR jr.’s life, rather than his character’s life within the film. Allusions to real life events and relationships are not uncommon in Telugu, or other Indian films, but I thought this went beyond the usual evocations to become a proclamation, and even a challenge. Very fascinating dialogs.
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October 25, 2011 at 6:02 PM
The BOI write-ups are very defensive and are just setting up a potential crash and justifying that a big drop is the norm. This is total BS.
If 3 Idiots can make 120 crore AFTER its first week there are no excuses for “different” models and what not. A big crash of 80% is not even the biggest openers in Hollywood can be proud off. Lets see what happens with Ra-One because its very unclear from the early reviews whether this one is going to work big time. Always felt it was risky but the marketing has been incredible and done the trick to give the film as big as opening as possible.
Point being how does one explain 3 Idiots’ box office run with this kind of write-up?
There is clearly a different industry standard. 20 years ago a 40% drop may have been considered the norm. 10 years ago maybe 50%. 55-60% is fair game today for a big film. But 70-80% and your still talking about a film that by in large is not liked and living on first few days hype.
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October 26, 2011 at 7:05 AM
glad you guys are discussing yamadonga and i have once precisely asked this question to him where no one is bullish enough to make its hindi remake and very aptly there is no actor cum dancer to pull off the role
ntr junior strength has always been dancing ( and he is the best in country right now but he was very decent there to)
there are hrithik and shahid ( who are very apt in jackson style of dancing but are nowhere in terms of classical and are hardly carry that manly look and acting presence)
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October 26, 2011 at 7:06 AM
him here is satyam
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October 25, 2011 at 6:39 PM
Read this funny tweet from one of critics.
“SRK grabs Kareena’s boob. A school teacher has a sex tape. Man makes SRK show his pierced nipple & licks lips. #RaOne, a family entertainer.”
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October 25, 2011 at 7:33 PM
Raja Sen trashes it:
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-raone-raja-sen/20111026.htm
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October 25, 2011 at 7:37 PM
Reuters:
http://blogs.reuters.com/indiamasala/2011/10/26/ra-one-this-aint-the-one/
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October 25, 2011 at 7:45 PM
Once ‘unpaid’ reviews have emerged, Taran,Nahata and Khalid are looking like well – 3 Idiots.
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October 25, 2011 at 9:28 PM
LOL!
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October 25, 2011 at 7:50 PM
Another Rediff review:
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-raone-abhishek-mande/20111026.htm
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October 25, 2011 at 8:36 PM
I don’t know how much effect the negative critics’ reviews will have on the audience. But if the viewers share these reactions, the film could end with very bad WOM, even though the collections will be good because of the initial hype. What I wonder, though, is whether and how such a scenario will affect the opening of Don 2.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:48 PM
Doubt it will have much of an effect given how different the films feel. The latter is also working off of the precedent of the first Don which even if I disliked it seems to have enough fans to suggest it’s a safe bet irrespective of what Ra.One does.
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October 25, 2011 at 8:52 PM
Yes, but what I meant is, if viewers feel cheated by Ra.One after all the hype, how ready will they be to buy the hype for another SRK film so soon after?
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October 25, 2011 at 10:00 PM
I tend to think this sort of thing doesn’t really dictate how audiences make their choices. I mean I don’t think they’ll feel “cheated” by one campaign deeply enough to effect their moviegoing thereafter. It’s probably naive on my part but I think the content decides whether people will attend a film, not just the star’s presence and promotional history.
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October 25, 2011 at 10:10 PM
no you’re quite right.. in this day and age attention spans are especially short.. unless of course the star disappoints the audience consistently..
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October 25, 2011 at 9:37 PM
Reviews are not more important than they used to be because a multiplex audience is quite cued in. But also there’s usually a general correlation between the overall trending of the reviews and the box office performance. The only exceptions to this rule are the Salman kind of masala film or the Akshay kind of comedy which the critics often sneer at even when they’re not completely negative on the films and also the Sarkar Raj kind of genre which is simply too ‘forbidding’ for a larger audience and hence good reviews don’t necessarily mean a huge box office run. But by and large I haven’t seen a film that got overall negative reviews and still did very well. For SRK though the reviews are also important in another sense. Because his films cater to a certain demographic before all else which is represented in the media as well including in an ideological sense. He stills gets the kindest reviews for this reason (i.e. pound for pound) and for the fact that he over the years fostered the best relationships in the media. So the reviewers that are not very kind on his film would possibly rip the very same films apart with someone else. There are very few reviewers who are completely neutral and simply judge the film. I am quite certain Taran and Nahata too would have been unkind on it with many other stars. They would have said ‘SFX isn’t everything, you need a story too.. and so on’. At the moment they’re calling Ben-Hur and Lawrence of Arabia!
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October 25, 2011 at 9:41 PM
On Don 2 the thing is that original film had a moderate opening but remained relatively stable. final gross was alright but hardly great, specially relative to the cost of the film as well as the enormous advertising campaign. SRK himself said recently in an interview that the film did ‘theek thaak’. But if this sequel simply repeats the performance of the older film it will easily do 100 crores and maybe get into Ready territory. Ra 1 might impact that film to some degree but that will be more than made up by the fact that he will again launch the mother of all campaigns for the film. Do think the trailers are slick but the disadvantage is that this time he cannot quite get the remake hype. The sequel too doesn’t mean as much because the original wasn’t a huge success or anything. Finally Farhan Akhtar has never been the mass hit kind of director. Still once the marketing goes in full gear and coupled with the Christmas/New Year holidays he should have some big numbers and on the positive side this film is much more likely to sustain. I am certainly interested in it and unless the reviews are negative I’ll probably show up.
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October 25, 2011 at 9:29 PM
I don’t understand all these negative reviews. The twitter response to Ra.One seems to be overwhelmingly positive. All these critics may have to eat their words.
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October 25, 2011 at 9:43 PM
Another review:
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/r-one-review-000920615.html
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October 25, 2011 at 11:04 PM
Best.One yet.
Enjoying all this discussion.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:11 AM
india today review:
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ra-one-movie-review/1/157516.html
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October 26, 2011 at 2:40 AM
RE: “Even as you cringe at Shah Rukh’s Tamil accented Hindi and his eating-curd-with-noodle act, hoping his curly wig will fall into his dinner plate… Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ra-one-movie-review/1/157516.html”
The vibe I got from the trailer on this particular issue seems to be borne out.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:56 AM
Business Talk With Taran Adarsh
On your mark, get set, go…
October 26, 2011 – 07:40 IST
The wait is over! Every year, a number of biggies are slated for release during the festival of lights [Diwali] and this year is no exception. Touted as the most expensive film made in India, RA.ONE invades the theatres today, Wednesday, 26 October. The film is expected to shatter all previous records and set new ones.
The 100 cr club has become a status symbol these days. You success is measured by the number of 100 cr films in the kitty. Of course, RA.ONE is sure to join this club, what everyone is keen to know is, how fast will RA.ONE attain the feat? Will it hit a century [100 cr nett] in its opening weekend itself?
While Salman is synonymous with Eid [WANTED, DABANGG, BODYGUARD] and Aamir with Christmas [TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, GHAJINI, 3 IDIOTS], Shah Rukh has an enviable and unbeatable track record in Diwali. Films like DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE, DIL TOH PAGAL HAI, KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI, MOHABBATEIN, KAL HO NAA HO, VEER ZAARA, DON and OM SHANTI OM have rewritten history, turning those Diwali weeks more festive than ever. RA.ONE is expected to cement the status of SRK as a force to reckon with.
That brings me to TELL ME O KKHUDA and DAMADAMM, the other two films opening simultaneously with RA.ONE in the festive week. Irrespective of the merits of these two films, the business of these two films is bound to get affected due to the RA.ONE wave. In fact, with RA.ONE having an extensive release across the globe, these two films have been relegated to the backburner completely. Not only is the screen count limited, even the shows have been limited at prime locations.
Here’s hoping the three Diwali releases bring sunshine and cheer for one and all. Here’s wishing a sparkling Diwali to everyone within and outside the industry.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Ra.One Opening: Early Morning Shows
Thursday 26th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One took a extraordinary start at the early morning shows in Mumbai circuit. To have house full boards at multiplex shows at 7 and 8 am is phenomenal. Early shows at multiplexes are mainly restricted to big cities in Mumbai circuit while North gets going around 10.00 am.
Mumbai
08.15 Big Metro – 65%
08.30 Big Huma – 80%
Ahmedabad
07.45 Big Himalaya – 100%
08.15 Wilde Angle – 100%
08.45 Wilde Angle – 100%
07.00 Cinemax Shiv – 100%
Pune
08.00 E Square UR – 100%
Kolkata
08.45 Fame South City – 100%
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October 26, 2011 at 2:39 AM
Ra.One Rocks Rajasthan
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has taken a huge opening in Rajasthan which is traditionally not a big circuit for Shahrukh Khan starrers. In Kota the very early morning shows went housefull which is extraordinary especially considering Rajasthan is die hard Salman Khan circuit.
Jaipur
09.30 Inox CP – 100% (Audience 206)
10.00 Inox CP – 94%% (Audience 392)
Jodhpur
1st show E City – 30,000 (94%)
1st Show Kohinoor – 37,000 (88%)
Kota
07.00 Inox – 100%
07.10 Inox – 100%
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdet…eid=3601&nCat=
🙂
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October 26, 2011 at 2:40 AM
Ra.One Is Phenomenal In Delhi: 100% Across The Board
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is off to a phenomenal start in Delhi with practically all multiplexes going housefull till 11.00am. All multiplexes opening records were torn apart in the capital.
Delhi
10.00 PVR Naraina – 100%
11.00 PVR Naraina – 100% in advance
09.00 PVR Vikaspuri – 100%
10.00 PVR Vikaspuri – 100%
11.15 PVR Vikaspuri – 100% in advance
09.00 PVR Prashant Vihar – 100%
11.15 PVR Prashant Vihar – 100% in advance
10.00 PVR Saket – 100%
11.00 PVR Saket – 100% in advance
10.20 DT Saket – 100%
10.40 DT Saket – 100%
09.30 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.00 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.20 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.40 DT Vasant Kunj – 100%
09.45 G3S Rohini – 100%
10.45 G3S Rohini – 100%
09.40 M2K Rohini – 100%
10.45 M2K Rohini – 100%
09.00 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
09.30 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.00 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.45 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.00 Wave Raja Garden – 100%
10.30 Wave Raja Garden – 100%
11.00 Wave Raja Garden – 100% in advance
All the multiplex chains in Delhi be it PVR, DT, Fun, Satyam, Movietime, M2K or Wave have seen an opening like
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdet…eid=3602&nCat=
Reply With QuoteRa.One Is Phenomenal In Delhi: 100% Across The Board
Thursday 26th October 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is off to a phenomenal start in Delhi with practically all multiplexes going housefull till 11.00am. All multiplexes opening records were torn apart in the capital.
Delhi
10.00 PVR Naraina – 100%
11.00 PVR Naraina – 100% in advance
09.00 PVR Vikaspuri – 100%
10.00 PVR Vikaspuri – 100%
11.15 PVR Vikaspuri – 100% in advance
09.00 PVR Prashant Vihar – 100%
11.15 PVR Prashant Vihar – 100% in advance
10.00 PVR Saket – 100%
11.00 PVR Saket – 100% in advance
10.20 DT Saket – 100%
10.40 DT Saket – 100%
09.30 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.00 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.20 DT Vasnat Kunj – 100%
10.40 DT Vasant Kunj – 100%
09.45 G3S Rohini – 100%
10.45 G3S Rohini – 100%
09.40 M2K Rohini – 100%
10.45 M2K Rohini – 100%
09.00 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
09.30 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.00 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.45 Movietime Raja Garden – 100%
10.00 Wave Raja Garden – 100%
10.30 Wave Raja Garden – 100%
11.00 Wave Raja Garden – 100% in advance
All the multiplex chains in Delhi be it PVR, DT, Fun, Satyam, Movietime, M2K or Wave have seen an opening like
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdet…eid=3602&nCat=
Reply With Quote
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October 26, 2011 at 2:41 AM
Ra.One Opening: Gurgaon Noida
From http://www.boxofficeindia.com
Ra.One was outstanding in Delhi and the NCR area was not too far behind. Below are early figures from Gurgaon and Noida.
Gurgaon
10.20 PVR MFG – 98%
10.00 PVR Centra – 100%
10.00 PVR Ambience – 95%
11.00 PVR Ambience – 100%
09.45 Big Ansal -100%
10.25 Big Ansal – 100%
11.30 Big Ansal – 100% in advance
10.10 DT City Centre – 95%
10.00 DT Mega Mall – 100%
11.45 DT Maga Mall – 100% in advance
Noida
09.45 Spice Noida – 100%
10.00 Spice Noida – 100%
11.00 Spice Noida – 100%
11.15 Spice Noida – 100% in advance
11.30 Spice Noida – 100% in advance
09.30 Big Ansal – 100%
10.00 Big Ansal – 100%
11.00 Big Ansal – 100%
12.30 Big Ansal – 100% in advance
10.00 Wave Noida – 100%
10.30 Wave Noida – 100%
11.00 Wave Noida – 100%
11.30 Wave Noida – 100% in advance
Reply With Quote
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October 26, 2011 at 3:09 AM
All this would’ve been a cause for celebration but Im still very sceptical of the film.. Wasnt expecting anything extraordinary but Im still wondering whether to spend money on it.. My friend’s forcing me to buy the tickets for tomorrow. Dunno, lets see!
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October 26, 2011 at 3:14 AM
yahoo review
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-reviews/r-one-review-000920615.html
looks like barring a few of the “robotic” reviewers – who had pretty much decided what they wanted to write even before they had seen the movie – the others are finding it hard to digest
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October 26, 2011 at 6:18 AM
just came back from the film. Avearge I would say. some jokes are quiet funny…. like the lee’s 3 sisters, others pukeworthy. the cst/vt train sequence is very well executed and also a fight sequence at Mumbai airport are well done.
This will have a huge opening due to SRKs star power, but will crash after that and may just end up doing 120-130 Cr. The multiplex where I saw the film was houseful, with a substantial under-15 population… you never know whether the kids will like this or not. If they like it, this has the potential to do 150+ Cr.
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October 26, 2011 at 7:10 AM
so 50-60 cr just in promotion which loosely started from last year itself( when toi in its first page carry the hoarding of ra-one as this year’s diwali release ) …a movie which is releasing on more than double the print count of 3 idiots …and here we have trade analysts who are busy promoting 4-5 days before the release..
all this is good but it go nowhere when the movie itself lack content and soul
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October 26, 2011 at 7:16 AM
from facebook:
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Armaan Verma, Shahana Goswami, Tom Wu
Directed by Anubhav Sinha
Rating: Not even One
Science fiction is an oxymoron. And when this genre is sprinkled with moronic humour and logic takes a beating from hell, you know you’ve punched your tickets for ‘RA.One’. With metallic blue and red costumes right out of Falguni Pathak’s wardrobe, this out-of-console experience offers laughs, dances and androids touching humans in more ways than considered socially acceptable. Insert coin to read more.
The film sweeps us into a video game fantasy where anything is possible (with a 175-crore-budget, it better be). Game developer, Shekhar Subramanium (Shahrukh Khan) wants to earn his son, Prateek’s (Armaan Verma) love and respect. And the only thing that gives Prateek joy is to see his joystick twiddling to spell doom for the most vicious video game super-villain ever. So daddy makes a baddie just like that and calls it RA.One (Arjun Rampal). The game also has a not-so-indestructible superhero called G.One (an emotionally challenged Shahrukh). Please read the box carefully for the 25 permutation-combinations in which RA.One and G.One can kill each other (something to do with the heart being in the body and not in the pocket or anywhere else during combat).
Anyway, it gets nasty as our virtual warriors tear out of the game, ‘Terminator 2’-style. Also, thanks to some goofy programming, RA.One is hell-bent on killing Prateek. Naturally, G.One has to do the rescuing and being an android, do it without getting teary-eyed or romantic with Prateek’s mum, Sonia (Kareena Kapoor). But who said robots can’t ham or chant prophetic life-changing verses coded by its master? No.One!
Humour based on linguistic stereotypes may have worked in ‘Zabaan Sambhalke’ but now it hardly earns a chuckle. This is assuming the average audience intellect dictates that Tamilians don’t always say ‘Aiyoo’ or pronounce ‘keys’ as ‘kiss’. And even if they do, no amount of laughter track can make this seem funny. No.Fun!
‘RA.One’ does what no other Sci-Fi movie has done before: it mocks itself. So, the superhero who is manually stopping trains in one scene, is also burning his crotch or sneezing out metallic wires in another. No respect.
Shahrukh’s robotic expressions will remind you of his ‘My Name is Khan’ role, as he confuses machines with differently-abled humans. Kareena’s character covers the entire gamut of expressions but isn’t memorable or mentionable enough to be regarded. Arjun Rampal has bagged his dream role: an android with mechanical expressions who allows his body to do the talking. Good job, Arjun Rampal’s body!
The VFX award would go for most battle arenas, inspired from many popular games. It wouldn’t go for the local train swishing out of CST station like a PowerPoint slide.
It’s convenient to say that if you have no expectations from ‘RA.One’, you wouldn’t be disappointed. But if you feel so little for the film, why go to watch it at all?
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October 26, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Ra.One Takes HISTORIC Opening All Over India
Wednesday 26th October 2011 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has taken a historic opening all over India. It was phenomenal be it multiplex dominated Gurgaon or even a small centre like Alwar in Rajasthan which opened to 100% collections. Practically every circuit is going at record pace but Diwali Puja will slow the collections from 2pm onwards. If the film was to continue at this pace all throughout the day then the first day all India record will beaten by a distance.
There is a thought that the momentum is so huge that Diwali Puja may not affect Ra.One but that looks unlikely as bookings in late afternoon and evening are slower compared to around noon shows in many places. It is certain to have some sort of affect on collections, just a question of how much.
The film is sure to set a record in Nizam as that circuit is recording collections which are well above anything seen before. West Bengal and Mysore are also likely to hit first day highs. The rest of India is dependent on how much Diwali Puja affects the collections from 2pm onwards, if its just 10-15% then there will be new records all over.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:13 AM
Film Review: Ra.One
http://mumbaiboss.com/2011/10/26/film-review-ra-one/
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October 26, 2011 at 8:19 AM
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October 26, 2011 at 8:23 AM
Wednesday update – I: ‘Ra.One’ has mind-boggling start, business at an all-time high
-By Taran Adarsh, October 26, 2011 – 12:52 IST
RA.ONE has started with a bang. The morning shows, which commenced as early as 7 and 8 a.m. at various places, started on a deafening 95% to 100% note, while 9 a.m. onwards, the occupancy was 100% across the board. Even at certain mass-dominated centres, where the business is not at peak so early in the morning, reported full houses.
The single screens as well as multiplexes have started on an earth-shattering note, although a section of the industry was feeling that the start wouldn’t be massive in view of the fact that Diwali is being celebrated today. Generally, film business remains low-key due to the festivities and pooja ceremony being organized at homes and offices on Diwali.
What’s noteworthy is the fact that RA.ONE has been released extensively across India. Not just the number of screens, even the number of shows at plexes has been at an all-time high, with as many as 28 to 30 shows a day being performed at a number of cineplexes. That too, at inflated ticket rates.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:23 AM
I think the reviews by and large are pretty scathing. The one that are overwhelmingly postivie seem contrived and superficial. Even the ones that are mildly positive seem to be very defensive.
Anubhav Sinha was a dumb choice for a director and SRK, while otherwise very smart has no script sense in a way say, Aamir does.
He seems to suffer from a misconception that one just needs to put in all crowd pleasing elements and viola – a blockbuster masterpiece is born.
I dont know if anyone watched Rajini’s cameo scene on Youtube. It looks so lame.
Hard to say what the BO fate will be as reviews dont really matter. But, safe to say that other than a potential biggest first day, no other BO records will be broken.
We have always known that Taran,Komal and BOI are very seriously compromised. This movie just underlines how shameless they can be.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:27 AM
I saw the Rajni cameo on youtube, and my reaction was, “They dragged the poor man out of his sick bed for this?!”
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October 26, 2011 at 8:35 AM
Did enjoy the Chitti appearance though:
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October 26, 2011 at 8:52 AM
So true. The consolation is that Rajni didn’t actually get on the set. They digitized his face as Chitti and used it in that sequence.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:57 AM
Really? Didn’t know this!
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October 26, 2011 at 4:40 PM
That was the original plan, if Rajni couldn’t make it, but he did go to Mumbai and shoot for one day. There were articles about how SRK was overwhelmed in his presence. 🙂 But yeah, he did go.
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October 26, 2011 at 4:49 PM
Ha. Didn’t know that. Especially from the awkwardly shot results it seemed to me that it was just effects.
I wonder if SRK was overwhelmed because he was confronted with the reality of what a Tamilian person acts like.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:32 AM
agreed all round.. the director was always the weakest link here..
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October 26, 2011 at 8:35 AM
Review: Ra.One disappoints New York
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October 26, 2011 at 9:19 AM
“Shah Rukh Khan’s ungainly mannerisms as a Tamilian…”
Not exactly shocked by this but it seems to be one of the consistent points being made in the reviews. For the Hindi film media to be taking note of it, though, it must be really egregious this time around!
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October 26, 2011 at 6:09 PM
Good to see you so active today, GF.
Having fun? 😉
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October 29, 2011 at 12:53 AM
Well it beats a trip to England!
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October 26, 2011 at 8:40 AM
On a slightly different note, hope SRK learns a lesson here.
There are several ways to achieve and maintain superstardom
Amitabh did it with sheer talent and appeal where a non-existent script sense and ovetr-exposure didnt matter. Salman had charisma and a certain inexplicable connect which made an absence of real acting talent and a lack of scriopt sense/street smarts irrelevant.Aamir a decent but not a great actor, not blindingly charismatic like Salman chose to do it with smart risk taking and great chopices and an unfaltering script sense.
SRK partly due to his own tendencies and partly fed by psycophants thought it is all about manipulation,alliances,publicity and pandering – manipulate the media and the audience, forge alliances with powerful people, be a publicity hound at all and any cost and pander to whoever can positively impact his stardom- be it certain communities, age groups,mentalities etc. And, it has worked. But can sustain only to a point.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:47 AM
‘RA.One’ fails to impress
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2011/oct/261011-ra-one-shah-rukh-khan-film-review-superhero-film-two-half-stars.htm
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October 26, 2011 at 8:48 AM
Even a lot of the negative reviews are still relatively ‘kind’ because of SRK and the ways in which he’s courted the media over the years. With most other stars the reception would be far more negative. With Abhishek in the film the reviews would be like Raavan’s (pun intended)!
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October 26, 2011 at 9:06 AM
Ra.One Unlikely To Break Day One Record In North India
Wednesday 26th October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One is unlikely to break the first day records of Bodyguard in Delhi/UP or East Punjab. The film was off too a flyer in both circuits especially Delhi NCR and Punjab but collections were lower from around 2pm.
Bodyguard put up a total of 4.19 crore nett in Delhi/UP and 1.86 crore nett in East Punjab on day one making it a North India total of 6.05 crore.
Ra.One is probably looking at a 4.75 crore nett combined total from these two circuits obviously depending on what happens it in the late evening and night shows but even if they were go to 100%, the Bodyguard figures seem out of reach.
Down South in Nizam its a totally different story, Bodyguard collected 1.14 crore nett on its first day here and Ra.One could be anywhere between 1.25-1.50 crore nett as it is doing extraordinary. Nizam is a muslim audience dominated circuit so Diwali Puja has a much lower affect on collections
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October 26, 2011 at 9:09 AM
The cracks are already apparent though of course BOI are trying to spin this. Even going by their numbers the difference in Nizam is negligible.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:10 AM
Ra.One Takes A Smashing Opening On Diwali Day
October 26th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero film, Ra.One, has taken a very good opening at the box-office windows today (Wednesday, 26 October).
In theatres playing the 3D version of the film, the opening was 100 per cent. Cinemas playing the 2D version of Ra.One witnessed 70 – 100 per cent occupancy. Don’t be surprised at the less than 100 per cent collections as today is Diwali, and traditionally the Diwali day is considered to be a little dull for the box-office as a lot of Hindus do not go to the cinemas as they are busy with pooja, guests and other festivities at home.
Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:14 AM
This whole ‘diwali is traditionally dull for movies’ is an excuse that first cropped up with Don when the opening was far less than expected. I’d never heard this excuse before this. Ever. Now suddenly there’s nothing surprising about this as people are all busy with the festivities. Not that I am denying this but if this is such a big factor and business is so adversely affected what’s the diwali release hype all about?! And again never heard this excuse before Don when it was introduced in the bloodstream by such trade types and bloggers watching out for SRK’s interests. SRK’s own diwali hits in the past never had this excuse raised. Interestingly even after Don this point wasn’t brought up for OSO because of course that film opened big and seemed to be a winner right away. Saawariya which released at the same time got big numbers over the same period and eventually tanked but it was still huge initially.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:24 AM
Exactly.If Diwali is being used as an excuse, why the need to release it during Diwali??
A well-liked film does get a few extra crores with a rightly timed release but a poor one ( which Ra.One ostensibly is ) does not gain anything.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:14 AM
‘A very good opening’ – Thats all? No mind numbing, mind blowing, history rewriting or stupendous????
‘is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer.’ – Really???
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October 26, 2011 at 9:15 AM
This has a train-wreck written all over it.
A pity as so much is at stake.
Good thing for SRK is that Don2 is round the corner and it does look good.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:24 AM
Don-2 looks far, far better. It’s definitely a good and timely fallback given the reception here.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:28 AM
However, if Ra.One underperforms in a significant way, Don 2 WILL suffer inspite of your assertion to the contrary yesterday. A significant failure dramatically alters the media narrative and this coming on top of MNIK which itself underperformed will likely affect the narrative. And, SRK is one star whose films rely a lot on what the media feeds the guileless public.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:30 AM
I’ll sound like a politician when I say your point is a valid one too..!
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October 26, 2011 at 10:34 AM
I just don’t see it that way. Logically this makes some sense but given how removed SRK has been from the narrative of his industry for the past year or so (maybe longer) all bets are off. Ra.One’s promise was/is not Don’s. I’m saying all this as if i’m defending the Don franchise. Time for a shower.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:24 AM
yes that’s not a bad insurance policy even if he sold this as his big film this year (though I’m sure we’ll forget this by the time the Don media blitz takes off!). In any case will be checking it out unless reviews are totally negative which is very unlikely. If anything some of the reviewers who are negative on Ra 1 will be more than ‘making up’ with Don!
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October 26, 2011 at 9:18 AM
SRK needs to stop worrying about advance booking for Ra.One and open up bookings for wedding dances.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:27 AM
Mayank Shankar:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Mayank-Shekhar-s-review-Ra-one/H1-Article1-761677.aspx
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October 26, 2011 at 10:18 AM
until and unless bw actors learn the truth that the script is the real hero – whether it is srk, abhi, akki, big b….all are putting themselves under the axe……this is where aamir has been scoring in last 10 years…slowly (painstakingly though) but steadily….damn! u spend 80 crores on a movie and can’t get a tight script???
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October 26, 2011 at 10:41 AM
You’re in trouble if you’re SRK when you can’t even get a positive one from Masand:
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/diwali-cracker-raone-is-ambitious-but-flawed/196587-47-84.html
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October 26, 2011 at 11:07 AM
Satyam For some reason, I am not able to reply or post a comment with a link. Anything going on here? Wanted to post Komal Nahata’s actual review, Its just about average it seems after his initial Blockbuster claim.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:12 AM
Sometimes stuff weirdly goes into spam for some reason or the other. Anyway I’ve just retrieved your comment.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Actually you are right, I think Komoi is the culprit here, Many times I am not able to get to it from work cause its obviously blocked as a spam.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Maybe anything by Nahata automatically qualifies as spam!
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October 26, 2011 at 11:31 AM
hahaha, I was actually going to say that. You beat me to it.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:06 AM
Here is Komal Nahata’s actual review (sorry if someone has posted),
http://www.koimoi.com/reviews/ra-one-review/
After his initial views on it (after watchign 40 min preview), He is a bit moderate here after watching it in its full glory. He points out some cons here as well. Where as Taran, who labelled his 40 min preview with a review tag for the entire movie. As I said this elsewhere, is this not unethical journalism? he bascially lied to the the pyaing public, This in a sense give an indication that his review was sold, Which in turn only hurt the film. The initial audience actually went with really high expectations, and come out disappointed. I know of some SRK loyalist who have panned the movie (Aseem Chabbra being one of them). At the end of the day, It maybe an average affair as a movie on whole, But with these gimmicks they have damaged its prospects of breaking some recent records that were achieved by Salman or even Ajay.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:13 AM
LOL, considerably more toned down than he was earlier when he saw the 40 min! Now he’s only talking about “profits”. A low bar! which leaves Taran on a limb at this point.
On the rest Kash these guys have been doing this stuff for years. But we might be the sorrier examples for expecting ethics from the likes of Nahata!
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October 26, 2011 at 11:23 AM
True that, Like Shahid recently tweeted, “Kuch logon ke Adarsh bik chuke hai” something to that effect. Rightly said I say.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:14 AM
just saw the movie in a bangalore multiplex..the second half is a huge disappointment and a colossal waste of money..there’s no emotional connect whatsoever…audiences were literally begging to be let off
i’m amazed..srk has to just mouth ten tamil lines and he can’t even get to do that properly in his own movie (the contrast with aamir is just too obvious here who i’m sure would have perfected his diction)
some of our reputed reviewers should be sued for cheating their followers
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October 26, 2011 at 11:24 AM
Nahata is hardly ethical anyway. Nor Taran. Even some Taran haters turned into loyalists when he praised Sinha as director.
I’m not surprised at all with the “game” played here. Unfortunately it sounds like the “game” is bad as the Ra-One game!
My heart really goes out…well not really.
With all the ticket hikes, screen space, crazy shows, months of publicity, overseas singers…surely Diwali cannot affect it so much as to not break BG’s opening day record? Especially with all those glorious write-ups by our trade analysts reporting the “unprecedented” hype, the huge bookings etc!
The theory that they have overhyped the film might be of substance. Nothing is worse then then when you think you are eating a 7 course meal and you land up with a Happy Meal, 2 for the price 1.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:27 AM
Ha, well said Jay, and the ones who knew that this would be a Happy Meal type of a deal are not savoring it.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:28 AM
LOL, on the last bit!
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October 26, 2011 at 11:35 AM
And before someone says I am a hater…I would like to say it is the politics and stupid asskissing and pandering that is bringing this type of response. Whether SRK is part of that machinery or not is really of no concern. The crux would be the idiots who accept the payment and/or bend over gladly to write that nonsense. They are the real crooks.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:39 AM
Yes, But I think Taran is the 3rd wheel in Kjo and Srk’s relationship. Karan nahi to Taran hi sahi. LOL ( I know out of the line here, but oh well, With SRK’s sense of humor I am sure he wouldnt mind it right? )
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October 26, 2011 at 11:46 AM
It is true that these major trade figures are much more in bed together than they pretend to be otherwise. The whole idea of coming up with different reports on a film or somewhat different numbers and so on is quite manufactured. Or else they’re just selling producer totals.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Historic Opening For RA.One
by Rohini Nag (October 26, 2011)
The first-day collections of RA.One are in keeping with predictions. Yes, the Shah Rukh Khan mega-venture is well on its way to becoming one of the highest first-day grossers of the all time. Opening on the auspicious occasion of Diwali, ticket sales are growing as the day wears on and many circuits have already reported bumper numbers. However, some tradewallahs fear that Laxmi Puja, observed in the evening, could affect collections. Others disagree as the momentum is growing stronger with every passing show.
Shyam Shroff of Sringar Films in Mumbai says, “RA.One has begun with extraordinary numbers. It has had a 100-per cent opening. The auspicious occasion has defiantly given the film a wonderful start. It will enjoy a fantastic first day.”
According to Rajesh Thadani of Multi Media Combines in Mumbai, “The opening at singleplexes is around 60 per cent and in multiplexes, 90 per cent. The numbers are only growing.”
In Delhi-UP circuit, Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts says RA.One has taken a better opening than Bodyguard. “It has had a fabulous opening of 100 per cent and will create history in Indian cinema. The film will wrap up its first day with great numbers as the film is exceptional in all respects.”
In East Punjab, Surendra Saluja of Lakshya Movies, adds, “RA.One has taken an amazing opening and collections are expected to grow during the evening and night shows. The film had an opening of 70 per cent and, after the noon show, 100 per cent opening. It is a very good movie and the numbers will be astounding.”
In Rajasthan, Vasudev Chachan of Sunny Films says RA.One opened at 81 screens in Rajasthan circuit. “Since it is Diwali, the initial shows had an 80-per cent opening but collections improved with the noon shows. The film will defiantly have a great run at the box office. Shah Rukh Khan has made a smart choice to release the film on Diwali.”
In CI, Ashok Choudhary of Neha Movies says the film opened to 80 per cent collections, which then grew to 90 to 100 per cent by noon. “RA.One will have a better second day than opening day and will create history with its weekend and first-week collections.”
In West Bengal, Kamal Mukut of Mukutwala echoed this view, saying, “RA.One opened to 100 per cent collections and cinemas were running house full from the very first show.”
In Orissa, Jeetu Khandelwal of Movie Pioneers concludes, “RA.One opened with 100 per cent collections. The film has had a bumper opening and will generate inspiring numbers in days to come.”
http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/historic-opening-for-ra-one/
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October 26, 2011 at 11:55 AM
@ Satyam, Going by all these early reports, WOM, BO claims, Positive and Negative reviews, and whatever info we have so far. Where do you think this is going? What do you think will be reported opposse to what it actually will be? Also, the overall picture where do you think it will stand when its at its last leg?
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October 26, 2011 at 12:16 PM
*Posted this on the wrong thread.*
What is that with the clip (above) showing public review after the film?
How shamelessly it has been tampered with. Suddenly you start hearing a cricket commentary drowning the voice of the man, and then those people who said they liked it are heard to say – I don’t like the film 😀
How stupid to be so careless in their tampering.
LOL!
Well anyway, I’m off to watch the film.
The reaction (especially public – from tweets and fb) give me a sense of deja vu. It was the same during ‘Raavan’ where the harsh attacks which were extremely unfair killed the film.
But unlike then, here there seems to be a counter attack – and what we’re seeing is WAR! With Rocky and Jeevan aggressively contributing here and others taking a similar stand, but ‘quietly’.
On other places it’s the opposite. The picture is not clear at all. I guess the real picture will come out when all this dust settles – if anyone will allow it to. Hope it’s not a prolonged war.
@satyam
I read your response.
>I should make a larger point here that related to all of this is the whole subliminally communal (minimally so) ‘Khans’ argument.
I don’t agree with this communal angle.
>SRK is at the other end of this. He still gets the kindest treatment all things considered
Perhaps because they aren’t sure which way the film is going. So if it is just average, their review will pass muster and so also if it succeeds.
**I was actually talking about these tweets/fb comments which are extremely harsh.** and flood the internet as it did with Abhishek too.
I agree though that the media is also really harsh with Abhishek.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:44 PM
my earlier sense was a Ready like gross, possibly off a stronger initial. I think looking at things currently they would be lucky with 120 crores. The thing is that with certain films you can have a certain stability if you keep a base audience happy. With Ra 1 I doubt anyone is happy from SRK’s traditional base to those in it for SFX. with Bodyguard too there was minimal stability to get it to that week 1 number. Obviously it did a fast fade but it wasn’t the fastest possible. That’s something like Kites and it seems to me that’s the scenario we’re looking at here, after adjusting for inflation and screen count and whatever else. Doubt it will do Bodyguard numbers, I’d be very surprised if that happened (i.e. final gross). The question now is the extent of the damage.
By the way let’s look at the SRK track record after 2004, when he had MHN and VZ in the same year as well as positive critical attention for Swades. In 2005 he just had Paheli. In ’06 he had KANK which tanked badly after a great start, Don which did reasonably though never had those ‘wow’ numbers. In 2007 he had a super with OSO and CDI. An Aamir kind of deal, a big commercial grosser, a smaller critical and commercial success. In 2008 he had RNBDJ which did very well but the numbers (initial and final gross) paled in comparison with Ghajini’s. Nothing in 2009 really (Billu Barber). In 2010 a very weak Indian performance on MNIK. In 2011 Ra One which looks all set to tank and perhaps flatter to deceive with a final gross which will still be higher than most other films because of the initial (unless it’s worse than it seems right now). Don 2 should do well but Farhan Akhtar doesn’t make huge mass hits. He isn’t that kind of director. Next year he has Yash Chopra’s film on Diwali but is anyone going to bet that a stale Yash Chopra is going to break all time records or anything?! But even if he does that’s a year away. We’re looking here at a 6-7 year period in which Aamir has RDB, Fanaa, TZP, Ghajini, 3I, not to mention producer success in something like Peepli or JTYJN. Really don’t see what the comparison here is. Similarly Salman has 3 120 crore or more grossers in a row and will minimally have these with his two next year (though ETT remains tricky it will get a massive initial). So one can look at Aamir’s must longer and more sustained, even stunning trajectory or Salman’s more recent, concentrated one but where he is nonetheless producing big numbers out of nothing films. SRK definitely has the initial in his favor, he can still produce a big one with the right marketing and so on but note how Don even with all the hype did not break any huge numbers (sure it had the JeM competition but that film was always sluggish and for that matter even OSO had Saawariya which did great over the weekend but the OSO numbers were still very strong) nor did RNBDJ or MNIK. So even the initial cannot be taken for granted. Here’s Salman producing them almost effortlessly and on the other hand SRK needs these massive and very expensive campaigns. Which is not to say he still isn’t a force to be reckoned with but there are definite reinvention problems and he hasn’t solved them for a while despite all the hype.
I get back to my favorite Rajesh Khanna example. The guy had superhits, multiple ones in 1974, was getting hits after this also for a while. Obviously he didn’t evaporate overnight. His decline was dramatic but it was also hastened by the competition. It’s not as if he stopped getting initials after his peak period. But Khanna faced some special historical forces and certainly a once in a lifetime competitor. Neither holds for SRK. Certainly a guy with audience base can keep making big projects viable. But the cost of doing so is increasing. Frankly he hasn’t aged in the best possible way compared to Aamir and Salman. All these things count. He needs to now hit one out of the park with Don 2. A solid success is fine too but SRK’s ambition (a perfectly reasonable one) is not to just produce a Singam-like hit but show he can still play in the big leagues and outgun everyone else. And this is something he’s had a very patchy record on for a while. He needs to do some serious rethinking but the problem as it is for many stars in his position is that the reinvention sometimes requires a certain downgrading in one’s expectations of oneself and this is always hard. If you however keep thinking that you’re going to outgross whoever has the big numbers you make decisions accordingly and you get into trouble. Ra One could have been a very big one. Certainly the hype got the audience in. But to try and do so with Anubhav Sinha is to really start off on the wrong foot. You really need a script but even more importantly a director with strong narrative control. Even in Hollywood just SFX without an adequate script fizzles out quickly.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:54 PM
and again these things are also relative. I’ve anecdotally heard in many quarters that it’s over for SRK, that he’s getting old, or it’s not the same and so on. No one ever says that about Salman let alone Aamir. They’re all the same age. It’s a question of reinvention really and SRK hasn’t found the right combination yet though again it’s not that easy to do this for various reasons including the burdens of one’s own history and self-image.
For all this I will be showing up for Don. At least the trailers look slick. And even I’m over the whole remake politics and so on!
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October 26, 2011 at 12:56 PM
I am not counting out SRK just yet but Aamir and Sallu bhai are clearly ahead of him right now. and totally agree with what youve stated above. although that Yash Chopra film might be breaking records because last time with V-Z it broke first week records.
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October 26, 2011 at 1:06 PM
have no doubts about a big opening but it’s harder for this sort of stuff to sustain these days.
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October 26, 2011 at 1:15 PM
Thanks for that run down Satyam, Insightful.
Now that you have mentioned Rajesh Khanna and the competitior that he had. One thing comes to mind, Again, I was very young then but one hears stories that His Aaj Ka MLA and Inquilaab were released on same day and both having a political backdrop, Rajesh Khanna feared that his movie will tank and he diid all in his power to buy bad reviews also released his movie by muscling in more movie theaters for his release, but none worked and his movie indeed tanked. Is any of this true? Or if there is any other side to it? Would love to know this.
With Yash Chopra, as mentioned maybe a bit staled by now unless its something dramatically different then his previous outings. Also, there is a competition with Khiladi 786 (whatever little that it does) it will still damage srk/yash raj prospect.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:10 PM
Aaj Ka MLA was a washout though the media played it up against Inquilaab. The latter wasn’t a big film by Bachchan’s standards either though it still a profitable film. It was given a B rating by Nahata at the time (note the ratings were often stiff for Bachchan). Wouldn’t call it a hit by any means (again using Bachchan’s lofty standards) but it wasn’t the failure some of the media portrayed it as either. Do think the combo of a somewhat helpless Bachchan for most of the film combined with the vigilante ending was more than at least Hindi film viewers could digest.
On Khiladi 786 I don’t see it doing much damage unless Akshay’s fortunes increase drastically. Rowdy Rathode or even Desi Boyz is one thing but this just doesn’t seem to be a very credible project. Unless I’m completely wrong about it
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October 26, 2011 at 3:17 PM
Aah Okay. Thanks Satyam.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:07 PM
Satyam,
I think you’re massively underestimating Ra.one’s BO potential. How did you arrive at such a low number ie. 120 cr (or even lower than that as you suggested 100 cr might be a struggle)?
Really, despite the mixed reviews and ‘apparently’ less than positive WOM, I fully expect this movie to do 175 cr+ business. 🙂
I mean BG which just came by without much ado, had poor reviews and poor WOM almost did 145 cr!!!
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October 26, 2011 at 2:51 PM
The film can tank for sure. Whatever it makes will probably need to be a 2 week deal as Rockstar will definitely hurt its third week onwards performance. But I think one can only know after the weekend is done. Monday will be crucial.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:16 PM
yes with all this negativity it’s hard to imagine there’s no damage in the numbers at all. The question is how much. And I think,as you’ve suggested too, that BOI’s defensive reporting doesn’t portend well. It might well show a bit of a jump tomorrow in which case some of the trade pundits will exaggerate this aspect but it’s about the longer 5 day period at this point and how it does from day to day. Just mean at a relative level otherwise numbers will be big any which way.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:03 PM
you’ll be surprised at the final numbers here.. on 100 crores I said that would be a struggle only if the 18 crore first day number was correct and if this wasn’t maintained going forward. If it does 18 crores for the next five days it’s at 90 crores for the 5 day period. But that kind of stability would belie some of the reviews and WOM. It could be higher than 18 first day, maybe a bit higher the next day but eventually the drops will kick in. Assuming it’s 18 on day 1 and let’s say even 20 on day but then starts falling relatively rapidly the film won’t get to 100. But I have some caveats there. Consider the Kites or TMK models. Films can fall dramatically fast with all the hype if they’re completely rejected.
Also remember the BG model isn’t the right one. That kind of cinema is sneered at either way. And Salman’s films are never hyped too much. That’s the whole point about why he’s so much of a star at the moment.
On Ra One I think a Bodyguard-like scenario with a massive week 1 number and then a very sharp fadeout is probably a dream scenario to be quite frank. In other words they’d be lucky to get there. A Ready is much more likely even with a bigger than Ready initial. But again look at some of the numbers. Even in Nizam it’s barely ahead of BG with all those extra screens and so on. In the North it’s behind. All this according to BOI, hardly negative on SRK otherwise! So already even with the 3000 screens and whatever advantages this is supposed to give the film is showing some weakness. And when is the last time a SRK film was negatively reviewed and nonetheless went on to be a winner? So it’s not just the day 1 numbers but the overall picture (pun intended). On the other hand Lakhsmi Puja was apparently not a problem for either OSO or Saawariya (at least in the initial period). Meanwhile with Don the same reasoning was provided and the film never quite picked up in a big way though it remained stable.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:12 PM
Regardless of it making it the 100 cr in first 5 day weekend, we forget where it has to reach to even get considered average, BG< Singham, Ready etc did not cost even half as much for waht Ra.One total package consists of, So if it wants to be even an average affair it needs to make close to 200 cr in it entire leg. I guess we are all forgetting what the cost of this film is, For this one we cant really just go by what BG made, the numbers here need to be stupendous to achieve a BB or a HIT tag.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:15 PM
And I bet you, to cover up the likes of Taran will bring in the satellite rights and music rights etc, to broom off the disaster label under the carpet. the game is really going to heat up on saturday onwards.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:06 PM
Whether the diwali has really affected the film’s evening shows or not will be known from how the film does tomorrow compared to its business today.
If wed is 20cr and thurs is 22 cr, obviously diwali affected the business….. because the growth cant be due to wom. on the other hand if the thurs is 16-18cr after a 20cr wed, we know the movie has falted.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:11 PM
this movie had no chance since the initial promo came out in april or may. the fact that anyone was expecting an actual GOOD story and direction was living in a dream world. the moment anubhav sinha was picked to direct this movie it had zilch chance of being a good movie. then you had KJo come in and direct a scene..then you had another come in for another scene. what im wanting to find out is how ‘special’ the SFX are. given the genre it was always going to be crap with crap directing.
its amazing to see how surprised we act when these “trade analyst” turn into damn reviewers and praise a crappy film. this king of stuff has been going on ever since ive started following these guys 11 years back.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:17 PM
I think SRK should be lauded for putting his money where his mouth is. Not many would be ballsy enough to spend 150+ crore on a film let alone 100 crore. But that bravery is somewhat bordering on stupidity. This was never a safe project with an unproven director at the helm and a genre where only Krrish and Robot have succeeded. Always a massive risk but partly brave and partly blinded. It’s a dream project for him but I don’t think it was an inspiring ambition. The technological advancement is all great and stuff but look at Avatar – it broke ground on technology but at least its script had some kind of soul to it. Maybe that bit is missing from Ra-One reading most the reviews, as all they really mention is a technical marvel, but not much else.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:22 PM
yes I agree that his ambition can be celebrated but he should have minimally ensured a better director. Actually he should have picked a Southern one. Those guys know how to get this stuff right.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:43 PM
Jay: Anubhav isn’t “unproven”, he has actualy proved: with Dus and Cash. ‘Nuff said. Too early to write this film off at the box office, but I never understood why anyone would invest so much money in an Anubhav Sinha project (I mean SRK could have found a better director; my pick? Gautam Menon, because he has demonstrated he can do the technical gloss/cool, AND the romance/emotions)…
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October 26, 2011 at 3:45 PM
Ok maybe not unproven. Maybe proven to be pretty poor thus far!
