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314 Responses to “Bajrangi Bhaijaan, the rest of the box office”
***But I donโt quite have the energy to get into all the numbers except to say that it was like having 4 films like 3I every year and no one else even getting to 75 on most days. ***
1978 was stupendous. TRISHUL, DON, MUKADDAR KA SIKANDER, KASME VAADE – that WAS/IS really BIGGG..
yes that was his single greatest year. Ganga ki saugandh also the same year. MKS is his biggest grosser barring Sholay. But he also had films running over from ’77 at that point. It was something like 6-7 jubilees running at the same time at one point that year. And again people forget that his greatest contemporaries look like they’re not even part of the same profession when you compare them in this sense. So the average film did better and had longer runs and so on but no other star was within light years of doing this. And really one could go year by year. Even after having gone through these lists many times it’s still hard to believe how this was possible. Take 1981. he had NAseeb and Lawaaris release 3 weeks apart, both massive. Then Yaarana the same year was huge, Kaalia and Barsaat ki ek raat were also hits. Silsila was the one ‘failure’ that year and that too didn’t lose money.
stupendous? dont you mean S-T-U-P-E-N-D-O-U-S!!!!!!!!! but in all seriousness that sentence by satyam sums up what amitabh’s movies did perfectly…”like having 4 films like 3I every year”….yeah i don’t see anyone coming close to that. I will say that salman and aamir are widening the gap between the rest at this point…SRK is still trying to catch up. But yeah even if it is Aamir and Salman..it is still two against one if one tried to compare to Amitabh. And I brought up the question only because I think we all agree he is the standard when it comes to box office recognition.
Bachchan’s personality and impact is so overpowering that one cannot make a proper assessment of him as a pure actor though as an actor he surpasses. A Nawajuddin siddiqui does not have that burden or that kind of personality.
DON, TRISHUL, MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR, KASME VAADE, GANGA KI SAUGANDH and BESHARAM. Interestingly all the movies proved super hit at the box office except BESHARAM, which was a major debacle.
did amitabh had a solo blockbuster? because according to BOI he never had solo block-buster,maybe some here can correct me
So mard was just superhit , while it was 1985’s biggest hit by margin. if these movies were not Blockbuster, then only Sholay, HAHK, Sholay, Gadar, 3i are only Blockbusters.
Btw, there is no point in arguing and opening such discussion, i rest my case saying salman is biggest star ever in whole known and unknown universe.
Actually the biggest Amitabh disaster during that time especially with a major director is Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Alaap in 1977. Didn’t run even for a week in major cities.
Even Do aur Do Paanch did not do well, it came to smaller towns within two weeks, whereas big films used to take at least two-three months to trickle down to smaller towns.
What is at least as amazing as his hits of the frequency or the magnitude and so on is really the ‘Bachchan flop’. A [eculiar creature that still made money for everyone concerned and in most cases would have been considered a hit with anyone else. Consider the number of films he did between ’73 and ’86 (when he left for politics) and only 6-7 lost money. It’s just mind-boggling. Even Taran and Nahta, not always friends of Bachchan, specially the latter, have said so as much (I’ve put up the posts before and of course everyone has seen them). So it’s not ‘dogmatic’ to keep asserting his supremacy as many think. Because they don’t know enough of the history. If Bachchan even at his age is still a force of nature, can still pull off successes in all sorts of genres despite mishandling his career so badly in certain ways and if he can still put any younger contemporary in the shade in terms of sheer physicality and performance in the most literal sense what must he have been like at his peak? This is what should give people pause. It’s like Sachin was pretty incredible even at the fag end of his career but what must he have been like at his peak to have that longevity and to play that way even in later stages? One could multiply these examples. But this of course also requires the right exposure to the history and certainly some logic in the same sense. Some of us were exposed to that history in a direct sense. But even someone like Rajesh Khanna for his peak 3-4 year period was so far ahead of everyone else. He was called the first superstar for a reason. Today the word is used indiscriminately. People think of Salman today and wonder what could be greater than this. Well they ain’t seen nothin’ yet! If you recall people used to be offended when I would say the same with respect to SRK. But consider how just Salman puts SRK in the shade. SRK was of course a hugely iconic star and he still has a base but he never had just the kind of track record that Salman had had since Dabanng where every film opens hugely and is always on track to have a big gross even when it fizzles out. When it’s something like Bajrangi anything is possible. If you couldn’t even match this where does Bachchan even come in?! But nor was it like Aamir where he’s built a unique brand-name over time with incredible consistency and delivered grossers that Salman still hasn’t matched. Whether Bajrangi can get close to PK remains to be seen or whether it even crosses 300. but certainly even PK is hardly 3I. It’s not even Ghajini in real terms. So there are many ways of slicing and dicing things. Now of course to be fair to SRK it’s not always about such direct comparisons. Because SRK represents an extraordinary foundational moment for New India and for the diaspora. And unlike Salman he wasn’t doing the Yashraj format all that often. So there are some contexts here and one must be fair (even if the SRK fans hardly deserve such kindness in most cases!). But the fact remains that for whatever reason he wasn’t chalking up such numbers in film after film. And judgment matters of course as we’ve said many times. Then we;ve seen with hrithik, a true-blue star in every sense since he arrived but someone who’s never quite lived upto his initial billing. He’s had some very good years but has never quite been able to take it to the next level. Whatever the point in time no one has ever considered him ahead of SRK (though he’s sometimes had much stronger numbers), ahead of Aamir (with justification) and now ahead of Salman (again with justification). So we don’t have to go back to Bachchan. You can make a case for many individual stars. Currently Salman has a very strong one just given how his films open in every single case but these openings still do not put his strongest contemporaries (certainly Aamir.. but also some of the biggest SRK openings, at least on day 1) in the shade. And the same for the final grosses where Aamir is still ahead in terms of consistency and for the final grosses (absolutely so far but also after the adjustments have been made). Once again the question of Bachchan does not even arise unless one doesn’t know what one is talking about! I’ve always been very blunt about this but also merely factual!
I have a funny story associated with Besharam, where me and my elder cousin were coming back from relatives from another town to our town.
My relative arranged the Rickshaw for us to go to the Bus Station, but we told the guy to drop us at the hall where Besharam was playing.
In about an hour the screening stopped and light were on. and my Mama jee was staring at us both.
as it happens in smaller towns, he saw the Rickshaw wala and asked him- Chod aaye bhaiyya ?
ha! great story! I’ve revisited this film a couple of times. it’s alright for a while but it’s overall a very flat film and also one where you know the guy doing this job is simply not a director.
Alaap is also one of the most underrated Bachchan films (I actually prefer it to Abhimaan). Just never got its due. And Koi Gaata Mai So Jaata is one for the ages.
The only thing I enjoyed in Besharam was Deven Varma playing “sutradhar”.
Agreed on all counts on “Alaap.” The muted weariness that Amitabh brings to this portrayal of the ‘angry-young-man’ character lends it a layer of sadness that I found very affecting. A friend once observed that Amitabh has better chemistry with Sanjeev K and Om Prakash than with Rekha in the film and I tend to agree and think the movie the better for it!
Hmm seems amitabh has spoilt the HR–deepika make out party..
It also seems amitabh has done something dodgy /inappropriate and even objectionable to deepika …
Didn’t expect this from amitabh!
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has had an extraordinary first week as the collections on Thursday finished at around 15.25 crore nett which takes the week to 180.25 crore nett. The first week record stands at 181.23 crore nett and it remains to be seen if Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a record or not when final collections come in over the next day or so. Its looking a photo finish with PK.
Basically if it was not for Baahubali retaining important single screens in the South then Bajrangi Bhaijaan would have set a first week record by a margin. The other places where it is set to behind PK is Mumbai but in most other circuits it has smashed PK records.
The last two days have been important as the Eid holidays came to an end in various states and Bajrangi Bhaijaan has held up extremely well. The film is a huge hit but the next two Fridays are important for the benchmarks. The business today will tell whether it can reach the 300 crore nett mark and if this test is passed then it goes to next Friday which will determine if the PK lifetime can be challenged.
Q. Bajrangi Bhaijaan was seen as the biggest blockbuster of Salman Khan but an opening of 26 crore has to called a disappointment?
Ans. It is probably meant biggest grosser which it be. The fact is that Salman Khan is unlikley to give a bigger blockbuster than Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. You never say never but these sort of blockbusters come to very few and the rare stars that get such a blockbuster do not repeat it. As far as the opening goes it was Pre Eid and the real value of the opening is on par with Dhoom 3 which in real value is the biggest opening in recent times.
Q. Baahubali grossed 150 crore in its first weekend and Bajrangi Bhaijaan did 105 crore. Does this not show the real value of Bajrangi Bhaijaan which is being called a blockbuster and a great film?
Ans. This is like comparing houses with cars. Box Office numbers are generally inflated but there is a degree to that inflation. There are highly inflated numbers and others which are less inflated. Here is one number which is near actuals and another which is highly inflated so comparison is pointless. Basically Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the highest weekend for a film in one language and the second highest in multiple languages after Dhoom 3. Baahubali has also done incredible business but the numbers going around are much higher than its actual business.