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October 26, 2011 at 3:50 PM
Q – Srk has never been known to find quality directors for his productions – farah khan gave OSO and MHN – except these 2 – all his productions have bombed at the b.o. i guess – srk is still so full of himself that he thinks that his name will sail through anything he touches – and it hasn’t worked quite well except for the movies where he has worked as a solo heroes…
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October 26, 2011 at 4:08 PM
It’s a combination of two things. firstly the inability to spot a winner of a script and create the right production mechanism to go with it. here he would hardly be alone. The second problem is that of believing perhaps a bit too much that it’s mostly about hype. This gets to a point Qalandar made recently but a star can have a certain internal self-loathing for his own products. Which is to say that every star, specially an important one like SRK, goes through a process of doing better films and so on and then finding out that for the most part the audience rewards mediocre fare far more often. A DTPH usually works, a Dil Se hardly doesn’t. And SRK knows the difference. He’s never even liked his own love stories. Never even believed in DDLJ. He’s a guy who went along with the box office as most stars do but what happens is that somewhere you start feeling it’s all a bit of a scam. With SRK this sense is possibly more pronounced because of course along with Johar he’s been for a long time about really hyping things or creating a certain media narrative, often quite disproportionate to the merits of the claim. You get to a point where you start believing that it’s really about selling the film and little else. The film just needs to be passable otherwise. That’s only partly true. Because even within a sea of mediocrity you need a relatively better product. Either way SRK is probably guilty of stressing the marketing side a bit too much. The weird thing here is that it is simpler to start with the proposition of making a convincing film. And then one can hype it all one wants. But if you’ve done this for years and been successful at it also you sometimes lose perspective. So OSO with all the guest appearances and other excesses still had a basic narrative frame in place. RNDBJ (even if I intensely dislike the film) had some sort of story to tell. Even with nothing Race-like genres you still need some semblance of a plot. Similarly so for Akshay’s comedies or these masala remakes or whatever. People often make the mistake of disliking a genre and then concluding that everything within it is just as bad. Not at all!
But this is where Aamir is at completely the other end. Obsessed with the script beyond all else. This was true when he was doing Sarfarosh or Lagaan and true today when he has Ghajini and 3I behind him. Few stars have that sense of sobriety though. They might not have his script acumen in any case but very few even have the introspection to try. And it begins with not believing one is God even if one might be a massive star or what not.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Tum bin was not bad. Dus was in mindless category. Cash was atrocious except for some good cartoons in between and songs.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:57 PM
Tum BIn was ok though not my kind of deal. Dus was mostly enjoyable for junk entertainment. Cash failed even at this level. So agree with you..
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October 26, 2011 at 4:02 PM
I guess the point is did he have a decent enough CV to throw 150+ crores at. Probably not. He definitely got a project that did not match his achievements to date. He got lucky.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:12 PM
Last three SRK films Taran’s rating
Ra One – Good
MNIK – Good
Rab ne – Bad
Taran gives ratings based on how he thinks the BO of the film will be. He has gone wrong with Rab ne which did very good business. But in general Taran’s ratings are more often correct than wrong.
In last few months there are very films that got good review from him, and still failed. BHTB, Force and Aaarakshan are the once… In all other cases he has been right I think.
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October 26, 2011 at 12:26 PM
I always wanted this movie to tank and even hope don2 does the same for sanity to kick in bollywood with a realization to tone it down and let the script/movie do the talking. Concentrate on acting
The problem is it is not going to stop here. Next up, we are going to see srk bully and capture all the award functions as host and then ridicule his own movie in the name of self deprecation.
In this whole endeavor, what troubles is the hype created with these projects from the day project is announced and that too for something totally worthless. We are watching Rowdy Rathore has already started that route and tomorrow Joker will do the same and I can safely say both will be trashy and even worse than Ra1 and TMK..
Masala just doesn’t work whichever way it is thrown to public. There has to be something to click for the viewers to appreciate the efforts. Wanted and Ghajini were very good movies and well acted. Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.
Ra1 kind of movies is just sheer waste of time, money and energy and its saddening to see the waste. It would not take much to hire a proper script doctor and cut out the trash.
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October 26, 2011 at 4:35 PM
“Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography”
— Ready had decent comedy? wow..
and the reasons you cite for Bodyguard.. OMG! That way, even Jaani Dushman should’ve wroked all over India! It had some very good unintentional comedy
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October 26, 2011 at 4:38 PM
Jaani Dushman (if you’re referring to the older film from the 70s) is great fun in a bad way! A rather disjointed script but a guilty pleasure all the way! Love that monster! But I also speak as a great Ramsay fan!
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October 26, 2011 at 4:42 PM
no.. i was talking about the 2002 one with half the industry thrown in.. 🙂
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October 26, 2011 at 4:45 PM
ah.. that one… I believe I have had the misfortune of seeing this!
By the way I’m not quite sure why the Ready kind of film suddenly becomes important when SRK is accused of doing things in bad taste. This is where the ground keeps shifting. Suddenly he is no worse than Salman or somewhat better than him when otherwise one only sneers at the Salman film! If as an Abhishek fan he does a film with Abbas-Mustaan and this is attacked for being sub-par I can hardly turn around and suggest that Bodyguard was worse or whatever. Because those haven’t been my standards otherwise!
and let’s be honest every fan of every star would love to have Salman’s current numbers irrespective of the quality of the films!
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October 26, 2011 at 12:30 PM
http://twitter.com/#!/concisetrade
concisetrade Concise Trade
Still Ra.one would be able to break all previous records by large distance if not OF BODYGUARD . RA.ONE IS LOOKING FOR A 18 CR + DAY ONE
28 minutes ago
concisetrade Concise Trade
Ra.one had An HIstoric Day one . Opening was Massive and mind boggling till 3 pm but the collections start falling after 3-4 pm all over .
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October 26, 2011 at 12:40 PM
ouch…what was BG opening day figure??? the thing is..RaOne had to open much better than BG considering the holidays, the in your face promotion and the price hikes. so if it opening day record is below BG…thats the first crack…
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October 26, 2011 at 12:54 PM
Bodyguard opened in 21-22 cr range
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October 26, 2011 at 12:55 PM
BG opened on 1900 screens i think,, Ra.one opening on almost 3000 screens
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October 26, 2011 at 12:59 PM
wow…18cr would be pathetic really for RaOne then….thanks for the info!
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October 26, 2011 at 1:07 PM
if it really is 18 crores on day 1 and if it doesn’t stay stable around this level it won’t even get to 100.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:41 AM
It’s actually 14cr day one!!! at the level of TMK adjusted inflation!
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October 26, 2011 at 5:41 PM
As per SRK, india prints are 3500 and not 3000.
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/broadband/video/Parties-and-Events/H6zbvU19/3/Ra-One-Press-Conference-At-Grand-Hyat-Dubai.html
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October 26, 2011 at 1:29 PM
“Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.”
Ra.one may be the worst film ever made but if the above films counts as good cinema these days, then God help us.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:00 PM
Ready was crap and Bodyguard was atrocious but they both created mass hysteria during the first week. It’s way too early to tell with Ra1 but SRK has a long way to go.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:03 PM
Agree with Henry. If Ready, Bodyguard and Singham constitute good cinema, then God help us. These films worked because they had elements that connected with our audiences, and that is all.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:06 PM
“Masala just doesn’t work whichever way it is thrown to public. There has to be something to click for the viewers to appreciate the efforts. Wanted and Ghajini were very good movies and well acted. Ready had decent comedy and Bodyguard had good action sequences and great song picturisation and choreography. Singham was very well acted and had a good story.”
that point was made in the original post made my MSDhoni also. so that point was made.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:10 PM
lol didnt mean to put the *point was made* twice in there.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:48 PM
Singham was not all too bad. I found it decent enough. Ready was ok, passable. Bodyguard quite terrible.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:53 PM
Haven’t seen the two Salman films or their originals. Singham for fine for what it was attempting except for the climax scene which I found disturbing.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:56 PM
Your not missing out on much really – except Asin and Kareena
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October 26, 2011 at 3:12 PM
Asin is always reason enough for me which is why I should check it out at some point!
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October 26, 2011 at 3:21 PM
but no one’s calling these films great. Even the Salman fans are just happy with the box office. Don’t see them as celebrating them otherwise. These films are just an index of masala being back in vogue even if in this debased sense and Salman being red hot where with relatively normal publicity (no crazy hype or anything) and these bargain basement films he can nonetheless get these big totals.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:30 PM
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3606&nCat=
seems Ra1 is much lesser than BG in CI.In single screens it didnt do well.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:30 PM
RA.one might tank but I can’t imagine how boxoffice figures are not affected by Diwali puja. When I lived in India, we never watched a movie on Diwali and I don’t think anyone I knew who celebrated Diwali did. There was of course the puja, then bursting firecrackers and so many guests kept coming to our home throughout the day to give sweets, and other goodies. Oh how much I miss Diwali in India.
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October 26, 2011 at 2:56 PM
The point is not that these aren’t affected but that this excuse was never used historically. Diwali was just supposed to be a win-win situation for any film. The Lakshmi puja deficit is more than made up by the overall holiday/festivity period. Which is why it was celebrated as such for any movie.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Yea I think the Diwali thing is a positive overall. Otherwise why release the film during the period? Maybe its lost out business today. Only was we’ll know is tomorrow if the collections rocket up!!! But check out the BOI commentary here
“The numbers are well below the records of Bodyguard but considering Diwali Puja the collections are fantastic. All the above circuits are heavily affected by Diwali Puja.
The next day normally jumps 60% in these circuits but it will be tough for Rajasthan and East Punjab to jump that much as they are pretty high on day one itself.”
On the one hand “All the above circuits are heavily affected by Diwali Puja” and the other hand “The next day normally jumps 60% in these circuits but it will be tough for Rajasthan and East Punjab to jump that much as they are pretty high on day one itself”
So if the collections ARE affected by Diwali why can they not see a big jump (as suggested) the next day? Or if they are pretty high on the first day itself how can Diwali have affected it???
Either way BOI is just covering that naked butt of theirs.
If Diwali genuinely affecting Ra-One its simple – the collections should tick up tomorrow to the tune of 60% (according to BOI). Otherwise what they are suggesting is Ra-One’s market has already been saturated in day one itself! Just dumb stuff.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:16 PM
>Yea I think the Diwali thing is a positive overall. Otherwise why release the film during the period?
The operative word here is *period*.
The period isn’t over yet. Only the Diwali ‘day’.
If it doesn’t do well tomorrow onwards one can say it tanked.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:18 PM
yes but if it isn’t over why so much defensiveness about day 1 numbers? Couldn’t it beat BG with apparently 30% more screens despite the puja and so on?
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October 26, 2011 at 3:19 PM
True and tomorrow and Friday will tell the story more then today, as today is a bit grey for that reason.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:25 PM
It was only yesterday BOI said “Ra.One is set to release on Diwali and normally collections are hit by 25% plus as many families stay at home from around 3pm till 8pm for Diwali Puja but the buzz is so huge for the film that it could be a limited affect as many still venture out to see the magnum opus.”
The feeling pre release was that the hype was unprecendented and even Diwali would not affect it. Clearly that stance has changed today a fair bit. They even wrote how Golmaal 3 was not affected in Mumbai or South. So those numbers for Ra-One vs Bodyguard will indicate a lot. There tone has changed and they have contradictory statements in there commentary. It would be better if they just said they are unsure which way the film will go!
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October 26, 2011 at 3:43 PM
So Oldgold, how did you find Ra.one?
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October 26, 2011 at 4:12 PM
@matrix
I’m still in the state of ‘preparing’ to leave for England to watch Ra.One.
I’m actually looking forwrd to it. Films that bomb are usually the ones I end up liking 😉
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October 26, 2011 at 4:23 PM
You should watch Aamir’s Mela in that case. I’m sure you’ll love it.
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October 26, 2011 at 4:25 PM
Oldgold, ohh ok ok. Thought you’re back after watching as you’d talked about preparing to go to watch Ra.one. Going to another country just to watch a movie….never imagined such a thing…haha
BTW since you tend to like movies that bomb, what’s your wish: a) Ra.one is a big hit and you don’t like it or b) Ra.one bombs but you love it 🙂
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October 26, 2011 at 4:32 PM
Ha! Now that’s a tough question!
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October 26, 2011 at 5:08 PM
Or c) its got SRK so will like it no matter what
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October 26, 2011 at 5:14 PM
Or D) Give it a critical acclaim as in MNIK/Swades level.
You have only 1 life line, “Phone a friend” which will be answered by Aamir khan. LOL.
Sorry Oldgold, You left the doors open for this. LOL.
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October 26, 2011 at 5:32 PM
>what’s your wish: a) Ra.one is a big hit and you don’t like it or b) Ra.one bombs but you love it 🙂
Huh? I thought it had **already** bombed.
The way people seem to be going overboard here with their schadenfreude…. with their innumerable theories about the why and whereofs of SRK’s fall/finished state etc etc I thought the verdict was out, and so I said I’m looking forward to it.
Do you mean it hasn’t bombed/failed etc yet?
LOL at c) and d) .
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October 26, 2011 at 6:21 PM
>Either way BOI is just covering that naked butt of theirs.
But can’t they just give large false numbers and make it look like a success?
I thought they always did that, especially for SRK films. That’s what I’ve always read here.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:42 PM
BTW to me it’s irrelevant if the movie does even 150 crore. This seems to be a failure for SRK because he seems to be going after prestige and missing the mark every single time. Even Om Shanti Om, for all its success, didn’t do much for him from a prestige stand-point. He needed a few more Chak De Indias to change his career for the better.
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October 26, 2011 at 3:44 PM
I don’t seem him winning prestige with films like Ra-One or Don 2 anyway. Your right, he needed more Chak De’s or Swades’. He won’t find prestige in Sinha.
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October 26, 2011 at 4:46 PM
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0451321/
In last 10 years: srk has given these hits:
k3g – 2001
devdas – 2002
khnh – 2003
chalte chalte – 2003
MHN – 2004
veer zaara – 2004
don – 2006
cdi – 2007
oso – 2007
rnbdj – 2008
mnik – 2010
in between his swades, billu, asoka – didn’t work at the bo.
although none of them above 100cr – but still he has done a good job at the bo consistently. Aamir – has worked wonders at bo and also in the prestige and variety dept. I think audience will not accept srk in any different roles than masala ones where he is soon reaching a stage like rajesh khanna….to me – srk is trapped in an image where he will not be able to come out and will go downhill soon….
akki is someone who has delivered many flops against few hits – he is also in a trap unless rowdy rathore kind of stuff work wonders for him…
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October 26, 2011 at 3:56 PM
I’ll disagree here. I think he was going in only for a blockbuster with both OSO and Ra One. Obviously something above the Ready kind of film. And he got it with OSO. The ra One fate remains to be seen. With MNIK the prestige deal was more of a factor. But other than CDI that’s the only time where one could make this point though with Johar at the helm even a prestige theme gets diluted in terms of perception. Ra One I believe was a strategy to put distance between himself and Aamir/Salman on their big grossers assuming he could catch them with the argument that he was pushing new frontiers in Hindi cinema. They would then simply be profiting off Southern remakes, a point he incidentally made in Chennai recently though without naming anyone. Of course there’s still 3I to deal with but the larger narrative would have some resonance. Also SRK isn’t a fool by any means. A lot of the things that he says he knows he can get away with in terms of his base audience. So many people in that demographic sneer at Southern masala, sneer at the remakes and sometimes sneer at older Hindi masala too. And we see this attitude in many of the media writeups as well in the blogosphere. The point I’ve always tried to make in this regard is that I too am not a fan of the Ready kind of film or the Akshay comedy or whatever but I like the fact that a space has been opened up for this cinema as opposed to the Yashraj/Johar paradigm which kept many potential segments of the audience out of the conversation. But equally importantly the Salman films might be crass at a certain literal level but otherwise many of those Yashraj/Johar films are as bad if not worse. I don’t find KHNH more watchable than something like Ready. This is not to obscure the aesthetic distinctions by any means but ultimately both are examples of ‘stupid’ cinema by and large. If one is a lover of RNBDJ one can hardly attack Salman’s films on grounds of intelligence. Or at least that’s how I see it. Not being judgmental either way. I’d rather watch DDLJ or even DTPH than most Akshay Kumar comedies or Ready or Bodyguard or whatever. But I’d also rather watch Dabanng or Singham over very many love stories!
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October 26, 2011 at 4:17 PM
It has been a mystery to me as to why SRK did not stick with the oso/cdi model. In other words one relatively safe blockbuster kind of deal and then a smaller film not too way out there designed for critical and commercial success. He sort of weirdly drifted after this great year he had. It was back to basics with Aditya Chopra and Johar and so on and then once again back to Don. Even if he wanted to keep producing big grosses there was already a path forward with OSO that didn’t require forgetting about films like CDI. Partly it is true (and I’ve said this for the longest time) that he wasn’t getting the Mehras of Bombay. But he was big enough to make some of this happen if he really wanted to. But he didn’t even necessarily need those sorts of names. There are younger talents coming up all the time and their films are often prestigious too. It was then just a question of getting the right subject and having just the Neeraj Pandey sort of director in charge. Somehow he never quite explored this. Perhaps he felt he got lucky with CDI but that otherwise the films wouldn’t work. He’d tried out a few in the 90s with little luck and in his own age he saw someone like Abhishek failing more often than not with ‘different’. Hard to tell what the thought process was. But I will say he could have been in a way better position after 2007 in very many ways. Even at the pure blockbuster level take something like Abbas-Mustaan’s Italian Job remake. Whatever seems questionable here because of Abhishek’s box office would be in the bank for him and in a huge way. A RAce kind of film would be massive with him. And these films would just have safety even on the worst day. There is definitely something puzzling here but stars have their demons. Consider Akshay Kumar. He was ideally placed to do masala except that he kept sticking with the comedies even when these started flopping all over the place. Even today it’s too little too late.
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October 26, 2011 at 9:55 PM
SRK got inspiration from Drona. At the time of Drona’s release he has talked about he wants to do for his kids.
He would have done Robot with Shankar.
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October 26, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Positive review from Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/ra-one-review-shah-rukh-khan-253499
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October 26, 2011 at 4:32 PM
Happy Diwali folks
Been travelling/busy in the Americas
Btw good to note my local multiplex showing ra1 both as a 2d and 3d version –and this where even most biggies get a realeAse
Good to note this “mainstream” releAse.
Don’t go by “reviews “/ trends—may catch it in a week in 3D (hope it lasts till then )
Somehow feel like saying “allthe best” to Srk this time round …
Heard there’s some kinky stuff/gay humour / kareena “boon presss”
Not been upto date lately
What’s that ??–a rumour ? Can someone “fill in”!! Lol
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October 26, 2011 at 4:39 PM
Happy diwali Alex…
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October 26, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Happy Diwali Brother. Hope you the US is treating you well. Have a good and safe trip brother.
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October 26, 2011 at 5:48 PM
An interesting video from Spain
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October 26, 2011 at 6:12 PM
Oldgold: I already put up that Hollywood reporter review:
and here’s the latest one from MUmbai Mirror:
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/30/20111027201110270206495966d26d5a4/RaTed-RaNdom-.html
I should add once more that I consider what Bombay reviews junk anyway, whether positive or negative, but they’re useful in terms of figuring out box office trending on a film.
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October 26, 2011 at 6:15 PM
Oh, and I was wondering what happened to it, so I posted again. Please delete it, satyam.
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October 26, 2011 at 6:45 PM
NYT
http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/movies/raone-a-sci-fi-thriller-from-bollywood-review.html
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October 26, 2011 at 8:30 PM
ET:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ra-one-movie-review/articleshow/10499290.cms?curpg=2
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October 26, 2011 at 8:30 PM
both Hollywood Reporter and now this have been more positive than the Indian reviewers. Of course it’s also true that the NYT certainly seems to be ‘kind’ on even the worst kind of Bollywood fare!
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October 26, 2011 at 8:32 PM
First Day: Punjab CI Rajasthan Ra.One v Bodyguard
Wednesday 26th October 2011 23.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The Ra.One figures (early estimates) and the Bodyguard numbers from some circuits are as follows.
East Punjab
Ra.One -1.45 crore
Bodyguard – 1.86 crore
CI
Ra.One – 50 lakhs
Bodyguard – 91 lakhs
Rajasthan
Ra.One – 80 lakhs
Bodyguard – 1.17 crore
The first day record of 20.60 crore nett of Bodyguard seems safe unless Mumbai and South collections come in stronger than expected.
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October 26, 2011 at 8:33 PM
Shirish Kunder taking potshots:
http://pinkvilla.com/entertainment/discussion/i-just-heard-150-cr-firework-fizzle-shirish-kunder?ts=frontpageitem
Guess it’s not likely that SRK will star in Farah Khan movie anytime soon. Think salman’s most likely for a future venture.
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October 26, 2011 at 10:11 PM
these tweets show that kunder lacks class and he is making it seems like Ra.One is playing to empty theaters, I have a feeling the movie will sustain pretty well over the next few days
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October 26, 2011 at 11:15 PM
LOL..Shirish Kunder is a big idiot…Now see the result..
http://twitter.com/#!/search/%40ShirishKunder
Well m enjoying these tweets…
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October 26, 2011 at 8:38 PM
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October 26, 2011 at 10:05 PM
Ra.one might flop but Kunder is a loser…after Farah Khan married him, even she lost her skills and came out with Tees Maar Khan.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:27 PM
agreed that this is uncalled for.. whatever his grievances he shouldn’t air them publicly like this and specially not in this underhanded way..
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October 27, 2011 at 12:51 PM
Kunder is probably pissed because the kid in the movie looks very similar to him..Kunder may have thought SRK was mocking him
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October 26, 2011 at 10:20 PM
He does lack class…Did SRK make any tweets about Tees Maar Khan when his relationship with Farah Khan was at its worst? In fact, no matter his flaws, he has never made bad remarks about any films.
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October 26, 2011 at 10:32 PM
how about filmfare and all those award shows Srk hosts…does he not use that stage to take potshots at everything and everyone!!!
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October 26, 2011 at 11:29 PM
Ra.One Kanpur: The Diwali Puja Affect
Thursday 26th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Diwali puja makes it seem like that a film has crashed after morning shows in many cities and Kanpur is one of them. Below are the first show figure and final daily tally in Kanpur for Ra.One.
Big Moti
1st show – 21,400
12 shows total – 1,64,316
Big Rave
1st show – 21,800
10 shows total – 1,48,219
Inox
1st show – 22,100
15 shows total – 1,97,148
Cinemax
1st show – 19,200
13 shows total – 1,01,628
Heer
1st show – 34,200
4 shows total – 1,21,584
Manjushree
1st show – 16,400
4 shows total – 41,505
Gurdev
1st show – 12,100
4 shows total – 29,660
Shyam
1st show – 12,900
4 shows total – 32,285
Jugal
1st show – 6,100
4 shows total – 12,579
Out of all the theatres only HEER finished the day well. First show was 90% and day finished at 81%. All the rest started at 75-100% and finished the day in the 35-60% range.
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October 26, 2011 at 11:38 PM
taran adarsh #RaOne Wednesday – Biz affected from 5 pm onwards. Pooja and post-pooja celebrations in North and Hindi belt resulted in biz slowing down.
aran adarsh #RaOne – Thursday biz should be huge/humungous. Big holiday today. Expecting to be 30% to 50% bigger than Wednesday.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:34 AM
How come they weren’t saying this BEFORE — if the puja makes figures seem low, shouldn’t they have been saying this all along?!
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October 26, 2011 at 11:52 PM
target audience at this point of time is metro kids during festival but ya i forget people now claim festival undermines that
well then what is the reason for all the years for film releasing on diwali( a period where movie makers jack up the prices of tickets and public is willing to pay)
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October 27, 2011 at 12:43 AM
No First Day Record For Ra.One
Thursday 27th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One will not set a new first day record as the final day collections coming in are well off record pace especially in North and Central India. Some circuits are 50% short of Bodyguard while others are similar.
Bodyguard collected 20.60 crore nett on day one and Ra.One will stay well below that even if the dubbed Tamil and Telegu versions collections are added to the collections of the Hindi version.
Delhi, Punjab, UP and MP were hit hard by Diwali puja as the film went as low as 25% for some shows in these regions and even after Diwali collections were no way near the morning levels.
======================================
I guess all the Hindus of N India became extremely religious this Diwali.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:01 AM
these are now making fool of themselves ( indian trade is really unethical)
ya what this idoits said advanced booking is phenomanal …opening is earthh shattering citing selected theatrews( but in terms of occupancy and print count its just another picture…a point bluntly ignored)
what they said about advance booking and opening contradicts itself
just 18 cr on that much print count and occupancy is not great especially when you claimed it was great on morning
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October 27, 2011 at 1:10 AM
and correct me if i am wrong golmal 3 unexpectedly touch 100 cr at this time so has been many over the years in diwali right from long back ( including some of srk)
these people should come up with something constructive … did bodyguard have as much infalted ticket price everywhere as ra-one .. as much print out …
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October 27, 2011 at 1:29 AM
i dont think they are saying diwali period is bad for business… they are just saying that the diwali day is bad for bo. Infact the reason why films prefer to open during diwali is because of the business they can do over the 3-5 day holiday period.
If they are correct then we should see a good jump in business of ra 1 today.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:46 AM
diwali was never bad for bo ..otherwise why ra-one has not released on usual friday or even thursday ..
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October 27, 2011 at 2:25 AM
cos if you can get an extra 16-20cr on wednesday, why would you want to let it go? obviously this is more than what you can get on monday…. as I said the logic will hold only if Ra1 shows jump today.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:24 AM
It’s going to be like the Devdas scenario all over again. Devdas producer, Bharat Shah and director SLB were all over the place claiming that the film had a budget of 50cr, which was huget at that time. It did 28.4cr (figures given by BOI at that time) and the media were calling it a hit. The week Devdas was released, was the week when percentage occupancy were stopped from being given because it was probably too easy for the lay man to judge if a movie is doing well or trending well.
Ra1 will probably finish below Bodyguard’s total but the media will still find a way to call it a hit.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:28 AM
Ra.One: First Day Early Estimate
Thursday 27th October 2011 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has collected around 14-15 crore nett on its first day as per early estimates. The collections are only for its Hindi version and regional version may have added around 1 crore nett.
It may turn out to be the second or third highest first day ever but around 30% less than the record of Bodyguard which released 2 months back comparing like and like and just its Hindi version.
It is a good collection considering Diwali Puja but even with huge the craze and hype, Diwali Puja affected it like any other film released over the years.
The collections fell from 1pm yesterday at most places and did not really recover with festivities on. South India has fared best comparatively while in North India the first day collections are lower than Ready and Yamla Pagla Deewana as well as Bodyguard for the films released in 2011.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:30 AM
very low collections…. this may even wind up less than 100cr.
my guess is the wom has affected the film more than diwali
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October 27, 2011 at 4:23 AM
I think, it will be a flop as per early indications
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October 27, 2011 at 7:07 AM
So, after 6 months of agressive prmotions, the longest prmotions capaign ever, brand endorsements, all the marketing strategies, adding Rajni for a friendly appearance, releasing a record number of prints with the maximum number of shows ever for a movie, Ra 1 comes up with these first day figures. Compare it with Bodyguard where Salman was practically non-existant in its pre-release promotions because of surgery. When it comes to sheer power, Salman has beaten SRK hands down here.
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October 27, 2011 at 7:27 AM
add hiked prices too
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October 27, 2011 at 7:39 AM
My Take on Ra-One – IT’S CRMINAL
The biggest film of Hindi Cinema, a film which will take the industry forward. This was painted as the ‘big’ monster of the year which was going to be a landmark not only in SRK career but in the Hindi Film Industry itself.
Now we all know the story so let’s get right into it….
– Occupancy – FANTASTIC virtually full and many ladies and kids (will elaborate on this later)
– The much talked about cameos of Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and Rajnikanth. Now the opening 15 mins pretty much involved the first two along with SRK in some kind of game world. I don’t know if PC was told to over act but she most certainly did that and more. Incredibly cheesy. Sanju just uttered some punchy dialogues which didn’t really have any effect. The whole scenario seemed tacky and it was pretty evident this was a last min addition to the film (which it was). Rajni 1 min appearance was a blink and miss kind of deal. It made no sense, no excitement nothing. I have not seen any Rajni film but I am aware of his mannerisms and his style which millions adore and follow. SRK imitates him but fails miserably.
– SRK as Skekhar is a charming man and more often than not in the first hour invoked laughs in the audience well the women did.
– SRK as G-One simply did not look convincing as a super hero. He could easily have passed off as the judwaa of Rizwan Khan (MNIK fame) and none would have been the wiser. In some scenes i.e the train sequence and fight after interval SRK does a marvellous job as G-One but in pretty much everything else he has shades of his other characters and those YRF hand movements.
– Bebo – compared to her last few films she doesn’t have much scope. However, in the scene after the interval and when she does a bit of boxing she does a fine job. Her intro invoked many laughs in the way she just uttered gaali after gaali. May I just add she looked absolutely beautiful throughout the film.
-Prateek (the kid) – I know many have appreciated him but I found him quite poor except the climax.
-Arjun Rampal (Ra-1) – In all seriousness what was he doing… he never once looked menacing infact (SPOILER ALERT) bebo does a better job in the 5 mins she’s Ra-1 and so does Akashi the Chinese guy. He has probably 6 scenes in the whole film. DISAPPOINTING.
– The songs are the come and go type minus CC which is a chartbuster in the truest sense. It also helps take the story forward.
POSITIVES
1) The chase sequence in London when Ra-1 is after bebo and the kid was extremely impressive and very well executed.
2) The fight post interval was similar to a fight in Singham and special mention to the Taxi Driver who was absolutely hilarious. He simply imitated both SRK and bebo but did it in such a humorous way that it made many laugh.
3) Train Sequence was superb no two ways about it. Yes the way it ended was a bit hmmmm won’t say but whilst SRK was running and trying to stop it it had us all hooked onto our seats.
NEGATIVES
1) The film was perfectly fine till the interval for me anyway and even into the second half it was but then it started to drag and drag. This is detrimental in the kind of film Ra-1 is, it simply could not have afforded to drag. I really think they could have done away with 1-2 songs.
2) Now many films defy logic (the recent BG and Singham come to mind) but I fail to understand why G-One had human traits I mean he would feel happy and sad and in the climax (SPOILER ALERT) he was emotional when he has to depart from Prateek.
3) The so called Father-Son relationship was pretty much non existent. His son would call him a coward and not take him as a hero so SRK decides to make a game for him.
4) The film does not hit you in the ‘HART’ none of the emotional or moving scenes had any impact and the song played whilst (SPOILER ALERT) SRK is being buried and others are crying does not make you sympathize with the characters.
5) The film was promoted as a ‘family entertainer’ my backside it’s a family entertainer. I would have been embarrassed watching this film with my parents and for the film having a U certificate is quite frankly scandalous.
6) What is it with SRK and a man’s crotch. I think on three separate occasions he makes reference to it and (SPOILER ALERT) in the climax when he grabs Arjun’s and he replies with ‘ye kya kar rahe ho’ was a WTF moment.
7) The climax was a letdown and this will hurt the film in the long run.
– they have left scope for a sequel but for that to happen Ra-One will need to click and that remains to be seen.
SOME EXTRA INFO
– Many were excited to see the film (I was not one of them having read many tweets prior to going) my friends went in with open minds and due to the rush I was interacting with quite a few people seeking there thoughts on what they expected. They were all pretty much excited namely a lady who was sat directly infront of us reserved the whole row for her family. This same lady to my surprise at the interval said I have seen enough and she along with her family (6-7) of them all left. Then quite a few left as soon as climax was about to start i.e the main fight and then very alarmingly many left whilst the climax was going on. I may be a biased fan but my friends certainly are not and they were far harsher infact abusive towards the film than what I have been here.
No rating but film will struggle and I foresee a big fall. After such extensive promotion and the film being literally shoved down our throats all I can say is IT’S CRIMINAL…!!!
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October 27, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Seems like you havent seen Robot. Then those three positive points will also vanish. Train sequences are far better, innovative and executed in robot and so are special effects well utilized.
As for the kid he was most irritating thing in the whole movie.
That blue look of srk doesnt work aswell atall.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:19 AM
I have not seen Robot
Agreed on the kid and yes the suit din’t work. Remarkable considering it cost them over 1 crore.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:39 AM
thanks for the review Naveed…
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October 27, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Well was quite confused with biased reviews of SRK fans and also haters. This one looks like a well summed up and honest review. Not sure who is the culprit here. SRK’s poor story selection or Anubhav Sinha the director.
After KKR debacle and this one, I think SRK should realize now that instead of publicity he needs to concentrate on content.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:11 AM
Thanks, Naveed for your honest views.
I wouldnt write it off yet as reportedly there is a big jump and honestly would treat today as the first day as opposed to yesterday.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:21 AM
@ rajen – had I not seen the film then I would have been inclined to believe you but take it from me this film will fall and fall big. I rarely see such reaction as to what I witnessed yesterday. Anyway all will be clear in few days time.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:26 AM
You are probably right,Naveed. I am just being cautious because of the reported jump today.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Why should today be treated as the first day rather than yesterday? Are you also falling for this Diwali puja excuse?
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October 27, 2011 at 9:12 AM
With all this talk of Diwali puja, one is forced to wonder why on earth anyone chooses this day for a big release in the first place! LOL!
Aside: These days many films have inflated ticket prices, so Ra-One isn’t special in that respect, BUT on the flip side, there is no doubt in my mind that Bodyguard’s and Singham’s average ticket prices were lower (just as Ghajini’s were lower than 3 Idiots’): thus, not only is Bodyguard ahead in gross (roughly 20-25% greater gross on day 1 on 30% FEWER screens), but when one factors ticket prices in, the difference is almost certainly even greater (in terms of number of people in seats)…
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October 27, 2011 at 9:20 AM
PS — I might add that if Diwali pujas depress box office receipts, what about the fact that all of Salman’s big releases these days seem to be Eid ones? Muslims don’t have an Eid puja, but they do have early special Eid prayers (recall the 7AM and 8AM Ra-One shows in major metros); plus, on Eid, a lot of Muslims will spend time with family, visiting relatives, etc. Yet no one has ever suggested (not just for Salman, but for anybody other than SRK) that this sort of thing HURTS a film — if it does, then Sallu also needs a corrective bump of some magnitude to his grosses (in major urban centers like Delhi, Mumbai, Muslims are 30+% of the population, so hardly insignificant). Obviously it does not in the final analysis: the holiday and festive spirit mean people WANT to release their films on (over the last few years) Diwali (SRK); Eid (Salman); and Christmas (Aamir).
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October 27, 2011 at 9:43 AM
This discussion had come up once (must be in the archives), and I mentioned in my comment why Diwali (and it was not a discussion about any SRK film release) would be the least profitable as compared to Eid and Christmas.
Surely muslims and isais (christians) like Hindus also prefer staying at home on a festival day, what with friends and family. The difference is that hindu form a major section of the public, so when they stay away – it matters.
It is most probably the collection on days after that that one is thinking of rather than the day itself.
It is so simple. I’m quite astonished people are arguing about it at all.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:50 AM
So when its Christmas the Christians stay at home – which is not a major part of the public. The others (hindu and muslims) have a holiday to do as they please.
Same goes for eid. The number of people staying at home is again not a major part of the public.
I would say the earning *ON* the day of the festivals are as follows;
Christmas>Eid>Diwali
I said it earlier and am repeating it here.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:04 AM
But “Diwali is mine!” said SRK. 🙂
(during the promotions for OSO, to explain why Saawariya should not release on the same date.)
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October 27, 2011 at 10:29 AM
He’s banking on the ‘day after’ effect surely – which is yet to be seen for Ra. ONe.
Why is there no update for today’s BO?
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October 27, 2011 at 2:28 PM
EID puja…lolz Q.
Y R U all rejoicing Badshah’s fall so much 😉
tch-tch. Have some compassion y’all.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:45 AM
Ra.One First Day Territorial Breakdown (UPDATED)
Thursday 27th October 2011 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) collected 14.50-14.75 core nett approx on its first day. Mysore circuit was a first day record. Below is the first day territorial breakdown of the film.
Mumbai – 5.66 crore
Delhi/UP – 2.22 crore
East Punjab – 95 lakhs
West Bengal – 1.10 crore
Bihar – 30 lakhs
CP Berar – 70 lakhs
CI – 37 lakhs
Rajasthan – 73 lakhs
Nizam – 1.15 crore
Mysore – 90 lakhs
Others – 55 lakhs
TOTAL – 14.63 crore
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October 27, 2011 at 8:46 AM
Top All Time Opening Days RA.ONE 2nd
Thursday 27th October 2011 14.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has had the second biggest opening day of all time. The top ten opening days of all time are as follows.
1. Bodyguard – 20.62 crore
2. Ra.One 14.63 crore (approx)
3. Dabangg – 14.45 crore
4. Ready – 13.33 crore
5. Threes Idiots – 13.00 crore
6. Tees Maar Khan – 12.82 crore
7. Raajneeti – 10.33 crore
8. Housefull – 9.32 crore
9. Ghajini – 9.13 crore
10. Golmaal 3 – 8.72 crore
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October 27, 2011 at 8:51 AM
Second biggest? It’s ahead of Dabanng with some loose change! It’s 6 crores behind BG. It’s just a crore ahead of Ready. And with 3500 screens, a figure SRK himself gave out (the earlier 3000 one was supposed to be 30% more screens than BG). And if one adjusted this for inflation and screen count I doubt it’s ahead of most of those films on the list. But even in absolute terms it’s at Dabanng’s level.
This is the old BOI trick though. First say a film will break records and what not. When it doesn’t happen say it’s still among the top 3 openings or whatever. And here blame the puja period. Today if there’s a bit of a jump they’ll go crazy claiming that they were right about the puja period!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:34 PM
This reminds me of something that happened during my working days. Without boring everybody, we were using computer models to show that a particular development would comply with environmental standards. When I ran the model, the prediction was above the air quality standard — hence no permit. So my manager tweaked some of the inputs until he could finally come up with a prediction that was 0.01 less than the standard — hence the client could get the permit. Since that was my first job, I said, “But the model doesn’t have that degree of precision.” And he said it was OK, because the EPA only wanted to see a number that was less than the standard. * That’s what all these tweakings to make Ra.One the second highest opening day reminded me of. 🙂
*Lest anyone start berating the EPA, there were actually sound technical reasons why this approach was justified, but I won’t go into those here.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:40 PM
that’s exactly what happens with a great deal of the box office reporting but especially so with SRK because he’s always trying desperately hard too beat all ‘current’ benchmarks at any given point and from the blogs to the trade guys they all reflect this anxiety.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:53 AM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
Thursday trends: Just spoke to several distributors. #RaOne is all set to create HISTORY today. Figures multiply in every circuit in India.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:53 AM
Thursday update: ‘Ra.One’ 18.5 cr India, 6.5 cr Overseas
-By Taran Adarsh, October 27, 2011 – 16:44 IST
RA.ONE has collected approx Rs 25 cr on its opening Day [Diwali] from India and Overseas markets. The breakup is as follows:-
India – Rs 18.5 cr nett, includes Hindi, Tamil and Telugu versions; Overseas – Rs 6.5 cr.
In India, RA.ONE took an electrifying start on Wednesday noon, but the business slowed down considerably on Wednesday evening onwards due to pooja and festivities. However, the business is expected to grow manifold on Thursday.
Internationally, the film is all set to create new records as it collected Rs 6.5 cr on Wednesday. The breakup is as follows:-
UK – Rs 1.5 cr, USA – Rs 1.5 cr, UAE – Rs 1 cr, Singapore – Rs 60 lacs, Australia – Rs 18.3 lacs. Many territories figures are yet to report.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:56 AM
alright here there’s a 4 crore gap between this number and BOI’s. The latter don’t have the regional prints factored in but claim that this could add upto a crore. So they would be in the 15.5-16 crore range. Taran meanwhile has 4 crores. And then he’s also presenting the global total. We’ve seen all this stuff before. Now sometimes Taran’s figures are higher than BOI’s but this is a very significant difference. By the time the 5 day weekend is up and if he keeps this up we might see 7-10 extra crores for the film! LOL!
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October 27, 2011 at 9:11 AM
No, BOI says ~1.5cr for Telugu & Tamil versions, so 18.5-1.5 = 17, which is only slightly more than BOI’s estimate of 16.63 cr.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:59 AM
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Nets Rs. 15 Cr At Opening Day Box-Office
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s superhero movie, Ra.One (Read Review), which released yesterday (Wednesday, October 26) made Rs. 15.50 – 16 crore in all-India net collections on the opening day.
Ra.One Movie Poster
The collections of the movie were affected because of the Diwali celebrations, with many Hindu families staying at home for pooja and festivities. Although the film might have failed to break the opening day record of Bodyguard (Rs. 21 crore net), Ra.One has set a new record for Diwali day collections.
However, given the hype around the film, the extensive promotional campaign and the raised ticket prices, the opening day collections of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer were not up to the mark.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:59 AM
Eros Clears Air Over Factually Incorrect Ra.One Box-Office Report
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
The Times Of India this morning ran a story on its front page, claiming that the first day’s collection of Ra.One was Rs. 22 crore. The report is silent about whether the figure is net or gross and whether it is all-India or all-world. The same report goes on to compare this figure with the first day net all-India collection of Bodyguard (Rs. 21.5 crore). Therefore, by implication, the figure of Rs. 22 crore is the net all-India collection of Ra.One. Well, Eros International has clarified that the report (which has quoted a so-called trade analyst as saying that “the Hindi version will collect more than Rs. 20 crore, and if one adds the collections of the Tamil and Telugu versions, it will go up to Rs. 22 crore) was incorrect. The correct first-day figure for the Hindi version is Rs. 15.5 to Rs. 16 crore. If we were to add the collections of the dubbed Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions to this figure, the total would come to Rs. 18 crore.
The misleading report was titled, ‘Ra.One snatches Day One honours’. By Eros’ own admission, the day one honour has not been snatched as the first-day record is still held by Bodyguard. Maybe, the newspaper will now carry a story in tomorrow’s edition and title it, ‘Day One Honour Snatched Back From Ra.One’
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October 27, 2011 at 9:02 AM
So the higher number is the producer total. But then they also have BG at 21.5 versus 20 and change that BOI are quoting. So it’s still more or less 3-4 crore differential with BG after all the regional prints are factored in.
The strange thing here is the extraordinary lengths these guys are going to to ‘clarify’ that they’re not ahead of BG. After all the hyperbole that is par for the course in these matters, all the exaggerated and distorted claims or minimally misleading ones suddenly they’ve become that ethical about being misquoted in terms of the BG comparison?!
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October 27, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Sees Spike On Day 2
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Ra.One Movie Poster
The box-office collections of Shah Rukh Khan starrer Ra.One have picked-up on day two (Thursday, October 27). The collections of the film in the Rajasthan circuit, where the film made Rs. 80 lakh net on day one, were more than Rs. 1.25 crore on Thursday. A similar story played out in the C.I. circuit, where the collections jumped by 100 per cent, from Rs. 40 lakh on Wednesday to Rs. 85 lakh on Thursday.
Such is the craze for the film, that in Jaipur, Rajasthan, for the first time all three screens in Golcha cinema are showing the same film (Ra.One) in all the shows today. Collections even in ‘B’ and ‘C’ class centres picked up today. An official of PVR multiplex revealed to Koimoi.com, “Collections today (Thursday) are at least 30- 40 per cent better.”
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October 27, 2011 at 9:04 AM
they have complete Thu numbers even before the day is over India…!
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October 27, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Well, TOI declared that Ra.One broke Bodyguard’s opening day record on the day before Ra.One released. 🙂
(That’s the article Komal referred to earlier. The actual body of the article says Ra. One “might” break the record, it “could” be broken if such and such happens, etc. Of course TOI is notorious for running headlines that totally contradict the article that they appear over.)
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October 27, 2011 at 9:09 AM
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October 27, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Box Office: Ra.One Opening Day Collections
BUSINESSOFCINEMA.COM TEAM 27 October , 2011
MUMBAI: Shah Rukh Khan’s mega ambitious superhero project Ra.One failed to beat Salman Khan blockbuster flick Bodyguard at the box office on Day 1.
The net collections of Ra.One in Hindi on Wednesday stood at approx Rs 147 million (Rs 14.7 crore) as compared to Bodyguard’s Rs 210 million (Rs 21 crore).
This first day collections were low primarily due to the Diwali pooja celebrations in India. In territories like North India, U.P and Bihar, the collections of Ra.One were no where close to Bodyguard. It may be recalled that Bodyguard released on the occasion of Eid this year.
The story on Thursday is quite different though as Ra.One collections in India witnessed a jump of approximately 50-60% as per early estimates. Moreover collections in the North saw a jump of nearly 90 – 100%.
Additionally, unlike Bodyguard, Ra.One has also been released in Tamil and Telugu (dubbed version), which will add a couple of million to the total India box office. However, the first day net collections will be nowhere close to Bodyguard’s Rs 210 million even post that.
Top 5 All Time Opening Day Collections Record:
1) Bodyguard – Rs 210 million (Rs 21 crore)
2) Ra.One – Rs 147 million (Rs 14.7 crore)
3) Dabangg – Rs 145 million (Rs 14.5 crore)
4) 3 Idiots – Rs 130 million (Rs 13 crore)
5) Ready – Rs 130 million (Rs 13 crore)
While the box office performance of Ra.One will be watched closely over the next couple of days, Friday’s revenue will decide how close will Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One get to Salman Khan’s Bodyguard collections.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:17 AM
Rediff:
Ra.One fails to break Bodyguard’s record
October 27, 2011 16:08 IST
Ra.One, Khan’s most ambitious project so far, opened in over 3200 screens across the country and was supposed to beat the hell out of Salman Khan’s [ Images ] Bodyguard that had opened in 2,800 screens during the Id weekend in August.
By sheer numbers and the publicity overdrive that Shah Rukh khan had gone into, Ra.One seemed set to beat Bodyguard’s opening day collection even before it was released.
Trade pundits had predicted that the movie’s first-day collections would break all previous box office records and were positive that it would manage to cross the magical Rs 21-crore mark (that Bodyguard had set) making it the top Hindi grosser of all time.
Yet when it did release on October 26, Ra.One struggled, faltered and failed.
Bollywood trade is a slippery business. The handful of trade magazines that publish box-office collections week after week rarely agree upon the exact figures.
Yet according to initial reports it seems safe to say that Ra.One hasn’t succeeded in beating Bodyguard’s first-day collection at the box office.