Q. Does Drishyam have a chance at the box office?
Ans. It is totally dependent on the word of mouth but even if word of mouth is strong the business will be limited as the film looks like a regional film.
Q. Will Bajrangi Bhaijaan have to beat the business of PK to be and All Time Blockbuster?
Ans. An All Time Blockbsuter is not record gross holder but just a film that is a lot bigger than the regular blockbuster. A film may beat PK in 3 years time but that does not mean its an All Time Blockbsuter because business will be generally higher. It will depend what the final Bajrangi Bhaijaan shares are and how the territories finish up. Easiest way to sum it is if it does not cross PK in any circuit in India then it won’t be an All time Blockbuster because its not as if PK set records by distances that films like Sholay and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun did.
Let us come to the specifics now. Bajrangi Bhaijaan missed being at the top of the list in first week earners too by just a whisker, as it netted around 184.62 crore, hence falling a little short of Dhoom 3 [188 crore]. Not to mention the competition it is facing from Bahubali not just in South (which was expected) but also North (which was unexpected). However, the film is being appreciated by one and all, which would help it gain consistent footfalls in the second week as well. The film couldnโt surpass the lifetime total of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (190 crore) in a single week but it would do by this morning itself.
On the other hand Bahubali is doing great guns too, and brought in further 26 crore. This is terrific as the film still collected more in its second week than the lifetime total of the biggest dubbed release till date, Robot (20 crore). With around 73 crore already in, the film is making a dash towards the 90 crore mark. What is working in the favor of this S.S. Rajamouli directed affair is the fact that it is continuing to gain footfalls with an ever-spreading word of mouth, which is bringing in new audience. This is the reason why theaters are continuing to screen the film on a very good screen count in the third week as well.
Expect yet another bountiful week again for Bollywood.
Bajrangi is has matched PK in week 1. It’s so close that it’s hard to tell which one is ahead. In any case it doesn’t make a difference. So far so good. Now it has to match Pk in week 2. It might given the strong WOM it enjoys but let’s see. On the Bahubali competition this is certainly a factor but I don’t see it as a special case. Why? PK without that sort of competition did the same amount. Unless one accepts on ‘faith’ that Bajrangi would have definitely done more one cannot easily accept that explanation, specially given the usual excuses that are made (or made up) in these cases. D3 was ahead by a few crores. That film too wasn’t facing bahubali. That’s point 1.
The second point though is that one can’t only stress the competition in this case. For years and years BOI and Taran and whoever never cared about this stuff. It’s only now that they want stars that they favor to have the biggest grosses that all these things start falling out of the bag. Much like people on the blogosphere doing the same.
And so once again one should of course look at all possible factors from genre strength to release traffic to trending and so on. This is the way any professional industry does it. But this can’t happen only in selective cases.
I will here once again append my comment from yesterday. It’s related but also because there’s always been a certain resistance to Aamir in many contexts. He eventually gave so many hits and such big ones that it became impossible to argue against him. Still it took the longest time for people to accept the obvious (with Salman it just took one Dabanng) and even beyond this there has never quite been the celebration of his numbers the way one sees with some of these other stars. And this makes all the difference in the commentary. Again not just in the trade and so forth but also online. You always get the strong sense that people are dying to have SRK or Salman upend Aamir somehow. Now I can understand one supporting one’s favorite star but there also seems to be this more common sentiment where SRK or Salman and maybe some others are ok with a top grossing film but not Aamir. I’ve seen this for years. Anyway here’s the comment again:
[Master.. the point is a completely different one. Itโs about changing the goalpost constantly. Salman is supposed to outgross Aamir but when he doesnโt itโs because he does junk films. Well whose fault is that? When he does the one good film then heโs going to break all records. When that doesnโt happen well itโs supposedly a good film by Salmanโs standards. Or people show up more for Aamir films for other reasons. I could go on. There might be some truth in each claim and I have myself made some of these. However itโs also about contexts and the โtruthโ of the overall framing. You canโt suddenly go all subtle about these things just with Bajrangi! Like the folks who discovered trending and competition and what not one day (including BOI, including those on blogs like this one) but used to make fun of the same in the past. Similarly if you want to come up with all these subtleties do so universally. Then letโs also talk about how Aamir gets non-blockbuster type films to the best possible gross. So on and so forth. But no people discover