Media professional and industry observer Abhijit Mhamunkar says, “The opening day collections of Ra.One are somewhere between Rs 15 and Rs 16 crores. In spite of the ticket prices being increased and the film opening in more screens than ever, the movie doesn’t even seem to come close to the first day collections of Bodyguard (Rs 21 crores).”
While Bodyguard had opened in 2,800 screens across India and the first-day occupancy ranged between 85 per cent and 100 per cent, Ra.One opened in around 3200 screens with the first day occupancy ranging between 75 per cent and 80 per cent.
To make things worse, the movie received a mixed response from the critics as well as the initial audience (that can sometimes be crucial in driving the collection). Many from the audience felt that Shah Rukh did not live up to the hype that he created.
Ra.One was also dubbed and released in Tamil and Telugu too but Suriya-Shruthi Haasan starrer Tamil film 7am Arivu and Vijay’s Tamil film Velayudham have been preferred over Ra.One.
“The reviews of 7am Arivu and Velayudham have been really positive and people in south India are more eager to watch these films rather than watch a dubbed version of a Hindi movie,” Mhamunkar says adding that one will have to wait and watch how the dubbed versions do over the next four days before passing any verdict.
One of the things that was supposed to work in Shah Rukh Khan’s favour was the 3D version of his film. According to trade pundits the uniqueness of seeing their superstar in 3D could have driven the collections in smaller towns.
However Khan and his team failed here too as the 3D prints of the movie failed to reach several cinema halls on time.
Till Monday night, it was uncertain whether the 3D release would make it in time as the producers seemed unable to meet the deadline but Shah Rukh had confirmed that they would go ahead with the 3D release on time.
Sunil Punjabi CEO of Cinemax India [ Get Quote ] also confirmed this.”There were two problems that happened yesterday. The 3D prints of the movie were not able to reach the tier-2 cities in India till late afternoon because of which we had to cancel around two to three shows in each city. Secondly, the evening collections showed a serious dip since many Hindu families stayed back at home for (Laxmi) puja and festivities.On an average the first day occupancy (in Cinemax theatres) is between 75 to 80 per cent.”
Bollywood trade analyst Komal Nahta said that the movie points out that the movie may have done better had it released on October 27, a day after Laxmi Puja.
According to him too the movie has collected around Rs 15-16 crore on the first day, which he says is ‘stupendous’.
“Ideally the film should have released a day after Laxmi Puja, which is traditionally not good for business since in almost every house the puja takes place in the evening. (So it wasn’t surprising to see) the collections take a beating in the evening. Taking into consideration these factors, I feel that the first-day collection has been are stupendous,” he says.
He also suggests that ‘Although the film may have failed to break the opening day record of Bodyguard, Ra.One has set a new record for Diwali [ Images ] day collections.’
According to Boxofficeindia.com Golmaal-3 (2010) had managed Rs 9 crore, Om Shanti Om [ Images ] (2007) had Rs 6 crores and Golmaal Returns (2008) had manged to collect Rs 5.75 crore on the opening day of Diwali
It remains to be seen however if Shah Rukh Khan will be satisfied with this consolation prize. Unless Don 2 manages to do the unthinkable when it releases on December 23 this year, it is Salman 1, Shah Rukh 0.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:17 AM
But I really dislike this way of pitting one star against another over every minor issue. Why not just report that Ra.One collected so much, and leave it at that? What does it matter how it compares to another film’s collections?
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October 27, 2011 at 9:29 AM
It’s a competitive business! The figures don’t mean much in the absence of a comparison. But so it is everywhere else in life too!
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October 27, 2011 at 9:35 AM
My point is that it doesn’t really matter if Star A’s film collects a few lakhs or even a few crore more than Star B’s. Very likely the pattern would reverse with their next releases, In any case, everyone can recognize that there is a group of stars at the top, then there is a significant break before the next group of stars, and so on.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:27 AM
No one really seems to be buying the Lakshmi puja thing other than the trade figures selling this theory. The difference is just too great with BG, specially accounting for all the extra screens. And why release the film on this day if you don’t think you can break the record?! And why didn’t the trade analysts say this BEFORE the release? That this wouldn’t be possible?!
In terms of the ‘jump’ I suspect they’re all going to focus mostly on some small centers in the North.
Here are some other contradictions — if the films opened historically on day 1. If it was running close to a 100% as many claimed even in the morning shows, even if it was doing 70-100% (Nahata’s claim) where is the room for that much improvement?! Also if these numbers are right with that many screens why didn’t it come closer to BG or overtake it? The explanation? The film completely collapsed in the evening! No one saw it! What else could explain such a discrepancy?!
As always this stuff is just BULL and doesn’t add up.
By the way even with BG I did say at the time that it hadn’t shown enough growth over the weekend. Why? Because it did go up the second day but then down again after this and never quite had a big weekend jump. Partly when you front-load a film and go in for an extended weekend it’s hard to maintain that pace but a film that is truly liked can (3I). So BG too did a quick fadeout compared to Dabanng. And this was evident even in the early stages but it nonetheless showed some basic stability for a film that hadn’t been liked by everyone. It wasn’t a tank in the Kites or TMK sense or it wouldn’t have had even the week 1 number that it did.
The important thing to remember here is that it’s almost 2 years after 3I. Many of these films that have opened big ought to be able to do 100 crores over the first week but they fall short because the films are not liked as much. Ready did not double its week 1 number nor did BG but Singham did! And of course Ghajini did. 3I is another matter altogether. Here the surprising thing was Dabanng which became so incredibly iconic and yet couldn’t double its week 1 let alone match 3I.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:27 AM
The pickup today can be explained by massive corporate pre-bookings. My cousins in Pune have gotten 15-20 free tickets from their banks and business vendors. It looks like corporates went into overdrive pre-booking tickets for all and sundry. But from the looks of it, the individual junta has had a tepid response.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:31 AM
Here’s another “correcting” article:
Salman Khan’s fanatic fan following on social media
Businessofcinema.com TEAM 27 October , 2011
0diggsdigg
MUMBAI: In a really unique experience Salman Khan’s Bodyguard is currently trending in India on Twitter, at the time when Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has just released. The power of fans that Salman Khan holds on social media is unparalleled. One Twitter user with handle @Hishh said, “So despite of al d marketin revolutions, Bhai shows who is d real daddy. #RaOne couldnt reach upto #BodyGuard first day collection is d news”.
This primarily happened because of the comparison for the opening day collection of both the movies. The Times of India reported opening day Ra.One collection of Rs. 22 crores in India only so that it may create a powerful headline. But this is completely untrue, and it has already led to a complete chaos and frenzy within the industry circles as the net collection of Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One were Rs. 14.7 Crores. (See Box Office Report)
This caused all the Salman Khan fans to start ReTweeting the correct figures, and state that actually Ra.One has not beaten Bodyguard’s opening day collection figure in India, well resulting into making #Bodyguard trend in India on Twitter.
Salman Khan today has a lot of fan power combined on entire social media, and even without his single Tweet his tremendous fan following caused his previous movie ‘Bodyguard’ trending on a day when even his film is not releasing.
http://www.businessofcinema.com/news.php?newsid=19341
I think they are publishing all these “correction” articles because otherwise the incestuous relationships between analysts and producers became just too obvious. Maybe?
Or is this article trying to insinuate that Salman fans bullied the various media outlets into posting correct figures? I can’t decide. Incidentally nowadays there’s a lot of reference to Salman’s fans on Twitter. Taran Adarsh told Salman in an interview that he’s surprised how “protective” Salman’s fans are of him, and that if he (Taran) says anything negative about Salman, he immediately hears from his fans. Anupama Chopra claimed that she was physically threatened by Salman’s fans. (I find this claim to be nonsense. A lot of wild statements are made on the net by Indians. For instance, I just read a tweet from someone that he saw and hated Ra.One, and everyone associated with it should be put in jail! In any case, Anupama Chopra’s article itself was not only nonsense, but blatantly provocative.) Or maybe it’s that they’ve comfortably assumed Salman’s fans all belong to the great unwashed “masses” and are startled to encounter them among the relatively rarefied environment of the internet?
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October 27, 2011 at 9:31 AM
I meant to add that I don’t find Salman fans on twitter or the net in general to be any more rabid or silly than fans of any other star.
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October 27, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Here’s my completely anecdotal, impressionistic view, based on the people I work with in Mumbai (our office stays open on Diwali because we are an outsourcing company, although attendance is light): no one I have met seems to think this is The Biggest Opener In History; a number of people have told me they will definitely see it over the weekend. A number of people have said they have no plans to watch it. A small group of people (not passionate haters of this or that star, but people I would consider “casual” film watchers) started saying it had flopped as early as yesterday evening; I did not hear that tag vis-a-vis Ready or Bodyguard, and certainly not this early (can’t speak for other films, I wasn’t in Bombay prior to January).
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October 27, 2011 at 10:15 AM
The general view has come out now.. As I hear it, the number of people who’ve disliked the film is greater than the number of people who’ve found it okay or good.
I wont be surprised if this film starts recording a fall in collections even before the extended weekend is over.
Probably a lesson for SRK and his king-sized ego. a dream project is one thing – but having your viewers taken for granted just for the sake of making a film that his son could enjoy is just not done! Even if the director was Anubhav, he could have easily got a good scriptwriter,considering the underutilized talent in the country.
If Aamir can deliver a classic out of a director with nothing to boast of except a forgettable film Game, with a relatively unknown scriptwriter, why cant an SRK?
Hopefully the film could break the myth that a film containing ‘blockbuster elements’ neednt be one!
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October 27, 2011 at 10:31 AM
The difference between Aamir and SRK lies in their vision of films. Aamir (not that HE intended this but however) Kareena had a substantial role in 3I (where she is the backbone of the delivery scene at the end, and bring her dad to a state to do a reality check – though never liked kareena as an actress, she did a master stroke against Boman in that scene) And then there is SRK where he grabs her Boobs, She does a sexy # referring to booty in the movie, and doing a PHD in cursing? really? That’s what these two bring to the table. I would definitely prefer to watch the former, and wait I thought Ra.one was a family entertainer? Did he really show this to his kids? with gay/crotch/boob/hole jokes? I really hope he did not.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:43 AM
I think that is more to do with a director’s vision. Hirani (and more so Vidhu Vinod Chopra) rarely shows skin or has vulgar references that may make familes uncomfortable.
My personal view is that everytime a movie includes such stuff, they automatically start driving away their potential conservative audiences, no matter how big the star might be. Fart-Shit jokes are diff, those are not sexual. But anything sexual brings out the level of discomfort, especially while viewing with elders.
Why is it that movies with pre-marital sex themes have never done well? The moment people find out about such references in a movie, out goes the total family outing for a majority of the conservative audiences. When pre-marital sex is referenced, it is done in a “oh that was a mistake” scenario. The moment it is done “voluntarily” in the story, out goes the conservative audience.
People are talking about DB as having displayed the acceptance of such themes. However, DB first had a A certificate. Second, Aamir himself took pains in his promotion to warn families. Mainstream U movies cannot take the conservative audiences for granted.
The biggest BBs in the history of Bwood have been sterilized dramas with no references to sex. SRK should know this better. He has never kissed on screen. Why did he have to include all those condom-gay-boob-ass jokes and drive away people. Even if it is just 5% of potential audience, isnt that a lot when they are chasing a 200cr figure?
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October 27, 2011 at 10:48 AM
agreed.. this is a particular problem for a star who relies on family audiences.. worse still it’s the sort of deal that parents don’t want their kids exposed to when this is the film’s primary target in many ways.. also agreed that this is probably more of a problem on the margins but in terms of the overall negative narrative on the film it plays a part..
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October 27, 2011 at 10:49 AM
Agred all around friend. Yes, that’s exactly what I am saying, Not necessarily Aamir intended that, But he has a vision and chose a script (and at times worked on it too) that does not go the other way, If it is a family entertainer it stayed that way. yes, ofcourse that was Raju Hirani and Abhijat Joshi’s doing no doubts about that, But my point is Aamir chose this script and Srk chose the other,(remember SRK was approached for 3I before aamir) thats the difference.
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October 27, 2011 at 11:33 AM
Lol kareena had a substanital role in 3i. Laughbale. If there was some other actress. It could have added few some crores probably. She is most irritating acress of this generation and general public same same opinion.
Cant forget how ‘hardcore salman my barber ‘ was skeptical of giving bodyguard a watch just because of irritating kareena.
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October 27, 2011 at 11:43 AM
Not sure if you read the complete post before commenting on others, But here it goes friend.
“though never liked kareena as an actress”
Agreed, she is probably the most irritating actress around, heck everytime I see her, I see Randhir Kapoor, thats a turn off for me right away. BUT, in all honesty, I cannot take away her hard work in those scenes.
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October 27, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Which goes to show that in an Aamir film, even an actress like Kareena does a 180 and starts to act for a change. LOL.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:38 AM
The thing is:
1)Most of the pieces are now defensive to a laughable degree. BOI tellingly said that Lakshmi puja makes it look like a crash! Sure there might be a bit of a jump in the North especially where this is the biggest deal but I’ve never heard of films ‘crashing’ because of this! But suddenly everyone’s talking about Lakshmi Puja!
2)Some of the WOM is really not just negative but about laughing over the film. Shirish Kunder on twitter said it was a 150 crore firecracker fizzling out. A mean-spirited remark for sure and uncalled for but he wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t think the film wasn’t working. Nahata himself didn’t seem as gung-ho yesterday as he was just a few days ago. Then there’s this long piece in Rediff I’ve just posted. Now it’s still early but unless the WOM was rather clear no one would jump the gun this way and certainly not for a SRK film.
3)So it’s not about a jump today or a fall tomorrow. I agree with you that even over the extended weekend the damage will be visible. It’s visible on day 1. Even factoring in all the excuses it’s hard to understand why a 3500 screen release is so much behind BG.
4)The only question in my mind is the extent of the damage. My sense is that this is more of a Kites sort of model. Certain kinds of films have no support system when they get rejected. For a variety of reasons.
5)All this doesn’t mean of course that the numbers won’t be big. Just a 16 crore average over a 5 day period would put it at 80 crores. If it cannot maintain this day 1 average over five days something’s seriously wrong. But even so week 1 will still be a very big number. Do think it’s beyond figures at this point. It’s not about whether it does 110 crores or 130 or whatever. There is just too much negativity surrounding this film. Which negativity I should repeat is still far less than it would be for other stars because of SRK’s institutional support in the media.
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October 27, 2011 at 11:05 AM
Satyam, how can I post a pic here plz?
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October 27, 2011 at 6:48 PM
^^Hi BF: send me the pic–i will post it for u lol
but the pic needs certain criteria
Such a cute question …
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October 28, 2011 at 12:01 PM
No pz i want to learn it Alex da,
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October 27, 2011 at 11:27 AM
“But suddenly everyone’s talking about Lakshmi Puja!”
These guys tend to come up with everything and the kitchen sink to explain or excuse their BO woes. Was only a matter of time till they started to blame the gods!
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October 27, 2011 at 12:52 PM
Everyone is talking about the Lakshmi Puja because people pounced upon the day of Laxmi Puja as *the* day for massive collections whereas all I herad/read was **THE DIWALI PERIOD** should be good…IT WAS **NEVER** on diwali day.
It’s the word ***PERIOD** people!!!!
But, it’s actually silly to get into arguments (which I have mainly avoided) because things will get clearer by themselves without the forces of any side.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:07 PM
No, Old Gold, the talk was always about a massive opening day, because it was Diwali. No mentions of Lakshmi puja ever came up till after the first day’s collections were seen not to be record setting. Heck, even I remember earlier releases on Diwali where it was always touted to be an advantage. Depending on what day of the week Diwali fell, people talked about how many holidays + weekend days they would get, but nobody ever discounted Diwali because of this mysterious puja.
Look, I’ll give you a separate example. When Jaaneman and Don were both releasing on the same day – I think it was Eid – before the release, the JEM producer and Salman were all talking about how they expect a big opening because it was Eid, and people like to go out to movies to celebrate. Well, JEM had a poor opening day and Don didn’t. So they interviewed Salman at his home on Eid about the poor show, and he said, well, I always expected it would start slowly, because people don’t want to go out on the day of Eid itself. It will pick up tomorrow. It just struck me as a face-saving statement, and of course it didn’t pick up the next day, either. This whole Lakshmi puja thing strikes me in exactly the same way.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:11 PM
But even Don didn’t have the sort of opening day that was expected so they brought this angle up a bit (the puja) but WOM on it wasn’t negative in the same way so they didn’t make a big deal out of it and the film was stable at a lower level. With OSO which got off to a flying start and never had a problem no one brought it up.
And again the likes of Nahata and Taran didn’t say that the second day would be the biggest. They said it about the first day. Didn’t they know this was the puja day? They obviously expected the film to open bigger than BG despite the puja. Now they’ve completely changed the narrative and even if it’s a bit higher than BG today they’ll say ‘biggest opening day now that there’s no puja’!
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October 27, 2011 at 1:20 PM
Oh Ok.
If it’s ‘the talk’ that one wants to dwell on and analyse.
I was just stating a logical point, which won’t change no matter what theories people might have.
Personally I’ll go by ‘the diwali *period*’ to see whether it has survived or not.
I don’t see the sense in so many comments over this point. It’s **been established** that whoever thought records would be broken is now bringing in laxmi puja as a reason/excuse.
Do we need so much repetition?
Why not move on to today?
What’s the latest score?
Every time I come here it’s the same old story;
“He said this!”
“They said that”..and then theories upon theories.
It’s not what one expects on an ‘intelligent blog’.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:33 PM
One has to critical analyze statements that are issued in this sense. It’s not reasonable to accept things at face value when the messenger is so unreliable? Just in the statements from yesterday there were lots of contradictory things and the same holds today. Also no one said that the story here is about just 1 day. Obviously we’re going to look at the early run here, then the extended weekend, then the whole week and so on. It goes without saying. But we also have to see if people are being honest about things. If you keep saying that it’s all about day 1 being the biggest opening ever you can’t introduce excuses later. The reason why it matters beyond the contradiction involved is that if your integrity is questionable or if you’re trying to support the film at any cost this then puts a gloss on everything that you say. So for example when these trade figures want to support a film they quote centers and theaters where the film is doing best and present it as a general truth. For example isn’t it interesting that both yesterday and today almost all the examples have been offered from the ‘North’? Most of the anecdotes have been about Rajasthan. These were also the centers that were tracking behind BG yesterday. What about the rest of the country? All the major metros? I can keep multiplying the examples. This doesn’t mean that hits become flops or vice versa based on reporting but one can get a very distorted picture of what’s going on if one doesn’t know this stuff is spun. And one also cannot say that one is ignoring all of this because these are the sources. There’s nothing else out there. So you have to look at the claims and figure out whether these are making sense or not. It’s not just ‘theories’ in the absence of verifiable, hard numbers.
The first day number was a weak 1 all things considered. The second day looks to be much better but I don’t think this too will be a hugely strong one if the film betters BG by just 10% or so. However if it keeps up this pace it will obviously have been stable at least over the extended period. In other words if it can do 20 crores or more every single day through Sun it’s obviously ok for now. But even if it didn’t the numbers would still be big. That’s not the debate though. In any case we’ll know the truth on all this soon enough. My basic point is a simple one — the reviews and the WOM here seem quite negative. I’ve never seen such reviews given to a SRK film with the possible exception of KANK. Even when they’re negative on SRK they’re kind. The box office pieces are all quite defensive. So on and so forth. There is therefore a certain kind of narrative here accumulating including a piece that already dismisses the box office, including pieces that suggest that even premiere audiences (usually the most fanatical ones!) didn’t like the film in Dubai and London. All of this usually has consequences for any film. Obviously the extent of the damage remains to be measured.
When the hysterical reviews over Raavan came out I reacted against them, I obviously had a different sense of the film but I also knew that Fri morning that it was over for the film. Same for D6. There was lots of negative WOM too. But even leaving aside the latter when there are that many negative reviews and irrespective of how hard they are on Abhishek there’s usually a correlation between this and the performance of the film for most genres.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:49 PM
I’m not talking about the analysis or anything, just about the **repetition**. There’s nothing else to read here.
No one is talking of today.
More and more people have come in to say the same thing.
What I gather is that it was said there would be a massive collection.
It didn’t happen.
The BO number has been given as 18cr including the non hindi collection.
So what are the complaints about?
The prediction?
Why did they predict such a large amount?
Or is the number 18cr wrong?
I’m thoroughly confused by all this analysis.
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October 28, 2011 at 2:40 PM
Don’t worry Bollywoodfan:
Don’t mind teaching u
By the way: whose pic is it-yours?
If yes: I can assure u on satyams behalf that we will post it on the home page in a prominent location.
Maybe u can email it to satyam for that.
Or if else: they have links to “embed” or just try “sharing the link”.
And don’t forget my fees for this free advice….Lol
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October 27, 2011 at 10:43 AM
If Aamir can deliver a classic out of a director with nothing to boast of except a forgettable film Game, with a relatively unknown scriptwriter, why cant an SRK?
what nonsense tonymontana.Delhi belly is a bad film.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:50 AM
Yeah actually Desi Jokers is likely to become a classic!
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October 27, 2011 at 10:58 AM
Can anyone tell me what is % occupancy for the first day? Bg was 90%. While raone with inflated ticket price, almost double print count (bg was 1900, raone 3500) and more number of screens in multiples, it still is 2/3 of bg first day collection.
My estimation says first day occupancy not more than 30-35%.
Jayshah? Wat do u say
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October 27, 2011 at 11:16 AM
this is hilarious-from a Tamil Reviewer-
So what is my takeaway from this most expensive abomination to hit our screens? That even SRK can fail; that while sex continues to sell, SRK doesn’t
And as PS, let me rub it in as a Tamilian. Rivals may diss Sachin Tendulkar [ Images ] to score points during their book release, but at the end of the day his batting record is there for everyone to see. Similarly, you can caricature Tamils no end, but at the end of the day Rajnikanth’s [ Images ] Endhiran collections are there for all to see. Paithikkara!
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/raone-review-srk-can-fail-too/20111027.htm
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October 27, 2011 at 11:19 AM
Oops!!!!!!!!!!!!! above comment was wrong. Delete It
Ra.One Runs Riot On Second Day
Thursday 27th October 2011 20.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has run riot on its second day across the country. Yesterday it started like a runaway train but hit a block in the form of Diwali puja but today it started in the same way but no block.
The film is recording full houses at multiplexes and single screens across the country. If North India was slow after 1pm yesterday, today it is shattering all records. On Wednesday, only three circuit records were made for the first day but today it is likely that it will record the highest all time collections single day collections in almost every circuit of India.
Yesterday it was almost certain around 7pm that it will not beat the first day record and today around 7pm it is certain that it will be recording the biggest day in history just a question of how far ahead it goes of the 20.60 crore nett record.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3613&nCat=
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October 27, 2011 at 11:21 AM
Its all due to pre booking and Corporate booking, it seems so
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October 27, 2011 at 11:47 AM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
Repeating what I tweeted 5 hours ago: #RaOne Thursday expected to be Rs 22 cr to Rs 25 cr nett. Actually *may* cross Rs 25 cr today.
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October 27, 2011 at 12:02 PM
still doubt this means very much unless it can keep this pace up. If it crosses BG by just a bit with loads of extra screens you’ve still talking about lesser percentages. BOI have 10.6 for BG day 1, Taran has 21.5.
Either way the film was always expected to make a boat-load over the 5 day period in any scenario. But it won’t be the 100 crores that taran and others predicted. If it did 25 crores very day from now through thu it would be at 115 crores or so. If it averaged around 20 it would get to 95 crores or so. I suspect it won’t average more than 15 crores for the regular weekend. That would still give it an overall 80 crore number of so for five days. The week would then probably reveal more serious drops.
Let’s put it this way, I’d be extremely surprised if this film kept up this sort of pace for the rest of the weekend. Even today’s numbers have to be seen. what Taran or even BOI are talking about is not a massive increase by any means for this kind of film on the second day (which according to them is not affected by puja or anything). In any case one doesn’t expect this sort of film to do 10 crores the next day. The hype sustains it for a bit, the advance and so on. But pretty certain this is in for a big fall.
Incidentally the focus seems to be on the North once again just like yesterday. As for full houses that’s the usual abstraction. At 30% more screens than BG if its running full houses it should also be doing 30% more on the gross, not a 2-3 crore differential!
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October 27, 2011 at 11:57 AM
manufactured reviews of trade people , inflated numbers in a leading daily and this tamasha..
all this is only destroying the image of people associated
u just can’t fool everyone with so much negetivity around
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October 27, 2011 at 12:01 PM
when there is no consistent numbers from any of the sources you can feel things are going wrong in a big way
one can feel as sort of hushy arrangement for cover up
there is no disgrace in accepting a letdown and look for improvement
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October 27, 2011 at 12:04 PM
We may have a lot of things to say but the box office if true is telling a very different picture at the moment.
This is certainly not a TMK or Kites and it seems SRK still does have some hold on the audience.
From Media reports and now the debates on tv ( ibn cnn – Rajdeep) , it is certain the perception battle is lost, but these huge numbers will prevent srk to change course. This will delay the introspection part which I talked about earlier.
But I am sure something good will come out of all this.
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October 27, 2011 at 12:17 PM
gotto agree…. this is not TMK or Kites or Ravan.
This has more starpower to carry on a couple of days more and maybe it has been liked more than these.
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October 27, 2011 at 12:35 PM
Well the film was always going to throw up big numbers even in the worst case scenario. A film with this kind of hype and scale behind it and a very major star is not going to collapse right away. It will have a few good days either way. It’s about the relative strength or weakness of the numbers here. Just a 10% growth on day 2 won’t cut it if the claim otherwise was that there was a Lakshmi puja crash the previous day! You can’t just be a bit better than that. Which is what they’re claiming though. Don’t go in for all the hyped up reporting. Look at the numbers. But leaving this aside even a complete crash like Kites with no extended weekend and hardly comparable hype had a pretty strong weekend. Once you generate that level of hype and get a certain advance going it takes a few days for serious cracks to appear. But one can read weakness into the numbers even early. I said the same for BG. It made a lot of money but did a very quick fade after the initial week and some of this weakness was evident even over the first few days when it simply did not show the kind of growth it needed to. But it did have minimal stability. I very much doubt that’s the case here. Obviously if I’m wrong I’m wrong but the perception or the WOM or some of the reports won’t be unrelated to the business. One of the two has to change. One has to be overestimated. If the former the numbers will reveal damage even when they otherwise seem strong, if the latter than WOM should get better. We already know day 1 was obviously very good but far less than expectations even if the Lakshmi Puja rabbit was pulled out. Let’s see how much better day 2 is. Supposedly this is the first full day? Then it should beat BG by a mile if its running full houses at 30% more screens!
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October 27, 2011 at 1:30 PM
So in that sense, What I understand is that 3I record will stay?If we go by the WOM here, opposse to 3I which was very strong.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:14 PM
TMK grossed 63cr and is a 12 cr profit maker.Its semi hit to hit.Dont compare it with a kites which is big flop.
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October 27, 2011 at 12:09 PM
RA.One earns Rs.18 cr on first day
IANS | Oct 27, 2011, 06.14PM IST
Shah Rukh Khan’s most ambitious sci-fi thriller hit the screens on Diwali and while some critics gave it a thumbs up for blending elegance of Hollywood with Indian sensibilities, others panned the superhero drama by labelling it just as a video game.
The reviews notwithstanding, it has managed to collect Rs.18 crore at the home box office on the opening day.
However, as predicted by trade pundits, the film couldn’t break the first day collection records of Salman Khan starrer “Bodyguard”, which earned Rs.22 crore in the domestic market on the opening day.
In the onverseas market, the Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros International co-production raked in Rs.6.5 crore.
If reviewers have a different take on the film, viewers are also reacting differently but theatre owners predict good business in the coming week.
“Although the film has got mixed reviews, the first day has been really good. We witnessed more than 80 percent occupancy,” a source in PVR told IANS.
“Moreover, the extensive marketing of the film has created a curiosity among people, who are eager to see what is the film all about,” the source added.
Cinemax witnessed an average footfall on the first day.
“There could be two reasons – the 3D version of the film was made available a little late. Although in metros it was fine, but in other cities due to delayed release in 3D we had to cancel some of the shows,” said Sunil Punjab, CEO of Cinemax.
“Also, we saw a decline in the occupancy in the evening as it was Diwali time and people were busy in Diwali puja. But today (Thursday) the response has been encouraging since morning we have had good number of people coming to see the film,” he added.
Directed by Anubhav Sinha, the Rs.150 crore film, which also stars Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in prominent roles, was released in as many as 3,500 screens across the world.
Even before the film reached the theatres, its makers earned money by selling its satellite rights reportedly for for Rs.35 crore and the distribution rights for Rs.77 crore.
The film’s highlight is high-tech VFX shots, which were outsourced from multiple specialty studios in London, Paris and Bangkok, as also the US.
Puneet Sahay of Spice Cinemas, however, informed that the film is not appealing to adults.
“Although Shah Rukh’s acting is good, ‘RA.One’ is basically a film for children as it boast of lot of animation and special effects. Adults are not actually liking the film. However, it is likely to do well in the coming days,” Sahay said.
“Actually, it’s nothing more than a video game,” said college student Akhil Sharma.
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October 27, 2011 at 12:13 PM
check out the last bit here..
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October 27, 2011 at 12:32 PM
Rangan’s review
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October 27, 2011 at 12:37 PM
Superb read as always!
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October 27, 2011 at 1:15 PM
Good grief!
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October 27, 2011 at 12:38 PM
In the time I’ve been following the Bollywood box office (roughly ten years or so), I’ve come to learn to take all figures with a pinch of salt, and as approximations rather than exact numbers. But usually the figures from most sources (barring IBOS, which completely lost credibility to me a long time ago) agree to within a crore or so. But in the last two days, the size of manipulations seems so massive as to amount outright fraud. All these different articles in different sites (really only four — BOI, Koimoi, Bollywood Hungama, and BOC) have an air of desperation, cover up, and frantic PR drives that just wasn’t there with any other film that I can recall, no matter that various spins and agendas could be easily detected. Now for me it is no longer the academic curiosity to know how well Ra.One has been accepted by the public, but a sense of anger to see that a fraud isn’t perpetrated on the public. Of course, that’s just talk on my part, since there’s precious little I can do about anything from here, or even from India. The whole situation is mind-boggling to me.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:17 PM
One heartening aspect of the whole BO reporting ha been the fact there has been an alternate narrative of how the movie is faring, there are many articles pointing out the fact the BG still holds the first day record. Also ever since I have started following BO, I have never seen an SRK movie getting so many reviews. I suspect that with aamir and salman also delivering blockbusters has established some sort of balance in the Bollywood universe
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October 27, 2011 at 12:44 PM
I am quite interested in how the movie fares in the South, even though SRK was able to rope in Rajni to appear as Chitti, I have seen a few reports where people who have watched the movie have compared it against Robot directly and seem to have preferred the special effects in Robot vs Ra.One
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October 27, 2011 at 1:28 PM
here’s the “bhinna … vibhinna abhipraya” from Bengaluru. Parts of it are in Kannada.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:17 PM
Great. Glad that nearly all said they liked it. It doesn’t look tampered like the one posted here yesterday where clearly there was no sign of a channel, and one person shouting ‘Salman Rocks’ was so artificial. Of course Salman rocks, but it seemed a deliberate attempt at something.
The comments were heavily tampered as well.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:29 PM
KomalNahta Komal Nahta
HISTORY CREATED. RA.ONE crossed Rs 25 cr mark in India on day 2. Highest ever. Still counting…
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October 27, 2011 at 1:36 PM
wow 25 cr+, that’s very impressive and a very big jump from day one….don’t see this movie tanking going forward.
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October 27, 2011 at 1:36 PM
“And a Tamilian caricature is rendered so outrageously that I laughed in disbelief – he returns to his home after a day at work and heads straight to a shrine, humming Vatapi Ganapatim bhajeham.
So how does one respond to Ra.One? With a silly smile – that would be my recommendation. It doesn’t take itself very seriously (which is what made Krrish intolerable; Ra.One is merely inoffensive), even if much of what it tries to pass off as comedy carries the whiff of Karan Johar’s stale leftovers. ”
AS usual Rangan is much too indulgent towards Shahrukh.
Laughed in disbelief? Why not disgust?
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October 27, 2011 at 1:59 PM
Absolutely,Utkal.
BR is being indulgent. From his review it is obvious he didnt think much ( or actually anything) of the film.But, he is not as dismissive as he can otherwise be.Still, a fun read.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:10 PM
>Laughed in disbelief? Why not disgust?
LOL! This is really the limit.
Are you questioning a person what he/she felt?
>BR is being indulgent.
LOL! (again). Do I sense a flicker of unease/disbelief that he didn’t have harsh things to say, or ridicule, or trash it?
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October 27, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Actually I did feel this is how it would be from the trailers.
I have felt all along that it could be called a neo – masala genre.
I will soon find out.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Wow, really “neo-masala”?!….If it was up to you, you’ll even say SRK’s fart is “neo-fragrance”!!!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:31 PM
Re: .If it was up to you, you’ll even say SRK’s fart is “neo-fragrance”!!!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somewhat naughty but hope Oldgold takes it in the right spirit and is not offended.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:40 PM
If she’s going to be offended by this, there’s plenty more to be offended by in the film, I understand.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Everyone has their pet peeves to get offended by sm.
You seem highly offended by people daring to name salman’s record as broken. 😉
Anyway I sat through 3I too, didn’t I.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:48 PM
Old Gold: Given the high number of prints and increased prices, I expected Salman’s record to be broken. That wouldn’t have offended me. It’s the skullduggery that is all too evident since yesterday (for example the documented lies) that I find offensive.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:53 PM
Don’t forget that salman’s record too was set with greater number of prints.
Oh god. Seems like I’m getting into this war.
I’m escaping after one more comment to matrix.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:58 PM
oh absolutely.. no one’s denying it but the BG release wasn’t accompanied by the ‘compulsory’ expectation that it would break all previous records. The SRK films for the longest time now have had this expectation. I remember there was the D2 burden on OSO. Before this Don had that burden. And so on. Because the SRK narrative is premised on being the ‘biggest’. Hence from time to time he has to produce the biggest opening. Also while you’re taking prints into account also note that BG came with a very normal campaign. Nothing special about it in terms of volume. It was just about Salman being in the zone. That’s very different from launching the mother of all campaigns as SRK does time and again with some of his films. This too must be factored in.
and I’m hardly a Salman fan. Even with all this if you forced me to choose between Ra One and BG I’d watch the former in the theater. But it’s just about the facts here and about honest reporting not anything else. I wasn’t debating the OSO numbers except to say that I was suspicious of the D2 like initial number. And they themselves revised it downward later. Similarly I never really contested the RNBDJ performance (except that that final 85 crore total is I think the stuff of fiction.. it did well, trended well but it didn’t do that much) but my larger point was that it was drowned out by Ghajini which followed on its heels. I never bought the 50 crore Don final figure (though it was relatively stable in those days there was the whole 50 crore burden for films!), even the KANK one seemed a bit overstated. Anyway those are old debates but there are usually these patterns with SRK.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:05 PM
>the BG release wasn’t accompanied by the ‘compulsory’ expectation that it would break all previous records.
So you’re arguing about that? LOL!
I pity your weather man who predicts sunshine and you end up standing there in your shorts and sunglasses amidst ankle high snow and going on and on and on and on about ..”he said…he said” instead of going home and dressing for the occasion.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:10 PM
Oldgold.. I admire your valiant efforts at ‘pretend’ obtuseness!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:28 PM
Old Gold, it may be too late for me to say this, but I don’t think you should read anything about Ra.One on the net — so many spoilers and dissections are posted all over that you won’t have to bother going to London! 🙂 So I suggest that you stay away altogether, and just enjoy the film in peace.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:38 PM
No problem. This is the only blog where I come to *read* something, and I don’t see the danger here at all.
People are only discussing the BO, and getting scandalized by numbers. 🙂
The other places I’m skimming through for headings just for the heck of it, and come across some clip or so.
People’s comments I’m avoiding as there seems to be a war going on every where. SRK must really be very important 😉
People seem to be quite taken up with my going to England to watch the film. Going thjere is like going to Bhopal from Bombay, just an hour + by plane, and I go there every now and then.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:01 PM
Always enjoy Rangan’s writing even when I don’t agree with him. There is an individuality and originality to his reviews, unlike the mass-produced reviews we usually get from the media.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:06 PM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
#RaOne Day 2 [Thursday] figures start pouring in. Rajasthan Wed 80 lacs, Thu 1.40 cr. Note the jump in business!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:09 PM
yes but again it’s been all about Rajasthan since yesterday!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:26 PM
Yes, because that is Salman’s stronghold, and it is somehow important for SRK to beat Salman on his own territory.
You forgot that it’s also been about CI. 🙂
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October 27, 2011 at 2:44 PM
yeah and then Nahata had a mention of Golcha out of the blue. No other Delhi theater, just this!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:12 PM
Ra.One review: SRK can fail too
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October 27, 2011 at 2:14 PM
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Nets Rs 25 Cr; Breaks Salman Khan’s 2-Day Record
October 27th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Great news for the industry! History has been created!! Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has crossed the Rs. 25 crore mark (net all-India collections) in a single day (Thursday, October 27). The superhero film, which made Rs. 15 – 16 crore on the opening day, has now effectively breached the 2-day collection record of Salman Khan’s Bodyguard. While Bodyguard had netted Rs. 39 crore in its first two days, Ra.One has already made Rs. 40 crore at least. The final number is likely to go up as collection reports are still coming in.
Day One Figures: Unfair Comparison
In many ways, the comparison being made by the media and sections of the trade between the first day collections of Bodyguard and Ra.One was unfair. While both the films released on Wednesdays and public holidays, the Salman Khan starrer, Bodyguard, had released on Eid day, which is generally considered to be extraordinary at the box-office. On the other hand, Ra.One released on Diwali (Laxmi Pooja day), a day which is dull at the box-office because many Hindus stay indoors to participate in the festivities including poojas.
In that sense, the day after Diwali (i.e. Thursday in the case of Ra.One) proves to be the real ‘Diwali’ for the film industry because people come out in hordes to the cinemas on the second day of Diwali. The wonderful second day collections of Ra.One just go to prove this.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:24 PM
This is exactly what I mean by “fraud.” The goal seems to be to come up with some number or combination of numbers that can be bigger than Salman’s! Why is it important to beat Salman? Isn’t it more important that the film does well enough to become a hit/superhit/whatever? Now once the opening day/week numbers are cooked to beat Salman, I guess the next step will be to cook them enough to beat Aamir in the total? Sheesh! How do they expect anybody to believe what they say?
Speaking of which, Komal Nahta is going ballistic on Twitter, using very foul language to blast people – men and women. It’s not clear from his curses what the issue is, and I don’t feel like tracking down what those people said to him. But I wonder if others are expressing the kind of skepticism we have been here.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:05 PM
My thoughts exactly. It’s “unfair” to compare Ra One with Bodyguard and yet he starts off by saying Ra One has broken BG’s two day record! Curious. Btw, two day record??? Since when did that matter? But it’s SRK so of course the goalposts have to be shifted. smh.
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October 27, 2011 at 4:51 PM
The box office of RA-one is very tough to call. First 3 days huge collections are a given considering huge hype leading to massive advances. However, WOM is extremely mixed from good to disaster. I believe even Friday would be a 20+ day saturday onwards the content and general WOM would start reflecting in numbers.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:22 PM
I should confess that the jump is more than I would have expected. Not sure what it means in terms of legs and eventual collections. But, atleast it made a point- the buzz/hype has worked to a point.
Shailesh Kapoor made a good point when he said the first two days are not going to tell much in terms of overall BO collections. Next couple of days are the key. It sure is not like TMK or Kites. May be more like MNIK on a somewhat higher level.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:36 PM
The 25 crore number seems dubious to be to be quite honest. Will see how it goes from here on. It’s not the jump that I have a problem accepting, I expected it yesterday too. It’s just the scale that makes me suspicious. The Bodyguard mark has been too much debated from day 1. First Nahata and Taran insisted it would be breached on day 1. Wonder why Nahata didn’t say this would only happen on day 2 given everything he’s saying here?! They’re clearly in the tank for SRK here really going out of their way at every point. I can certainly buy a 22-23 crore figure, anything more I am skeptical about. Having said that they’re BG day 1 number is 21.5 crores. So even 25 isn’t a massive jump from this given all those extra prints. BOI on the other hand have 20.6 for BG and they are 2-3 crores behind Taran/Nahata on day 1 numbers (by the way taran and Nahata are definitely quoting producer totals which is why they seem to release them so very fast on this! the day is not even over and somehow all the numbers have been collated and so on.. when Nahata earlier announced Thu would be ahead for sure it was around 4 PM or so in India.. and he couldn’t have known in the morning since it was supposed to be massive yesterday morning and afternoon too before the puja apparently made it crash!). Either way the differential between day 1 and day 2 doesn’t seem dissimilar unless of course BOI now go along with the 25 crore number and make it a massive jump! But again just looking at both sets of numbers at face value the film has jumped 6.5 crores or so from yesterday (going by Taran and Nahata). As I said I am highly skeptical of this conveniently ’round’ figure which too is an Eros number like their previous ones but at the same time let’s also see if it can keep up this pace. If the film remains stable this might be an academic difference. If it’s not one can doubt this as well. But this is a rather common game at every level.
But your MNIK point makes sense.. let’s see.. just think that this is one of those situations where unless the film completely collapses from here on (at which point the likes of Nahata and Adarsh will give up more or less) they are likely to keep spinning stuff. The MNIK scenario is precisely where global totals are presented (though Ra One is not at all going to perform the overseas ‘rescue’ that MNIK did) or where regional totals are made magical, so on and so forth.
The thing is this sort of thing is always just exponentially worse for a SRK film. The same games are played elsewhere too but SRK and Abhishek are symmetrical opposites in terms of getting the worst out of all these sources.
But as always don’t have anything against the fact provided the facts are honestly presented!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:38 PM
I have a sneaky suspicion that the figure might be revised to a little more than BG’s first day. Very possible is an attempt at damage control since the first day reports have created a negative perception and this can atleast be used to sway public perception and also prevent film from totally crashing based on the negative first day reports.Wouldnt put it past Taran,Nahata and BOI.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:44 PM
agreed.. and we’ve seen this many times before.. OSO was doing very well but if you recall I doubted the close to 40 crore number BOI initially had. Well a long time later they revised it downward to 37 crores. Obvious 2-3 crores doesn’t make a difference in the overall scheme of things but if you keep doing this every week you have a much larger differential by the end. But they’re definitely trying to put a lid on all the negative buzz.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:40 PM
I am sure SS collections from Timbuktoo are going to come up in the equation to prove that the film will be profitable.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:46 PM
It’s a place, and has people. Why should they be ignored?
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October 27, 2011 at 2:51 PM
And am sure a disporportionate number of its 55,000 residents are SRK fans!
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October 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Does that disqualify the BO collections from there?
Can’t help it if he’s popular in these far flung places.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:58 PM
@matrix
matrix I was expressing my views on these parts from Rangan’s review;
“Ra.One has turned out to be the kind of film Bollywood doesn’t make anymore, the tearjerker family drama cum comedy cum action extravaganza, which, of course, was the mainstay of Hindi cinema in the nineteen-seventies and eighties. There’s plenty of talk about dil. There are special appearances by Ramlila and Karwa Chauth, and the movie borrows its philosophy from the Gita, about a soul shedding one body and entering another like a change of clothes. More moral instruction arrives through a reference to Old Bollywood, referencing the lines neki pe chalen aur badi se talen taaki haste hue nikale dum from Do Aankhen Baarah Haath. A runaway locomotive resembles a remnant from The Burning Train, and the spirit of its music composer, RD Burman, is invoked in a teera… para para refrain that underscores the action scenes. The heroine is one of those flighty creatures from the older films whose mood changes from scene to scene, less a part than a prop. The hero comes between a loved one and a fusillade of space-agey shrapnel.”
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October 27, 2011 at 3:13 PM
Oldgold, if the term neo-masala was used in the context of that quote from the review then it’s perfectly fine. In the context of Utkal’s coment and your reply, it seemed that you were defending/trivializing the caricaturing of Tamilian people by labeling it neo-masala.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:55 PM
An interesting tweet/SMS:
Sreeni_k Sreenivas Kamath by nikhiltiwari05 One renowned Trade Analyst just SMSed me ” Empty Theatres inside, Housefull Boards Outside ..Ra One Thursday ” ….!!!
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October 27, 2011 at 2:58 PM
Wasn’t that said about MNIK, too?
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October 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM
not sure who this guy is but I’ve anecdotally heard the ‘flop’ word all around in some of the conversations I’ve had with people in India.. and these are not anti-SRK folks by any means.. they too are responding to all the SMS jokes and the general atmosphere surrounding the film.
They’re doing damage control in the trade reporting.. hoping for the film to stay stable for at least the extended period… they’re precisely trying a BG here.. hype up the initial numbers.. let the film go down later and no one will care.. however the narrative developing on day 1 was becoming very damaging.. the question is: given SRK’s most favored individual status in the media why did the narrative develop at all?!
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October 27, 2011 at 3:06 PM
Sreeni K is a big Salman fan & quite famous among the Salman fan community. 🙂 The above seems to be a Retweet of something someone else said.
Re damage control, they’re not exactly “trying a BG” here, are they? BG didn’t have this kind of WOM, though it got negative reviews. I think you mean they’re hoping for that kind of BO performance, where they can maximize their revenue in the first week.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:09 PM
well BG did a quick fade after week 1. It wasn’t as stable as some of the other big films. Singham for example started lower but doubled its week 1 gross. BG even over the extended weekend didn’t show the kinds of jumps that one would have thought looking at the Wed number though it did go up and down. Enough stability to get to a big week 1 but it was more or less in free fall after this. My point has been that this is still acceptable for a film budgeted that way. But not for something like Ra 1. However the big numbers create a splash. And yes they’ve constantly been about maximizing things in week 1. BG definitely had worse WOM than Ready but it wasn’t like this. Also I think there’s a question of expectation. The bar is always much lower for the BG kind of film and do disappointment here is far less than for the Ra One sort of deal.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:15 PM
This comes up every time. Even during the time of MNIK.
If you all say there are people manipulating in favour I’m absolutely sure there are people ***equally manipulative on the other side as well.****
What with these phony public reviews etc, and now this tweet.
This blog is part of this attack in the war.
I used to feel quite comfortable here inspite of all the anti feelings, but suddenly the atmosphere feels very sinister.
If it was a star you supported like Abhishek you would have sensed something foul in this tweet.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:24 PM
C’mon Oldgold we’ve had lots of these box office discussions.. LOL, you’re now finding the atmosphere ‘sinister’ here. What next? You’re going to unearth a big conspiracy here! Wish we were that important but somehow don’t think the fate of Ra One depends on what we say here, ‘sinister’ stuff or not. And because this is just ‘online’ stuff hopefully you won’t feel ‘unsafe’ here even if ‘uncomfortable’!
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October 27, 2011 at 5:19 PM
It seems many SRK fans and even partisans in media are finding this ”backlash” against Ra 1 or criticism of SRK as ”unfair” or ”harsh”!
See the tweets of some film critics and journos on Twitter! Some like Namrata Joshi of Outlook have already started ”Defend SRK” mission and are deliberately dragging Aamir’s, Bachchan’s, Salman’s names, trashing them and their movies to defend SRK!
Namrata Joshi brings in Delhi Belly to defend or justify vulgarity in Ra 1, forgetting that DB was an A rated film, never promoted so widely, and people were warned in advance about the kind of content it would have. It was never promoted as a family entertainer!
Another film critic says people should not be so harsh on poor SRK, and just close their eyes for a while, imagine that it is a Rajini movie which they are watching and then simply enjoy Ra 1 for what it is, without thinking too much! Good! Wonder why they don’t say such things for Salman or Akshay Kumar films and trash those stars are dumb?!
Tweets showing how much they try to defend SRK and cover up his failures or his film’s faults, and how, no matter what, they’d try to project him as biggest or best, even if it means trashing all other stars! They are being so easy on him and his film!
Really, this SRK has big time clout in media!
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October 27, 2011 at 4:07 PM
This blog suddenly feels sinister? Talk about overreacting.
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October 27, 2011 at 2:59 PM
With all the scam scandals going on in India, and all the questions raised by these analysts’ figures, I can see this would be the perfect setting for a very Kafkaesque film! 🙂
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October 27, 2011 at 3:10 PM
You surprise me sm.
You suddenly appear at this juncture to talk about BO!!!
Never thought that interested you not even when Salman was setting records.
Did you suddenly appear to support the people here or are you afraid for Salman?
Whatever. It surprises me no end. It’s almost like you were not sm.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Ha, ha, usually I’m not into BO, especially the nitpicky discussions that are a staple of many Bollywood forums. But this time there has been blatant and obvious manipulations of bigger magnitude than I have ever seen before. It is that that has drawn me in, to try to understand what is really going on.
I do follow BO, enough to know what type of biases and fudging are the norm. But this has been way out of the norm, hence attention grabbing.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:22 PM
But you seem to be taking a more than normal, and if I may say so, rather aggressive part in the discussion.
>But this time there has been blatant and obvious manipulations of bigger magnitude than I have ever seen before.
My astonishment over your discussions here is still the same.
You mean blatant and obvious manipulation of bigger magnitude ….IN ONE DAY: 18cr is too much?
Isn’t that exaggeration of great magnitude?
I still ask, is 18cr a wrong figure?
Why did they stop at 18cr and not at 25cr (now that would have been You mean blatant and obvious manipulation of bigger magnitude ) to declare the first day record broken? After all, what they had to do was hang House Full signs outside the empty halls and give a high total.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:24 PM
*you mean* should not be there in brackets. Problem of copying and pasting.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:57 PM
Just to respond quickly, yes 18cr is a wrong figure, because it includes the Telugu & Tamil versions, which is not done for any other film (e.g., Veer, Krrissh, and most famously Robot). People, especially producers, always try to push the number that’s most favorable to them, giving gross instead of net, “worldwide” figures instead of India, etc. Usually the “respected” trade analysts like Taran and Komal at least separate these out. This time they are not. BOI often focuses on small centers if that’s all that’s positive for a film, but focusing on Rajasthan and CP for an SRK film, especially one that’s about high tech, is very suspect. It’s the “tone” of the commentary that’s reeking of hypocrisy. And I always object to hypocrisy.
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October 27, 2011 at 8:59 PM
Just to add, while everyone here is making a point of the increased ticket prices for Ra.One, I seemed to be the only one to mention that during the time of 3 Idiots’ release and the orgasmic reporting around its collections. I may not have been “aggressive” about its box office collections, but only because there was a much greater issue to be “aggressive” about, namely the semi-plagiarism of Chetan Bhagat’s novel and all the associated brouhaha.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:38 PM
IMO, the 25cr number is very encouraging. With about 800 screens more than BG, It still does not beat BG in terms of avg/screen. But it at least leads to the possibility of a minm 150cr total to be on the cards now.
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October 27, 2011 at 3:45 PM
well.. 22 crore+ is an impressive figure.. I went for the tickets in the evening and couldnt get any.. despite a show every 50 minutes.. if it manages good collections till Sunday, this one will be a big grosser..
The reactions are extremely mixed.. Ill post some of them, from my friends’ circle on Facebook:
1) Gurpreet Kaur: Ek Hi kutta ka bacha hai puri duniya main aur woh hai “THE GREAT SHAHRUKH KHAN”. What the fuck!! What kind of fucking asshole movie he has produced….saala publicity isliye kar raha tha takin chale! Don’t dare to watch it guys!! It will piss off your mood like hell…like it did to me. Not worthy to even watch it at home..Keede pade saale ko….my raings…0000.5/5. 😦 😦
2) Kuashik Sen Sharma: All The Video Game Lovers, Ra.One Is Gud To Watch…!
3) Taksh Mathur: Ra.ONE, G.ONE…..pretty Good ONE..Leave the story behind…The Entertainment value of the movie is Huge..!!It should be seen by every ONE !!:)~
4) Varun Verma:
Dear Anubhav Sinha,
You have proved that you are just worth directing stupid Sonu Nigam songs and flicks like Tum Bin..
You moron, with such good sfx, vfx and fantastic SRK you couldn’t manage to direct and sequence the movie and finally made the movie a video game!! All the efforts of the action director and currency spent by SRK gone for a toss
Ra-One, wonderful star cast, wonderful effects and action, but pathetic direction and even more pathetic sequencing!!!
5) Ava Suri: liked it a little more than the reviews say. The movie was good fun, dances were good, songs were good, and everyone looked great
6) Nandita Oberoi Sharma: My take on Ra one. I loved it. May be coz I am a SRK fan. But if u love video games, you’ll enjoy the movie too. If you a South Indian movie fan and try comparing SRK with Rajnikant then you won’t like it coz he is not imitating him or actin like him. He made this movie for his son so you need to watch this movie with a kid’s heart.. And if you not kid at heart I am sure you’ll hate it. But the moral of the story is one movie cannot make or break a person and to be honest he’s above all this criticism. Thumbs up to SRK. You are a super hero for your son. You haven’t let him down.
Songs, the kid and Arjun Rampal are to look fwd to. Well my rating will be 4\5.
7) Samia Naz: Just come back from watching RA-ONE 😀 All I can say is “Wow” It lived upto all my expectations and more! Loved it! 😀
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October 27, 2011 at 4:02 PM
It will be hard to predict anything for the movie even if the negative reports suggest a failure. Even the media isn’t on SRK’s side like they were in the past with MNIK and OSO. But SRK in an audience-friendly commercial vehicle is hard to dismiss .. Last thing I remembered, with the exception of MNIK which underperformed in India, he scored with RNBDJ and OSO despite the films being strictly mediocre and being despised by a huge film-going public. SRK Fnas are enough to make his ventures safe for him.
Still too early to predict. Lets see what happens by Monday. What will be more interesting to see would be the first week total here..
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October 27, 2011 at 4:30 PM
But the problem with SRK is that his narrative depends on getting the biggest numbers not just hits. This started earlier on in the past decade when SRK was increasingly being challenged on the prestige front by Aamir beginning with Lagaan, there was also the Hrithik hysteria and so on. When confronted with the prestige deal he would often cockily say that his films made the most money. And he could say this for a number of years because even when he had a poor year his peers weren’t consistently outgrossing him. So Hrithik had a number of flops later on but when he then returned with KMG he started doing less and less and more or less took himself out of the conversation despite his great 2006. But in any case that gross argument started ringing hollow over time and certainly Ghajini and then 3I were the last nails in the coffin and since then Salman has been doing some on his own!
As I’ve said before if SRK simply wanted to get a hit it wouldn’t be an issue. But he tries to outgross the competition in every sense. This is where all the problems and all the trade nonsense arises. Don taken at face value opened moderately well relative to the hype and so on but was then fairly stable. On pure trending this could be called a success but the standard was to get the biggest gross and to get minimally 50 crores and so on. It is here that the trouble starts. Similarly SRK is never happy with the RNBDJ kind of deal that does far far less than Ghajini in every sense. In all these years I have actually seen him look truly happy only after OSO because this film genuinely made a lot of money though even here the D2 burden was a big one. So as long as you operate that way there’s an issue. If you’re trying to get a success out of Ra One that’s one thing. But if the whole game is about getting the biggest day 1 or day 2 and idiotic headlines about records being shattered (which headlines we incidentally see with every other big film these days) then you have to spin things. The Ra One tickets on average are much greater than BG’s but no one wants to talk about this even as other comparisons are being done. There are the more expensive 3D tickets as well. So on and so forth. But SRK has for a number of years lived with this burden. It wasn’t this way in the 90s when he was actually at his peak. The whole of the past decade for him has really been about creating the right media narrative in every which way. It’s been a remarkable machine and it has certainly aided him in significant ways. But it’s also led to this craziness where there can never be a normal big SRK release. You always have the trade making the most exaggerated predictions before release, following these up with more when the film releases, changing the standards, on and on. These guys never stop the propaganda. With a Salman hit you might disagree on some of the numbers, you might some of the commentary overdone and what not but it’s hard to disagree with the ultimate result by too much. With SRK it’s just ‘unfair’ stuff at every turn. For example have you ever seen such a big deal made out of Lakshmi Puja except with Ra One? Ever? Tons of movies released on Diwali, did well or didn’t without comment. But only with SRK do these things matter. Because it’s just a constant spin operation resembling a political machine more than anything else. The whole thing is set up to arrive at a certain gross by hook or by crook and then unless the film is the worst flop around it is celebrated as some kind of success using some yardstick or the other. And then these claims are hammered like pure propaganda.
We see so many other 100 crore hits. Is there ever this kind of structure attached to them? So one can’t believe a lot of this stuff to begin with. This doesn’t mean that the film is a complete tank but what are the standards here? We have trade figures comparing the film’s day 2 to BG’s day 1 and using all kinds of spurious logic. Contradicting their own earlier claims.With all this if a negative narrative developed on day 1 one has to assume there was enough negative buzz about it for this to happen. And now they’ve gone into damage control. Because this sort of narrative in a 24/7 media cycle can completely overwhelm a film. Not that a hit becomes a flop or vice versa but a decent flop can be turned into a disaster specially when these days it’s about the first weekend or extended weekend more than anything else for even a hit film. If you dent those numbers what are you left with?!
Ultimately though this is just about selling a story. In my experience most people don’t really buy this stuff. Specially talking to people from India they just assume that every claim is a corrupt one. Believe it or not I’ve had conversations with people about SRK’s films where I’ve been defending their box office and they haven’t believed it. They think I’m an idiot for believing media claims. So people don’t buy this stuff the way one might think if one follows all the online stuff and so on. But even beyond this the most important figure here is the distributor or the investor. He doesn’t care what Taran or Nahta report. he knows how much he has profited or lost on the film. He’s not into BG comparisons or what happened on day 1 or day 2. He’s just looking at his returns. One can sell this stuff in the media and maybe persuade some people but the trade reacts to these things. There’s a reason why over the past half decade or more it is very hard to spot a SRK film that is true prestige material in terms of the director and so on. It’s mostly stuff made by cronies with an exception here or there. Supposedly the biggest star around but he’s never part of a prestige deal with one of half a dozen or so directors. the SRK campaign has just been about creating these monstrous hype machines for the most part. You’ll see it again with Don. IN a 24/7 cycle this works. And it especially works for him because no honest accounting is done for his films on the financial side.
All of this doesn’t at all mean Ra One cannot do decently or better than expected. We’ll see the results over the next few days. But the game is so unbelievably rigged. And what amuses me here is that many people take this stuff at face value but otherwise question every other institution in India for its compromised or corrupt ways. Somehow we see these great national scams but we are made to believe that the likes of Taran and nahata and whoever are just honest brokers. Sure these are the only numbers we have. But I think one can make an educated guess about things. And you don’t accept a known liar’s version of a story just because you don’t have alternate versions!
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October 27, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Rajasthan First Two days: Ra.One v Bodyguard
Thursday 26th October 2011 23.45 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One sets a new record in Rajasthan bu having the highest collection ever on a single day and its two day business is just short of Bodyguard for which Rajasthan was an out performing circuit. Below are the first two day figures from Rajasthan.
Day One
Ra.One – 73 lakhs
Bodyguard – 1.17 crore
Day Two
Ra.One – 1.38 crore
Bodyguard – 1.09 crore
Two Day Total
Ra.One – 2.11 crore
Bodyguard – 2.26 crore
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October 27, 2011 at 8:28 PM
Just catching up with this thread.
So a record setting second day of the highest single day collections ever is still not enough for the combined total of the first two days to beat BG’s combined total? At least the reporting for this film is giving everyone good math exercise. 🙂
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October 27, 2011 at 4:04 PM
Ra.One Creates History In East Punjab On Day Two
Thursday 27th October 2011 23.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has created history in East Punjab on its second day. Not only is it a record collection for a single day in the circuit but it is the first time that any film has crossed the 2 crore nett mark in a single day.
The East Punjab collection for Thursday is likely to be around a humungous 2.25 crore nett.
It was three years ago that Singh Is Kinng became the first film to collect 1 crore nett in a single day in the circuit as it collected 1.10 crore nett on its first Sunday.
Records are falling all over the place on day 2 but it must be noted down South the jumps are not as big as the North as the first day was comparatively better in the South.
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October 27, 2011 at 4:07 PM
I doubt the jumps are that big even in Bombay or ahmedabad or Calcutta and so on. The major metros.
They continue to obsess with Rajasthan. 95% of all evidence for the jump has come here. Doesn’t this strike people as odd?
and why not report even the centers where the jumps have not been that big?
It’s about small centers that don’t affect the overall gross in a big way. The game so far has been to present an overall picture but then offer Rajasthan as the only evidence! Or occasionally one theater in Delhi (golcha) or E punjab is a BOI favorite anyway.
To show real jumps wouldn’t one go to the obvious major metros first?!
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October 27, 2011 at 4:15 PM
Well Satyam.. Despite the mediocrities of the film under question, let us not belittle its achievement.. The Rajasthan focus does seem a bit odd but in DLF Saket (Delhi) the film was a Housefull in every show (note that one show was conducted every 50 minutes or so) as I witnessed. I dont know if the theatre had an empty audience inside, though!
Like I said, a Week 1 total would present a clear picture in this scenario. That way one could total up every day’s totals and smell something fishy if there is..
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October 27, 2011 at 4:39 PM
Tony.. there are two separate arguments getting mixed up here. I am NOT arguing the numbers are not big. Obviously 15 crores or more on day 1 is a very big number irrespective of what the record is. Even before release I didn’t really think absent a complete tank that the film wouldn’t even touch 100 crores. For these sorts of films big numbers are a given. The question is about relative strength or weakness. If every theater in Delhi was sold out like the one you’re referring to the film would have made a whole lot more than BG on day 1, Lakshmi puja or not! Similarly I don’t doubt a jump on day 2 but what kind of jump is it? If you’re saying the puja affects things then a 10-20% jump doesn’t mean anything. It’s more or less the same number. And by only referring to small centers in Rajasthan or the like aren’t you admitting that you can’t say the same about Bombay or even Delhi city? BOI have admitted as much about the South! So that takes out two major metros for Hindi cinema in Hyderabad and Bangalore.
So it’s not about big numbers but about tampering with the same to make them bigger. we’ll know over the next few days what the trendline here is. Obviously if they say it’s 20 tomorrow I’m not going to say it’s 10! And so on. One can usually tell. But while there is ‘hope’ they’re manipulating some numbers. 25 crores isn’t impossible but it’s very suspect in my view. On day 1 too there’s a discrepancy. BOI have close to 15 crores and suggest that the South would add a crore or so. Meanwhile Taran has 18.5 crores and this is producer number (and we know how these work!). Suddenly it’s a nice and round 25 crore figure the next day!
Don’t mean to beat this to death but I just want to be clear that I’m not into some conspiracy theory here about empty theaters or whatever. You will see many houseful theaters even when a film does 10 crores in one day or less than this depending on the theater you go to!
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October 27, 2011 at 11:41 PM
True satyam.Even 1st day also no one clearly said what exact total was. some said even 21 cr then 18 cr and now 14.63 cr .Even trade guys like taran nad komal are also not providing correct numbers .Think 2nd day will be between 15cr -20cr and I think they will do this propganda of inflating number this whole week.
So far all Srk’s big budget movies are manufactured hits even those movies did average business in India but they will never say average .
50 crore devdas which made around 28 crores trade declared hit beacuse movie was big hit in overseas
then 50 cr don declared as semi hit even it did less than 50 cr and 50 cr KANK – technical hit and recent MNIK also hit .Now even Ra-1 did less than 100 cr trade will declare hit adding overseas,brands,music rights, satellite rights what not .Shameless people.
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October 27, 2011 at 4:26 PM
so its all manufactured.
the numbers are here for everyone to see.
its 16 something for the first day and including regional numbers adds upto around 18.
2nd day-historic 25+.
good no. for a supposedly bad film.
btw i myself dint like this movie
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October 27, 2011 at 4:19 PM
Re: but it must be noted down South the jumps are not as big as the North
The escape hatch is already in place!
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October 27, 2011 at 4:28 PM
yo!!!!
you are a very smart man.
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October 27, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Rajen, didn’t you read that the numbers will go down *especially in the North* due to Laxmi Puja?
So the difference has to be more there I would assume.
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October 27, 2011 at 10:14 PM
this blog is the best blog ever.
so conclusion of the discussion….
RA.one cant have 25 crore single day.just cannot means cannot.srk is an idiot who asks theatre owners to put housefull boards in empty theatres and because of thsi planning and plotting tony montanna has to return without watching this film.
bodyguard and 3i figures are actually less than what they actually did.
ra.one figures are 20-30% more than wat it actually has done.
whole media is in srk’s pocket.
inflated ticket prices,3d and all these factors are now taken into consideration but forgetting that ra.one is thrice as expensive as bg or 3i(so ticket prices are justified)but what people forget is inflated ticket prices restricts multiple viewing.
Its understandable that you guys have something against SRK but its ok to sometimes acknowlegde somones good deeds…
this film imo is a sheer waste of opportunity thanks to poor script writing but this kinda of efforts should be appreciated.
satyamji……a fan of ur writing..instead of discussions on boxoffice can we have a piece on how ra.one or for matter films like oso impact srk as a superstar
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October 27, 2011 at 4:09 PM
Indian BO is a casee of too much heat, not enough light and in case of Ra.one it seems all heat, no light at all !! With all said and done, I’ve some basic criteria to judge Ra.one’s BO:
1. Anything less than 125 cr —-> disaster.
2. Less than BG and Dabang ——> humiliation for SRK.
3. Less than 155 cr —–> dissapointment.
4. 155 cr – 175 cr ——> MNIK zone
5. 175 cr – 190 cr ——> Success, still a feeling of unfulfillment
6. Surpasses 3I ——-> All time Blockbuster
To be honest, there is a binary paradigm (either or paradigm) which can be used to gauge Ra.one’s success or lack there of. This movie was made to break 3I’s record. If it doesn’t then even a figure of 185 cr will feel a bit hollow. On the other hand if it surpasses 3I its success can be celebrated using any grandiloquent language you can think of!
PS: The 191-202 cr range is like a limbo! But I think priests Komal, Taran and company will make sure Ra.one doesn’t end up in this limbo by briefly suspending the rules of number system whereby after 190 comes 203! Even if that is the case more power to Ra.one!
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October 27, 2011 at 4:41 PM
They’ll sell anything north of 140 crores as a big success. Obviously assuming week 1 is not 115 crores! Because it’s then a tank. But if it’s the BG kind of deal they will push this storyline and in fairness I would say at that point that the film was able to sustain at least with pockets of the audience. Though BG had a fast fade films can fall much faster than this as we’ve seen with some films.
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October 27, 2011 at 5:06 PM
Satyam, much as they might sell I don’t think many will buy that @150 cr it’s a big success. A devoted fan will buy it, but your average person won’t. Because he has been through the unprecedented hype that is Ra.one. All along he has been fed that it’s a 150 cr movie, he has been led to believe that it will break records. An average person can add 2+2, so when he finds all Ra.one did was 150 cr and 3I still holds the record of 202 cr, he’s bound to say: THEN WHAT WAS ALL THAT PRE_RELEASE NOISE ABOUT! No amount of spin is going to detract him from drawing this simplest of conclusion.
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October 27, 2011 at 6:14 PM
fair enough.. and it is true that with the negative narrative developing here they would need an unquestionable hit to get over this hump..but I do think that at 150 crores they will hype it like crazy.. they will say stuff like ‘biggest other than 3I’ and so on. The thing that shouldn’t be underestimated here is the SRK camp’s ability to tailor the message to the situation. And then unless it’s a total flop they keep spinning it. Even when KANK tanked dramatically in week 2 they were still calling it some sort of success, when MNIK didn’t do well in India they focused on the ‘global’ gross. So on and so forth. Plus here you’ll see the standards change. BOI admitted it was a 175 crore film inclusive of costs. 30 crore films have to do a lot more to justify their costs but this one will be justifying them at considerably under that number. But again I do agree with you that the credibility of the film hasn’t been established in the initial stage and now it needs a really genuine to convince people that it did well.
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October 27, 2011 at 4:50 PM
IBN:
RA.One mixed verdict: Are the audiences divided?
Rohit VatsRohit Vats, IBNLive.com
New Delhi: The initial responses to ‘RA.One’ have divided the audience fraternity into two distinct groups. Not only the audiences but film reviewers are also separated into two factions.
The first group is of the opinion that ‘RA.One’ has brought the level of Indian films at par with Holywood films in just one stroke while the other group is complaining about the flawed script.
The rating points given to the film also ranges from 1.5 to 4.5 which describe the effect of ‘RA.One’ on the viewers’ minds.
IBNLive
Almost everyone has prises for special effects visible for the first time on Indian screens but the traditional movie goers have felt the need of an original script which appears to be the amalgamation of several foreign films.
Further, the opening collection book of ‘RA.One’ does not boast of grand income but it’s a long weekend and thus the overall collection can amount to an impressive sum. ‘RA.One’ banked upon mammoth promotional drive in order to pull the audiences to the theatres and therefore mixed reviews actually have brought down the ‘RA.One’ fever a bit.
Such marketing gimmicks are not a new thing for Shah Rukh Khan who has done ferocious promotions of ‘Om Shaanti Om’ and ‘Main Hoon Na’ in the past. He has simply refused to trust the word of mouth publicity since some years.
Shah Rukh invariably talks about his loneliness in interviews and also cares to explain why he needs to raise the standard bar all the time. His inner urge to claim the supreme spot of the Hindi film industry comes out via words in different chat and reality shows. This anxiety was visible even when Shah Rukh appeared on ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ with Amitabh Bachchan. It seemed that Shah Rukh wants to make his presence felt more than Amitabh Bachchan.
With his trademark sarcasm filled wit, Khan works tirelessly to achieve a position where he can safely call Rajinikanth as the number one star. Khan clearly knows the fact that the podium battle is among three Khans and one Roshan and Rajinikanth does not fit into this Bollywood line up.
Shah Rukh has reached an age where any sort of competition should ideally stop but Salman Khan and Aamir Khan with their respective fan following have claimed the top spot in last three-four years, leaving Shah Rukh Khan with a strong desire to reclaim the position.
Probably this is the reason behind making ‘RA.One’ a spectacular film rather than a good story. The focus on technical fineness has made ‘RA.One’ an experience worth watching but the hype around the film has begun to fizz away.
It would have been better if Shah Rukh Khan had not promoted the film so heavily. In that case movie enthusiasts could have taken the film a little lightly with only entertainment in mind. The fan base of Shah Rukh Khan would also have felt satisfied with a magnificent show.
This strategy of over hyping the film also has the potential of harming Shah Rukh’s reputation in a longer run. Some more mediocre films and his entire prestige as an actor will be on stake.
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October 27, 2011 at 4:52 PM
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/196778/ftn-is-bollywood-more-about-hype-than-substance.html
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October 27, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Rampal, Kareena ..lined up to defend the movie….
Bhupen Chaube asks some uncomfortable questions to them….
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October 27, 2011 at 4:59 PM
I was thinking of going to see it today but decided not to…….
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October 29, 2011 at 2:05 PM
Great Review of the above show- see the show and then read the article- good take-
Rampal provided particular clarity on why Ra.One was a “great film”, a step forward for Bollywood. “You can create the revenue,” he explained enthusiastically. “Different revenue streams through partnerships… show different revenue streams, different avenues of making revenue. That’s the leap of faith that we make in Ra.One… hopefully it will encourage the industry to make film with larger budgets.” On the film’s actual quality, defiantly: “I like it, I don’t care.”
To his credit, Chaubey wasn’t buying this. “I’m just wondering Arjun. I thought cinema was more about content,” he murmured. But Rampal and Kapoor had no intention of addressing content. Shah Rukh, said Rampal, got “the best technicians in the world to work on the biggest film in the country, to make sure that everyone will go there and see it. He’s a one-man powerhouse.” Brilliant. Hopefully at some point, in between tweeting the poster and arranging to book half the CGI guys in California, SRK got to read the script.
It was good TV when Chaubey asked, desperately, “But where is the plot?” It was great TV when he got Kapoor to reveal Bollywood’s desperate lack of ambition: “What gets the cash registers ringing is song-and-dance, when the hero tries to save the actress…. and we should not try to change that.”
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/consistency-is-for-cretins/866792/0
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October 29, 2011 at 2:10 PM
Bhupen Chaube’s Tweets-
1.If u missed my show last night on ” chammak challo ” getting lots of feedback. Don’t think srk “ll meet me ever again
2.Must say,of the three khans, the one who stands out and has the potential to go as far as big b is aamir. At least there’s a method to him
3.Bodyguard, dabang, wanted, and now ra-one? Where is the plot? An amalgamation of scenes with a macho star=hit
4…Found myself asking several questions post ra-one! Most importantly, why is mindless cinema now increasingly “hit” cinema?
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October 27, 2011 at 5:12 PM
Currently in a somewhat ZNMD-style (but not znmd insoired) american sojourn–so Not been following this closely and won’t pass any judgments till I see the movie myself
Some of the movies I really like are the ones that “tank” and vice versa.
But these” conflicting “reports are enuf .
Unless there is a MARKED upswing —as far as Bollywood sweepstakes and the top honours aree concerned —this is probably the OFFICIAL end of an era ….
This was my personal curiosity .
I mean–when salman khan in bodyguard trumped ra1 opening?
Nuff said..
When I read that ra1 opening has got “affected” by diwali to explain the subpar opening–the writing is/ was on the wall…
SRKs is not in the business of producing superhits—his business has been to be the BEST–
He is still among the best but not THE best
And this is the first official confirmation yet—
So quite significant…
The “tug of war” between Srk pros and antis can go on till Dawn —but though I’m somehow hoping for a good showing by ra1– the “point” has already been made!!!!
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October 27, 2011 at 6:28 PM
you’re right here.. to even get into these debates of first day and second day and what Bodyguard did in Rajasthan smacks of desperation. The other thing here is that these marks are crossed so often these days that Salman will cross these again with ETT and Dabanng, then there will D3. So on and so forth. So this whole insistence on creating history when that history is being created (supposedly) every other week. And here it is true that the credible film is much more important. As opposed to doing a Bodyguard-like quick fade and then this negativity surrounding the film it is far better to have a 100 crore film where no one questions the box office and so on. For example Singham. And purely as a business proposition the trade would rather make its money off BG where the profits are much greater and the risks much lower as opposed to this kind of deal. Which is why as I said before this cannot be a path for SRK going forward even if the film does well. It’s not a Lagaan kind of moment where the film does well but ultimately the prestige transcends the gross and nor the Enthiran (Robot)/3I kind of deal where you have the biggest gross ever. Falling between these stools might be fine on a normal day but not when you present it as reinvention. But anyway let’s see how this film does from hereon.
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October 27, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Also time to “rescue” folks here from this Srk /ra1 obssession..
Cmon: there’s life beyond ra1 lol
Anyhow finally got to complete a film I could only watch in Parts earlier but now savoured in totalilty and in the right “setting”
Paris –
-romain duris was better than I expected, even acting wise
Needless to say: Paris was captured brilliantly and stands out like more than a character
Juliete Binoche again proves how good she is…
Fabrice luchini was awesome –brilliant
Melanie Laurent continues to be the alluring, appealing and dangerously charming …..
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October 27, 2011 at 5:47 PM
A character that stayed with me was the” bakery owner “— who wasnt exactly racist but subtly opinionated like most Parisians
The psychoanalysis of fabrice where he “opens up” was well done.
This film is nowhere near the “tree of life” but had a certain language and grammar that is immensely likeable and endearing.
Binotte and Laurent both “perform” brilliantly in different ways
For those who havent seen it–highly recommended…
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October 27, 2011 at 6:31 PM
not much of a fan of this film or the director in general. But yes Paris is seductively presented here..
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October 27, 2011 at 6:45 PM
^^^ thats what too much of Anubhav Sinha or Rohit Shetty or kjo or anees bazmi (even as a critic) affects one lol
Read an interview sometime back , was it kamal Hassan, who said he has become very strict with the things and sensibilities he endulges in nowadays —to avoid the “inadvertent influence”
Having said this: nothing is better or “highbrow” than something else…..
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October 27, 2011 at 6:16 PM
Couldnt resist hijacking this ra1-masturbathon lol
Better to put ads in the “popular channels” haha
Got really “refreshed” by this film and creatively “stimulated”.
Whats it about the french: When it comes to the evocative, reflective, penetrative albeit subtle, they can trump the british/american sensibilities.
It just comes naturally to them what needs to be “forced” in the english/american way.
Anyhow something about the Binoche/laurent type (noth not devilishly beautiful) allure rather than the over-the-top “beauty” abounding in hollywood/bollywood.
Having said that: most bollywood patrons find this stuff “slow” and “boring”–which is why at the very hint of something worthwhile like a dhobi ghaat, they desert the ship (and go to golmaal) lol
Not a masterpiece/mindblowing but worth checking out (even with subtitles)—
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIW21qlObzQAccb7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-?p=paris+youtube+music+klapisch+binoche&ei=utf-8&n=21&js=1&tnr=20
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October 27, 2011 at 10:19 PM
Very positive review from Kevin Thomas.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-movie-review-ra-one,0,6521818.story
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October 27, 2011 at 10:27 PM
yes just put up the link a little while back.. anyway removed that after seeing yours..
the US reviews have all been positive but this is the most enthusiastic one.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:08 AM
http://www.salon.com/2011/10/28/pick_of_the_week_bollywoods_blissful_idiotic_ra_one/singleton/
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117946458/
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October 28, 2011 at 5:06 AM
H’mm, Kevin Thomas hasn’t said much beyond summarizing the plot. It’s not a full review, so perhaps that’s understandable. His review for Bodyguard, while also brief, was a little longer than this, and equally “kind.” I don’t know how Henry can call this review “very positive”. It’s more neutral than anything else.
But the Salon and Variety reviews linked by Munna are not “positive”; they make the same points as the Indian reviews, namely, that the special effects are outstanding, but the story and characterization weak. The universal consensus seems to be that the special effects are, in fact, excellent, which should please SRK, since this seemed to be his main objective.
On the question of the “kindness” of American reviewers, it’s mostly due to the journalistic standards of U.S. publications, which do not allow the kind of personal attacks that are unfortunately the norm in the Indian press. Also, American reviewers do not think that “to critique” means “to carp.” I find it interesting, though, that sometimes the Hollywood Reporter has a reviewer of South Asian descent, who follows all the petty and vicious ways of the Indian critics.
A long time ago, the entertainment editor of the L.A.Times was Charles Champlin (Kevin Thomas began his stint at the LAT under Champlin). He was often accused of being a filmi Will Rogers, who “never met a film that he didn’t like.” Champlin always explained that it takes enormous effort to make even a bad film, and he always tried to be mindful of that in his reviews. I’m glad to see that Kevin Thomas is keeping that tradition alive.
But, interestingly, all the reviews, whether from India or the U.S. are consistent on three things: the special effects are great, the screenplay is weak, and there are logical holes along the way. So I think that can be taken to be true.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:10 AM
Oops, I somehow thought Satyam said “kind” not “positive”, so I went off on a lecture about kindness. Since I can’t edit my post, please excuse my digression.
But I still do wonder: what do you see to be so “positive” about these reviews? They are polite, but they do point out the flaws of the film as well as its virtues. Is it the contrast with the Indian reviewers that has struck you both, Satyam and Henry?
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October 28, 2011 at 5:25 AM
Here are a couple of more reviews:
From the Globe and Mail (Canada): http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/raone-bollywood-superhero-epics-secret-weakness-plot/article2216393/?service=mobile
From The National (UAE): http://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/film/ra-one-takes-stars-beyond-bollywood
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October 27, 2011 at 11:38 PM
A very funny review:
http://www.yentha.com/news/view/4/14132
This is the problem. Most reviews have panned the script. And the Bad WOM has spread like wildfire.
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October 27, 2011 at 11:48 PM
Once a movie becomes butt of jokes and this phenomena achieves a critical mass, nothing can help the movie in the multiplexes. IMO jokes at the expense of a movie are much more damaging than straight forward trashing. And here twitter with its 140 word limit is the perfect weapon.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:30 AM
Ra.One Nagpur: Day Two Shows 55% Plus Growth
Friday 28th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One showed a jump of 55% in Nagpur. It was for the first time that a film has collected more than 20 lakhs in a single day in the city.
Liberty – 1,75,618 (1,55,461)
Panscheel – 1,16,485 (94,521)
Sudma – 85,621 (47,055)
Jayshree – 74,916 (48,355)
Janki – 47,003 (20,792)
Rajvilas – 40,013 (22,890)
Cinemax – 6,13,874 (4,40,441)
Inox Poonam – 4,89,678 (1,99,590)
Inox Jaswant – 3,93,673 (2,79,000)
TOTAL – 20,36,881 ( 13,08,105) +55.73%
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October 28, 2011 at 12:33 AM
Still await a major metro number to make the same point!
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October 28, 2011 at 1:53 AM
Ra.One Misses Records In Just Three Circuits
Friday 28th October 2011 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One created three circuit records on day one in West Bengal, Mysore and Tamil Nadu for the first day collections.
On its second day the film has set new highs for a single day in every circuit apart from Bihar, CP Berar and CI. These circuits have many small centres and Ra.One being a sci -fi film is probably why the records have not come in these circuits.
The late arrival of 3D prints also helped proceedings on Thursday as 3D shows only started yesterday at many B and C centres. In places like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore it shattered all records by big margins.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:54 AM
But of course we’ll keep reporting on Rajasthan irrespective of all the records its shattering all over India!
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October 28, 2011 at 1:55 AM
Ra.One Early Estimate For Day Two
Friday 28th October 2011 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) has collected around 23 crore nett as per early estimates on its second day. It is the highest collection of all time for a single day.
The first day had collected around 14.75 crore nett taking the two day total to 37.75 crore nett. The regional version collected 1.35 crore nett on its first day and day two is likely to be 1.75-2 crore nett.
The all India jump is 55% on day two which is exactly the same jump that Golmaal 3 had on its second day on Diwali.
The film will drop today as films do after a big holiday. Bodyguard came down to 13.60 crore nett on its Friday but this should remain higher as it is still a holiday in some parts of the country.
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October 28, 2011 at 2:00 AM
Is this what it’s come down to? Golmaal 3? Man I’m no SRK fan but let’s not insult him this way!
Nice mix ‘n match going on here.. we’ll take G3 day 2, then we;ll take BG’s day 3, and oh yeah give us Wanted on day 4 and Kites on day 6! Hell we’ll even take Raavan on day 9! It even sounds the same!
So BOI have it at 37.75 crores in 2 days while Taran and Nahata have 41 crores or something. Big differential here. Think BOI are closer to the truth here though they’re of course spinning it like crazy now.
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October 28, 2011 at 2:02 AM
by the way hope all the big SRK BOI fans are happy with these numbers!
As some of us said this morning the 25 crore figure looked spiced up!
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October 28, 2011 at 3:49 AM
Whether its 23 or 25 Cr, it’s a damn good single day number. My sense is it will cross 85 Cr BG extended weekend but 100 is impossible as earlier touted by many!
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October 28, 2011 at 2:09 AM
let’s say it is higher than BG on day 3 and does 15 crores or something (I’m dubious if it will match day 1 but anyway..).. that will give it about 52 crores over the first three days. That just leaves Sat and Sun then for the extended weekend. If it then kept up the same number over those two days it would have 82 crores. If it is somewhat higher on Sat or Sun it could match the BG 85 crore total or be a bit higher. But I think this is pretty much the best case scenario at this point. Tomorrow’s numbers should tell us what to expect in this sense. So with 30% more screens than BG it would be lucky to end up in that range.
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October 28, 2011 at 6:05 AM
Ra one may have created biggest day record, but if we consider two days combined total of both movies (Hindi version) which I think is more fare, BG is almost 1 to 1.5 crs more. Ra one numbers are indeed impressive but well short of expectation. With 30% more ticket rates and 30% more screen space, this is not an achievement for this hugely hyped movie.
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October 28, 2011 at 3:17 AM
y Mahesh Dattani
Editor’s Note: Ra.One is THE film this Diwali and getting wall to wall coverage. It might not have broken Bodyguard’s opening day collections but it’s still got the rest of the holiday weekend to gather steam. But eminent playwright Mahesh Dattani says despite the hype and the special effects, this is a movie we can do without. Especially for a film that pegs itself as a family film. Here are five reasons why.
This model of an Indian kid we can do without.
This film is made for a pan Indian audience. How many kids in India can afford these kinds of games? How many Indian kids can relate to gaming heroes? And why is it that being a ‘dood’ is supposed to be ‘cool’ for Indian kids? Why can’t Indian kids be cool eating with their fingers? Also why do they have to look and dress in such a way that they can ‘pass’ for a white American kid? The kid’s deepest concern is that his father is not cool. His dad eats with his fingers and says ‘dude’ instead of ‘dood’. The kid is a gaming junkie with attitude. He doesn’t like fat kids and does nasty things to them, but we are supposed to like this kid. The disturbing thing is that kids in the audience do like him. And the film does not develop into any moment of realisation for the kid except that he ought not to think of villains as cool. But by the very absurd standards he sets for a regular Indian kid, he is truly the villain of the piece.
This model of a South Indian protagonist we can do without.
I really thought the ‘Ayayo’ kind of caricature of a South Indian person went away with Mehmood. Mehmood was at least witty and his characters had the wisdom of a Shakespearean fool. Mr. Khan’s South Indian nerdy male act is a direct assault on one’s sensibilities. No matter how jaded and socially incorrect you wish to be, you will find this gross representation sickening. He eats noodles with curds using his fingers the way North Indians think South Indians eat. Or more precisely, the way Mr Khan thinks South Indians eat. While one does not expect him to be a method actor, he only needs to open his eyes and see. But artistic representation is the least of his concerns. Getting a few laughs is all that he cares for.
Every move of his on screen screams out “Love me, I am Shah Rukh Khan”. With this sales anxiety occupying his every single thought, he suddenly remembers that he has a vast South Indian market that his company needs to make capital of. So you have a hastily added scene with ‘Rajni sir’. Kareena Kapoor even does a prayer when he appears on screen. Clearly the sales anxiety has been passed on to the director Mr Anubhav Sinha. But the producers undermine the intelligence of a South Indian audience, who know when they are being laughed at.
This kind of sexist, suggestive smut we can do without.
screengrab/ibnlive
Five minutes into the film we have a scene where Shah Rukh Khan’s character is in the game and in enemy territory. The enemies are three Chinese females who are called – hold your puke– Iski Lee, Uski Lee and Sabki Lee. Parents and kids in the audience laugh in complicity with the demeaning attitude of the super hero towards women. It just doesn’t seem to be an issue amongst parents.
I wonder if Mr Khan is okay with the fact that his children could grow up thinking a woman’s identity is nothing more than her sexual organ. Looks like he has many Indian parents for company in this regard. Also, Kareena Kapoor’s character is happy to be the yummy mummy who can magically transform from caring mother to chamak challo and then to damsel-in-distress. Isn’t there an organisation giving out a Rakshas award to sexist filmmakers? Ra.One definitely deserves a Rakshas award.
This sort of screenplay by numbers we can do without.
I know Bollywood is at a crossroads where the old paradigm does not work anymore and a new one is yet to be discovered. But there seems to be a certain join-the-dots kind of approach that is still in place. Alas it doesn’t work if it is used as clinically as it has been used here. The ingredients that go into the soup pot are: A villain and a hero. Next, a comedy track that comes and goes but never adds to the story. Throw in some mandatory car chases and body part jokes. The sure hit formula now is to marry Hollywood silly with Bollywood silly. I am afraid two sillies do not an engaging film make.
This kind of hard sell we can do without.
My neighbour’s child has already made up his mind that he wants to see the film twice. He doesn’t possess video games but now he wants one of those gaming consoles that his parents have to now consider shopping for. Undoubtedly Shah Rukh Khan has some kind of charisma that attracts many adults and children. Also, maybe his heart is in the right place going by some of the scenes in the film.
The best part of the film is when he tosses away a cigarette saying ‘Thousands of people give up smoking every year, not because they read the warning, but because they die.’ There are those occasional gems in the film that makes one warm up to him. If only he wouldn’t sell things. Maybe if he is made aware of the grave consequences of his actions, he might change his mind. But then who is to tell the Badshah of Bollywood that his subjects are better off without his wares?
Mahesh Dattani is a Sahitya Akademi award winning playwright and director and the author of many acclaimed plays including Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man and Tara. He directed the films Mango Souffle and Morning Raga.
http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/five-reasons-why-i-can-do-without-ra-one-117964.html?fb_ref=.TqpNZ-l56-w.like&fb_source=home_multiline
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October 28, 2011 at 3:35 AM
The first three are objections I would likely share (the first two were apparent from the trailers). I don’t think it is fair to single out SRK/Ra-One as far as the last two are concerned.
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October 28, 2011 at 7:38 AM
Well said Mahesh Dattani. Your article needs to be publicized. I am a Tamilian–and I have had it with caricaturing of regional groups by Bollywalas. Loved these words from Dattani–
He eats noodles with curds using his fingers the way North Indians think South Indians eat. Or more precisely, the way Mr Khan thinks South Indians eat. While one does not expect him to be a method actor, he only needs to open his eyes and see. But artistic representation is the least of his concerns. Getting a few laughs is all that he cares for.
And the brat kid–we don’t need such role models for our kids.
I wish a filmmaker would make a film about an Indian kid comfortable about being whoever he or she is…not a wannabe, not somebody ashamed of his parent.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:14 AM
these guys pretend to be great progressives but you scratch the surface and all the old attitudes come out. The Tamilian stereotypes, the Gujarati ones (KHNH.. the guy who says obscene stuff because of mispronunciation), the sexist stuff (KKHH.. the girl only becomes acceptable once she ‘feminizes’ herself and starts wearing sarees), the ‘foreign’ paranoia (this rather surprisingly from Johar but MNIK has a post-9/11 representation of the US that looks like Nazi Germany at points!), so on and so forth. A lot of this stuff was par for the course in an earlier cinema though Dattani is right about this being mediated in some ways (even if calling those characters Shakespearean fools is going a bit too far! at least in most instances) and certainly the characters were often individualized. Having said that in some ways this kind of ‘global’ notion of progressive behavior often rests on an ‘obscene’ underside of stereotype, conservative or otherwise. We see this in Hollywood too. Actresses are often much more stereotyped today in major productions when they’re not rendered as simple objects of desire than then were in an older age. Many critics have made this point about this industry. It’s some other stuff too.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:21 AM
Re: “The Tamilian stereotypes, the Gujarati ones (KHNH.. the guy who says obscene stuff because of mispronunciation), the sexist stuff (KKHH.. the girl only becomes acceptable once she ‘feminizes’ herself and starts wearing sarees), the ‘foreign’ paranoia (this rather surprisingly from Johar but MNIK has a post-9/11 representation of the US that looks like Nazi Germany at points!)…”
Plus the xenophobia vis-a-vis the Chinese (the offensive “lee” sisters in Ra-One if reports are to be believed); the contempt Kajol casually displays for her white neighbor in Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (or perhaps that is simply Johar’s contempt for his audience); and I seem to recall anti-Chinese moments in Kal Ho Na Ho as well.
The “liberalism” of very many contemporary films is simply LIFESTYLE liberalism — i.e. as long as sufficient markers are shown, symbols deployed, to drive home the point that a particular social class is being represented, nothing more need be done. Thus, pre-marital sex not because of any commitment to human freedom, but simply because that’s what people “of a certain type” DO.
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October 28, 2011 at 8:50 AM
thanks for posting this. obviously the author is somewhat singular.. that South Indian stuff he refers to from the film s really offensive..
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October 28, 2011 at 5:10 AM
Ra.One Final 2-Day Box-Office Score: Rs. 43 Crore
1 hour ago by Komal Nahta Comments ( 4 )
The final figure for first two day’s collections of Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One is finally out. As reported, the superhero flick collected Rs. 25 crore (all-India net collection including the collections of the Hindi, dubbed Tamil and dubbed Telugu versions) on Thursday. Considering that the film had made Rs. 18 crore on the opening day (Wednesday, October 26), the two-day total is Rs. 43 crore.
To put into perspective the comparisons being made between the collections of Ra.One and the Salman Khan starrer Bodyguard, one has to consider a couple of facts: a) Ra.One has released in about 1000 screens more than what Bodyguard had releases in and b) The ticket rates for Ra.One, for both the 2D and 3D versions, are higher than the ticket rates of Bodyguard.
Nonetheless, Ra.One has done phenomenally well both in Indian and the Overseas circuit
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October 28, 2011 at 5:27 AM
Weird that Komal would mention the number of screens and ticket prices, and not mention that Bodyguard has only the Hindi version, while Ra.One has three versions.
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October 28, 2011 at 8:27 AM
sm,
It is not weird but is called the ‘cheque effect’.
My, oh my. We have such ‘sinister’ conspiracy theories here. I am afraid for my safety in this ‘sinister’ place!
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October 28, 2011 at 8:53 AM
Rather amusing.. What Nahata says about the ticket rates and the extra screens accrues hugely to BG’s advantage.. but after saying it he nonetheless calls the Ra One numbers phenomenal!
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October 28, 2011 at 5:40 AM
a) Ra.One has released in about 1000 screens more than what Bodyguard had releases in and b) The ticket rates for Ra.One, for both the 2D and 3D versions, are higher
===================
Can you increase the revenue (collections) by increasing the price (ticket rates) ?
I am an economics student, and we studied that it is not possible to increase revenue by increasing the prices. because if the price increases, customers stay away from the product. If they still buy the product at the higher price, then this price is the ‘actual’ price of the product…. and it is a serious blunder to sell a product at a price lower than its actual, because you are let go off the free revenue.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:45 AM
The 1000 extra screens will not help Ra One in the total revenue but it will certainly help in getting the biggest single day ever– which is actually a short term gain.
The reason why a big film will want to open on large print count is just to safeguard itself from a very bad wom scenario– nothing more than that. Ra one’s wom isnt that bad…. and in the long run those extra 1000 prints wont help it anyways.
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October 28, 2011 at 6:02 AM
I agree. I have always questioned the prinicipal theory that higher ticket prices IMPLY higher revenue. In an elastic price-demand model this does not work. In an inelastic one does. But rightly stated in the latter if this is the case, it implies something meaningful about that product, the “willingness” to pay the extra premium.
Higher prices also price people out. Lower prices may bring more people in.
In the end, revenue dictates the story in my opinion. If Ra-One is gaining from higher ticket prices, then well done. Someone is paying and that person is willing to pay it. Unfortunately people do get priced out…but this is a business model.
The xtra prints do help. Implicitly, the film may gain from wider coverage points, better screen allocation etc. But again I would say all of this is cloudy. 1) Expansion is a legitimate positive for the film. 2) the film is a big film so one would expect better screens and wider release. Here its a question of artificial and non artifical growth. The former gives it the edge over former films, the latter doesn’t.
The second day performance is great. Its a new benchmark, a record, so its achieved something. But call me a party pooper, I am sure SRK was aiming for bigger things which he could still achieve…but lets see.
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October 28, 2011 at 8:56 AM
For the big blockbuster kind of film it’s clear that you can raise prices, certainly in the multiplexes without being adversely affected in terms of the audience. Often the prices come down in a week or two but by then the revenue has been generated. Obviously they don’t increase it to the point where they lose the audience. At the same time the audience wouldn’t be willing to pay the extra amount for every film. But yes it’s a tradeoff because there’s a certain cross-section of the audience that already finds the tickets too expensive. Or even if affordable they would certainly not see the movie twice at those rates (another factor that affects trending even for a film that has very positive WOM). The question is precisely about the balance here. I personally think it’s smarter to err on the lower side than the higher but the thing is when you make these expensive films and when you are also not assured of strong trending on most films for one reason or another you try to get as much as you can in the initial run.
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October 28, 2011 at 6:50 AM
some news on ra one from multiplex owners – today morning and afternoon collections are down by about 50-60%.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:00 AM
where did you learn this?
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October 28, 2011 at 8:12 AM
Komal and Taran are giving numbers that are much higher even if it is combined of Hindi and non-Hindi versions. BTW, when did we start looking at combined revenues? We never did it with Raavan.
Komal is the most crooked and shrewdest of all these faggots.
Anyways, falls today are going to be substantial.Love the way, BOI sets things up for the next day,so that it doesnt look too bad when it actually happens. They claim it is normal and expected.
Golmaal comparision is apt as that is what SRK can hope for.
I would be greatly surprised if this can surpass BG.
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October 28, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Taran’s Tweet for Friday Business : #RaOne Fri trends: Biz was back to normal [read strong] from 12.30 noon/1 pm. Wed+Thu total [India] is Rs 43.60 cr nett [all languages].
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October 28, 2011 at 8:34 AM
Normal people Tweet. Taran only farts!
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October 28, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Latest tweet-
SRK spent 150 crores just to touch the Crotch of Rampal ……lol
Hritik’s Tweet– for Rampal
DUDE!!! U’ve taken it to a WHOLE new level!! INSANE!!! BEST negative performance EVER! World class body aesthetics! BRAVO!!
Kunder’s Tweets-
1.Ab main nahin boloonga, duniya bolegi
2.Bodyguard is trending. Everything else is pending
3.”I’m being targeted” – Dart Board
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October 28, 2011 at 9:19 AM
LOL, as someone pointed out yesterday once you fail the laugh test for your film and the twitter world gets you it’s very hard if not impossible to recover. In a sense we too miss the point often by talking about the reviews. These are a good metric to judge the box office but these tweets can often be brutal. And a multiplex audience is certainly tweeting or is on facebook and this ‘WOM” can be more definitive than anything else.
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October 28, 2011 at 10:53 AM
Satyam and Q bhai, I know will not be happy with the analogy but this is akin to Anna movement where the aam janta are tweeting/ facebooking and clearing the web of lies being spread by Nattha and NoAdarsh .
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October 28, 2011 at 11:33 AM
Not unhappy at all! The whole social media thing is a great democratizing tool. At the same time it can have its excesses. Much as even normal democracy can sometimes simply be about ‘mob rule’.
‘NoAdarsh’ is great by the way!
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October 28, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Rockybhai: you mean, I’d be unhappy that you’re likening SRK Inc. to a corrupt status quo?!
🙂
Kidding aside, I have lots of reservations about the Anna movement, but it has gotten harder and harder to support this government…much harder than in 2009.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:21 AM
“World class body aesthetics!”
And this is the guy in Agneepath..
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October 28, 2011 at 9:25 AM
Whoa, is that an actual tweet from Hrithik? I honestly thought someone was mocking his glazed, over-the-top yet strangely simultaneously muted turn on that dance show he judges. That’s one of the weirdest English-language sentences ever: why doesn’t he just say Arjun Rampal was looking amazing, or kick-ass or something? WTF is “body aesthetics”?! Something tells me Walter Pater just sat up in his grave…
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October 28, 2011 at 9:33 AM
That odd phrasing probably, (in Hrithik-land) equates being in great shape to delivering a terrific performance. Of course in a world where such logic applies there’s litte difference between Hrithik and Day-Lewis.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Fantasy novelist Samit Basu encounters Ra.One. Exclusive to Rediff.com
I spent a lot of time this year wandering the wilderness of Bollywood trying to put together a film adaptation of my last novel, Turbulence, a superhero novel set in India and England.
Whether it’ll ever get made is a question that hasn’t been answered as yet, but meetings with a few of Bollywood’s movers and shakers have taught me many things about the way the Bollywood collective mind works when it comes to high-budget action blockbusters.
So here are some of the axioms, three Golden Rules based on which Bollywood blockbusters get made. They might help put your Ra.One experience in perspective.
It’s disturbing for anyone who plans to make a living as a writer to hear this, but an alarmingly large percentage of B-wood power-brokers said this with absolute confidence. I still believe this is not true, but hey. The ‘audience’ is seen largely as an amorphous, slack-jawed blob with the collective intelligence of a not-very-intelligent 11-year-old.
I suppose this holds true for Hollywood as well; it would explain many of their biggest commercial successes.
People will go and see any film that has been marketed with a great deal of pizzazz; it doesn’t matter what’s in the film as long as it’s hardsold to them and stars someone they like.
There has to be at least one song that goes viral. The most worked-upon thing in the movie has to be the hero’s abdomen. There have to be one or two ‘dialogues’ that people can repeat at each other ad nauseum.
Location is important.
It’s distressingly cynical, but this rule works very often; just look at most of our recent Bollywood mega-hits and you’ll see that this works.
It could be said in Ra.One’s defence that it wasn’t yet another cynical, brainless ‘South masala’ remake. But in between the splendidly-put-together action sequences, look at the utterly moronic jokes, the endlessly crass attempts at humour, the barrel-bottom-scraping homophobic/racist jibes, the numerous plot holes, the many logical inconsistencies, and you’ll realise that this is a film that does not expect any degree of mental ability from its audience.
Like the aforementioned dim-witted 11-year-old, the audience must be told what to do. And what to like. If Ra.One works commercially — and I hope it does, because I have a personal stake in wanting Bollywood to make more superhero films — it will be yet another sad confirmation of this Bollywood principle.
Like they say, ‘Film’s purpose is to entertain. Don’t overanalyse.’
‘The Indian audience is not evolved enough for anything that Bollywood hasn’t done before.’
This one was a particular shocker when I heard it the first time, because it goes against everything I’ve believed in eight years as a full-time writer.
But again, look around you — television, movies, books — and you’ll see this is largely true.
As one Bollywood top maven told me with utter certainty, ‘People want to sit in the hall, relax, enjoy themselves. Nobody wants to struggle with new ideas. It makes them angry.’
Fair enough — if money wasn’t a consideration, I’m sure everyone would be happy to be wildly experimental. But big movies mean big money, and big money means big risks, and if you don’t give the audience what you already know it wants, you stand to lose everything.
The bigger the budget, the more the film must conform. None of this is new information.
The saddest part of the Ra.One experience is the growing realisation, as you watch the film, that the intentions of the team behind it were probably good when the whole epic project began. That at some level, it wanted to treat its audience as smart, and ready to see things it hadn’t seen before.
There must have been, at some point, a genuine desire to push the envelope, to give quality-starved Indian audiences something new. And in the technical departments, Ra.One achieves that — the VFX and sound are excellent, the crack international team behind the film has done its job well.
Yes, most of the action sequences and character designs are wildly derivative, but the same criticism could be applied to any number of successful Hollywood movies.
The problem with Ra.One is, though, that while it might have started off with the urge to push boundaries, it ended up being a confused mix of tried-and-tested and desperate-to-please. Worried that the film wasn’t familiar enough, they stuck in gratuitous audience identification points — Karva Chauth references, Ganesh idols — and unnecessary celebrity cameos from Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt and the already superhuman Rajnikanth.
And the audience, already informed about these guest appearances by endless publicity, cheered dutifully — and gave up any involvement they were feeling with the film’s actual story.
It’s easy enough to blame the writers for Ra.One’s many flaws — the most clear problem is the bad script. But while the writing was undeniably terrible, varying between cliche superhero/sentimental speeches and inane attempts at comedy/melodrama, let’s not forget these writers were unlikely to have made any of the key decisions about the way this film was made — there are probably lengthy debates about the marketability of every single line when the stakes are this high.
What we end up with, though, is a film that wants to be new and familiar at the same time, and does not know whether it wants to be compared with Iron Man or Dabangg.
It tries to be both, and fails at each; a film that was supposed to be ambitious and groundbreaking but at the very peak of its ambition, aspires to match a level of technical competence that Hollywood takes for granted.
What our esteemed Bollywood kings seem to be forgetting is that the application of these two axioms — assuming the audience is sub-normal and hates change — is exactly what has led to all of Bollywood’s innumerable flops. If anyone knew what actually made films work, they would be bottling up that essence and selling it at malls.
For Bollywood films above a certain scale, you can only raise money if one of the top five heroes of the moment agrees to do the film. And heroes are sensitive creatures who do not like sharing screen space, and like calling all the shots on their films. And physically being in most of the shots in their films.
This rarely yields good results in terms of quality, though it seems to work fine for the legions of love-crazed fans who flock into theatres and spew hate on the Internet in defence of their gods.
The chief problem with this axiom is that it imposes very dangerous constraints on films — there can only be one central character, everyone else is window dressing.
In superhero-specific terms, it means we’ll never have an X-Men/Avengers style multi-starrer superhero movie until this changes (On a personal note, every producer I met warned me that no hero would want to do an ensemble movie, and my script would have to be about one man only, regardless of the book it was based on).
Ra.One is unapologetically a Shah Rukh Khan vehicle, and it must be said the man tries everything — he pulls off his most famous poses, tries out a range of facial contortions, hairstyles, costumes, accents, all in this vast, multi-crore attempt to please his son on and off screen.
But no amount of the Khan’s much-vaunted histrionic abilities can hide the fact that the characters he’s been given to play are flatter than his abs.
That said, Ra.One is not as one-actor-minded as, say, Ghajini, Singham or Bodyguard, and this is a good thing. Most of the praise that has come in for Ra.One can be reduced to ‘Kareena and Arjun Rampal look amazing.’ Excellent, but why bother with a story, then?
Surely it would be more economically viable to have people sit in theatres and look at slideshows of all these hot people. I might just have hit upon the Next Big Thing here.
An even bigger drawback of the hero-is-everything approach is that films which aim to be ‘mass entertainers’ usually feature heroes who are invincible even if they are flawed; Nietzschean Ubermenschen who stride through their stories casually beating up people while flooring heroines with their charm, supporting and entertaining their families, singing, dancing, nipple-baring and never, ever letting the whistles in the audience die out.
More superheroic than any superhero Hollywood’s come up with yet, unbeatable musclemen, walking wish-fulfilment fantasies of millions of not-especially-Alpha Indian men.
Shah Rukh Khan does try to break this rule — his real-world character is called a coward by his son, and we are repeatedly told that his video-game hero is weaker than the villain (though we see no real evidence of this.) Sadly, this is the biggest risk the film takes.
In a few weeks, we’ll find out whether Ra.One is the biggest commercial success of all time or a huge flop. Like all Bollywood films of its scale, the essential quality of the film will be irrelevant either way, as frenzied fans and rival stars’ fans battle it out across comment sections all over the Internet.
If Ra.One succeeds commercially, there will be a sudden explosion of superhero films; if not, no one will try one for the next few years (well, unless the sequel to the equally flawed Krrish is a box office smash).
Either way, given that Bollywood essentially has no idea about the basic tenets of superhero films, here are a few blindingly obvious guiding principles for those brave souls attempting the next one, whenever it happens. Click next to take a look.
It feels sad to have to say this to people who are presumable a. professional writers and b. literate adults, but the fictional world you create must have rules, and these rules must be consistent.
In a superhero/scifi/fantasy story, you can stretch the laws of physics, but that’s really all you can do. After that, you have to work hard, even harder than in a ‘real-world’ movie, to ensure that the rest of the world you create is logical, that everything else makes sense.
You can’t just do whatever the hell you want with the plot, the characters, and the world your story is set in just because your heroes are more than human. If you have no internal logic system, you lose any member of the audience who is not a zombie.
The set-pieces in Ra.One are extravagant, executed by professionals who’ve done this sort of work before, and are something the rest of Bollywood should emulate — though the hundreds of deaths that train action sequence would have caused leaves me in severe doubts as to the hero’s competence, if not that of the VFX artists.
The rest of the film seems to have been put together by bumbling incompetents.
Are Ra.One and G.One humans? Robots? Or life-sized mannequins that come to life? And whatever the case, why do they have superpowers? I put software in my USB drive all the time; it hasn’t started chasing me around the world and trying to kill me, at least not yet.
What are Ra.One and G.One and why do they have powers in the real world?
No one knows. No one seems to care. Even if one accepts that a piece of software escapes a video game and finds form in the real world, it is really rude to your audience to not even provide a semblance of a pseudo-scientific explanation as to how, unless you specifically mention that no one knows how it’s possible, or explain it away by saying it’s magic.
It’s not enough to copy scenes from the Terminator movies; if you’ve seen them, you know there’s a whole deal of elaborate explanation of how their bodies work the way they do.
G.One seems to be made of metal (hence, the horrible pierced groin in the metal detector scene) but surely someone at Dalip Tahil’s video game company might have noticed that they’d made an incredibly complicated cyborg?
There’s some brief introductory technobabble about how the gaming company creates tangible 3-D holograms, but then film ignores its own half-hearted attempts at explanation when the software, instead of just manifesting physically, proceeds to enter physical replicas of the video-game characters. Complete internal logic shutdown.
At various points in the movie, G.One and Ra.One exhibit super-strength, super-speed, mind control, energy radiation, shape-shifting, self-healing and self-cloning abilities.
These powers crop up conveniently when the problem they’re facing requires them, and disappear otherwise. Which indicates a. an utter contempt for the audience and b. really, really bad writers.
Most superhero films have villains who are physically stronger than the hero; hence the hero has to struggle to overcome them.
This is a standard feature of a superhero film, not a breathtaking innovation the way Ra.One makes it out to be.
Ra.One’s hero makes video games. His greatest achievement is a video game where you have to pretty much be a fully trained ninja/acrobat to defeat Level One.
I know Kinect controllers and the like require movement, but if you’re planning a game where success is based on real-world acrobatics, you’re looking at a seriously niche market.
Most video games involve sitting on a beanbag and pressing buttons. I suspect the Ra.One video game will require exactly that. If not, it is not going to be a commercial success.
While it is clear Team Ra.One knows nothing about superheroes, it would be nice if they knew anything about video games.
What does our supervillain, Ra.One, want?
World domination?
Nuclear warfare?
The destruction of Facebook?
No, he wants to kill a small boy who was kicking him around in his videogame.
Granted the small boy was extremely annoying, and Ra.One had my sympathy for most of his few appearances, but you know what? This is not the kind of earth-shaking conflict situation you base a superhero movie on, unless it’s a flat-out comedy or parody.
If you met Ra.One on the street, you could just get out of his way; he wouldn’t bother you otherwise, unless you were foolish enough to buy what looked like a terrible game and take him on in it.
We also never really know what G.One wants, apart from protecting said annoying small boy from Ra.One. Once that’s accomplished, it’s difficult for us to care what happens to G.One, because, well, we don’t know what he is!
Is he capable of turning human or otherwise giving Kareena Kapoor the loving she clearly needs?
Is he going to be locked in eternal combat with Ra.One in a video game that will presumably be cancelled by its makers since we know it’s capable of unleashing real-world mass destruction?
Why should we care?
Again, internal logic=good. You can have an interesting cross-film cameo from Cheeti the robot from Endhiran. You can have a celebrity cameo from Superstar Rajnikanth. You can’t have both. Sorry. Not even for the reality-bending Rajnikanth.
In the end, how you feel about Ra.One depends entirely on what standards you’re using to judge it. Does it measure up to the best of Hollywood, or to similar films made in China or Japan? No.
Is it better than the worst Hollywood superhero films? Certainly.
Is it a step forward for Bollywood? Absolutely.
But it’s still unclear as to whether it’s in the right direction.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:17 AM
great piece here.. seems to touch on many of the right points..
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October 28, 2011 at 9:37 AM
This is actually a fantastic and a very fair piece.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:39 AM
Re: “People want to sit in the hall, relax, enjoy themselves. Nobody wants to struggle with new ideas. It makes them angry.”
This is a very telling observation when it comes to the audience. Note that the chap quoted doesn’t say people are close-minded, or that they don’t understand new ideas — he says new ideas make them “angry.” I can attest from personal offline experience this is true (in my personal experience, i.e. not talking about the internet as it seems to be populated by fanatics of all kinds) of very many people in the audience, and in my experience it seems to be MORE true of an urban, bourgeois audience than of others — and as these films have increasingly started to focus on peddling a certain lifestyle, the intolerance is increasing. Because any comment against such a film is interpreted as an attack on a certain lifestyle. Salman and SRK films are a case in point: no Salman fan I know is offended if I say Ready is a bad film, but a much larger percentage of SRK fans I know react negatively, i.e. aggressively and in an overtly hostile manner, if someone says he/she doesn’t like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. This isn’t because SRK is per se more likely to have intolerant fans — it’s because Karan Johar’s films peddle a certain lifestyle, whereas Ready doesn’t in that overt a way. SRK simply has more of these films, but when he doesn’t, the same holds true of his films too: if I tell a SRK fan Devdas or Asoka is a bad film, I am not likely to get an aggressive response; but I might well for Kal Ho Na Ho — the former simply isn’t a lifestyle film in that sense. But SRK is the first major star associated with this sort of thing (QSQT didn’t peddle a lifestyle; neither did Deewana — but by Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kal Ho Na Ho and Mohabbatein we are squarely in the new paradigm). And now, with the rise of multiplex cinema, there are more such films — try telling someone who likes those films that you don’t like Wake Up Sid; or Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara, and you might get some nasty responses (I certainly have; in the case of the former my interlocutor sneered and snapped “That’s because you’re not from Bombay; only a Bombayite can truly appreciate what Wake Up Sid really means”; I first wondered why they bothered releasing the film elsewhere in the first place, and, second, wondered what would have happened had Manoj Kumar followed the same logic with Kranti — perhaps only those who rebelled in 1857 could have been the target audience; oh wait, they’re dead). Don’t mean to idealize the past, but I never got the sense that some dude thinking Agneepath sucked in 1990 was offensive to Bachchan fans in quite the same way…
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October 28, 2011 at 9:29 AM
Friday update: ‘Ra.One’ holds well, despite Bhau-Beej celebrations
-By Taran Adarsh, October 28, 2011 – 15:43 IST
RA.ONE had a slow start on Friday morning and noon as Bhau-beej was celebrated. Consequently, the business slowed down considerably in several circuits till noon, but the business was back to normal [read strong] from 12.30 noon/1 p.m. onwards.
Meanwhile, the film has collected Rs 18.50 cr nett on Wednesday [the highest ever Diwali day collection] and Rs 25.10 cr nett on Thursday [the highest collection ever on a single day] in India, taking the 2-day total to Rs 43.60 cr nett. The total includes the business generated from all three versions — Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:31 AM
this diwali period has been brutal to SRK. every day a new festival ruins his box office chances! It’s going to be tough tomorrow and after too. All the Diwali celebrations will leave people exhausted. You can’t expect them to make it to the theaters.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:35 AM
LOL…BOI and there bag of tricks. Can’t wait for xmas day when they say Ra-One’s 50 rupee collections affected Don 2’s performance
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October 28, 2011 at 9:40 AM
I think Ra.1 would have been even a bigger hit if people didnt have to breathe,brush their teeth,shave,shower,have sex or sleep . These are coming in the way of it being a block buster.
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October 28, 2011 at 10:39 AM
LOL!
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October 28, 2011 at 9:32 AM
Just too much info on Ra1 and all around. Getting bewildered and giddy. What a colossal waste on such a lame attempt.
Aamir your story driven Dhuan or whatever its called is much needed.
Among the current lot , hope Loot is a bit decent and govinda can lighten up the movie experience.
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October 28, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Komal’s viewpoint on Friday’s collections:
Collections of Ra.One have dropped today (Friday, October 28) which is the third day. The drop wasn’t unexpected as many Hindu families stayed away from cinemas in the morning and noon shows due to Bhai Dooj festivities. Also, the mixed reports have begun to tell on the collections. However, collections picked up again after the noon shows.
Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. What’s more, the next weekend may also favour the film since there is not a single major or big release scheduled for next Friday.
Besides, the film is getting good reviews in its 3D version and that may run for the next five to six weeks. The kids and the youngsters especially are talking positively about the film which is about a video game. What is standing the film in good stead at the script level is the family values it talks about. Like a cinema manager of Bombay summed it up, “There are bound to be mixed reports of Ra.One but a lot of people are liking the angle of good triumphing over evil and the lesson imparted to Shah Rukh Khan’s kid in the film – that it is the hero who is to be emulated, never the villain.”
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October 28, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Totally this guy is a muppet. He is just so far up SRK’s payroll that he will make anything remotely negative sound like “its ok”, “nothing wrong” etc. What is this nonsense about Hindus staying away and what not. I thought “Diwali” is mine meant the collections were meant to rocket up during this period. Not a different festival every day to keep people away.
The warning signs are in this report. Whether they materialise is another matter. In a way its better to be a bit like sitting on the fence – the only problem is other stars don’t benefit from this soft, gentle commentary – he’ll save it for SRK but take others to the gutter.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:21 AM
What is this guy saying?! Just a year ago, he was saying that Diwali is the biggest period for Bollywood films! Earlier in an interview to TOI Nahta had said ”There is NO better period in India to release movies than Diwali!” See the excerpt:
”The best time for a film’s release is during Diwali.
But why is this so? Can’t other festivals rake in as much moolah? No, says film trade expert Komal Nahta. ”Diwali is unique in that it is spread over four days. Raksha Bandhan, Eid, Christmas are one-day holidays and hence you do not get the same numbers. There is no better period in India than Diwali for a film.””
Source – http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-11-04/special-report/27972559_1_diwali-film-industry-big-banner-films
Now all of a sudden, they are saying Diwali ”hurt” Ra 1’s business! Wah wah!
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October 29, 2011 at 4:50 AM
lol jay…
next he will say:
1). Many kids stayed away because there were lots of boob-condom-crotch-gay…..stuff otherwise Ra. One would have easily done 500 cr….
2). Many intellectual viewers stayed away because…well, they always stay away from an srk film…..otherwise….
3). Many Surya-fans stayed away because they wanted to spend their money in on a Surya film – 7…..otherwise….
4). Many Hema Malini and Dharmendra fans decided to watch TMOK…..otherwise….
…..
…..
100). Many Big B fans stayed away because someone made very bad remarks on him on twitter…..otherwise
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October 28, 2011 at 10:05 AM
“I think Ra.1 would have been even a bigger hit if people didnt have to breathe,brush their teeth,shave,shower,have sex or sleep . These are coming in the way of it being a block buster.”
LOL.
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October 28, 2011 at 10:34 AM
PritishNandy’s tweets said a lot abt RA1 than anything else..
Went to see Ra1 with no expectations. Was stopped by random people at Inox, discouraging us. Including a charming old lady.
The 6.45 show at Inox Screen 5 was “House Full”. We got 6 tickets easily. Front few rows empty. By the end of the film, more were.
the problem with Ra1 is that it does not connect with SRK’s own fan base. They were cursing the film and walking out.
But Ra1 is a delightful new entry into the successful new genre of mindless movies that Bollywood has now fashioned for itself.
So dont judge Ra1 by any critical standards. Just go watch it, as you would watch Singh is King or Gol Maal, and you may enjoy it.
A 100 wild horses cannot drag me back to watching Ra1 again. But, yes, I enjoyed my first watch. Glad I made it.
he had few more tweets, but these sums up well.
Looks like WOM is very bad, especially in metros. Thats why everyone is reporting Rajasthan…lol
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October 28, 2011 at 11:21 AM
and by the way people think this is conspiratorial stuff but we see an example here. How is the guy able to get that many seats in a ‘houseful’ theater? How are there empty rows in such a theater?
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October 28, 2011 at 11:26 AM
seats can be vacant , people book tickets and scared to turn up
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October 28, 2011 at 11:32 AM
I guess it is worse when people dont show up after paying a lot of money.That says more.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:36 AM
agree. SRK has put lot of effort , we should appreciate it. It is not an easy movie like Ready or BG.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:41 AM
can be corporate bookings where people decide not to turn up with the clients and lose the potential business deal! I find this less plausible with individuals because you’re not likely to spend that kind of money on tickets and not show up because of bad reviews. At least not the majority. But where this happens it shows how miserable the WOM is. To be honest not suggesting this is happening all over the place but these are old tricks of the trade in this sense. Not as effective anymore because of piracy and so on but one can try and hold things together for a day or two. Note that if there were bookings and people didn’t show up Nandy wouldn’t have been able to buy tickets. Because the theaters wouldn’t know this before the film started! Even into the movie they could hardly have done this because people come in late all the time.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:00 PM
@Satyam
I had Frnds which have 8 tickets of ra1 wid him given by him by HSBC, And One Investment firm, another has 4 tickets from Western Union. Wat we are seeing is Nothing but bulk corporate bookings n now Theatres can be empty as ppl r afraid to turn up for this RA1 :)… It is Same story everywhere… Simply running on Corporate bookings till Sunday… as Amod Mehra has just saID THAT RA 1 will see big Crash on Monday as it has lost all steam .
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October 28, 2011 at 1:47 PM
this makes perfect sense..
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October 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM
lol at housefull bit….one tamasha after another every day and these desperate cover up only damage the reputation of people concerned
one thing is now out in open and which any layman can see how indian trade is mainipulated
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October 28, 2011 at 10:37 AM
Another super funny review
http://tantanoo.com/movies-shoovies/2011/10/ra-one-no-pun/
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October 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM
LOL Gryfindor thanks for posting– great one specially the following-
And there is not truth in the claim that it is a movie for kids, what with all the condom-condom talk and Tere-Parents-Ki flying around. Not to mention the occasional crotch touching(going by current stereotypes, I’ll assume that those scenes were the contributions for which Karan Johar was thanked in the credits
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October 28, 2011 at 11:31 AM
LOL!!!!
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October 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM
The media and Shahrukh should simply accept RA.one as a failure and move on but I think they are just trying to squeeze out a few more crores out of it until the bad word-of-mouth really spreads if it hasn’t already. In any case, big stars and marketing can only give you good openings which more or less RA.one did get. If a film is completely disliked, then no one can save it – HR couldn’t do it with Kites, SRK can’t with RA.one, and even Aamir will fail if he happens to do another Mela again.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:14 AM
But how is it a “failure”? It may not have had as big an opening as hoped for, but it’s not exactly a small opening, and we’re still in the opening stages. Too early to write it off.
Having said that, I came here to post this:
http://www.manatelugumovies.net/2011/10/special-focus-on-shahrukhs-ra-one.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
an “analysis” on a Telugu TV channel of “Ra.One’s failure”, so others also seem to share this view.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:31 AM
nothing to disagree with here.. I think though what happens is that even when the writing seems to be on the wall you have this hope that it can be somewhat stable at the very low end in which case the biggest possible initial can help. Which is when you get these frantic efforts. However once WOM also collapses completely I think it’s really a losing battle. You can do all of this with a film that has been liked to a degree but for various reasons doesn’t quite have the box office numbers to back it up. In such a scenario the ‘hey it’s doing great’ narrative can have some resonance. But otherwise it’s very hard. In general the days of Nahata and Taran dictating the terms of the debate by disseminating their narrative in the media and so forth are really over. The online world from blogs to social media can just take apart the numbers, examine the contradictions, poke fun at things in a very viral way, etc. And here I think that for all his savvy at this stuff perhaps even SRK (or someone like Johar) underestimates this aspect of things. Because they’re still in the 90s paradigm of keeping control over the print and TV media whereas now it’s the Wild West of the online world! Today you have someone who watches Ra One in an early morning show and immediately texts/tweets everyone about it even before the movie is over. You have people who tweet several times during a film. It’s very hard for anyone to combat this. And so the whole 25 crore claim is also a waste of time. No one’s going to talk about this for a film that doesn’t have good WOM. But also there will lots and lots of stories like Pritish Nandy’s basically implying it’s all a hoax and so on.
And yes there are still some old-fashioned truths in the world. One of these is that the biggest stars in the most hyped machines cannot save a film that is being rejected by the audience.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:39 AM
Movie is still collecting more than 14 Crore a day .. so no point to write it off. The day collection will drop to > 50% and total collections till that day if is less than 110 Crore .. we can easily write it off.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:11 AM
Pritish Nandy’s Tweet proves the thing about manufactured Housefulls.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:43 AM
There have been more than murmurs about Srk having lost the top slot since the ghajinis,dabangs, 3I,
Boduguard, reddy etc etc
But somehow Srk was tactfully avoiding a major release for some time and was trying to “shy off” a head on battle where stuff can be verified
What ra1 dies from now on depends on the merits of the film and umpteen other things…
But what even most Srk die hard fans will admit secretly is that now he has formally and officially lost the top spot in verifiable terms–
Nothing else (not even Diwali or the genre or the musk or pheromones in the air) can justify ra1 opening falling below bodyguard (Which was the weakest of salman/aamir recent blockbusters)
Trying to justify that ra1 is still a “superhit” is face-saving but doesnt achieve much to rescue the facade or Srk-“the best”
End of an era—whether one likes it or not…
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October 28, 2011 at 12:28 PM
Alex,srk was not No1 by 2007. Akshay is No1 from 2007.
Akshay has been consisitent in giving hits and his total net of successful films is more than any other star.
Srk era has officially ened now.But many people realised it when welcome outgriossed OSO in 2007.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:27 PM
Even earlier, Krissh, Dhoom 2, Koi Mil Gaya, Gadar, Kaho Na Pyar Hai were much bigger hits than SRK’s films. All of Salman’s films trumped SRK’s films in the year 1999 too. What ”era” was there?
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October 29, 2011 at 10:19 AM
“Akshay is No1 from 2007”
true sunil – akki’s last hit was in 2007 and from then onwards –
on planet earth – he has given flops/superflops/disasters and he is
definately no. 1 in this aspect since 2007 🙂 check IMDB Akshay Kumar and see how many hits he has given from 2007 to remain on no. 1 – where as sallu, aamir, ajay all are doing absolutely nothing to remain in nos. game 😉
where r u living dude? mars, moon, jupiter?
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October 28, 2011 at 11:45 AM
Ra.One Second Day Territorial Breakdown
Friday 28th October 2011 14.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) collected 22.75-23 core nett approx on its second day. It was a record collection for all India for any single day. Below is the second day territorial breakdown of the film.
Mumbai – 8.04 crore
Delhi/UP – 4.72 crore
East Punjab – 2.00 crore
West Bengal – 1.21 crore
Bihar – 45 lakhs
CP Berar – 1.15 crore
CI – 86 lakhs
Rajasthan – 1.41 crore
Nizam – 1.15 crore
Mysore – 1.11 crore
Others – 70 lakhs
TOTAL – 22.80 crore
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October 28, 2011 at 11:47 AM
just going by BOI numbers they had BG at 20.6 crores for the opening day. Here it’s 22.8 crores for day 2. With all those extra screens, all the ticket hikes, isn’t it obvious that even on the second day it really isn’t ahead of BG?
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October 28, 2011 at 11:48 AM
Ra.One (Hindi) Heads For Three Day Opening Record
Friday 28th October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) is likely to set the opening record for the first three days which is 52.60 crore nett set by Bodyguard this year. After the first two days Bodyguard is just edging it with a 1.50 crore nett lead over Ra.One (Hindi).
Bodyguard was 39 crore nett after two days while Ra.One (Hindi) is 37.50 crore after two days. Diwali puja hit Ra.One for around 8.50 crore nett otherwise first two days would have been similar as both days were holidays.
The morning and afternoon collections on its third day have seen drops at places but strong at other places especially in the North due to Bhai Dooj holiday. Gujarat and Delhi/UP is likely to have a strong third day.
Top First Three Day Openings
1. Bodyguard – 52.60 crore nett
2. Dabangg – 48.82 crore nett
3. Ready – 42.23 crore nett
4. Three Idiots – 37.98 crore nett
5. Ra.One (Hindi) – 37.50 crore nett (Two Days)
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October 28, 2011 at 11:49 AM
in another one of many signs they’re now talking about a collective three day number.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:54 AM
Superheroes sans spandex
The superhero comic and the movie are deeply linked to American history and the country’s mythology about its place in the world
Stall Order | Nandini Ramnath
Shah Rukh Khan returned to the screen this fortnight after what seems to be a century by retooling a very American idea. In Ra.One, he plays a superhero named G.One who seems to have been assembled out of parts that originally belonged to the Iron Man and The Terminator. Khan’s costumes in Ra.One, however, are far more sophisticated than the baggy pants that Puneet Issar wore in the 1987 movie Superman (cotton should never ever be used in place of spandex). In keeping with Indian conventions, Khan’s bionic man sings, dances and even indulges in a bit of romance alongside saving the earth from the evil Ra.One. Superman faced many challenges in his lifetime, but shaking a leg to Chammak Challo was never among them.
Dressed for the part: In Ra.One, Khan plays the superhero G.One.
Dressed for the part: In Ra.One, Khan plays the superhero G.One.
The Issar film, which also starred Dharmendra in a Jor-El-inspired part, was an early attempt at importing the American superhero genre to India. It is kindly described these days as cult (usually a synonym for massive flop). There haven’t been too many attempts since to create local avatars. Shekhar Kapur’s Mr India had a truly extraordinary arch-villain but a fairly ordinary hero whose only trick was that he possessed a bracelet that made him invisible. Krrish, directed by Rakesh Roshan and starring Hrithik Roshan, was another brave attempt to Indianize the genre, but Naseeruddin Shah’s evil megalomaniac who builds a machine that can predict the future was an odd idea for a country that has its share of astrologers and clairvoyants.
The superhero comic and the movie are deeply linked to American history and the country’s mythology about its place in the world. Besides, why on earth do we need Hollywood superheroes when we have Bollywood superstars? Hindi film heroes have mostly been all-rounders at the very least, if not endowed with near-divine powers. They have never needed shiny capes or sparkling gadgets to activate their extraordinary powers. The Hindi film hero has had the supernatural ability to woo the woman of his choice (the exceptions depend on whether the story has a tragic or a happy ending), sing (in different voices) and dance (in different styles without practice). Our heroes can unite warring factions, win wars and save the nation from dastardly enemies. They triumph in all the fights they get into, regardless of the physical strength of their opponents.
Some of our heroes have been getting a bit more realistic of late. They actually run in the opposite direction from toughies and weep when their hearts break. It’s not surprising that disgusted audiences are embracing the antics of bare-bodied heroes. The pretence of putting up a defence against the likes of Salman Khan and Ajay Devgn has been all but abandoned. Salman Khan’s “Robinhood Pandey” in Dabangg and Devgn’s Bajirao Singham in Singham are men of extraordinary talents who don’t need to prove it by wearing shiny underwear on top of tights. Stripped of its self-importance, the superhero film is really a hyperbolic action movie. Indian heroes seem to manage just fine without implants or extraterrestrial powers. A police uniform can be just as empowering as a superhero suit.
Ra.One released in theatres on 26 October.
Nandini Ramnath is the film critic of Time Out Mumbai
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October 28, 2011 at 11:55 AM
The Illicit Pleasures of Ra.One
Most of Ra.One’s underhand charm comes from director Anubhav Sinha’s mismanagement, says Poorva Rajaraman
Ra.One opens with a genuinely funny superhero parody dream sequence: a hyper comic book version of Shah Rukh Khan has to save Desi Girl (Priyanka Chopra) from a lurking Khal Nayak (Sanjay Dutt channelling Munnabhai). He is only moderately successful by the time his wishful son wakes up with a jolt. Little Prateek Subramanium, played by Aman Varma in the happy tradition of androgynous children in SRK movies (the Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna boy as actually a girl), does not believe his father can be a hero.
Turns out, his father is not a hero, but a bumbling South Indian computer programmer, Shekhar Subramanium. The cause for you to celebrate is simply this: short of a spoof, Ra.One is probably the lightest superhero film you’ll see.
If Ra.One had a genre-abiding screenplay the movie would subject us to deep emotional ties; the soft, laconic romance between the protagonist and his wife, the tender bordering on troubled relationship with his son, the genuine inadequacies a socially awkward man in a fast-paced world—a man like many others, who has to suffer the desolation of ordinariness.
And that movie might still be made by the thoughtful and brave, but the first 30 minutes of Ra.One coast along on the sheer novelty of a Shah Rukh Khan playing a South Indian. At least someone protests: “Dad, I don’t do inge va”, says little Prateek.
Its hard to avoid the fact that most of Ra.One’s underhand charm comes from director Anubhav Sinha’s mismanagement. On the subject of good and evil, Ra.One’s dialogue is imponderably stupid. The movie has a very jumbled cultural grasp on South India. It makes Padosan look authentic.
Ra.One does, however, pose a serious question to serious movie watchers. After the sophistication of the recent scripts like Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara or Delhi Belly, how can it be okay for Ra.One to lead us back into the dark ages of screenwriting? The answer is related to the film’s lavish insincerity. It has the most desperately feeble attempts to make you care about death or grief. It doesn’t bother with scenes, Ra.One is string of scenarios.
All these things might make Ra.One a truly Indianised superhero movie—no achingly real character arcs, no saving whole cities or the civilised world, no childhood foreshadowing adulthood, no romance beyond lusty dance numbers, no Matrix explorations of free will in the cyber age, no psychologically mutant villains, no explanations, no real stakes. Put another way, Ra.One is an emotionally lively video game.
Ra.One has a redeeming streak of madcap on constant simmer. At one point, Kareena Kapoor (Sonia Subramanium) is typewriting a feminist thesis that will liberate all Indian women. She also wants to be the world’s most famous writer. Of course, this happens before she becomes an evil train driver, but that is a spoiler for another day. At school, her son Prateek uses his technological mastery to project the poledancing-in-leather skills of his teacher. The sexual humour doesn’t end there—condom jokes, robot-men saying c**t on loop and a son sexually harassing his mother by tweaking the cyber incarnation of his father.
Shekhar, whose day job is to plan appallingly conceptual video games (when did just shooting things go out of style?), has launched a new game called Ra.One. This is when, in a delightful twist of attention deficit modern parenting, Akon’s Criminal starts playing and Sonia and Shekhar dance (their “booty going pop pop pop”) while their son’s video game alias Lucifer, is being thulped in by the evil and increasingly sentient Ra.One.
On Prateek’s prompting, within the labyrinthine schematics of the videogame called Ra.One, the villain is always stronger than the good guy G.One and can only die if lots of micro-conditions are met. So, when Ra.One transmogrifies into the real world, things begin to suck. He kills Shekhar and Lucifer/Prateek is in mortal danger. Who will save Lucifer from the bad guys? Its time for G.One to transmogrify with the help of an under-utilised Shahana Goswami. But, as the long-suffering Sonia exclaims (presumably with the audience) “Yeh sab kaise ho sakta hai?”
Indeed. This is a world in which a sophisticated self-propagating computer program can attain autonomous, corporeal selfhood, but Kareena Kapoor can’t book a taxi to meet her at the Mumbai airport. At this particular juncture of the movie, you might want cede your misgivings to its internal logic.
Why would she book a taxi if she were illegally smuggling a superhero into India with her? Also what use is a taxi in a world where Rajinikanth will meet you at arrivals? And nothing must rid her of the lush NRI fantasy of beating up overcharging taxi drivers.
Ra.One is far easier to watch when the action moves to Mumbai post-interval. India is also where we meet a ravishing Arjun Rampal who finally gets his turn to play Ra.One. He has competition from Kareena Kapoor, who does immense justice to her few minutes as an evil possessed-by-Ra.One train driver. She is on a mission to persecute the most self-convinced demographic of any urban context: angry commuters.
The 1933 King Kong is a classic because it further etched the New York skyline into cultural history and memory, Ra.One does this well with Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. What is the best way to assert the cultural significance of something? How can you ensure that cinema archaeologists from the future will find the cultural touchstones you place in your movie? How can communicate the deep symbolic value of a building like CST to a jagged cityscape?
Blow it up.
If anyone is still idealistic enough to wonder why books don’t have 50 crore weekend openings or why cinema is and will stay a deeply hegemonic medium, they should watch Kareena Kapoor drive a local train off the tracks into the edifice of CST. Oh, and they should probably stick around while the building clatters to the ground. Why does this happen?
Perhaps its a profound commentary on architectural imperialism. Perhaps it is a sly suggestion to Danny Boyle not to consider a Slumdog Millionaire sequel. Perhaps Ra.One is retroactively telling the Shiv Sena that they needn’t have bothered with nomenclature protests against the erstwhile Victoria Terminus.
Who knows? Who cares.
Poorva Rajaram is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:59 AM
this is a great read! Will say on the VT point that this is closer to Hollywood paradigms where typically disaster movies revel in blowing up iconic sites and symbols! And note how this kind of move is in its conceptual defacement not that far from the whole terrorist delight in doing the same.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:10 PM
Re: It makes Padosan look authentic.
LOL.
Some of the achievements of Ra.1 might not be immediately obvious.
Like the above. or the fact that it makes Kkrish look like a classic.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:12 PM
My comment elsewhere in response to the claims of Ra.ONE beating BG’s three day numbers:
LOL.
Too bad, it took 1000 more screens,jacked up ticket prices, unprecedented marketing blitzkrieg and friendly BO reporting to achieve it.
It is like saying India surpassed England’s total in cricket but they did it with 15 batsmen, a shorter boundary and friendly umpires. And some batsmen were allowed to bat twice.
When a main stream journalist like Pritish Nandy claims that he went to see the movie and there was a Houseful board but he managed to get six tickets and a lot of front rows were empty ( and more became empty later), I guess it says a lot.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:20 PM
for all its cheese never did mind Krrish too much.. KMG was the one I found it hard to sit through..
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October 28, 2011 at 12:20 PM
http://twitter.com/#!/soulucky
This is cinema chain owner in gujraat .. and saying 100% DROP in his chain of theater ..
And see what BOI is saying in latest report that Gujraat is doing good on third day ..
What a pure LIE by BY BOI
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October 28, 2011 at 12:26 PM
100% drop!!!!
that means nobody saw the film today….. i rather believe boi than this guy
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October 28, 2011 at 12:31 PM
This is pathethic, cannot be true!
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October 28, 2011 at 1:14 PM
By 100% Drop he mean .. almost empty houses .. not necessarily no body .. and he is cinema chain owner .. check his earlier tweets, he was hoping for excellent weekend based on advance and also he said earlier that advance is better than bodyguard …
So why he will lie now .???
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October 28, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Samit Basu’s write up reveals the hollowness of Rangan’s review. He fails to point out the basic failures at the script level. This business of glorifying the masala films of 70’s is lazy writing. There are good msala films and there are bad masala films. There are good 70’s films and bad 70’s films. And the bit about all our heroes being superheroes is another piece of lazy thinking. Not true. Chitti in Endhran works. So does Krissh in Krissh. Because the films and the character have adhered to the need for internal logic that Samit Basu spelt out. There is clarity about what Chitty is and what are the limits of his power ( need for charging is one, inability to understand finer human sentiments is another)) . Rangan fails to point any of these, in his eagerness to defend Sharhulkh..suggesting that a silly smile would be the right analgesic to go through what is obviously a painful film.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:33 PM
will say once more that SRK’s nemesis here turned out to be his original sin of taking Anubhav Sinha as director. He had the material, he clearly had the marketing blitz in place to get the biggest initial, but he just forgot who the director was. And with this sort of subject it often seems easier than it is. Which is why Krrish should always be studied closely as a model of how to get it right. One doesn’t have to be exactly as old-fashioned as Roshan but once should learn from this. And of course more to the point one should really examine Shankar’s film and figure out the distinctions. The problem is that whether you’re SRK or a fan of a star if you think that it’s all the same and it’s only about SFX you stumble. The same errors are made by people in other genres. So Akshay might have been doing stupid comedies but as he’s learnt over time some are better than others. Similarly Ready and BG might seem to be the same stuff but it’s not. Now one might not care for the entire genre, that’s a different thing but one cannot paint everything with the same brush. Much as I dislike a certain kind of multiplex fare and even though I had very many of the same objections with ZNMD I still found it much more engaging as a watch than most others. So on and so forth.
Getting back to Ra One the single biggest reason why I was never going to watch this in the theater was the director. The advertising campaign confirmed this for me. I still would have changed my mind with the right reviews but that of course didn’t happen. On the other hand for all my problems with the politics of remakes and so forth I am interested in Don 2 because the longer trailers are very slick. So it always helps to start with a more credible director. Doesn’t have to be a Farhan Akhtar with more auteurist tendencies. It could be a pure masala filmmaker but there has to be a great degree of competence for this kind of venture.
And to repeat once more SRK should really have turned South for someone to handle this film. There actually aren’t many I can think of in Bombay besides Rakesh Roshan (if any!) to handle this sort of very commercial deal with this subject.
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October 29, 2011 at 10:28 AM
the only one director in india who can handle this genre still remains to be……shankar…..and no one else on horizon can do this in my opinion….shankar offered robot to srk earlier, but it didn’t happen….and now this seemingly “crap” ra.one – srk has very little sense of choosing a script/director i would say and he is purely relying on his safe-territory-successes of the past….rajesh khanna’s history might just repeat here….srk is definately going down the hills – as an actor!
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October 28, 2011 at 12:33 PM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
#RaOne Day 3 [Friday] is expected to be in Rs 17 cr to Rs 19 cr nett range.
This is pretty good, if it can hold up like this Saturday and Sunday, it’ll join the 100 crore club.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:34 PM
remember that Taran’s numbers have been consistently higher throughout..
anyway the debate here is hardly about joining the 100 crore club.
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October 28, 2011 at 12:38 PM
Taran is including all three versions and it will probably end up being near 15 or less.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:49 PM
true.. I forgot that!
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October 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM
i lost all respect for Rangan when he failed to recognize Rakesh Roshan’s talent for storytelling ( making both Koi Mil Gaya and Krissh work is no mean feat, when you see the younger lot like Goldie Behl , the Love 2050 guy and nowAnubhav Sinha) . And mentioning Endhiran in the review and not appluading Shankr’s fecund imagination and ability to create characters and character motivations that engage is a sin that I will never forgive.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:00 PM
Easy, Utkal.
Sometimes we forget that a critic’s job is NOT to just agree with us or think exactly like we do.As long as it is a viable view point, it is OK even if it tends to differ from ours. My objection is to manufactured reviews which we see all the time.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:24 PM
It is not about agreeing with us, it is about us agreeing with him. If I think Dickens or Dostoevsky does not get London right or the human subconscious right will I consider them great writers? Obviously not. That’s why I don’t think much of Salman Rushdie or Ayn rand. Writing wel is not enough. You have get the insights right. And who judges if he has got the insights right? Obviously it is I , if I am the one giving the opinion.
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October 28, 2011 at 3:36 PM
Haha kash vvvthe “encountered” ones are safe n sound–more in the “harem” the better…lol
Havent read b rangans review but he seems to be losing it sow what lately –began with delhi belly…
Feel people in general are underestimating rakesh Roshans indianised Krish etc
They were cunningly done keeping special care not ronalineate hritik fanbase or kids or the urban crowd whilst keeping it relatively simple fun…
Heard there is some kareena “boob press ” , “condom ” , “gay jokes” stuff here–I mean: what are these jokers trying to achieve here—killing their own patrons –truly to be kool
Sometimes it’s difficult NOT to do too
Much and that restraint is rare
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October 28, 2011 at 4:41 PM
@utkal
LOL! I can see who your next victim is after Guzaarish.
Normally one appreciates a critique when it expresses things that one wants to hear.
I thought he expressed himself well about Ra.One, *but* I thought he desrves to be put into the museum along with the other dinosaurs for ridiculing a ‘girl’ saving SRK and herself from a situation. Indian men will never get over their so called definition of what makes a man. I also have this opinion that it was really sporting of SRK to do the scene.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:26 PM
Well WOM is indeed bad. Just chatted with acquaintances in Dubai who have dropped plans to see it today (it being Friday which is a holiday in Dubai) due to the negativity. They said “its a headeache inducing movie”!.
Now, I am seriously reconsidering my plans to take family tonite to my local Loews.
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October 28, 2011 at 1:47 PM
You are right there, I have a couple of co-workers (die srk fan’s) who went with their wives on wed, They had nothing but horrible things to say about the movie. And this coming straight from a die-hard srk fan. SRK is not only loosing interest with neutral fans, but even his loyalists are giving it a big F to this one.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:23 PM
My friends in England (and India) have nothing but good to say about Ra. ONe – as a full time entertainer.
They went with their families. They said that now some oftheir office workers have decided to go and watch it with their families.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:26 PM
And as one knows here, I’m going with friends this weekend (I will comment on it here some time on Tuesday /Wednesday).
And I am going all the way to England.
Or don’t I, my friends or acquaintances count.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:38 PM
Oldgolds timetable/itinerary seems interesting indeed….lol
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October 28, 2011 at 2:00 PM
http://www.indiantelevision.com/aac/y2k11/aac2016.php
“On the whole, Ra.One opened to below expectations response due to wrong release day (Diwali). Having picked up handsomely on second day, it started its slide on third day. The appreciation being poor, the film’s box office potential stand hugely challenged.”
Vinod Mirani
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October 28, 2011 at 2:05 PM
The other big thing here unlike KANK and MNIK is that overseas numbers just won’t be that impressive to have a counter-narrative of any sort. These sorts of genres aren’t huge anyway with the overseas audience, at least so far, and here it’s a bigger problem. Nor is there the fact that MNIK got very positive critical coverage. To put it in perspective SRK has never had such total failure on a comparably hyped project. I can’t think of anything really. There is just no escape hatch on this one.
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October 28, 2011 at 2:55 PM
Inside scoop– there are some anecdotal scoops about fee tickets/passes being dished out for ra1–in the name of corporate tie-ups .
Will have to confirm it and difficult to fully prove it conclusively since there are many ways of fudgIng certain figures by playing with certain figures.
Plus one shouldn’t be critical if benefitting lol
Anyhow : hope ra1 “lasts” on it’s own…
All th best
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October 28, 2011 at 3:04 PM
Alex, watsup man? How is US treating you? Still here? had any interesting encounters?
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October 28, 2011 at 3:11 PM
A v “productive” trip in every way: mate
Damn good
Will think of writing a book but may get too much..
To summarise however: it’s no accident that this country has been a super power for so long–something gets into the genes–the question is –how lOng…
As for the “encounters”: perhaps this “respectable decent ” blog is not appropriate for that
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October 28, 2011 at 3:25 PM
Good to hear friend. Hope all esle is well. Oh brother, god help the encountered ones…lol.
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October 28, 2011 at 3:00 PM
Typo–*free not *fee
Is this how “houseful” status is achieved–hmmm
Next time-one may ask for free nachos/beer combos and what about celebrity company–
& yes: Srk /Arjun won’t do& definitely not kareena
Heck–this one doesn’t even have an exciting celebrity to “lend”
By the way–have noticed that some “hardcore” Srk fans have suddenly gone onto hiding..
Cmon guys– we are neutrals and here to help/hype
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October 28, 2011 at 4:01 PM
Now this is the best tweet I have seen in regards to ra.one retweeted by Raja Sen. Hope you enjoy this oldgold.
“i prefer my old and steady superhero Bhu.one from Lagaan” LOL.
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October 28, 2011 at 4:34 PM
While the majority enjoyed 3I he didn’t, so perhaps he sees both Ra.One and 3I with the same jaundiced eye 😉
BTW, should his views matter to me?
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October 28, 2011 at 4:36 PM
As I said he has “retweeted” this tweet from someone else, He must have enjoyed this joke. So take it for what it is. A Joke.
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October 28, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Well, obviously my sense of humour differs from his.
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October 28, 2011 at 6:46 PM
Bhu.One refers to Lagaan, not 3 Idiots.
There have been a lot of “.One” jokes.
Anyway, as I said before, just don’t read anything on the net, but go and enjoy the movie.
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October 28, 2011 at 7:21 PM
I think I will certainly enjoy it sm even if I think it’s not a great film. From all that I’ve heard from acqaintances it is a great entertainer.
One can take the greatest of films, even one like Pathar Panchali and make jokes. This is the reason why I think the people aren’t being genuine, but attempting to spread negativity and to sabotage.
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October 28, 2011 at 11:58 PM
Pathar Panchali? Really?!
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October 28, 2011 at 7:43 PM
Most SMS or Twitter jokes are either inane or somewhat mean-spirited, and are endlessly repeated/resent. However, they are also spontaneous, and I doubt any intent to sabotage anything.
I’ve just read a review by an extremely die-hard SRK fan on another forum, who didn’t like it and was very disappointed. I must say I found that much more shocking than anything else I’ve read, since I’m familiar with her level of devotion. So I think some real SRK fans also genuinely don’t like it and were hugely disappointed. The ones who do like it (SRK fans or not) are almost universally praising it for its special effects and for “taking Bollywood films forward.” The ones who don’t like it complain that there is no story or emotional involvement. So it seems to me that the special effects are the only thing that people have liked.
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October 28, 2011 at 4:08 PM
Haha good one kash
Seems u have retained your sense of humor even after marriage.
Credit to your better half–is she looking after u well / or vice versa…
Is she not a ra1 fan lol?
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October 28, 2011 at 4:31 PM
Thanks Brotha, She is great, Oh I feel like I married a chef (amazing cook – which I knew of, but not to this extent) gaining weight by the day need to hit the gym soon. Tell you what, to prove how much of a fan she is. Time and again I have ended up taking her to really bad movies (indian) which kind of took away my credibility of “knowing” my films. She says no matter how much the hype or good word we always end up watching a really bad movie in theatres, So to take it further, she goes to me “you know how our record has been of watching bad films in the theater, lets go watch ra.one” LOL. I told her “I dont think we need to do that, SRK has already made a bad movie” LOL.
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October 28, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Hehe kash–good man
So she is a brilliant cook—u deserve all the good food
Btw hope u don’t lose further credibility by taking her to ra1
Maybe a DVD watch of bridesmaid or Paris maybe better–my recent viewings
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October 28, 2011 at 4:35 PM
http://truthdive.com/2011/10/29/ra-one-rocks-at-overseas-box-office.html
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October 28, 2011 at 4:37 PM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/raone-collects-rs-25-crore-on-second-day/197020-8-66.html
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October 28, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Thanks shaurya. Both pieces of news are good.
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October 28, 2011 at 5:01 PM
So oldie aunty has got orgasmic about ra1
Did u like it oldie aunty (respectfully)
And plz don’t embarrass me by calling “uncle” now
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October 28, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Uncle ji namaste.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:03 AM
Ra.One Creates Records Tell Me Oh Khuda and Damadamm Suffer
Saturday 29th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One released on Wednesday opened to superb response all over and has just edged out Bodyguard and set a new high for the first three days. The film has mixed reports and mass centres are likely to see drops while urban centres will have a good run for two weeks.
Damadamm and Tell Me Oh Khuda opened to a poor 0-5% response on Thursday. Both film will go unnoticed due to the Ra.One wave.
The other releases like Mujhse Fraandship Karoge, Rascals, etc had an abrupt end to their run with the release of Ra.One on Wednesday.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:03 AM
“The film has mixed reports ….”
No kidding!
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October 29, 2011 at 12:07 AM
Ra.One Collections Drop… But Pick Up Again
October 28th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Collections of Ra.One have dropped today (Friday, October 28) which is the third day. The drop wasn’t unexpected as many Hindu families stayed away from cinemas in the morning and noon shows due to Bhai Dooj festivities. Also, the mixed reports have begun to tell on the collections. However, collections picked up again after the noon shows.
Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. What’s more, the next weekend may also favour the film since there is not a single major or big release scheduled for next Friday.
Besides, the film is getting good reviews in its 3D version and that may run for the next five to six weeks. The kids and the youngsters especially are talking positively about the film which is about a video game. What is standing the film in good stead at the script level is the family values it talks about. Like a cinema manager of Bombay summed it up, “There are bound to be mixed reports of Ra.One but a lot of people are liking the angle of good triumphing over evil and the lesson imparted to Shah Rukh Khan’s kid in the film – that it is the hero who is to be emulated, never the villain.”
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October 29, 2011 at 12:07 AM
“Of course, there is still no reason for anyone to press the panic button in spite of the fall in collections today as collections on Saturday and Sunday are expected to be good. ”
does anyone every say this about a successful film?! These guys are tying themselves up in knots!
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October 29, 2011 at 12:11 AM
.
Just got back from a 3D show of Ra.one
First a Background of myself. Those who are familiar with me, know that I am first a BigB fan, then an ardent admirer of Aamir, and an ardent critic of SRK over the years. I consider myself the Aam Junta, the quintessential middle-India values person, who always is won over by simple thought provoking or visually enhancing material packaged in the true bollywood package. In my experience, SRK has always delivered paisa-vasool entertainment, with a few missteps such as Billu, Asoka, MNIK. But after watching this movie, I can attest that he has had balls the size of watermelons to attempt something like this. THE MOVIE IS KICKASS (JHAKASS IN HINDI), except for some really dimwitted decision-making to include some really questionable material. It is beyond exhilarating in parts, and totally frustrating in those dimwitted moments.
I dont need to accentuate the positives. All the VFX, the Ra.One-G.One first confrontation, train sequence, etc is totally breathtaking for a regular BW viewer. Forget Hwood for a moment, we are witnessing a desi flick folks.
Now the negatives:
I am beyond frustrated to understand why the heck he had to put in all the sexual innuendos, the gay jokes, the crotch jokes, the boob-butt grabs..all that simply kills it for the major target audience: such as me, the quintessential middle-Indian conservative values viewer. When 3I was the chase, why do it by bursting one of your tires with such tripe?
Also, another peev: Maybe he was trying to court the South Indian audience (and the paltry 1.5crs a day) with the Shekhar act. That entire Tamilian track is distracting, to say the least. It adds nothing to the narrative. When the need was to do a Suri, why do a Shekhar?
A major script flaw: How is it possible that they perform SRK’s funeral, and go through a time of perhaps at least a week, but yet not discover the mayhem at the Game-company headquarters, with the rotting body of the Chinese guy? They show Prateek and Goswami discovering the body after what seems to be at least a week or more?
And lastly, the climax is a bit underwhelming. IMHO, instead of the face-off in the artificial game-feel world, the face-off shouldve been an even more exhilarating version of the first face-off when they are blowing up cars, etc. It shouldve been a fight in the open with them causing real destruction, like of Nariman Point, India Gate, etc, instead of in those closed doors.
I truely believe, that had it not been for those distractions and questionable sexual innuendos, this movie would make 250crs minimum. I feel these distractions have minimized the potential. I dont know how Komal Nahta feels that this is a kids movie. I for one felt embarrassed with my kids watching the condom-condom stuff, the constant crotch crap, that totally uncalled for gay airport joke. Why, oh Why did SRK have to spoil the tempo with that bullshit? Also, maybe its fine in India, but out here in the US, a kids movie would never have that Chinese killing his mom scene with that slice of her neck. That falls in PG-13 territory, not in R.
Aside, I saw this movie in a Loews, where there never has been a desi movie played before. Interestingly, there was no Interval!!. I had to miss the airport scene to go to the loo, but came back in time to see Rajnikanth..lol.
Another thing, this movie has been playing since Wednesday with 4 shows daily. I dont know who the distributor is, but he sure will lose money here. My smalltown does not have even 500 desi families, God knows who will fill all these shows. I went to a 7:30pm show, and it was barely 25% full.
Anyways, I support the SRK fans. Kudos to SRK for attempting this. Bravo SRK. But, please also accept my brickbat for all that uncalled for crap.
Having said all this, I really feel that this movie will cross 160-170 minm in India. It may or may not cross 3I, that all depends upon the Indian audience acceptance of all that uncalled for filth.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:15 AM
RE: “Aside, I saw this movie in a Loews, where there never has been a desi movie played before.”
Boss, which Loews? In NYC, I have seen dozens of Hindi movies in two Loews (the one in Times Square; and the one on 3rd Avenue between 11th and 12th streets) — it is not true that a desi movie has never played in a Loews. In fact this isn’t even the first SRK film to play in a Loews: Don played at the one on 86th street and Broadway, and I am pretty sure KANK was on in Times Square.
Thanks for the write-up. On the jokes, this has to be something psychological, since we saw this even in Kal Ho Na Ho, and we saw a bunch of such humor when SRK and Saif were hosting the Filmfare awards. I can’t put my finger on it, but he seems to trot this out everywhere…
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October 29, 2011 at 12:24 AM
RDB played at the west side Loews on 34th near Macy’s….years ago Bluffmaster, Asoka, Company and others played in the Loews beneath the old Virgin Megastore in T Square. It’s definitely not a first..
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October 29, 2011 at 12:26 AM
Oh that’s right, forgot about that Loews near the Virgin megastore — I saw Bunty aur Babli in back-to-back shows there in 2005…man that was a sorry ass cinema.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:31 AM
Yeah it was crummy, but I had a soft spot for it. Among other things, it was the first theater where I saw Lal on the big screen on this side of the Atlantic! Incidentally there was the Gramercy on 23rd and Lex (now a concert space) where I saw my first Adoor film (Nizhalkuthu) in a cinema back when MOMA was showing international fare there.
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October 29, 2011 at 1:07 AM
I remember that theater in Gramercy when it used to show Hindi films…went there several times in the 1990s…it shut down soon enough (until recently, you’ll recall this was a recurring problem in NYC, with “Bollywood cinemas” shutting shop every few months, and the films would appear at a new location)…
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October 29, 2011 at 1:15 AM
Absolutely. Most recently as you may recall that dilapidated old warhorse, the Eagle Theater, shut down, only to see a new Jackson Heights cinema pop up showing Indian films. This would have been yet another footnote in the history you’ve cited were it not for the very welcome fact that they show Tamil and Telugu films! This is where I saw Enthiran a number of times and where I (hopefully) plan to see 7aam Arivu this weekend.
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October 29, 2011 at 2:04 AM
That theater is a godsend — in Mumbai I don’t know of any place that shows sub-titled Tamil/Telugu films; if it is still playing I might catch 7 Aum Arivu when I show up in NYC in November (short 4-5 day trip)…I saw Enthiran there, and might even have seen Raavanan there (or perhaps that was somewhere in NJ)…
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October 29, 2011 at 2:39 AM
Do either of you have any info on Velayutham? That is, is it worth seeing? I have a chance to see it on Sunday, but it will be difficult to squeeze in. I was originally going to go just to support the guy who’s bringing it, in the hopes that he might then bring 7am Arivu. But he said he will be bringing 7am Arivu anyway, so maybe I can skip this. 🙂 Any info or recommendation will be greatly appreciated.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:33 AM
Q: Yeah, Raavanan was in Jersey. Also I find it sad that Mumbai doesn’t do this…
Unfortunately sm the only information on Velayudham I have is the obvious – Vijay’s in it, which pretty much precludes my seeing it on the big screen short of a glowing set of reviews which isn’t the case here anyway. Only half joking on this score! Not that 7AA has been getting universal accolades or anything but this one at least has a lot going for it. Personally I’d wait for 7AA.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:58 AM
sm,
velayudham is a remake of azad , nagarjuna starrer, Telugu movie
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October 29, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Thanks, GF & SK. I knew Vijay was in it, which was why I thought I’d check it out, since I’d never seen him on screen. But I didn’t know it was a Nagarjuna remake, which is enough to keep me away. 🙂 I’d read somethingt that said Velayutham was a “superhero” film, so I thought it would be interesting to compare three superhero films, Velayutham, AA, & Ra. One. But right now I don’t have time to go to anything, so will probably skip Velayutham, and catch AA later, since I’ve also not seen Surya on screen.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:28 AM
Its in Fishkill, way north of NYC. This is Upstate for you city folks!! I was pleasantly surprised to see it play here, otherwise I wudve had to drive an hour to Rockland to see the movie at the AMC in Palisades.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:44 AM
In KHNH, there was one gay reference. Here, he went overboard with the crotch mishaps, Kareena gaalis, boob-butt-condom-poweryoga etc etc. Funniest is the one when he grabs Arjun’s crotch so that the game can proceed from Level 2 to Level 3 !!! That really makes me think SRK is a weirdo.
Why include the Criminal song, with the constant in your face booty-shakes. Arre bhai, aapke ghar mein maa-bahen-beti nahin hai kya? Its uncomfortable to view all that with females. The movie was for families with kids, but he certainly ensured that the single bachelor audience too got their fill of carnal pleasures.
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October 29, 2011 at 2:41 AM
This is a very encouraging report, NyKavi. I was planning on seeing Ra.One to check out its VFX, but I really can’t go for a couple of weeks, and was beginning to doubt if it would stay around that long. Now I’m pretty sure it will.
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October 29, 2011 at 2:39 AM
Ra.One (Hindi) Day Three Early Estimate
Ra.One (Hindi) did well on its third day by collecting around 16.50 crore nett as per early estimates. the film has set a record three day collection of 54 crore nett. Bodyguard was 52.50 crore nett approx and Dabangg was 48.75 crore nett approx. These are the only three films to collect around the 50 crore nett mark for three days.
The regional versions of the film saw a big fall on Friday. The film is likely to be driven by multiplexes from now on. Single screens will get a boost on Sunday but overall appreciation is better in the multiplexes of big centres.
The weekend is looking to settle in the 85-90 crore nett region as Saturday may well see a drop although business will be up and down depending on the circuit.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3624&nCat=
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October 29, 2011 at 7:22 AM
Latest update from Boxofficeindia:
The third day of Ra.One (Hindi) has come in lower than estimated earlier at 15.50 crore nett. This makes it a three day total of 53 crore nett. It is a record for first three days but by a very small margin.
The Tamil and Telugu versions have collected around 4 crore nett over three days which gives it a 57 crore nett all languages total.
The regional versions have performed better than any Hindi film before in just three days but there was big drop on third day and for the number of prints in play for regional version its an average performance.
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3625&nCat=
So with almost double the number of prints and double the number of shows, the film manages to collect the same as Bodyguard in three days. For a film which was supposed to break every record in bollywood history by big margin, this performance can be termed as pathetic only.
Cine-goers have given their verdict. They have not been fooled by the so called trade experts (say chamchas of SRGay – Komalangi, Torna and others). Writing is there on the wall for every one to see. With all the hype and hoopla this film now most definitely is not going to cross 130 crores in India. Thats for sure now.
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October 29, 2011 at 8:14 AM
rs. 57 crores nett indian market…..
pathetic.
and why dont we count overseas when we talk abt opening.
even there movie is watched by human beings.
just because other stars have very less iinfluence there so theier fans dont keep overseas no. in mind.
including overseas RA.ONE has beaten previous record by a huge margin.
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October 29, 2011 at 8:31 AM
they have BG at 52 crores and change. So again they’re just making it somehow edge out BG and calling it a ‘record’. With all those extra screens and so on it is actually doing worse than BG.
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October 29, 2011 at 8:59 AM
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One Makes Rs. 16 Cr On Day 3
October 29th, 2011 by Komal Nahta
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One made Rs. 16 – 16.5 crore (all-India net collection) on day three (Friday, October 28) from all the three versions (Hindi, Tamil and Telugu).
The movie, which netted Rs. 18 crore and Rs. 25 crore on days one and two, saw collections drop on Friday morning before they picked up later in the day. The third day’s collections are lesser as compared to the first two days, but they are still good enough.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:09 AM
they all seem to be on the same page at this point. Taran has the same ‘combined’ number. BOI have the Hindi number separate and therefore it’s lower by a crore or so.
Nahata now has this comparison:
http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/shah-rukh-khan%e2%80%99s-ra-one-3-day-total-ahead-of-box-office-hurricanes-bodyguard-singham/
since when has Singham been a box office ‘hurricane’. It opened way lower than the Salman films though sustained better than the latter to get to 100 crores but it would hardly otherwise be in any such discussion!
Again as I said yesterday this stuff is tiresome because it just does not matter at this stage. No one buys the ‘success’ of this film other than Nahata and Adarsh! Even some of the other trade analysts have been blunt about its prospects. Anyway the fact once again is that it isn’t keeping pace with BG. If it were with some of the advantages it has it should have been way ahead. It’s like 3I had some advantages over Ghajini including ticket hikes and so on. It should have been way ahead and was! What if after all this the film had barely touched Ghajini’s numbers? But even with those two films the screen count disparity wasn’t as great as it is here.
Think they’d be lucky to get to the Ready total at this point. Let’s do the math — according to BOI it’s a 53 crores through Fri. Let’s assume it keeps up this Fri number over the weekend. The film would then be at 83 crores for the 5 day period. It would have to do better on the weekend to get to 90 crores. And even that number would leave it 30 crores or so short of the Ready total. A film that by many estimates is looking to crash. As some have pointed out the corporate bookings are still making the current numbers a little better than they are.
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October 29, 2011 at 8:54 AM
Saw this last night. Its not a bad attempt. In parts its quite enjoyable like the Ra-one entry scene, Car chase, Train sequence, G-one RA-one first encounter all these are top quality and well shot. However, the rest of it is a drag. Another irritating part is the forced boob, butt jokes and especially the climax fight scene between G-one and Ra-one where SRK holds Arjun’s crotch in between the fight cmmon how stupid is this as this is climax fight with the so called deadliest villain and u plan to defeat him by holding his crotch it somewhat dilluted the effect of a deadly climax showdown for me. Overall WOM was average to bad. With kids having some fun. But I would take this to a Bodyguard or Ready anyday.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:01 AM
And btw heard the loudest cheer yesterday in a Dubai cinema. No it was not on entry scene of G-one or Ra-one but on the special entry of Superstar Rajinikant. Guess there were members of Rajini fan club in the cinema and they went beserk at his entry wit claps and whistles. I can only imagine what kind of reception he generally gets in South cinemas.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Namrata Joshi:
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?278791
“The half-baked film also reflects a larger uncertainty that has been seeping into the SRK star persona—the inability to carve out a new niche for himself in Bollywood’s changing landscape, where Salman and Aamir are now calling the shots. And SRK surely has not been able to reinvent himself with Ra.One. If anything, SFX stunts and SRK add up to a rather odd, displeasing combination.”
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October 29, 2011 at 9:18 AM
‘RA.One’ fails to surpass ‘Bodyguard’ at the box office
mid-day Mid-Day.com
Mumbai: Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘RA.One’ released on Wednesday, amidst festive frenzy. And despite all the hoopla surrounding the release, the opening figures of the film didn’t match up to the numbers of his arch-rival Salman Khan’s Eid release, ‘Bodyguard’.
It’s another thing, however, that the superhero and special effects extravaganza in the former made new records of highest numbers at the BO during Diwali. However, trade experts are biding time till Monday to give their verdict, whether it is a hit or not, on the film directed by Anubhav Sinha.
At the onset, veteran trade analyst Amod Mehra states that there’s no comparison between ‘RA.One’ and ‘Bodyguard’. “Shah Rukh’s film has about 800 screens more, and therefore, more shows. The ticket prices have been hiked and it’s playing in 3D in many theatres,” he points out, adding that as far as first day collections are concerned, “RA.One has lost in the opening numbers.”
IBNLive
“It earned about Rs 15.5 crore (Rs 14 cr from Hindi and Rs 1.5 crore from Tamil, Telugu) as against over Rs 21 crore netted by Bodyguard on day one,” he says, attributing the figures to low turnout in evening shows due to Laxmi Puja.
However, the film’s distributors peg their first day India figures at Rs 18.5 crore and Rs 25 crore on Thursday.
Sharing Mehra’s opinion that Laxmi Puja was bound to affect the collections of ‘RA.One’, Komal Nahta, trade expert and editor, koimoi.com, asserts, “Due to Laxmi Puja, you should compare first day numbers of Bodyguard with second day earnings of RA.One. By that benchmark, RA.One has earned more than Bodyguard.” Nahta, who pegs the first day collections at Rs 18 crore, is sure that in five days, RA.One’s net collection will surpass Bodyguard.
However, both Mehra and Nahta, share the opinion that the overseas numbers will give the best idea of the fate of the film, said to cost Rs 150 crore. A Mumbai-based distributor, on condition of anonymity, wondered where would ‘RA.One’ stand at the end of nine days, coming Thursday.
“Although everyone seems to be happy with the opening numbers, they’re not exactly confident of making a decent profit,” he said, pointing out that the first two days’ collections are not strong on their merit. “Considering more screens and shows, exhibitors are in panic mode over RA.One in the coming days.”
Another distributor based in central India said that the reports were not good, thereby causing a drop on Friday. “Never mind if it’s Bhai-Dooj, the concept of the movie has been rejected,” he said, declining to be named. “I don’t know how much it will sustain on Saturday-Sunday. It’s another Tees Maar Khan.”
However, Suniel Wadhwa of 52 Weeks Entertainment Inc is optimistic. Dismissing comparisons with Bodyguard, he says, “RA.One is high on graphics and visual effects. So the cost is more than double of Salman’s film. It’s not right to compare the revenue aspect but ignore the costs. Going by the current trend, it looks to cross Rs 90 crore in five days.”
Delhi-based distributor Sanjay Ghai of Mukta Arts Ltd tells us that Friday morning registered a drop of about 20-25 per cent due to Bhai-Dooj. Further, he feels that SRK’s film could net Rs 100 crore in five days. “However, if it drops on Monday, then it’s a cause for concern. More so, because it’s an expensive film.”
RA.One has to maintain the momentum till November 11 to make money over and above its high investment,” he declared. No wonder, the favourable verdict of the film lies with the overseas fans of SRK. As Mehra puts it, “Shah Rukh is a huge star overseas. Over there, there’s no comparison between him and Salman.”
RA.One
26th October, Diwali
Cost: Rs 150 crore (including print and advertising)
3,500 screens
1st day India net: Rs 16-18 cr
2nd day India net: Rs 25 cr
5 day projection: Rs 90-100 cr
Bodyguard
31st August, Eid
Cost: Rs 60 crore (including print and advertising)
2,700 screens
1st day India net: Rs 21 cr
2nd day India net: Rs 19.3 cr
5 day India net Rs 86 cr
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October 29, 2011 at 9:22 AM
“Although everyone seems to be happy with the opening numbers, they’re not exactly confident of making a decent profit,” he said, pointing out that the first two days’ collections are not strong on their merit. “Considering more screens and shows, exhibitors are in panic mode over RA.One in the coming days.”
Another distributor based in central India said that the reports were not good, thereby causing a drop on Friday. “Never mind if it’s Bhai-Dooj, the concept of the movie has been rejected,” he said, declining to be named. “I don’t know how much it will sustain on Saturday-Sunday. It’s another Tees Maar Khan.”
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October 29, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Ra.One: Shahrukh Khan’s movie turns a profit in 3 days
MUMBAI: Ra.One, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s expensive sci-fi flick, has turned in a profit just three days after release, the head of the production company said on Friday.
Kishore Lulla, the CEO of Eros International, which produced the movie, told ET that Ra.One has broken all box office records for Diwali so far. “I am already into profit ,” Lulla said. Shah Rukh Khan’s riskiest and most expensive film so far opened on Diwali, Wednesday amidst much expectation about its box office numbers and how it will stack up against rival Salman Khan’s Bodyguard, a huge hit when it was released a few months ago.
Bodyguard raked in Rs 21.5 crore in the first day, a record number. Lulla says that RA.One made a net collection of Rs 18.5 crore on the first day, and Rs 25 crore on the second day. Gross (excluding entertainment tax) two-day collections were Rs 67 crore. RA.One’s first day collections led many to believe that the movie had underperformed expectations.
The move received mixed reviews and social media, internet chat rooms mobile phone inboxes were abuzz with jokes, sarcastic one-liners about Shah Rukh’s labour of love supposedly falling short of viewer expectations. Shah Rukh also had another mountain to climb — none of his movies so far have crossed Rs 100 crore in revenue, while all three of Salman’s biggest hits managed to cross that magic figure.
Bollywood trade figures on Friday are also a shade lower than Lulla with many saying that first day collections were Rs 15.5 crore while the second day was Rs 22-23 crore. But Lulla poo-poohs such comments saying that the movie has set a new record for Diwali with first day collections of Rs 18.5 crore, much higher than Golmal 3, which netted Rs 8.5 crore.
Lulla says that his firm will still end up with 53-55% share of the revenue after the multiplex operators and single-screen theatre owners take their share.
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October 29, 2011 at 11:42 AM
Much higher than Golmaal 3? Wasn’t this the film which was supposed to trash 3I records in just first week of its release? Now they talk about numbers being ”much higher than G3”? Why talk only about 100 crore grosser? What happened to the 200 crore mark achieved by Aamir’s 3 Idiots, which this film was always supposed to cross?
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October 29, 2011 at 10:04 AM
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October 29, 2011 at 11:57 AM
It’s ok if Thackerey criticizes the movie after “WATCHING IT”…Thank god Shiv Sena did not do any drama this time like they did at the time of MNIK…
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October 29, 2011 at 10:25 AM
Report from Kochi…Ra One Not Good..
All theaters in Kochi witnessed a massive rush on Wednesday, as the much-hyped Shah Rukh Khan, Suriya and Vijay films finally hit screens. At the end of the day, certain trends are emerging. It appears that the response to ‘Ra. One’ and ‘7 Aum Arivu’ are quite mixed at this point. The reviews too have been lukewarm.
Apart from the two multiplexes, the highly anticipated movies were released in more than two theatres in the city. ‘7 Aum Arivu’ was released in Shenoys, Little Shenoys and Padma theatres.
Meanwhile ‘Ra.One’ was screened at Sreedhar, Savitha and Sangeetha. ‘Velayudham’ was premiered at two huge capacity theatres Sarita and Kavitha. ‘Ra.One’, a do-or-die deal for Shah Rukh, given that over 175 crores have been invested in it, does not seem to have clicked in a big way. The film had a very good opening, but many feel that the story is a disappointment, while the technical parts stand out.
“Ra.One is technically perfect but after the first half, it feels like watching a video game,” says Rajesh S, who is working in an MNC. There is no twist in the story since the central theme comes before intermission. The response was somewhat similar for ‘7Aum Arivu’ as well since the film does not appear to have met the high expectation. “The story line is novel and different but it is not as good as we thought it would be. We expected more from the Suriya- A R Muragadoss team. I will say the film is definitely above average but a certain spark is missing in the film,” says Nujum Noohu, an engineering student.
http://expressbuzz.com/entertainment/news/diwali-releases-–-advantage-vijay/327566.html
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October 29, 2011 at 10:47 AM
True story OF Housefull 🙂
http://yfrog.com/nz3znktj
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October 29, 2011 at 10:55 AM
Even though I have nothing against SRK,I am happy that this film is turning out to be a flop..This type of business model where entire screen space is taken up by a single film not giving audience a choice(add to that hyper inflated ticket prices) at important festival seasons is not at all good for film industry..Add to that the high decibel marketing campaign which started months ago..It was really irritating to see Raone popping up every time you visit any web site..
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October 29, 2011 at 11:32 AM
My views and my experience with Ra.One.
Some rambling notes:
Saw it in Queens on Friday evening. Usually any major Bollywood release, it is always jam packed here. I was a little delayed and had some friends joining. So asked my wife to get there early and pick up the tickets and meet the frineds. And, she calls me when she gets there 15 min beofre the show time- there is no body here. It is empty. I quickly asked here to make sure it was not the time for Diwali Puja or Bhai-Duj ceremonies. She assured me it was not. In the end, it was about 30 % full. Next show, as we were leaving was less than 20%. I can confidently say, the BO sotry is now written both in India and abroad. This will not surpass BG. And, even overseas is not going to be what was being predicted.
Now,coming to the film. Stricly ok. Not a stinker and better than BG.
I think inspite of a brave attempt, SRK gets undone by trying to be too smart. The film works somewhat as a SFX driven ,sci-fi thriller but falls flat otherwise. Missed first five minutes but the opening saequence where SRK’s son was dreaming sets the tone. It is hard to take seriosuly when the film itself doesnt take it self seriosuly. The three girls in this sequence were called- Iski Lee,Uski Lee,Sabki Lee. Trying to be too cute and it didnt evoke any laughter. The whole 0TT Priyanka-Sanjay Dutt sequence is very,very flat. And, putting up the tunes of DesiGirl,Khalnayak and KKHH – just sounded so forced and too pat. It is an odd and an unfortunate way of setting the ball rolling. The first forty minutes is nothing short of disaster. Dalip Tahil is painfully OTT. SRK as Tamilian is supremely unfunny. The film stabilises once Ra.One emerges.
G.One aka Rizwan Khan is bearable. Kareena looks very good. The rest of the film is watchable even if not supremely entertainign. Some of the sequences are well executed, tho one can see it is a new concept that the director is grappling with. Some of the scenes and SFX seem random and forced. The SFX are quite good and the best seen in India bar Robot.But, not quite on par with Hollywood. I wasnt that impressed with the trai nsequence .Fairly good but somewhat unimaginitive.
What rankles is the unseemly obsession with the crotch or the ‘main part’ as they refer it to. Someone should tell SRK that the main part is the heart and not the crotch. The larger problem with the film is that there is no vision beyond an idea of an SFX driven vehicle crammed with crowd pleasing ( or what they thought would be crowd pleasing) moments. But, it doesnt work. Sinha is too inept.And,SRK tries to be too smart and too cute for his own good.A recurring theme which is played out in his off-screen life too. The kid is not bad even if a little effiminate. Kareena looks fab. SRK struggles as a Tamilian but is on firm ground as G.One ,even if it is an extension of Rizwan. Chamak Chhalo lives up to the expectations.Rest of the music is forgettable.
On the whole, I still command SRK for the thought and the willingness to take a gamble. But, none for the shoddy execution and for the predictable and now tiresone jokes.Rajini sequence is an insult to Rajini and the audience.
I dont think the SFX/VFX are quite at a level where a majotr Hollywood studio will be outsourcing them to SRK’s studio.
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October 29, 2011 at 11:49 AM
I am somewhat disappointed that they didnt give us the cool-aid to drink before the show,which they obviosuly did in Fishkill,NY.
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October 29, 2011 at 12:53 PM
Yes, they didnt get SRK’s order to mix it with the Diet soda in their concession stands.
Kya yaar, except for a few superlative words, you and I have said the same thing.
Dua sirf doston ko hi nahi di jaati, aap yeh bhool gaye.
Dushman ki deedar-e-taareef se aap pareshan ho gaye.
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October 29, 2011 at 1:58 PM
thanks.. great read here.. and a very fair piece..
“I quickly asked here to make sure it was not the time for Diwali Puja or Bhai-Duj ceremonies. She assured me it was not.”
this is golden!
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October 29, 2011 at 3:36 PM
Thanks rajen — pretty solid write-up here — and loved your first paragraph (“I quickly asked here to make sure it was not the time for Diwali Puja or Bhai-Duj ceremonies. She assured me it was not.”)
By the way, the box office discussions have done what all the pandits and pujaris never managed to: make everyone supremely puja/teohaar-literate. 🙂
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October 29, 2011 at 12:47 PM
Friday US estimate – $380,000 from 188
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/10/friday-estimates-october-28-2011/
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October 29, 2011 at 2:03 PM
very poor number off that many screens.
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October 29, 2011 at 10:21 PM
saturday is going to be a washout in the northeast due to the snow storm
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October 29, 2011 at 1:03 PM
seems wheels are turning off even in this exaggerated media perception tamesha
planning to watch ra one tommorrow ..will surely write detailed review
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October 29, 2011 at 1:59 PM
Highest Third Days Ever Ra.One THIRD
Saturday 29th October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has recorded the third highest third day ever after recording the highest second day ever and second highest first day ever. The highest third day nett collections are as follows.
1. Dabangg – 18.02 crore
2. Ready – 16.16 crore
3. Ra.One (Hindi) – 15.50 crore (approx)
4. Bodyguard – 13.60 crore
5. Three Idiots – 13.30 crore
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October 29, 2011 at 2:02 PM
Spin too should have a half a brain to it.. this kind of stuff produces exactly the opposite result.. it’s not even keeping up with Ready forget Dabanng! But leaving this aside the game clearly is to shadow BG! The problem though is that the latter itself showed some weakness in this sense (this is precisely what I commented on at the time) and which then made the quick fade not very surprising. If Ra One is behind Ready on vastly greater screens one can figure out what the trending pattern here is!
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October 29, 2011 at 2:09 PM
Shailesh Kapoor, the Ormax media guy, the one who’s hardly a SRK foe, he’s in bed with BOI these days as well, writes pieces regularly mauling the Bachchans and praising SRK and Salman and so on to the skies says on twitter that looking at the trends a second week 30 crore total is unlikely. Says that even were it possible that would hardly be big for a film of this scale but in any case it’s unlikely. This too has been framed rather diplomatically.
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October 29, 2011 at 2:30 PM
Guyz it’s only going to be downhill from now. To add insult to injury the overseas numbers are not much to shout about either. This is pretty humiliating for SRK considering the promotions etc and the claims he made. His fans next time should also be careful saying things like this film will crush 3I and post 250.
P.S I did say this would happen few days back.
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October 29, 2011 at 3:03 PM
I was never expecting a huge performance from the overseas audience for this genre. Historically fantasy hadn’t done as well here. So for example Krrish did well enough but it was way behind its Indian performance. But because of the remarkable hype surrounding Ra One I suppose there was a possibility to better this.
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October 29, 2011 at 3:14 PM
Why Ra.One bashers need to SHUT UP!
October 28, 2011 13:30 IST
Ra.One might be a flawed dream, but hats off to SRK for trying, says Sanchari Bhattacharya
I should add a disclaimer at the very beginning: I am a devoted fan of Shah Rukh Khan and therefore can’t even pretend to be objective while reviewing any movie of his. I have been hopelessly and unapologetically in love with the man since I saw him, eons back, standing on one leg to woo the object of his affection in one of his Doordarshan serials.
At that time, SRK was gangly and awkward and had a god-awful haircut. But I still thought he was smashing.
My faith in him was further strengthened by the slew of borderline corny but hugely enjoyable movies he consistently delivered over the years — Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge [ Images ], Kuch Kuch Hota Hai [ Images ], Kal Ho Naa Ho, Om Shanti Om [ Images ] and dozens of others.
But, and I have to admit this, some of his movies have also been beyond forgiveness.
I have cringed at his hyperbolic Bengali Babu act in Devdas. I have walked out of a screening of Mohabbatein because I couldn’t stand his sweater-loving professor character spewing romantic gyan. I have stared in disbelief as he rescued an entire fake village from an equally fake hurricane in My Name is Khan.
Yes, SRK is human and he too makes mistakes.
But Ra.One is NOT one of them.
After reading the reviews of many of my esteemed colleagues, all of whom trashed the movie mercilessly, I went for the movie with a sinking heart.
My much-respected colleagues had a problem with Ra.One having too much of Shah Rukh Khan, of it being a manifestation of the superstar’s mid-life crisis or of it allegedly caricaturing south Indians (!!!).
“It is going to be a bad movie but I am a SRK fan and I will sit through it,” I told myself.
The plotline or premise of the movie has been repeated and analysed ad nauseam. And I agree with some of the reviews partly — the first 20-30 minutes of the film, when SRK tries to act as the goofy Shekhar Subramaniam, falls flat on its face.
But then, once Ra.One and G.One enter the scene, you have to strap yourselves in and get ready for the exhilarating ride.
I don’t think Ra.One has ever aspired to be anything other than an entertainer, and for the most part, it does entertain.
Ra.One has superlative special effects, a stunning leading lady, several jaw-dropping action sequences, some genuinely quirky moments and a chillingly sinister villain.
And of course, it has the leading man in several versions — the blue-eyed superhero, the nerdy south Indian scientist and my personal favourite — the Asian superhero who saves the damsel in distress.
For years, Shah Rukh Khan has been heavily criticised for not stepping outside his comfort zone and sticking to his stock characters of Raj and Rahul. It has been said that SRK can only play SRK, the romantic hero with his arms wide open and twitching face.
When he does dare to step out of his comfort zone, when he does try to experiment, when he does try to go where no other Indian actor has gone before, he is ripped apart for his efforts. And then his critics wonder why he chooses to do Karan Johar [ Images ] and Yash Raj type of films over and over again.
We manage to forget our brains while watching a brawny superhero’s burgeoning muscles tear off his shirt, in an unflattering ode to the Incredible Hulk. We blank out reason when another superhero (and a self-proclaimed intellectual one at that) bashes up ten goons double his size, suffering a memory loss right in the middle of the fight sequence. We do not puke while watching lesser superheroes act in regressive and raunchy comic capers where they act like oversexed buffoons.
Why then do we go all holier than thou on SRK? Because he fails to deliver to (some of) our sky-high expectations?
We never ask how Spiderman can climb buildings effortlessly or why Superman wears his underwear over his tights. They are Hollywood’s superheroes and therefore venerable to us. But Ra.One and G.One fighting it out by throwing red and blue power rays at each other — that we find juvenile!
Oh come on!
A superhero movie, by definition, defies logic and requires suspension of disbelief. In a world where almost nothing goes right, it reaffirms our belief that Good does trump over Evil.
Shah Rukh Khan has never pretended to be an actor. He is here to entertain the masses and make money for himself. Nothing wrong with that!
He could have taken the tried-and-tested route and done yet another goofy, romantic lover boy movie. That film would have raked in hundreds of crores at the box office, made a newer generation of women (and men) swoon over him and helped him buy yet another plush building in suburban Mumbai [ Images ].
But instead of taking a role he could have sleepwalked through, SRK decided to follow his dream of making India’s [ Images ] first superhero film. It might be a flawed dream — the Michael Jackson [ Images ] sequence, British thugs speaking in Hindi or G.One being lectured on Karva Chauth are of the so bad it’s good variety — but hats off to the man for trying.
Ra. One is escapist entertainment at its finest. For those who wanted a more textured film with depth and insights, well, tough luck folks
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/why-raone-bashers-need-to-shut-up/20111028.htm
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October 29, 2011 at 3:24 PM
The author could have saved us a lot of trouble by simply saying — if you’re a hopelessly-in-love-with-SRK fan like myself you’ll love the film and then we can convert every weakness of the film into a plus point!
Which is not to say one cannot enjoy the film but one shouldn’t resort to the kind of silly reasoning presented here. One could take apart every line pretty much but why bother?! Enjoyable read nonetheless for all the silliness in it!
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October 29, 2011 at 8:29 PM
This “defence” of Ra.One is almost more insulting than some of the reviews. 🙂
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October 29, 2011 at 8:10 PM
Reviews were silly
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October 29, 2011 at 8:37 PM
So this whole film was designed to be a marketing tool for SRK’s special effects studio? Fine if he wants to go courting Hollywood studios for outsourced effects. But why does he think no one else in India can do this kind of work? I haven’t seen the film yet, so I can’t make comparative statements, but (1) Hollywood already outsources a lot of its animation and some of its VFX work to India. What is new or innovative about this, then? (2) I have discovered to my surprise in the last five years or so that many Tamil and Telugu film use a lot of visual effects more or less routinely, and they are of good quality, too, if not quite on par with some Hollywood films. So again I ask, what’s new in this?
And what on earth does SRK mean by saying reviewers “were looking at other aspects of film production”? So they were only supposed to ooh and aah at the special effects (which they all did) and not say anything about story or screenplay or characters? Amazing.
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October 29, 2011 at 9:37 PM
It is really interesting battle. As per BO, three day highest total.
Praksah Jaju has already declared it as flop. Even it twitter, they say tickets are available everywhere. It seemsseriuos manipulation is going on..
SRK needs one more Yash Chopra movie to get back..
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October 29, 2011 at 11:00 PM
Vigil Idiot Ra.One review: http://www.thevigilidiot.com/2011/10/28/ra-one/
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October 29, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Wow. I kind of want to see it now.
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October 30, 2011 at 3:08 AM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/oct/28/samuel-l-jackson-highest-grossing?newsfeed=true
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October 30, 2011 at 3:23 AM
Some updates from Rajasthan:
Rajasthan Four Days Ra.One V Bodyguard
Sunday 30th October 2011 09.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The first four day collections in Rajasthan of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
Wednesday
Ra.One – 78 lakhs
Bodyguard – 1.17 crore
Thursday
Ra.One – 1.40 crore
Bodyguard – 1.09 crore
Friday
Ra.One – 92 lakhs
Bodyguard – 88 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 79 lakhs
Bodyguard – 81 lakhs
TOTAL
Ra.One – 3.89 crore
Bodyguard – 3.95 crore
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3629&nCat=
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October 30, 2011 at 3:24 AM
Updated collections from CI
CI Four Days Ra.One V Bodyguard
Sunday 30th October 2011 09.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The first four day collections in CI of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
Wednesday
Ra.One – 42 lakhs
Bodyguard – 91 lakhs
Thursday
Ra.One – 86 lakhs
Bodyguard – 72 lakhs
Friday
Ra.One – 53 lakhs
Bodyguard – 48 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 44 lakhs
Bodyguard – 47 lakhs
TOTAL
Ra.One – 2.25 crore
Bodyguard – 2.58 crore
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3628&nCat=
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October 30, 2011 at 3:26 AM
And finally, updates from CP Berar
CP Berar Four Days Ra.One V Bodyguard
Sunday 30th October 2011 09.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The first four day collections in CP Berar of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
Wednesday
Ra.One – 72 lakhs
Bodyguard – 1.23 crore
Thursday
Ra.One – 1.06 crore
Bodyguard – 1.04 crore
Friday
Ra.One – 72 lakhs
Bodyguard – 85 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 63 lakhs
Bodyguard – 75 lakhs
TOTAL
Ra.One – 3.13 crore
Bodyguard – 3.87 crore
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3627&nCat=
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October 30, 2011 at 3:34 AM
@Old Gold, I admit that I posted these more for their comedic value than because I really care about box office. But when Rajasthan and CI were held up as proof that SRK was beating Salman in his strength areas, then the drops should also be acknowledge, no? So Rajasthan and CI were blazoned abroad to show that the Thursday collections doubled those of Wednesday. Fine, but then shouldn’t they point that the Saturday collections are half of the Thursday collections? It’s this blatant dishonesty that caught my attention this time. Otherwise I don’t judge a film by its box office collections. But here the point was consistently made that the film is the “best” because it was getting the “highest” collections.
Anyway, I doubt that we’ll hear any more about collections from any quarter from now on.
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October 30, 2011 at 3:38 AM
Kunder clarifies his RA.One tweet!
http://rozmarra.com/2011/10/kunder-clarifies-his-ra-one-tweet/
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October 30, 2011 at 5:23 AM
“His fans next time should also be careful saying things like this film will crush 3I and post 250.”
c’mon fans can never be careful…. their excitement comes through these kinds of over expectations, and you should allow and enjoy these. This being a very pro-bachchan, i have seen some members expecting BHTB to beat some records at bo. some were modest in their expectations, they predicted just 60cr…. the film eventually did less than 20cr.
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October 30, 2011 at 5:28 AM
latest update from distributors – there was some jump in collections from 10-15% in Mumbai and Delhi circuits. rest all circuits no jump. Sunday expected 16Cr assuming similar trends for evening shows.
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October 30, 2011 at 5:52 AM
there is a drop of 20-30% in smaller circuits.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Ra.One Day Four Early Estimate
Sunday 30th October 2011 12.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (hindi) dropped on its fourth day as it collected around 14-14.25 crore nett as per early estimates. The major drops came in the North India and Central India as these places dropped around 15%. West Bengal and South had similar collections to the day before while Mumbai circuit was a bit less.
The film has now collected 67 crore nett now after four days which is exactly the same same collection Bodyguard had after four days. The regional version has collected 4.50 crore nett in four days and is dropping fast.
The 5 day weekend record of Bodyguard will be a photo finish if Ra.One shows the normal growth expected on Sunday. This is comparing like for like and the Hindi version only.
Sunday is likely to tell where the film is going, a good 25% jump will mean it will do good on the weekdays but if it is flat or just a 10-15% jump then weekdays are likely to see dropping collections.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:28 AM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
#RaOne *Hindi version only* Wed 14.5 cr, Thu 23.5 cr, Fri 16 cr, Sat 14.15 cr. Total: Rs 68.15 cr nett. Does not include Tamil & Telugu biz.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:43 AM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
If one adds the Tamil & Telugu biz, #RaOne Wed to Sat total [4 days] is approx Rs 76 cr nett.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:32 AM
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One 4-Day Total Rs. 75 Crore
October 30th, 2011 by Komal Nahta Comments ( 0 )
Shah Rukh Khan’s Ra.One has made an estimated Rs. 16 crore (all-India net collection) on its fourth day (Saturday, October 29) at the box-office. The film has previously collected Rs. 18 crore on Wednesday, Rs. 25.10 crore on Thursday and Rs. 16 crore on Friday. This takes the 4-day total tally to Rs. 75 crore.
Ra.One is expected to to net another Rs. 15 – 17 crore on Sunday since the morning and day shows are reported to be seeing good audiences. However, Sunday night’s shows will probably not be as good as Saturday night’s.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:40 AM
Now this 90 cr is inclusive of tamil and telugu. if one considers only the hindi prints it will be short of bodyguard by 2-3 crs.
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October 30, 2011 at 8:49 AM
The fact that BOI and Taran are now taking pains to separate out the Hindi collections from the total collections seems to be in reaction to feedback they must have gotten from their readers/followers. The BOI report especially sounded rather defensive on this point.
I’m glad to see that they are responding to feedback.
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October 30, 2011 at 9:23 AM
Some RA.One reviews were silly: SRK
Shah Rukh Khan’s over-ambitious superhero project RA.One received quite a few negative reviews in India. Talking from Los Angeles, where the actor was on tour with his film team until Saturday, he says, seeming rather upset, “I was reading some reviews and they were silly. They are looking into some other aspect of filmmaking.”
Internationally, he claims that the Anubhav Sinha directorial got a great response. “LA Times has carried a fantastic movie review,” he insists, before adding, “We presented the film to a lot of people from Fox (Fox Studios, US) and we spoke to the foreign press on the technical aspect of RA.One. It’s important that we promote this ideology and explain to the world that we can do it.”
Within this week, the actor has travelled to Dubai, London and Toronto, before arriving in the US. His promotional rampage in India too made headlines. But the real challenge he claims to face is “showing the world that India too can make high-tech films.”
And to facilitate the same, he has set up a technically advanced studio in the city, which he used for the postproduction of RA.One. “The good news is that the studio is two or three years ahead of any other. This is the first step in that direction,” says the actor-producer, adding, “This is the time to bring this genre to India. And I have started it. Instead of cribbing, if you want to modernise and make different movies, you have to use this technology.”
Till Friday, RA.One had collected over Rs 60 cr at the box office in India, the film’s spokesperson claims. “I feel relieved to see it open well. I’ve been travelling, so I wasn’t able to follow the figures much. All my partners now feel that they’ll be able to recover their money.”
The film, which also stars Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor, released on Diwali, October 26 and was made for a reported budget of Rs 150 crore. Ask him about the sequel, and he says he’s leaving it all to time: “Let’s see how it fares. It’s lot of hard work. I’m happy how people have responded, despite mixed reports. Once it has come to the fore, I’ll give it a thought.”
Khan will be seen in Farhan Akhtar’s next directorial Don 2 in December, and will start shooting for Yash Chopra’s film in January 2012.
Legal row? Utter nonsense: SRK
A few days ago, screenwriter Yash Patnaik accused Shah Rukh Khan and his film’s writer-director Anubhav Sinha of copyright infringement over the concept and story of RA.One. Says an unfazed Khan, “That’s utter nonsense. With all due respect to what all is happening, I don’t want to give it any credibility by commenting on it.” The case is still pending. Khan’s production company has deposited Rs 1 crore with the Bombay High Court to acquire permission to release the film.
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October 30, 2011 at 9:26 AM
SRK once again uses the classic political ploy here — ‘hey if you didn’t like the film or are criticizing it you’re against progress’!
The truth is that even the negative reviewers have praised the SFX!
On the silliness I’m sure some of them deserve this characterization though the positive ones his films have received over the years warrant the adjective far more! Even on Ra One was there any review sillier than Taran’s?!
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October 30, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Well, an ambition cannot succeed unless you back it up with at least a decent story.
I wonder what was his ambition on making a high on VFX film when it is certain that no matter what you do, it simply cannot be done.
An ambition should be a plausible one. It would make a lot of sense if he had rather aimed for a film that’s on par with Hollywood in terms of quality film-making. Chasing the dream that he’s hoping for would only make him a laughing stock..
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October 30, 2011 at 10:29 AM
Ra.One (Telugu) Daily Figures
Sunday 30th October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (telugu) performed well initially but fell from Friday. It is the highest grossing Hindi film dubbed into Telugu but performance is well below par for the amount of prints it was released in. The Hindi version has done extremely well in the Andhra belt. The daily figures are as follows.
Wednesday – 70 lakhs
Thursday – 70 lakhs
Friday – 30 lakhs
Saturday – 25 lakhs
TOTAL – 1.95 crore
The Tamil version has grossed a similar 2 crore nett in four days.
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October 30, 2011 at 11:41 AM
I think the paid parties like Komal,Taran,BOI and SRK apologists are all at this time directing their energies and efforts in bringing it close to or may be overtaking BG’s long weekend/first five days. I dont think it will, atleast on the strenght of the Hindi version.On top of it, it is a pretty meaningless milestone as BG was nowhere near as hyped, had far fewer screens and was a much less expensive film overall. No amount of dressing up can cover the fact that the BO performance has been pretty dismal so far and am not even sure if it will cross Ghajini. To make matters worse, overseas collections are also coming in much lower than expectations. And, am sure after the lacklustre BO performance, the TV deal for the reported 40 crores, is going to be off. So, recovery here is going to be pretty much impossible. I was hoping SRK wont lose money here as I still want to give him props for the risk and the gamble and somewhat confused ambition. But, it is still hard to feel very sorry for him, given how shamelessly manipulative and cocky he can be.
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October 30, 2011 at 2:19 PM
hoow does no. of screens matter the collection.people dont come to watch a movie considering no. of screens.i mean increment in no. of screens is done keeping in mind the convienience of the audience.it surely doesnt help in gaining more public.
its very sad to see how people are undermining ra.one’s collection by giving all these theories.
and why are not people considering tamil and telugu version.why???first of all opening shpuld be considered worldwide.but here you guys are simply ignoring tamil and telugu numbers.
you guys have to downplay it no matter what
if SRKs all films number are fake wh would any distributor buy ra.one for such a huge price because they know and understand the star power because they are in the actual business.
if by any chance SRKs manipulates the number and has everyone from the chaukidar of theatres to top mediapersons in his pocket then give him the due credit there and call him the most powerful and most influential.even that you guys wont do.
recovery here in case of ra.one will be difficult.no one has doubts over this but atleast appreciate its opening numbers which are record breaking
WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SO NEGATIVE?
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October 30, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Re: i mean increment in no. of screens is done keeping in mind the convienience of the audience.
LOL! How considerate. So, the large number of screens are for the audience convinience? How cute!
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October 31, 2011 at 1:16 AM
ofcourse not in that sense……
but who asked bodyguard to relese lesser no. of prints….and since when no.of screens became proportional to collections…..
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October 31, 2011 at 1:18 AM
you’re right.. we’ll now just look at final collections and compare them with BG’s…
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October 30, 2011 at 12:14 PM
Sinha to SRK – How are Ra.One’s collections?
SRK – Condom,condom.
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October 30, 2011 at 3:29 PM
The saddest part for Khan is that he could have gotten these type of collections (if not better) from any run-of-the-mill love story. To have spent so much (both effort and money-wise) and gained so little…
BTW this is one big SRK blockbuster I have decided not to see on the big screen.
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October 30, 2011 at 5:02 PM
Re: The saddest part for Khan is that he could have gotten these type of collections (if not better) from any run-of-the-mill love story.
Am not sure. The amount o negativity seen in public and media suggests his best days are behind him.Plus, he has not had a 90 crore plus grosser ever.
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October 30, 2011 at 3:54 PM
Ra.One Struggles On Sunday
Sunday 30th October 2011 22.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has found it hard to make any headway on Sunday. The film may end with Sunday collections not much higher than Saturday.
Normally films jump at least 10% on Sunday but it seems unlikely in the case Ra.One unless the markets in South India West Bengal are really strong.
The trend is not encouraging for Sunday in North India and when a major segment like North is finding it tough, it will be a huge surprise if the film manages to come out with a strong Sunday.
The overall weekend is still likely to excellent but the trend suggests the film will struggle in the long term.
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October 30, 2011 at 4:02 PM
BOI on Ra.one’s Sunday collections:
http://boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3632&nCat=
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October 30, 2011 at 5:22 PM
Think the Sunday trend confirms the initial impressions.
Whateve one may say—this is the end of a “phase” and SRK is officially not the best
Obviously the film has far from tanked or under performed but the relative numbers have shown enuf trends already ….
Haven’t seen the film yet but I’m a bit surprised by the negative reactions and the slightly tepid response
Expected it to do better irrespective of the merits of the film (or lack of it)
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October 30, 2011 at 5:25 PM
yeah a film that is lower on Sun versus Sat is quite simply being rejected. And of course the Sat itself showed no growth from Fri. The film’s trending has been weak throughout. There is no single day that has been huge here relative to expectations given the screen count and so on though of course the numbers are otherwisee big. Even breaking the record by 10% on Thu doesn’t mean much given all the other advantages the film had over BG.
It’s barely going to do 80 crores or so through Sun. I frankly doubt it’s going to get to the 120 crore Ready total. It will require some stability just to get to that number. It’s possible but I think unlikely.
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October 31, 2011 at 1:02 AM
Satyam: one factor that might help it get to 120 is there is no competition; until Rockstar, what would cinemas replace it with?
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October 31, 2011 at 1:12 AM
that’s true but in my opinion even with no competition a film needs minimal stability at the low end of things to take advantage of this. And Ra 1 might have it. Which is why I said that 120 crores was possible but less likely. The latter because I see this as less of a genre that can overcome all the negativity to stay afloat at some reasonable level. But it’s certainly possible. I should say that my initial prediction was somewhere in this range. Simply because I though Sinha would mess it up, this kind of thing was just beyond his pay grade and I think he’s probably proven that here.
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October 31, 2011 at 1:05 AM
Alex: everybody I am meeting in Bombay is referring to the film as a flop. These are by no means SRK-haters, but typically ordinary folk who like to go and watch big films, and never read film blogs etc. It is by now a pretty consistently-held view in my experience.
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October 30, 2011 at 5:36 PM
The Great Bong did not mind …based on GB, NYkavi and Rajen’s reviews I am seriouly thinking of seeing it next weekend…( with the AMC silver passes )
http://greatbong.net/2011/10/30/ra-one-the-review/
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October 30, 2011 at 5:45 PM
You should check it out and give us your views.. to be honest I’d check it out myself for some of the SFX but I have almost no tolerance for some of the family proceedings here (as evident from the trailers). Never had it at the best of times. Remember being bored to death watching KHNH. RNBDJ was hard to watch even at home! OSO was on the other hand fine though hardly my favorite film.
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October 30, 2011 at 6:00 PM
pehle aap apne Arrakhshan ke views denge….LOL
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October 30, 2011 at 7:01 PM
doesn’t look like I’ll be let off the hook on this one..
but soon.. once I watch the film again..
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October 30, 2011 at 5:47 PM
hmmm….
http://www.thevigilidiot.com/2011/10/28/ra-one/
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October 30, 2011 at 6:07 PM
Munna had seen this earlier…is really wicked
here is another one-
26th~
26 Dec 2004: Indian Ocean
Tsunami !
26 July 2005: Flood in
Mumbai !
26 Nov 2008: Terror
attack in Mumbai !
10/26/11- RA-1
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October 30, 2011 at 7:00 PM
LOL!!!
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October 30, 2011 at 10:40 PM
This was hilarious!!!
:-))
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October 30, 2011 at 7:10 PM
Rajen, I know SRK is down right now but I am pretty certain he can get big numbers easily with an even half-decent romantic film. For a love story, his target audience always shows up. I remember most people calling Veer-Zaara stale and boring, but it was houseful in its 7th week in Toronto and the much-maligned Rab Ne didn’t do badly either.
Not saying it’s gonna break records but it will easily match RA.one and won’t burn a hole in the producers pocket.
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October 30, 2011 at 9:24 PM
SRK would certainly get big numbers in the romantic genre. However Yash Chopra is a tricky proposition in terms of trending. RNBDJ trended very well but VZ made 45% or so of its gross in week 1 which was poor trending for 2004 (by today’s standards it seems fantastic but then so does MP!). Also in the single biggest market of Bombay it performed a very fast fade. The point I’m trying to make is that in the 90s his iconic films were big for every cross-section of his base. But over the last decade that base has splintered. Which is why RNBDJ opened behind Ghajini and grossed a bit less than it even in the US! Couldn’t have imagined this some years earlier. and even in India there was a huge difference on the initial and the final numbers. The problem then isn’t getting a hit or big numbers but sustaining. Also remember that the only two times that he’s been on course for massive initials have been OSO and Ra One since KANK. MNIK never got big numbers in India nor RNBDJ nor Don (which was also hyped like crazy). So the more pertinent comparison here might be Salman getting these huge numbers with minimal advertising. Aamir is much more media savvy these days but still his films don’t require a heavy investment in marketing (he does it in some other ways). On the other hand SRK has to first thrown in everything including the kitchen sink in his films and then hype them to death to get those numbers. Obviously every star cannot get those numbers even doing things this way, so no one’s denying he’s still very big and has certain roots with the overall audience. But the opportunity with him in terms of getting those big numbers is far greater than with Aamir or Salman. On the Yash chopra film I expect big numbers. Whether it can really put the box office on steroids remains to be seen. Even with Ra One he has certainly proved he can get the biggest initial out there. Obviously WOM was bad from the get-go and affected numbers right away. But with good WOM this could have done real wonders. It’s still not something where he could completely beat the competition. A few months later Aamir or Salman would beat him again or whoever else. The reason this is crucial is because his brandname has always been about outgrossing the competition. And so what’s happening is that he can’t just match them. Aamir and Salman are not seen as having a downward trajectory but somehow finding their zone (obviously I don’t see Salman as being able to maintain this for as long as Aamir or be viable for as long no matter how careful he is with his films.. because he just cannot attract the kind of prestige film Aamir can) and being ‘ascendant’ at this point (Aamir for a longer time). SRK meanwhile has the downward trajectory where he’s seen as struggling to keep pace. People show up for the hyped films but they don’t necessarily think the same things about them. Often discussions about simply box office numbers obscure this aspect of things. SRK in any case feels this pressure and so he is more drawn to the sort of film from time to time that lends itself to that kind of hype. And so he’s not necessarily making the best decisions for his reinvention. He’s trying to do the latter but in a way where he keeps his initial intact or matches the greater standards of his peers. This is hard. Plus there’s a prestige gap. He’s just not doing the sorts of films that rightly or wrongly have prestige even with most of his base. And in a purely commercial sense the Salman films or something like Singham, being part of a new return-to-masala wave (even if of the bargain basement variety) has a certain buzz to it.
Do think there’s a way out for him. He needs to take it easy for a while and think about the longer game. Someone will always be producing the biggest initials. It’s a question of how one adjusts. Tom Cruise was once arguably the biggest Hollywood star. Then one day Will Smith had tons of 200m grossers in a row. If Cruise had literally tried to out-initial Will Smith or outgross him it would have been a problem. When a star is in the zone these things happen easily. Salman is doing it really in nothing films. For everyone else it’s much more complicated. If I were advising SRK I’d tell him to forget about the biggest initial or hyping things to death and simply focus on commercial hits (Don 2 can do this, the Yash Chopra film too and so on) and on the other hand on somewhat more prestigious films that have commercial potential. Whether these films do 100 crores or 150 crores or 80 crores a certain credibility for these films is far more important. SRK could be taking doubles right now, instead he aims for a home run and sometimes gets caught in the outfield. As a larger matter I’d also say that beyond a point the biggest gross isn’t that important. Raja Hindustani grossed as much as KKHH, assuredly sold more tickets, and certainly grossed more than most of SRK’s iconic hits for many years with the exception of DDLJ. But it didn’t matter. Because the narrative and the audience weren’t with RH. Today the tables have turned, this has in fact been true for a number of years. But in this scenario whether you get Ready or Bodyguard or Singham doesn’t make a huge difference. The audience isn’t obsessed with the extra crores. This stuff is for blogosphere losers like myself! Most of the time the audience even today just has a sense of a hit or a flop. Sure the numbers are now made available on TV or guys like Taran and Nahta have their shows but even this gets lost amidst a sea of 24/7 stimuli of sound and images. In an odd sense the prestige film is even more important today because that is the only thing that has any chance of recall after a while. Otherwise you have records being broken every other week. No one cares. It makes for a good media story, it adds to the hype and its forgotten.
Somewhere along the line SRK became a star only about marketing. Not being harsh at all here. I think he was ahead of everyone in terms of figuring this out but he went too far with it. Being a major star he could do a great deal with the right projects and the right marketing and he certainly pushed a certain narrative successfully in the media which was not always about the sheer merit of the argument. But after a while it was only about selling a film. Sure it’s a Hollywood phenomenon also and by now a global cinema phenomenon. Films are made for consumption. Designed for little more than great initials. But in Hollywood no one star obsesses with just this aspect of things. However if you keep saying ‘I am the king’ there are certain consequences and one of these might have precluded authentic reinvention which of course is the hardest thing for a star to do in any case. Because there is that point in a star’s career when the star is general currency and people are willing to show up but the ‘specific’ agenda is not as ‘saleable’ as it once might have been. SRK is the huge star without a base genre. Again this happens with all stars. Salman has just found the right genre at an age when he couldn’t as a younger star. Or not to the same degree. He’s just lucked out in this sense. If this return to masala had waited another 5 years he wouldn’t have been able to profit from it. Aamir meanwhile has for the longest time built his prestige on the product, something very different. There is no quintessential Aamir film.
To sum it up I’ve been saying for a while that the RA One/DOn genres are not the most productive ones for SRK because even though he deviates from his base genre this cannot be a long term deal for him. Even if its successful. There has to be something which keeps his base with him while gently taking him into the future. But the balance is hard to strike and candidly it perhaps requires greater dozes of humility than SRK has ever been able to summon up. But forgetting the whole ‘Baadshah’ deal would be a start.
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October 30, 2011 at 7:12 PM
Don’t think this one was posted yet:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-30/bollywood-s-khan-stumbles-as-superhero-in-india-s-costliest-movie-review.html
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October 30, 2011 at 7:20 PM
Farhan must be feeling a lot of pressure now. Don will need really good reviews and word-of-mouth to overcome the Ra.one fiasco.
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October 30, 2011 at 9:27 PM
Here he just has to meet the graph of the first film to get an easy 100-120 crores. Don’t think it’s a very high bar though I do admit that the remake hype won’t be there this time and the sequel isn’t as much of a deal for a film where the first one wasn’t necessarily loved by anyone. Still the long trailers here have been slick. I’m interested in watching it. It’s not review-proof for me by any means so yes a fairly good film will have to be made. Again if I were SRK I wouldn’t hype this to death. Farhan never makes mass-oriented films anyway. No point in going crazy over it. He’s releasing it during the Christmas/New Year period. He’ll get good numbers anyway if the film is worthwhile.
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October 31, 2011 at 1:35 AM
Just hope that the Christians dont go for celebrations in each others’ homes or become too religious causing fading collections on the open day itself in Rajasthan!
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October 31, 2011 at 2:50 AM
Ha, ha. Someone on twitter mentioned that Bodyguard opened on Eid but the second day was Ganesh Chaturthi! You know, when people are all busy with pujas, visiting, etc. And in Mumbai at least (as well as parts of Hyderabad) this festival goes on for nine days. Similarly what about the films that release during Navratri/Dussera? That’s a 10 day festival, with pujas and visiting every night! As for this idea that the Hindu population is greater than the Muslim population, so Eid won’t affect collections as much as Diwali, I remember reading some time ago that the Muslim population is closer to 50% in the Hindi belt. So even on this count this argument won’t wash. But it was fun while it lasted. 🙂
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October 31, 2011 at 3:46 AM
Re: “I remember reading some time ago that the Muslim population is closer to 50% in the Hindi belt.”
That is completely untrue, but as I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the blog, in the major urban centers, Muslim population is 30% or more — and these centers generate much of the revenue (hence the Bollywood tradition of not releasing major films in Ramzan, because many Muslims will not go to the cinema during that month). Especially in an environment where most films flop, no one wants to give up even slight advantages, so the notion that we should only talk about a Diwali disadvantage but not an Eid disadvantage simply because there are more Hindus in India, is not logical. [My own view is the opposite, and obvious one: I agree with the producers who release their films during the festival seasons! They’ve been doing it for years for a reason!]
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October 31, 2011 at 4:00 AM
The SRK-Salman conundrum
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/column_comment-the-srk-salman-conundrum_1605296
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October 31, 2011 at 4:02 AM
first of all wom of ra.one was negative.so how on earth will you prove 2nd day being the biggest of all.this laxmi pooja theory somehow fits well here in this case.
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October 31, 2011 at 4:34 AM
Qalandar, what is completely untrue? The 50% figure for the percentage of Muslims in the Hindi belt, or the concept that there are more of them there than in other parts of the country? Since you have mentioned 30% in urban areas, it is obvious that there isn’t a uniform distribution of all the different religious populations all over the country. Obviously some are concentrated in some parts of the country more than in other parts. So just because overall Muslims make up 15% of the total population, one can’t assume that they make up no more than 15% of the Hindi film viewing audience. That’s the point I was making.
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October 31, 2011 at 4:59 AM
Re: “Qalandar, what is completely untrue? The 50% figure for the percentage of Muslims in the Hindi belt…”
Yes, I was ONLY referring to that other person’s claim that 50% of the Hindi belt’s population is Muslim. It actually isn’t even half that (after Jammu and Kashmir, the state with the highest % of Muslims is in fact West Bengal, at 24-25%. In the “Hindi heartland” of U.P., Bihar, M.P., it is 15-20% in EACH of those states, and in Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab it is much less than that (many people would be surprised to learn that even in Delhi it is less than 30%). Among the Southern states, it is greatest in Kerala (I believe this is something like 23%) followed by Andhra (~14%; if a separate Telengana were ever formed, the Muslim % here would be north of 20%, perhaps even 25%). On the wider point you were making — about the non-uniform distribution of Muslims — I completely agree. That was in fact the point I have made earlier also, rebutting those who pooh pooh an Eid impact on Salman’s releases while trumpeting the Diwali impact on other releases (although my own view is that Diwali and Eid are both overall positives for whoever releases big films): in the major Hindi-speaking urban centers of India, Muslims are DISproportionately represented (probably 30+% in Mumbai; 25+% in Delhi; and 30+% in a host of “tier 2” cities like Lucknow; Kanpur; etc.; heck, in Hyderabad they are about 40% of the total, but almost certainly a comfortable majority of the HINDI-film audience). Given that the contribution of major urban centers to Bollywood receipts is huge, Muslims are far more economically important to Bollywood receipts than their numbers in the Indian population would suggest — i.e. they are disproportionately important NOT because they are Muslim, but because they are disproportionately urban.
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October 31, 2011 at 5:24 AM
Thanks, Qalandar, I thought of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as soon as I read your first post. But I wasn’t aware that the Muslim population was so low in states like UP and Rajasthan. Very interesting.
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October 31, 2011 at 6:45 AM
Re: “But I wasn’t aware that the Muslim population was so low in states like UP …”
That doesn’t surprise me: a lot of people aren’t aware of that, because of two reasons (at least in my view): (1) Muslims are CULTURALLY very significant in places like U.P., because of the history, the influence on language, cuisine, etc., and as a result, people tend to over-estimate the demographic strength (you see a similar situation where Goa is concerned: ask most Indians who are not from Goa, and they are quite likely to say it is a Christian-majority state; whereas over 60% of Goa’s population is Hindu; and I have met many Hindus who say Kerala does not have a Hindu-majority population, but that is also untrue; finally, ask anyone to estimate the % of Sikhs in India’s population, and most North Indians would guess a lot more than the 2% reflected in the census figures; and don’t even get me started on the number of times I’ve had to explain to people that the Telugu-speaking population of India is not vastly lower than the Tamil-speaking population); (2) Most people on the internet/in urban India have little to no contact with rural India (and one is especially unlikely to have contact with the rural portions of a state that isn’t one’s own), and Muslims are disproportionately represented in U.P.’s cities: in places like Meerut, Agra, Lucknow, Aligarh, Kanpur, Varanasi Rampur, etc. etc., Muslims are a lot more than the 15-20% they are state-wide. Thus, based on the fact that one sees Muslims “everywhere” whenever one visits a city in U.P., people unwittingly leap to some conclusions.
The upshot: nearly two-thirds of India’s population is rural, but a disproportionate number of Muslims live in urban India (and this trend is pretty true of U.P. as well) — hence the “illusion” (but hence, also, the importance to Bollywood).
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October 31, 2011 at 7:09 AM
Edited the above comment after posting.
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October 31, 2011 at 1:28 AM
But over the last decade that base has splintered. Which is why RNBDJ opened behind Ghajini and grossed a bit less than it even in the US!
That is because of snowstorms in december.You didnt know this and keep saying this everytime.
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October 31, 2011 at 2:53 AM
RNBDJ released at the end of November/beginning of December, while Ghajini released during Christmas. So both would be subject to snowstorms, Ghajini more so because of the advanced winter season. Unless you can recall a specific huge snowstorm that affected RNBDJ and not Ghajini, on the average, this factor would cancel out for both films.
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October 31, 2011 at 6:56 AM
RNBDJ released in December only. December 12, 2008. Just 2 weeks before Ghajini. Not end of November.
SRK partisans claim he was unable to promote the film much due to recent terrorist attacks. But at that time, they were spreading articles in media saying how people would only prefer to watch sweet light hearted films like RNBDJ after terror attacks rather than violent or ”gory” films like Ghajini!
It’s shameless how they used the terror attacks thing to explain the underperformance of the film (in comparison to Aamir’s Ghajini).
Terrorist attacks are a serious issue. Do they mean to say that people were under effect of terror attacks around December 12, but the effect wore off by the time Ghajini released around December 24?
Salman did minimal promotions for Ready and Bodyguard still the films broke records. Whereas SRK team keeps complaining about ”inability” to promote film, hence lower collections than Ghajini! [SRK did do lot of interviews and channels like NDTV, Sahara News kept showing making of RNBDJ several times a day for weeks! Still they claim they didn’t promote it!]
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October 31, 2011 at 9:38 AM
RNBDJ was released in december 12th 2008.I was being told by some US NRIs that snowstorms where Indians live in december affected RNBDJ’s collections.I am not srk,aamir fan.Ghajini released in last of december and by that time weather cleared.
snowstorm was in december 2008.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4679149n
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October 31, 2011 at 1:51 AM
Rajasthan Extended Weekend Ra.One V Bodyguard
Monday 31st October 2011 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One does phenomenaly well in Rajasthan but is 5% less than Bodyguard. The extended weekend collections in Rajasthan of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
Wednesday
Ra.One – 78 lakhs
Bodyguard – 1.17 crore
Thursday
Ra.One – 1.40 crore
Bodyguard – 1.09 crore
Friday
Ra.One – 92 lakhs
Bodyguard – 88 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 77 lakhs
Bodyguard – 81 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 83 lakhs
Bodyguard -1.10 crore
TOTAL
Ra.One – 4.70 crore
Bodyguard – 5.05 crore
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October 31, 2011 at 1:52 AM
Mysore Extended Weekend Ra.One V Bodyguard
Monday 31st October 2011 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One has shattered all record in Mysore. The extended weekend collections in Mysore of Ra.One and Bodyguard are as follows.
Wednesday
Ra.One – 95 lakhs
Bodyguard – 67 lakhs
Thursday
Ra.One – 1.06 crore
Bodyguard – 80 lakhs
Friday
Ra.One – 69 lakhs
Bodyguard – 46 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 90 lakhs
Bodyguard – 55 lakhs
Saturday
Ra.One – 82 lakhs
Bodyguard -60 lakhs
TOTAL
Ra.One – 4.45 crore
Bodyguard – 3.08 crore
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October 31, 2011 at 1:55 AM
Is this just for Hindi or for the Tamil/Telugu versions as well?
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October 31, 2011 at 1:59 AM
that’s an interesting question because the Mysore collections could well be mixed.. but otherwise BOI have given the Hindi ones separately unlike Taran and Nahata who’s mixed up everything.
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October 31, 2011 at 2:35 AM
As per BOI, ra one is 81 crs weekend, fell way short of Bg. Just equal to bg after including regional versions.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=3636&nCat=
Ra.One (Hindi) Has Huge Extended Weekend
Monday 31st October 2011 11.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) had a huge extended five day weekend of around 81 crore nett as per early estimates. The regional versions were around 4.50 crore nett making it 85.50 crore nett.
The Hindi version fell around 4 crore short of the total set by Bodyguard which also had an extended five day weekend.
Ra.One had a huge Thursday by recording the highest day in history and even Friday was good but the film did not go through on Saturday and Sunday as collections hardly showed a jump on both days.
Saturday is okay but Sunday is expected to grow but here Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all in the same region.
The weekend trend suggest a drops in the weekdays but the film has already got a healthy total in five days and it has regional holidays in the weekdays which may help collections in some parts
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October 31, 2011 at 3:02 AM
records are always for all india collections..this is a good business strategy to release films in regional lang.so ra.one surpasses bg…congrats to SRK
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October 31, 2011 at 3:16 AM
The box office collections and verdicts for Hindi films are always based on the business done by the Hindi version alone, if there are multiple language versions.
From a producer’s point of view, it makes sense to release multiple language versions, to recoup whatever money can be gotten from other markets, but it does not affect the Hindi box office verdict.
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October 31, 2011 at 3:57 AM
but undermining SRKs starpower by using all these tricks is imo not justified as people who went to watch tamil or telugu versions would have watched hindi version if not given that choice if they understand hindi.
and this is what star power is-how many people watch your movies.first of all imo worldwide number should be considered.but even if you take only india then all regional versions should be included.
In case of DB.did anyone care abt its hindi collections or english collections?
it was always taken collectively.
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October 31, 2011 at 5:03 AM
Re: “and this is what star power is-how many people watch your movies”
Really? If that is so ticket prices ought to be considered, as only then will we arrive at the number of PEOPLE who watch a movie (rather than the number of rupees a film has generated). [Aside: in past years whenever I used to argue in favor of looking at ticket sales in addition to receipts, several SRK fans would attack me, on the grounds that the money was what mattered (the overseas receipts always added a considerable amount to the Indian rupee grosses of those films, since tickets in the West are very expensive when converted into Indian rupees: it takes far fewer people watching a film in the UK/US to generate 10 crores than in India; and even in India SRK films were among the first to exploit the market potential of jacked up ticket prices, from the days of Devdas and earlier.]. Bodyguard is almost certain to win that opening-week battle (i.e. number of PEOPLE as opposed to amount of RUPEES) hands down, given average ticket prices were noticeably lower. Even Singham would have had a much larger number of people associated with its gross than many other films making the same amount of money.
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October 31, 2011 at 5:22 AM
These are not “tricks” nor is anyone trying to undermine SRK’s star power. This is the way box office collections have been reported till now for all other Hindi films. The only “trick” has been to depart from this established practice. As I mentioned earlier, the Telugu collections weren’t included for Veer or Krrissh, nor the Tamil collections for Robot. That’s why BOI’ classified Robot as “below average”, even though it was the highest grossing Indian film ever.
You raise an interesting point about Kites and DB, since these weren’t originally filmed in Hindi, but later dubbed. I don’t know how their collections were calculated. It wouldn’t change the verdict of either film if only the Hindi collections were considered. Now the verdict of Ra.One would also be not affected if the Telugu and Tamil collections were included or not, since obviously the bulk of the revenue is coming from the Hindi version. These miniscule other collections are only being dragged in to claim that it has set a record, which is not correct.
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October 31, 2011 at 8:58 AM
According to some sites its regional versions have crashed:
Ra.One (G.One) is a box office disappointment – http://www.supergoodmovies.com/30911/tollywood/ra-one-g-one-is-a-box-office-disappointment-news-details
Another one about regional versions crashing – http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/can-ra-one-beat-bodyguard-and-3-idiots/
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October 31, 2011 at 9:10 AM
Meanwhile Taran has a figure that’s 7 crores higher!
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/top5/index.html
Kind of him to admit the business wasn’t optimal on sat/sun!
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October 31, 2011 at 9:11 AM
Nahata does the same:
http://www.koimoi.com/box-office/shah-rukh-khan-breaks-salman-khan-s-weekend-box-office-record/
So forget about just adding the regional versions, these guys have done their best to make it the overall record holder!
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October 31, 2011 at 9:16 AM
According to some posts on Twitter, Nahta has added Hindi net to Telugu gross and Tamil net, or vice versa — in other words, a mishmash of gross and net collections, to come up with his “record-breaking” total.
Some posts on NG pointed out that Taran had higher totals for BG than BOI, which were equal to what he is now claiming for Ra.One, so by his own figures for both, Ra.One didn’t break BG. It only has broken records if we take Taren’s current numbers for Ra.1 and compare them with BOI’s for BG.
Confusion, confusion! 🙂
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October 31, 2011 at 7:47 AM
http://broadband.glamsham.com/players/theatrical-trailer-video_8ff50e281.html
satyam here is the PLAYERS Theatrical Trailer
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October 31, 2011 at 7:49 AM
Thanks BABA.
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October 31, 2011 at 9:18 AM
can’t access it.. wasn’t this supposed to be out on nov 3?
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October 31, 2011 at 9:29 AM
Actually Glamsham has removed it now .
I saw it .Looks like a big budget extravaganza.If promoted well can get a big initial ..
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October 31, 2011 at 9:39 AM
it must have been a leaked version which was later blocked.. but yeah this is Abbas-Mustaan’s biggest project.. from the Arctic Circle to NZ they’ve really covered the gamut for this one.. the same for all kinds of stunts as well.. this does have to be marketed in a big way.. these ‘pre-teasers’ they’ve put out would seem to point in the right direction on this score.
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October 31, 2011 at 8:13 AM
lol who is baba — jeevan
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October 31, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Are baba .. ye vo wala baba nahi bola mein. vo to feverbaba hai re baba .. power ki kassam .. satyam shivam(shetty) SM-undaram.
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October 31, 2011 at 8:29 AM
Vaise RA.One crash ho gayi aaj .. Dr. Anupam ki KASSAM.
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October 31, 2011 at 9:28 AM
Meanwhile, no Monday updates from BOI. Am sure is pretty bad.
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October 31, 2011 at 10:57 AM
a good rediff article
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/bodyguard-defeats-raone-at-the-box-office/20111031.htm
“..Shah Rukh Khan has been dominating every form of media over last few months, whether on television, print or online.
But films today seem to need more media after the release than before it — to persuade the media about the film’s success and leave it to them to convince the rest of the world.
In this regard, things have become even simpler since the invention of advertorials — pay and park your story in your own words!..”
btw rediff has taken a different stand on all things RA1, good that they didnt join the Taran and Komal bandwagon. Not sure what the deal is here though!!! Maybe they werent treated well by Srk.
Its a good sign though, to have different voices.
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October 31, 2011 at 11:14 AM
How is this a “good” article? it’s rife with contradictions!
“Ra.One fell far short of the target, collecting about Rs 14.6 crore. The fault lies in the day chosen for release. Diwali [ Images ] is not exactly the best day to release a film, especially if you want to shatter records”
“Bodyguard released on Eid. The next day was also a holiday in some parts of India [ Images ], thanks to Baasi Eid/Ganesh Chaturthi, and the film made the most of these two days.”
Diwali is not a good day to release a film, but Bodyguard “made the most” of Eid and Ganesh Chaturthi?
The rest of the article is as muddle-headed as some reviews have claimed the plot of Ra.One to be!
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October 31, 2011 at 12:02 PM
they were atleast not cheerleading like the rest with false collections….
But major sites like this are now atleast talking abt the PR stuff that goes on behind the scenes, “…to persuade the media about the film’s success and leave it to them to convince the rest of the world….pay and park your story in your own words!..” Isnt this what is happening each and every time!!! Thats why I felt good abt this article.
Ofcourse not sure if rediff holds the ground for all movies…come next month, they might throw all this in dustbin and report PR numbers as usual.
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October 31, 2011 at 11:29 AM
It’s a sign of the times that this sort of people asking the larger questions even comes about and that too with respect to a SRK film.
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October 31, 2011 at 12:49 PM
Slant has a very negative piece:
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/ra-one/5874
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October 31, 2011 at 9:02 PM
This was one of the most interesting pieces I’ve read on the film. I don’t think I’ve seen anybody else ask what made G.One (the character) ideologically good. That nastiness to “outsiders” that the reviewer picks up on is something I’ve noticed in quite a few of the glossy Yash Raj rich films.
And it seems even in the one star reviews, Kareena Kapoor really walks away smelling like roses.
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October 31, 2011 at 12:50 PM
Ra.One (Hindi) Extended Weekend Territorial Breakdown
Monday 31st October 2011 18.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) grossed a huge 81 core nett approx in its extended five day weeeknd. The film set a new record for business in the first three days. Below is the extended weekend territorial breakdown of the film.
Mumbai – 29.48 crore
Delhi/UP – 15.52 crore
East Punjab – 6.26 crore
West Bengal – 4.94 crore
Bihar – 1.66 lakhs
Assam/Orissa – 1.42 crore
CP Berar – 3.80 crore
CI – 2.68 lakhs
Rajasthan – 4.71 crore
Nizam – 4.40 crore
Mysore – 4.42 crore
Tamil Nadu/Kerala – 1.68 crore
TOTAL – 80.97 crore
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October 31, 2011 at 12:55 PM
from Taran to BOI all were claiming prior to release that film could do 100-115 crores in this 5 day period specially taking screen count into account. Now BG has become everyone’s lifeline!
In an odd sense they’ve done BG a favor. Here’s a film that did a relatively quick fade, certainly did not have the strongest trending but by constantly upholding it as a standard they’ve canonized the box office achievement far more than would otherwise be the case! And by the same token haven’t done as much for Raz One. Because if you start off by saying this will throw up the biggest numbers ever and then you have to settle for just nudging BG or getting one ‘biggest’ day that is so by just 10% (assuming one doesn’t buy the contributions Nahata and Taran have made from their own trust funds) and then if you have to make festival excuses each of the remaining days and what not you start sounding very desperate. I won’t even get into the WOM angle!
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October 31, 2011 at 12:58 PM
Concise Boxoffice
Ra.one MonDay update –
Ra.one Loosing heavily in small and regional circiuts .
Big Circuits also showing big fall …….
This was expected From Ra.one as WOM is MIXED .
Tamil and telegu version perfomance is all time disasterous Today [ monday ] .
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October 31, 2011 at 1:33 PM
http://www.facebook.com/concise.boxofficeindia
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October 31, 2011 at 1:41 PM
Ra.One breaks box office record with Rs 170cr collections
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/entertainment/raone-breaks-box-office-recordrs-170cr-collections_607687.html
i would like to meet kishore lula in london and get facts
sounds like
“desperately seeking eros international”
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October 31, 2011 at 1:58 PM
As for Ra.One Monday update, Ra.One Monday Morning and Noon shows are poor and huge drop is registered. Evening and Night shows advance booking is average to poor, and if it doesn’t improve rapidly, huge crash is awaiting for Ra.One.
Nowadays as opening weekend indicates, how big the opening was of a particular movie, similarly Monday indicates, whether the movie will sustain or not in coming weeks. Since, today volume of screening is enormous, from Monday movies generally see a drop. But the drop showing for Ra.One in many places is huge and showing tremors already.
Already Ra.One has not collected as expected in its opening weekend and this early Monday update will cause further damage in the recovery of the huge investments. No doubt Ra.One broke all opening records and collected 91 crore nett all India in its opening extended weekend, but it was expected to collect much higher as per trade sources (Opening Weekend Expected – 100+ crore nett at least).
We are still hopeful, evening and night shows will pick up and healthy Monday figure will be on the cards.
http://www.addatoday.com/2011/10/raone-monday-update-not-encouraging.html
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October 31, 2011 at 2:37 PM
RA one is a goner no matter how much these analysts are trying to paint a different picture fact is it will collapse badly. Excessive marketing is a double edged sword as audience expectations skyrocket and then if the product is just below average like in the case of RA one it gets rejected. This will hamper SRK future projects as have not seen so much negativity around him ever. But Don 2 seems a classy product and theatrical trailer was mighty impressive however due to the negative response to Ra one many would now wait for its reviews rather than blindly turning up for his film so intial could be low.
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October 31, 2011 at 2:44 PM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
#RaOne Monday trends: Should be in 6 cr to 6.5 cr range.
7 minutes ago
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October 31, 2011 at 3:49 PM
He’s been pushing inflated numbers from day 1 even. This leaving aside the problem of adding the dubbed versions. Doubt it’s more than 4 or 5 crores on Mon. Not that it makes a huge difference at this point.
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October 31, 2011 at 7:37 PM
Not only Taran even Komal also provided inflated numbers ..E 5 day total 92 cr from 3 languages is deliberate attempt to break BG 5 day record .No territory break up .Really shame less people.SRK says in public he never cared for Box office collections But he managed all top trade analysts and BOI
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October 31, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Bollywood’s Khan Flops as Superhero in India’s Costliest Movie
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/31/bloomberg_articlesLTTWQM0UQVI9.DTL#ixzz1cOFcibRi
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October 31, 2011 at 11:08 PM
Shobha De on Ra One:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/people/What-were-you-thinking-SRK/articleshow/10554166.cms
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October 31, 2011 at 11:11 PM
As per information available with Businessofcinema.com, the movie’s Hindi version garnered net collections of approximately Rs 800 million (Rs 80 crore) in India in its first five days. On the other hand, the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions of the movie brought in approximately Rs 45 million (Rs 4.5 crore) taking the total to 845 million (Rs 84.5 crore).
Salman Khan’s highest grosser ever Bodyguard, which also saw a five day extended weekend, saw net collections of approximately Rs 866.1 million (Rs 86.61 crore).
http://businessofcinema.com/news.php?newsid=19374
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November 1, 2011 at 12:14 AM
Below link is a telling commentary on Ra.One’s miserable BO performance
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2011/nov/011111-Box-office-Situation-stalemate.htm
Going by the distributors’ verdict, on current trends the film is going to suffer losses in Nizam, Rajasthan, CP, CI & entire eastern circuit ( More territories could very well be added if current dismal trend continues ! ) Interestingly, on one hand trade wallahs like Amod Mehra & Vinod Mirani are openly & confidentlly commenting on the debacle…while on the other hand distributors & multiplex owners are speaking out only on condition of anonymity !! This is just shocking … are these guys so afraid of offending SRK and his camp ??
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November 1, 2011 at 12:51 AM
Ra.one US BOX $1.654 Mil
http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/bo_numbers/actual_estimate/2011-10-31
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November 1, 2011 at 1:45 AM
Ra.One Monday Early Estimate
Tuesday 1st November 2011 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) has grossed around 6 crore nett as per early estimates on Monday. The collections on Monday are pretty decent as when Sunday is lower than Saturday, a huge crash is expected but considering the 13.25 crore nett collections on Sunday, the 6 crore nett number is more than the film could have hoped for on Monday.
The film has now collected 87 crore nett in its first four days and should get to around 100 crore nett over its first week.
The Sunday figure suggested it could go into in its second weekend with very low collections and little hope of taking any advantage from the four day second weekend but now it may be able to have a decent collection from its extended second weekend.
The collections are being helped by holidays in Gujarat and the star power of Shahrukh Khan in circuits like West Bengal and Mysore. The regionals versions are down badly and are hardly collected on Monday.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:46 AM
So were there expecting 2-3 crores on Mon? THis is the classic straw man argument! Plus if they were expecting a crash on Mon they certainly did not let us into the secret earlier!
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November 1, 2011 at 1:49 AM
How come the holidays of the second extended weekend are going to help the film, when the holidays of the first extended weekend supposedly hurt it? More confusion!
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November 1, 2011 at 3:38 AM
Reminds me of Zizek’s take on the old folk tale of the borrowed kettle (“I never borrowed your kettle; but your kettle was blue, not black; and, it was broken anyway”): the purpose of all these verbal contortions is to hide the very fact that the contortions testify to (the truth they betray; i.e. at the very moment this sort of lie is uttered, it is already exposed in a sense AS a lie and a cover-up): the film is not doing well, and one cannot find anyone in the public who is saying it is doing well — that’s my personal experience, and believe me, I’m asking.
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November 1, 2011 at 3:35 AM
Re: “The collections are being helped by holidays in Gujarat and the star power of Shahrukh Khan in circuits like West Bengal and Mysore.”
LOL, this is like Soviet propaganda: why wouldn’t SRK’s star power help them in Gujarat? He’s surely more than the Badshah of West Bengal and Mysore! They’re tying themselves up in knots, but at least there’s comedy for the rest of us.
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November 1, 2011 at 4:30 AM
BOI: ‘The film has now collected 87 crore nett in its first four days’
So, now from last Wednesday to this Monday, they are counting that as only 4 days having elapsed! They are either trying to fake 6 days totals into 4 days totals now. Or they have simply lost their minds with this unexpected disaster that has hit them so hard.
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November 1, 2011 at 6:21 AM
prakashjaju Prakash Jaju
In history of Indian cinema distributors would not have suffered so much loss as they will in Ra1, many will be forced to shut their shops
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November 1, 2011 at 7:44 AM
IBOS:
Box Office: Ra.One King Khan kingdom goes down as flaming flop
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Shahrukh Khan is not having a particularly good decade at the box office. Ra.One arguably the most hyped film of 2011 in trade media appears to be going down in flames on a crash pattern.
After the last few set of costly underperformers, Shahrukh Khan went for the superhero/supervillain genre this year and has come up on the same end of stick at the box office as the film’s heterograph, Raavan.
Though Khan’s film isn’t the box office disaster that the Abhishek Bachchan starrer was over a year ago, nonetheless safe to say it will be a while before costly movies on anything remotely sounding like Raavan will be attempted on in India.
Ra.One, billed as a videogame/superhero caper along the lines of Rajnikanth’s Robot started on a decent note on Wednesday, though below expectations for a movie of mass release. It collected around estimated 33 crores the first two days. The film has however been on a steady decline since. With an underwhelming sunday and an outright weak Monday of 4-5 crores on oversaturated prints, Ra.One’s chances at recovery are slim to none. The distributors are set to suffer heavy losses.
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November 1, 2011 at 7:47 AM
Ra.One Six Day Daily Figures
Tuesday 1st November 2011 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
The daily collections of Ra.One (Hindi) for the first six days are as follows.
Wednesday – 14.85 crore nett
Thursday – 22.90 crore nett
Friday – 15.30 crore nett
Saturday – 14.55 crore nett
Sunday – 13.30 crore nett
Monday – 6 crore nett approx
TOTAL – 86.90 crore nett
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November 1, 2011 at 7:52 AM
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November 1, 2011 at 7:54 AM
claims 180 crores have been spent on Ra One (60 of those on marketing) but his production cost is 120 of those. Also says the satellite rights were sold at less than 40.
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November 1, 2011 at 7:55 AM
taran_adarsh taran adarsh
#RaOne *Hindi version* Wed 14.5 cr, Thu 23.5 cr, Fri 16 cr, Sat 14.15 cr, Sun 14 cr, Mon estimates 6 cr +. Total: Rs 88.15 cr nett.
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November 1, 2011 at 7:58 AM
at this point the Hindi numbers of BOI and Taran are more or less the same.
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November 1, 2011 at 8:10 AM
Raja Sen on SRJ’s worst films:
http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-the-worst-films-of-shah-rukh-khan/20111031.htm
some of the choices here are strange to say the least. But any list that forgets Guddu and Zamana Deewana in this context cannot be taken seriously!
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November 1, 2011 at 8:52 AM
So true.
OTOH,it is probably an easier exercise to enumerate his good/decent movies.
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November 1, 2011 at 8:29 AM
There have been big budget flops before and Ra.One is one more. Not very charitable to take much pleasure in someone’s failure but human mind is such that one cannot feel too sorry for the cocky Khan and his insufferable fans.
Much greater pleasure is to be derived from not just egg but the poultry farm that has ended up on the cunts of trade reporting. Am not sure if Komal and Taran will command any respect or will be able to muster any credibility after the shameless way they have gone about, abdicating any kind of responsibility as so -called trade experts. I would call them whores but that would be an insult to prostitutes. BOI hasnt fared much better. Their overall numbers have been a bit more believable but they are undone by their commentary. Am not sure why they dont realise that no amount of fancy footwork and contortions will allow them to hide.
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November 1, 2011 at 8:37 AM
if ra.one is a flop …the only successful movie in india in last 3 years is 3 idiots!!
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November 1, 2011 at 8:48 AM
Not aking much sense but hardly surprising given the recent mental trauma.
Enjoy a good joke:
Q: What happens when G.One with an erection runs into a wall? A: He breaks his nose. ”
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November 1, 2011 at 9:08 AM
Ha!
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November 1, 2011 at 8:49 AM
This is exactly the type of arrogance, scratch that, MISINFORMED arrogance that prompts fans of other stars to rejoice in SRK’s failures!
Ra1 will struggle to reach Ready’s total with a budget 3 times the size of Ready. Can people at least be honest and look at the numbers for what they are?
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November 1, 2011 at 8:51 AM
And this is the situation with inflated numbers floating around!
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November 1, 2011 at 8:54 AM
cmon take the lowest numbers available and yet its plus 90 crore for the week..
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November 1, 2011 at 9:07 AM
The “regional” distributors are already counting their losses. Is this an exaggeration? Every single source is saying that the film has tanked completely in its dubbed versions.
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November 1, 2011 at 8:53 AM
ra.one is nearing 100 crore in week one.. plus 35-40 crore overseas… let it end its run and then we can compare its worldwide gross with the guards and readys.. its a fucked up movie..but the only thing working is the box office in some sense..
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November 1, 2011 at 9:04 AM
Even if it makes a final total of 140 crores, it’s still going to be a loss making venture, because the distribution costs are 77 crores! Do the math.
And overseas distributors won’t funnel their money to compensate distributors in India. Is this correct or not?
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November 1, 2011 at 9:31 AM
Re: “Ra1 will struggle to reach Ready’s total with a budget 3 times the size of Ready.”
Saket: it’s remarkable how little anyone discusses opportunity cost, let alone investment, when talking about box office grosses. The former makes your (completely accurate) statement even more notable: that is, in the cost of Ra-One, Sallu has produced Dabangg, Ready, AND Bodyguard (and in a timeframe since SRK’s last major release) — compare that investment and return on investment to Ra-One’s, and we see why distributors might have issues.
This is 2011, and with modern stars and their corporate machinery, you won’t find many, heck likely not any, who will flame out the way Rajesh Khanna did with several flops; or the way Anil Kapoor did in 1990-up. One’s analytical tools also have to keep pace: certainly not suggesting SRK is flaming out, but the logic of the last five years is inexorably clear: IT SIMPLY COSTS HIM MORE AND MORE TO KEEP PACE WITH HIS RIVALS. This isn’t only about a particular star, but even about films: Singham; Rajneeti; the Aamir and Salman films; Golmaal Returns. I mean, these are NOT ultra-pricey films. Of SRK’s recent big films, only Rab Ne Banadi Jodi was likely a relatively inexpensive film.
[Every time I used to bring up ticket prices in years past, many netizens said the important thing was the money, not the number of people per se — but they don’t even want to talk about money (i.e. the economics of the business) in a serious way; what is offered instead is the pornography of numbers, the invitation to delight in the mere recitation of large figures.]
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November 1, 2011 at 11:24 AM
On the subject of ticket-prices, though not a fan of Salman Khan, one has to quite easily give him the crown of the Khan with the most attendance, i.e. number of people as opposed to the amount of money made. For Dabanng, Ready and now Bodyguard, he’s the only star I can think of who had consistently lowered the ticket-prices for his three consecutive releases. Your argument also of ROI with respect to him having made three films at the cost of one Ra.One is extremely valid.
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November 1, 2011 at 11:51 AM
@abzee
Salman did not lower the ticket prices he simply did not hike them and I don’t expect that to change. He has in several interviews mentioned that the prices as they stand are already too high.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:22 AM
How stupid….
whatever made you say that dear oh dear
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November 1, 2011 at 10:25 AM
My above comment is in reply to
‘if ra.one is a flop …the only successful movie in india in last 3 years is 3 idiots!!
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November 1, 2011 at 10:26 AM
Anshul … Shaan was top grosser of 1980 .. still labelled as under performer .. because of its high budget. Ra.One is not even top grosser .. and expectations were sky high based on budget, promotion etc .. so calling it Flop is not big deal.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:01 AM
Bollywood Box Office, and I’m making huge assumptions here, for lack of proper breakdowns available, can now be divided into two extremes:
1) The Multiplex Audience — for whom there is no bigger star than Aamir Khan, followed by the rest.
2) The Single Screen Audience — for whom Salman Khan is #1, followed by daylight and then the others.
I think it’s a safe assumption to make. And if this assumption is correct, the biggest threat (actually, beyond the point of threat) to SRK has always been Aamir Khan. Sure, there’s a crossover among audiences but Salman has clearly not hurt SRK the way Aamir has. Salman has cornered a base that was already his for the taking. Aamir has worked the whole past decade (some would say since the 90s) in creating a brand name for himself. He’s so far ahead in the prestige sweepstakes (the multiplex “hook”) that SRK would have to give multiple CDIs to even think of coming close.
This is the current situation and things can obviously change in the future. But the interesting thing to note is that when Aamir attempts a Ghajini, he also brings the single screen audiences onboard. That makes him a clear winner, all things considered equal.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:38 AM
Let’s forget RA.one now. J.Edgar comes out on Nov 11, looks like one juicy film – so excited. Hoping DiCaprio gets his Oscar for this one.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:39 AM
absolutely.. can’t wait for this!
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November 1, 2011 at 11:39 AM
It’s probably the only American movie I’m looking forward to at this point along with Cronenberg’s next and McQueen’s Shame with Fassbender. Certainly the one I await the most…
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November 1, 2011 at 9:41 AM
Watched Ra.One last Sunday in London.
It’s a commercially entertaining film, and I’ll judge it on those grounds, keeping it as short as possible.
Pros
1.
Ideologically, it satisfied me. Satyam, was wondering (mocking rather) at my expectations of finding soul in the film. I did. Not talking about the evil vs good, but, something else.
Kids (boys mostly) and grown ups who remain children (men mostly- the ones waiting impatiently for the Don2s and D3s to watch their heroes play villains) think bad/kickass etc is cool, so you have Akon singing He’s a troublemaker (not in the film, just saying), while the boy Prateek in the film calls himself Lucifer (devil) on the net. 😉
Prateek had to learn it the hard way that what looks cool is no longer cool when you are at the receiving end. Liked the way he takes part in helping G.One to vanquish Ra.One but cannot help beyond level 2 because he hadn’t played at level 3 (the root of all the problems).
Spotlighting this in the film is enough for me to show benevolence toward it.
2.
The VFX (this point in cons too)
Seemed pretty good from what knowledge I have which is limited to watching it dispassionately on the TV screen when channel surfing.
Personally, I *do* think the film brings in the novelty of VFX and it shouldn’t be just dismissed.
3.
There were some funny moments (this point in cons too), like the man-reading-newspaper-in the back of the bus while the car crashes through the empty front. LOL.
Kareena choking on the ring, the Chinese mother who thought Ra.One was her son and was talking away in Chinese (probably telling her son to get married or something LOL), of course what followed wasn’t funny.
4.
Satyam may try to smear SRK with accusations of propagating a life style (NRI/or whatever) my appreciation for SRK had started because I found his films very Indian. I had watched a string of his films (paheli, Ashoka, CDI, Swades, MHN, devdas, Veer Zaara and later RNBDJ) which were very Indian. MNIK setting wasn’t, but neither was it glorifying any lifestyle. KANK and KHNH yes, but these are only two. There may also have been some very earlier ones. This number is not more than any other actor’s.
Coming back to the film, in spite of being shot in London the first half, “it felt very Indian”. The father’s quoting of V. Shantaram’s film to give good advice to his son, (done in a way not to sound preachy) though it made no difference to mother and son). There’s even a *sad* song at the death scene.
5.
Child artistes like Honey Irani and Daisy Irani have gone forever…but SRK revived it in Ra.One. It adds to the charm of the film though several people are so not used to children in films that they have labelled the film for them.
6.
The fighting scenes. It was really the type one sees in AB’s films and others’ of that time. No blood and gore….well, obviously. Hahahahahaha.
7.
People keep saying the end was predictable. Of course it was. Evil had to be vanquished. But what would happen to G.One, I couldn’t predict. Even the Kareena bit at the end was eerie.
Now the cons
1.
The scenes involving the VFX were overlong. The fight scenes, the chase scenes, went on and on. It seemed like they were given this toy, and they couldn’t stop playing with it. After some time it begins to drag (excellent VFX or not). Thank goodness chitti arrives at the airport and everyone gets so distracted that the fight ends.
2.
SRK as a south Indian wasn’t consistent. I guess this will not be a problem in the dubbed versions 😀
3.
Those adult jokes were out of place there. They weren’t part of the narrative. I wish SRK would give up this kind of humour. In spite of just sprinkled in for a fleeting moment, It gave many people the straw they were looking for to hang on to.
But I have to mention here that SRK **did not grab Kareena’s boobs**
He puts his arm across her to protect her from the attacks/bullets (?), and his hand covers her boob, as being ‘not’ human types he wouldn’t know. Of course it was deliberate, meant to be a joke, but by using the word ‘grab’ brings this act down by several levels.
4.
Unfortunately, most of the people who can see what the film is trying to show with the video game will be the ones who will feel superior and sneer at it while those who ‘would’ need an explanation will not really get it, which is a pity for the film, because these are the people who would then enjoy the masala action and contents.
That I hardly ever have this feeling of repeating a contemporary film shouldn’t go against Ra.One. The only contemporary film I repeated was ‘Dor’. It had left a great impression on me.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:43 AM
thanks for your views Oldgold.. why are you getting so defensive though?
For the record I didn’t mock your expectation of finding soul in the film but having this expectation after not finding the same in Avatar and Inception.
I won’t get into an argument about some of your other claims here (including the one on the kind of cinema SRK does and how Indian it’s been) nor will I ask you to compare the “adult humor” of this film to the stuff in 3I and DB!
I am in a kind mood today!
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November 1, 2011 at 9:45 AM
Because of the attack. Isn’t that the strategy? Did you really read it? So quickly?
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November 1, 2011 at 9:49 AM
extended my response..
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November 1, 2011 at 10:16 AM
I think you haven’t seen the film. The scenes are there for less than a minute (3 of them in all, I think), not very explicit, including the hand/boob scene. To think it’s anything like DB shows your ignorance. As for 3I, i don’t think it had adult jokes, just toilet humour.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:28 AM
>I am in a kind mood today!
LOL! Satyam, if for even a second you think that what you say damages my opinion and self confidence in it, you are mistaken.
You sound as though another person (me in this case) isn’t capable of having firm strong opinion (like you in this case) based and supported by facts as they see it – and *will* see it.
You are welcome to say what you want and I won’t think it’s unkind. I’ll just think *there he goes again*. 😉
I liked the films listed because I found them Indian, and I find that SRK has acted in a whole lot of them which out numbers the other kind.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:43 AM
Some Trivia
1. –
The Crab Mentality
It set in with vengeance, with people wanting to minimize, mock, and pull it down, just because SRK dared to do something different and shout it from the rooftops.
They have not even left his children alone. Now these are king crabs.
2.
Quite a few reviews in the west are very positive, with the FT of London saying the film has taken Indian cinema forward. 😉
3.
Everyone looks good. SRK looked very very attractive at the end when the credits rolled.
4.
Spreading negativity works (and this blog did its part)
Booked tickets online at a cinema in Leicester Square London.
– reached there and thought ;
*oh, no* the film failed, and they had to show it in this seedy looking corner of this area. Anyway, went in.
-There was no sign of Ra.One. It wasn’t listed there, no poster, no nothing.
‘Oh, no’ they have removed it, because it failed
-made enquiries. The tickets were booked in Leicester (a totally different town) *not* Leicester square in London. ‘
‘Oh no’. Now what!! We were told to go to Marble Arch where it was playing. Decided not to haggle over the wrongly booked tickets in Leicester (they were not to be blamed), and let Ra.One have the extra collection
-next day went early in a very nice area. The notice there said ‘Booking starts at 12.15’. No one came. By now I was quite paranoid.
‘Oh, no’. It has been removed because it failed so no booking, quite forgetting that there were other films playing too. From among the crowd waiting suddenly someone remembeed it’s winter time -change today. We should come later.
4. The 12.40 2D show was about ¼ full, but the later 3D show seemed quite full judging from the crowd ready to go in.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:41 PM
Re: with people wanting to minimize, mock, and pull it down, just because SRK dared to do something different and shout it from the rooftops.
Nothing could be more dishonest or stupid.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:54 PM
Tho, ofcourse it is par for the course.
Re: It’s a commercially entertaining film, and I’ll judge it on those grounds, keeping it as short as possible.
What does that mean?
How does one get ‘commercially entertained”?
Is this some novel way of trying to justify the crap fest?
Is the bar artificially lower for a ‘commercially entertaining film?
Boob grab/boob press- same difference.
The review sounds hollow and the praise forced.
Even, I did like some portions but didnt need to adorn my review with incoherent defensive justification of large chunks of the film that are pitifully pathetic.
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November 1, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Sorry to butt in your conversation, but just felt like responding to some points in your comments:
”Child artistes like Honey Irani and Daisy Irani have gone forever…but SRK revived it in Ra.One. It adds to the charm of the film though several people are so not used to children in films that they have labelled the film for them.”
SRK revived it? I hope you remember Darsheel in TZP (Aamir made child artiste the main actor of the film!), Shweta Prasad in Iqbal and Makdee – best examples in current times. Also, in Fanaa, the kid in second half is instrumental in causing change of heart in Aamir’s character and bringing Aamir and Kajol closer. Kids had prominent roles in films like HHRPK, One 2 Ka 4, Mr. India, KKHH, Raja Hindustani, Zakhm, Tere Mera Saath Rahe, Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic, Raju Chacha, Gopi Kishen and even KNPH. The little kid in Gadar also has significant role post interval in the film. Salman’s Partner, Biwi No. 1 and Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya have also shown some bratty/mischievous kids.
– ”just because SRK dared to do something different”
What is so different which he has ”dared” to do? I saw many SRK fans talking about ”different/daring” stuff. Kindly elaborate what it is? Superhero films – we have had Krissh which was the no.1 or no.2 biggest hit of 2006. Sci-fi films (or Indian filmi style sci-fi) Koi Mil Gaya and Robot are there – both successful examples.
I can understand if Shekhar Kapur and Anil Kapoor were lauded for daring to do something different when they made Mr. India in 80s! What was so risky and daring for Ra one?
– ”Spreading negativity works (and this blog did its part)”
Madam I think you are highly mistaken. No blog or tweet can spread negativity or stop a film from doing well! Blogs were trashing Bodyguard, Ready, Dabangg – left, right and centre! Reviewers were panning those films. Yet those films succeeded. When Ghajini released in 2008, I don’t know if some of you here are aware or not, but TV channels like NDTV, Sahara News, Star News, Aaj Tak left no stone unturned to spread negativity against it! They kept reporting how ”gory” it was that no one should watch it, how it should have got A certificate, how Aamir ”disappointed” and was not expected to come up such a film post TZP, they never reported about its record breaking collections and only kept repeating how it was a ”nakal” of a Tamil film, how Aamir was fake perfectionist and only turned out to be ”nakalchi bandar” with Ghajini!
They and some sites like Oneindia, gave worst reviews to Ghajini and also accused Aamir of lying about its collections, reporting about ”fake records” just to prove his film’s supremacy at BO over SRK’s RNBDJ! They kept playing up the so-called war between Aamir-SRK and accused Aamir of trying to sabotage RNBDJ, using SRK for publicity and whatnot!
Still the film survived all negativity and broke all records!
Media spread negativity for 3 Idiots too. Especially TV channels here in India, started reporting only about credit controversy and later took some suicide cases and said 3I was ”encouraging students to commit suicide”! [Even though students have committed suicide earlier, and the film only gives message against suicide, not for it!!] Sagarika Ghose of CNN-IBN kept accusing Aamir and makers of 3I of promoting irreverence against teachers and education system, she not only did programs on this on TV but also kept writing op-eds trashing the film.
Did any of that harm 3 Idiots? Did it make a dent in its popularity, acclaim or BO collections? NO!
Certain sections of media had also attempted to spread negativity against RDB, saying it encouraged students to resort to violence or rebel or promoted irreverence for elders and the system. But nothing could stop RDB. It struck a chord with people and made big bucks at BO too.
Blogs, tweets, even published pieces from popular journos or critics can make NO difference in case people find the film entertaining or connect with it some way. These days, there is plenty of negativity for every star’s film.
As for Ra One, there are not just blogs or tweets. It has become a butt of jokes in SMSes too. Indeed Ra One SMS jokes have taken over Rajini jokes in India as of now.
But then, joke pages for Aamir/Salman and their films are also on FB and Twitter (made and nourished by talented SRK fans). But those jokes never spread far and wide. If ordinary people are taking to Ra One jokes and forwarding them to each other, then they surely must have found it worth joking about. Otherwise, Aamir/Salman jokes, never made it out of FB and Twitter despite incessant re-tweeting, sharing and re-blogging by his fans across social networks.
It’s just amazing how his fans on one hand call him world’s most powerful man or biggest star on earth and then feel he’s being victimised or people are trying to sabotage his films!
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November 1, 2011 at 5:50 PM
Actually there were lots of children in films throughout the 70s.
Of course some of these ‘virtues’ are rather arbitrary ones in the Ra One context. It’s like saying I love Fanaa because a girl hadn’t been blind in Hindi cinema for ages! or that I love Ghajini because no one lost their memory in a Hindi film after the 70s.
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November 1, 2011 at 11:37 AM
Thanks for posting your thoughts. How did you find this vis-a-vis Enthiran (Robot) which I think (?) you also saw? I’m mainly interested in the effects which I’m sure were better in Ra.One but did you feel that they were as imgainative as what Shankar created? Of course my question is a bit leading and presupposes that you thought the effects sequences in Robot were imaginative…but in any case since you seem to have come away with a reasonably strong impression on the VFX, thought I’d ask.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:48 PM
I liked the scenes of Robot towards the ending, and honestly speaking they both look different from each other.
Ra.One seemed more aesthetically done.
But as I also said the use in scenes was overdone in length.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:50 PM
I’m not for one moment saying it’s great.
It’s just entertaining in a neo masala way, if one wants that.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:41 AM
“IT SIMPLY COSTS HIM MORE AND MORE TO KEEP PACE WITH HIS RIVALS.”
I think he can still easily belt out big grossers with love stories but he seems to be genuinely interested in the Hollywood-style SFX stuff. So I think it’s a choice on his part, not a compulsion to do expensively budgeted films.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:17 PM
I don’t know why he just does not follow the CDI and RNBDJ model. These were perfectly budgeted films which made lots of money and still kept his rep in tact.
I believe he will just go out for bigger and bigger films instead of affordable cinema.
Ra.One in the context of what Qalander said is right.
Or another way. Aamir has made Lagaan (30 crores), TZP (15 crores), JTYJN (15 crores), Peepli Live (10 crores), Dhobi Ghat (5 crores) and Delhi Belly (25 crores). These are approx. budgets. Together that is 100 crores as production costs. The net gross for these movies is 250crore just from India!
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November 1, 2011 at 2:33 PM
I think even if SRK is feeling the pressure from Salman/Amir , in his mind his competition is with AB. He has a king size AB complex and is preoccupied with the idea of somehow equalling or surpassing the preeminence enjoyed by AB ( and same goes to some extent for his fans too). While quite popular with certain demographic groups, he does not enjoy the kind of near-universal adualtion and respect that AB does. Nor can he possibly think of any way to attain those.
So, he operates with the idea of – Bigger is better. Let me deliver the biggest bloack-buster while at the same time successfully attempt something never done before. It is this blinding ambition and competitive spirit that drives him.
Agree CDI model was good both commerically and artistically while RNBDJ was good commercially.But, that doesnt do enough for his massive egotrip. It is a different matter that now even RNBDJ model will work commerically. As he has alienated large chunks of audience with brashness,arrogance and cockiness. and carerless remakrs. And the perceived ambivalence on Indo-Pak issue and some rather shameless pandering. Combine that with rapidly declining looks and a certain boredom on part of the public with his romantic image and even those romantic films are not a sure bet they were a while back.
He has painted himself into a corner and needs to reinvent himself. Given his limitations in term of vision, it is going to be a difficult if not an impossible task.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:35 PM
Re: It is a different matter that now even RNBDJ model will work commerically
Shold read – may not work commercially.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:34 PM
The explanation is actually quite simple. CDI & RNBDJ, although profitable, don’t support his self-proclaimed ‘baadshah’ of BW theory. The numbers aren’t big enough. What RNBDJ made in 2 weeks, Ghajini made in its first extended week! CDI wasn’t big enough to challenge Krissh or Dhoom 2.
The reason why SRK went all out with Ra1 was because he too wanted to prove a point. He spent 60 crores marketing the film! That’s the amount that goes into making a Salman film that anyway ends up making more than Ra1.
Ra1 was always going to be a loss-making/face-saving exercise. Even if he somehow could trump the numbers of the latest Salman/Aamir blockbusters, SRK knew he wasn’t really making a profit out of it. His real aim was to win the ‘perception’ battle. Prove to the world that he is *still* the king.
Unfortunately for him, not only did he lose the perception battle, he basically has ruined quite a few distributors/exhibitors in the process. And this, isn’t the least bit surprising. Marketing can only take you this far. In fact, by this deluge of marketing he might have harmed the cances of Don 2, because there’s certainly going to be a backlash.
This also ties in with what most people have been saying on this site all along — that SRK does NOT have the numbers, at least in India, to justify blowing his trumpet every now and then. He hasn’t been first among equals for a long time now.
Most SRK fanatics try to portray that SRK dominated the whole of 90s, but consider these facts:
When SRK’s KKHH clashed head on with BMCM, the latter had a better first week!
In 2000, when Mohabbatein clashed with Mission Kashmir, the latter again had a better first week! Imagine, not even a year old star (Hrithik) beat SRK’s decade long, supposedly #1 reign at the BO.
To be fair, SRK did win the box office clash with Salman’s Jaan E man and also against Saawariya, but the latter had newcomers in the film. The tables have turned though, and how. Today, if SRK directly clashes with Salman, he’s going to get an even bigger reality check!
In fact, I’m willing to be that Rockstar will end up making as much or MORE than Ra1! That ought to be even more humbling for the self-proclaimed King of BW! And just to reiterate, there’s no malice involved in all of this — if you throw down the guantlet, you’ve got to back up your swagger. SRK’s record indicates otherwise, for most part of the last decade and even earlier than that period.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:37 PM
Our comments crossed,Saket but we are making similar points.
Great minds DO think alike!
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November 1, 2011 at 9:49 AM
Good, balanced review Oldgold. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like a dramatically compelling film. That’s more important to me than great VFX. I have not even seen films like Iron Man 2, Thor or any of the Transformers films because they just looked boring. To be frank, I am a bit tired of the superhero genre in general. But SRK must be commended for putting his money where his mouth is – how many stars have the balls to spend that kind of dough and try to improve the VFX quality in Indian films? Moving forward, if such films take cue from RA.one and have better VFX, then SRK has already succeeded on a very important level.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:32 AM
Thanks Henry.
>Moving forward, if such films take cue from RA.one and have better VFX, then SRK has already succeeded on a very important level.
Agree.
And I hope he’ll continue to use this technology more discreetly and intelligently now that his euphoria for it has been used up.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:55 AM
Re: I think he can still easily belt out big grossers with love stories
I think that claim rings hollow.
Anyways, expecting good things from J.Edgar. Loved the trailer shown with The Ides of March. J.Edgar is a difficult subject to pull off and I felt Eastwood was trying to find some redemption in Hoover’s character which seems misplaced. De CAPRIO’S GET UP IS ACE THO.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:03 AM
I don’t know how that claim rings hollow when Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, one of his most average love stories, grosses 80 crores or something.
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November 1, 2011 at 11:56 AM
And, when exactly was RNBDJ?
THINGS HAVE CHANGED SINCE THEN WHETHER YOU WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE IT OR NOT.
I will not be surprised if Yash Chopra has second thoughts.
The reason I am saying this is the amount of negativity towards SRK I have seen amongst netiezens as well non-netizens.People, overall are very dismissive of SRK saying he is old, looks unhealthy, is so far behind Aamir etc. This is a significant change since two years ago.His fan base more or less might be intact. But 80-100 crore grossers are not achieved relying solely on the fans. The average cinema goer who is not a star struck fan contributes to a large degree.
In other words for SRK, the world today is different than when RNBDJ released. Hence, I am saying that it is not a given that he is going to score in a romantic love story.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:29 PM
rajen,aamir is also over as a superstar.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:43 PM
May be.So, whats your point?
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November 1, 2011 at 4:56 PM
One can’t say so till his full-fledged commercial film releases. And that is Dhuan or whatever that film is called and fails to do well. At least it won’t be outright flop as some Akki films were.
So far, his name alone has been enough to make films like PL, DB as hits! Even DG has made most money for an art film!
Those who call Aamir as ”over” simply on the basis of DG, which was not even promoted till 6 days before its release, which did not even have Aamir as main lead nor any other known face in the cast – are all too desperate and deluded.
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November 1, 2011 at 4:59 PM
Aamir I am sure will be back. Not to hurt on Salman’s achievements because he has taken two purely average films to big grossers, but if Aamir’s films clicks – the big commercial ones, one is no longer talking about beating 100 crore marks, it is automatically north of 150 crore because he can open a film on a par with Salman – just his script sense will give the film way more longer legs in theatres.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Box-office collections have still been respectable. It’s definitely not a Kites or Tees Maar Khan, Raavan kind of colossal collapse.
To be frank, the amateurish promos suggested srk will not be able to even open the movie this time around. However failure of this movie will surely affect Don2, and this time its going to hit the opening itself.
Crux of the matter – no one is willing to accept srk in hammy roles anymore – period.
As I said earlier, rejection of these two movies will be a wake up call for srk and his cronies who buy anything he says or does with no criticism whatsoever. SRK’s look with that big nose in the initial sequence of Ra1 with sanjay/priyanka was awful to look at and definitely someone should have pointed out to him to change the angle / look or whatever needed to be done.
All is not lost though and it is here, we would all learn about his true character. He did face a bit of rejection in 2000 but came back stronger and wiped out all competitions for a considerable period of time.
Working with strict senior directors will do him good. There is just no room for anymore ham / ott. He was fairly good in that cameo in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance and came across very much controlled so there is still a faint chance before he goes the Kaka Rajesh Khanna way …
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November 1, 2011 at 10:34 AM
>no one is willing to accept srk in hammy roles anymore – period.
What do you mean hammy? He’s rather stilted in his manner of speech and actionshere to depict a non human personality.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:47 PM
A lot many people including me had a problem with Rizwan kind of postures and mannerism as G-One. Hammy for me also means not staying in character throughout the movie. He was all over the place trying to play a south Indian. Lungi and curly hair does not mean your job as an actor is done.
One of the reason I liked Robot was due to Rajni and his believable authentic character throughout the movie. Even the stiff Chitty kept me engaged with his one tone act till the end.
It’s not speech but a behavior which becomes hammy for me – like that Raj of Rab ne or reincarnation of OSO in 2nd half OTT is okay sometimes but then one must stay in character till the end.
This is not to credit salman with any acting chops, but in Dabangg the guy stayed Chulbul Pandey till the last reel. Wanted is another good example o staying in character.
Though Sallu was hamming in Bodyguard and going through the motions.
SRK is lucky in a sense since he starts to shoot his next movie in Jan 2012 which is after the release of Don2 and the subsequent feedback on that too. His next movie does not carry any backlog and is a fresh start. If smart he is going to wake up and smell the coffee and to pay attention to what’s going on.
He still remains the biggest superstar of India in terms of overall package and in many ways than others including Aamir and Salman..
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November 1, 2011 at 1:53 PM
Yes, I hope he starts doing things differently.
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November 1, 2011 at 10:47 AM
How ridiculous is this.
People seem to be equating BO *expected before release* = success.
And if this expectation isn’t fulfilled it’s a BO failure.
Come on! The daily numbers it’s getting are not that common.
To make it look like it would be a success ONLY if it broke records of 3I and others is being devious.
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November 1, 2011 at 11:08 AM
Ra1 Distributor: I feel like crying; I’m making losses
Oldgold: Oh shut up! The film is posting “not that common” numbers!
Ra1 Distributor: But I’m making heavy losses
Oldgold: You are being devious!
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November 1, 2011 at 11:58 AM
LOL,Saket.
Very apt.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:40 PM
LOL! But I have always maintained that personally I’m not concerned with what the distributors make.
At the end of its days I like to know the total amount a film makes.
I’m not a distributor so what do I care. I don’t get anything when they make crores nor do I lose anything when the lose crores.
So the total as the earnings from the film is enough for me.
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November 1, 2011 at 1:58 PM
Is that lack of intellectual curiosity or fear of finding out?
It is like saying I dont care if the necklace is made of steel or gold because I am not a jeweller , I just want to know the price!
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November 1, 2011 at 5:27 PM
No, because it is all a contrived affair of didtributors earning in the first week or something, then the cinema owners, or something.
Maybe you are right. I’m not at all curious about who earns how much. The total counts (if at all, for me). This stance of mine can be verified in several comments of mine over time on this blog.
But didn’t I read somewhere that the film was sold for 77cr?
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November 1, 2011 at 5:37 PM
77 Crores is the distribution cost. The distributor’s share is around 50% of the nett. So if Ra1 has earned 90 crores so far, the distributors have only earned 45 crores!
In other words, the film needs to make close to 145 crores nett to just break even!
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November 1, 2011 at 3:03 PM
Of course, if the distributors faces big losses, they may not be as willing to shell out as much money for another film from the same star.
This is a helpful blog post on the different types of “hits.”
http://sirishallu.com/?p=1
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November 1, 2011 at 12:06 PM
Forget 3 Idiots…how about just equalling DABBANG. That’s what most expected…at least.
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November 1, 2011 at 4:50 PM
Well it is the fault of Ra One’s marketing team. They were claiming to have beaten 3 Idiots even before release and were dragging 3 Idiots comparisons in every article, claiming to have beaten it. SRK’s fans also did the same, they kept saying 3I overall records will be trashed in one week.
It is not the fault of other people now to compare it to 3I! All media outlets were hyping it up as SRK’s year. Filmfare anointed him as Actor of 2011 in December last year! Simply because he had two big projects in this year which were ”expected to shatter records”. India Today also declared SRK would ”rule this year”.
So if his own PR has hyped up things so much and promised the Sun and the Moon, then how come now everyone is being blamed of being harsh on the film or burdening it with expectations to cross 3I?
I remember in 2009, a magazine called Starweek had declared that MNIK already looked like it would become biggest grosser in history BUT ”response to 3 Idiots first look was not so good and it was not expected to even match up to Ghajini”! [I remember that article now and have a good laugh! :D]
Blame it on SRK’s sycophants in media for belittling others’ films and declaring his films as ”on its way to become” biggest grossers ”ever” even before release! They sound like it is a given that 100 crore nett or 200 crore nett are ”no big deal” for SRK and it’s a given that his film would break all records, it just needs to release to officially get biggest grosser tag!
The trade analysts and journos like Jitesh Pillai of Filmfare, were already declaring ”expect records to be broken”, ”king is back” and whatnot on Twitter for months.
Why are SRK fans now ignoring all this and accusing others of deliberately comparing Ra 1 with highest benchmarks?
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November 1, 2011 at 4:55 PM
Before release comparison was 3 Idiots. Then it was Dabangg total. Then it was Bodyguard weekend total. Now its Bodyguard total. And tomorrow it may well be Ready total. If it totally collapses it will be Ghajini total. Thank god for Ra-One it has achieved something for SRK – it will beat his previous best effort of 3 years ago.
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November 1, 2011 at 12:04 PM
I don’t know why but I don’t think that DON 2 will be that big either at the box office….nothing to do with RA 1 or anything but I doubt this one is getting to 150. Again, without single screens in play, it’s hard to get to a 150 type of total. DON 2 is a multiplex movie if there ever was one so a total of around 120-130 is all I think it will get.
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November 1, 2011 at 12:55 PM
agreed here.. don 2 would have to significantly improve the performance of the first Don to be able to get 150. Farhan Akhtar isn’t the sort of director whose films excite the box office in that mass sense. But a 100-120 crore gross could be on the cards here if the film is just good enough to repeat the performance of the earlier work.
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November 1, 2011 at 2:47 PM
komal Nahta on Ra.one , (1 day before release)
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November 1, 2011 at 2:55 PM
The c**ksucker proved to be wrong on all counts!
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November 1, 2011 at 5:13 PM
http://twitter.com/#!/concisetrade
#Raone – Tue estimates – 4.25 cr . Total so far – 92 cr in 6 days
Concise Boxoffice
Raone Dynamics – Already into profits but many distributors are entailing huge losses .
Total Cost – 150 – 155 cr .
Estimated Revenue from all sources – 150- 155 cr .
minimum – 140 cr ,
maximum – 165 cr
Theatrically , it needs to do 130 cr to deserve a ‘ Boxoffice Hit ‘ Tag By all Means .
As Release size is 2400 cinemas including all versions.
http://twitter.com/#!/concisetrade
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November 1, 2011 at 5:56 PM
Business Standard:
Into 2nd week, Ra.One faces near-empty halls
Varada Bhat / Mumbai November 2, 2011, 0:57 IST
Theatre occupancy for Ra.One dipped to 15 to 20 per cent in weekdays after 90 to 100 per cent occupancy over its release weekend. The superhero science fiction movie had attracted considerable pre-release publicity with mega star Shah Rukh Khan going on a marketing overdrive with a ten-month 360-degree campaign — the first of its kind for a Bollywood film.
That tempo, though, seems to be now losing steam. “The film started off very well due to the curiosity factor, with virtually packed houses, but couldn’t even sustain over the weekend,” says a senior executive of a leading multiplex chain that has exhibition halls across the country. “The occupancy started dropping since Sunday.” The weekday occupancies for Ra.One are much lower than it was for Bodyguard, a Salman Khan-starrer released two months ago, he added.
Another official and independent distributor confirmed that there was a huge drop. “The occupancy on Sunday was about 40 per cent, and Monday was about 20 per cent,” he said.
Eros International, which holds the worldwide distribution rights, said the 160-minute movie has grossed Rs 170 crore (net collections Rs 87 crore at domestic box-office) globally in the first five days in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu. The overseas collection stood at Rs 33 crore.
The movie, produced by SRK’s wife Gauri Khan, was released on 4,600 screens worldwide in both 2D and 3D format. Bodyguard, which was released in 2700 screens on August 31, has grossed Rs 88 crore.
According to Boxofficeindia.com, Ra.One’s Hindi version netted Rs 80.9 crore from Indian box-office in its opening weekend. It is a little less than Bodygaurd, which collected Rs 86 crore. The dubbed versions collected around Rs 7 crore, which make it a total of Rs 87.9 crore.
A closer look at the earnings break-up ever since its opening day shows that Hindi version Ra.One earned Rs 14.85 crore on day one, while Bodyguard collected around Rs 21 crore (Wednesday). The collections that followed stood like this: Rs 22.90 crore vs Rs 17.5 crore (Thursday), Rs 15.30 crore vs Rs 13.25 crore (Friday) Rs 14.55 crore vs Rs 14.85 crore (Saturday), Rs 13.30 crore vs 19.5 crore (Sunday) and Rs 5 crore vs Rs 7 crore (Monday).
The content of the film, directed by Anubhav Sinha and starring Kareena Kapoor opposite SRK, has met with diverse response. Some did love the world-class special effects, while others simply disregarded it as a Hollywood imitation.
The marketing hype, though, paid off well. The producers, after all, recovered a little over Rs 100 crore even before the film released — by selling all the necessary rights such as cable and satellite rights (Rs 5 crore to Star India), music rights (Rs 15 crore to Tseries) and the marketing rights (Rs 52 crore).
Eros, on its part, expects that the international exposure of Ra.One will continue to grow in the coming months as it continues to take the film to many more countries. The film is scheduled for theatrical release in the first quarter of 2012 across several territories. They include South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Russia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestine, Brazil, Spain, Italy and Greece.
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November 1, 2011 at 7:48 PM
Opening Weekend: $1,654,023 | Total Domestic Gross: $1,654,023
http://www.boxoffice.com/statistics/movies/ra-one-2011
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November 1, 2011 at 7:54 PM
the numbers are pretty good. The per screen average of more than 8k is not bad for this genre specially given the history. Yes the screen count is double what it would be for most films, even the big ones but nonetheless this is not a bad number.
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November 1, 2011 at 11:20 PM
The numbers are kinda low for a SRK movie after a two year wait.
MNIK made more in three days on less screens than Ra.One in 5 days – $1,944,027, 120 theaters, $16,200. MNIK in five days made $2,384,598. So Ra.One is about 30% less than MNIK already.
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November 2, 2011 at 7:10 AM
According to a post in NG, Dookudu (Mahesh Babu’s latest) got $1.2 million in two days on 60 prints. I’m not sure if this gross or net collections. In any case, it indicates how Telugu and Tamil films are eroding the overseas market for Hindi films. This is probably one reason why they are now searching for “unconventional” markets.
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November 1, 2011 at 9:48 PM
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November 2, 2011 at 6:58 AM
how soulful he seems at the mention of Shankar!
Seems to make an interesting point on SFX. I really wish he had chosen a better director. The subject certainly had potential.
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November 2, 2011 at 7:01 AM
also talks about doing a bit of a face touch-up as Rajni did for Robot. This is actually evident in the film anyway when he’s G.One but I wonder if Oldgold will object as much here as she seemed to with Aamir for 3I!
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November 2, 2011 at 1:16 AM
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/trade/business_talk/index.html
Taran needs a crash course in UK tax relief
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/taxrelief
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November 2, 2011 at 6:55 AM
LOL! This is the lower stage of spin when you pretend it’s at least going to be profitable!
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November 2, 2011 at 5:32 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/raone-breaks-bo-record-with-rs-170-cr-collection/197886-8-66.html
i think that is impressive
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November 2, 2011 at 6:47 AM
Ra.One (Hindi) Collects A Huge 91.75 Crore In Seven Days
Wednesday 2nd November 2011 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Ra.One (Hindi) has had huge collections in the first seven days as it has collected nearly 91.75 crore nett. The film dropped around 15% on Tuesday as mass belts dropped heavily.
The film may fall a little short of 100 crore nett in its extended nine day week but it has an extended four day weekend in its second week to put up good numbers.
The best numbers have come from West Bengal, Mysore and TNK where it will emerge the top grosser for 2011. Rajasthan has also done well considering it is more of a big city multiplex film.
The numbers in the North are a bit lower comparing with the rest of India. Both Delhi/UP and East Punjab have under performed compared to other markets
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November 2, 2011 at 6:52 AM
In other words they’re not even expecting 4.5 crores per day for these remaining two days to get it to 100 crores. According to their previous numbers the film collected just 4 crores on Tue. Which is why they’re not mentioning it and just presenting it as a total.
as for having a second extended weekend it might help at the margins but how much difference could it make when even the first weekend didn’t help the film much once it started cracking?!
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November 2, 2011 at 8:33 AM
LOL!
How far can they ride on this car based on the first three days!
The truth is the film is decaying fast and it may not get past 125 crores.
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November 2, 2011 at 8:07 AM
Interesting review from The Hindu:
Strictly for your Lil.One?
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article2577113.ece
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November 2, 2011 at 8:40 AM
I think we need a fresh post to carry on this discussion.
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November 2, 2011 at 9:19 AM
will do…
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