โart filmsโ when Hrithik or SRK do something half-decent! Itโs not about putting up Aamir on a pedestal. But the others mostly do junk entertainment or enjoyable entertainment (on a good day). They deviate slightly from this and everyone pretends itโs something extraordinary. As everyone has been for Fan and Raees recently! Itโs not even that different for SRK because he has done a lot more interesting stuff in the past. He did a Ratnan in 1998! But forget this. Suddenly everyone thinks these trailers and posters are fantastic. really? So those who pretend that Aamir fans have this attitude themselves do these things by constantly changing the standards. And letโs act dumb about this. These days every other star tries all sorts of different stuff. You get no brownie points for doing this this late in the day. And again thereโs no consistency. When a star does Rohit Shetty we need not even talk about quality because itโs only about the gross. When he does something other than this the quality discussions must begin only then! Aamir on the other hand even after doing so many different genres consistently is called a sellout the moment he does a blockbuster. As if the folks protesting were otherwise Aamirโs greatest fans! Then the very prestige that Aamir has painstakingly built up for 15 years or more is used against him! As if the folks who show up for his films do so for no reason. When he has the biggest benchmarks in 4 out of the last 5 films its like that doesnโt matter because โhey theyโre good filmsโ! But now when Salman suddenly has a good one it โdoesโ matter. or when he now has a Barajtya that should be the biggest grosser because hey it should get all the audiences in. On and on. Itโs not about one claim or the other but the overall dishonest framing (consciously or otherwise). Itโs about constantly changing the goalpost. Iโve never heard as many excuses as I have on Bajrangi. And amazingly the film is doing so well. What are the excuses needed for? Because of course the moment Aamir gets to 200 or 300 or whatever many start with the proposition that SRK or Salman or whoever โcanโ do this. itโs just assumed. And when they routinely fail to hey that doesnโt mean anything because the film wasnโt good! Even now things are dishonest. So even if Bajrangi crosses 300 so what? Is it crossing PK? Even if it gets close (assuming huge tax breaks arenโt part of the deal) so what? A huge result for Salman for sure but Aamir did this in 4 out of his last 5 major releases! Ghajini, 3I, D3, PK were all record-setters. Some have not yet been crossed adjusting for inflation and trending (yes the very same things that are selectively used by some), some have not yet been crossed absolutely. What;โs the debate about then even if Bajrangi does some of these things? Why not wait for Salman to do the same 4 out of 5 times like Aamir? The rest of the time he wasnโt even close to those benchmarks. But hey a star is just expected to deliver an initial. never heard this anywhere. The initial is the โminimalโ thing a bona fide star is expected to deliver not the โonlyโ thing!
A small note on Talaash. the film did 90 or a bit more. Yes it didnโt trend well. But apparently scores of films that have a 70-30 ratio on week 1:final gross numbers are ok, even though theyโre in blockbuster formats, many of these in the 100-120 range, but a different film with a dark theme with not much entertainment value in the usual sense isnโt. So Bajrangi doesnโt have enough comedy like PK but Talaash I guess has lots of comedy.
So yes I say this stuff ad nauseam. And when thereโs a little more honesty on the other side I can retire these long comments!]
Dying is an underestimation. Itโs a story that has unfolded for 6.5 years. That in that period, only Chennai Express for a paltry 3 months sat at the top of the pile. Otherwise itโs been 4 Aamir films.
The opposition has proposed all this bad luck for their star is to do with the choices of SRK/Salman/Hrithik and Aamirโs โluckโ in landing scripts that run for long in cinemas.
Well the time has come. Salman has a chance here to prove that point. The first week is over and it is only a photo finish between D3/PK/BB. Not the devastating victory craved! Now the marathon begins. Another 160 crores to climb. Weโll see how far this one goes.
There will be excuses aplomb.
Because what the opposition basically needs is an incredible script or a great film to make the point come true โ not the stardom of their own star. They actually crave what Aamir has been dishing out for donkeyโs years!
Satyam: Honestly, not many knew that BB is not an usual Salman movie and I had no expectations till the promos started. Also, if you pull out my old comment, I had mentioned many times that PK’s record is safe for 2-3 years easily. You can’t blame media, they always sing for the latest hit, be it Salman, Aamir or SRK.
Yes, among Salmanโs films โ only Soorajโs movie has that kind of possibility to do huge business (touching 300cr). I donโt expect it to open big but almost everyone likes Sooraj to some extent and then if he makes a good movie, then WOM will turn its business. Similarly, I donโt think Rohit Shetty can deliver big hit but he donโt have the kind of following where the movie can touch 300cr. Some people, however big it is, would not watch a Rohit Shetty film in theaters. Salmanโs Bajrani Bhaijaan can do similar to Kick, SRKโs Fan, Raees will be lucky to even go near 200 cr.
But all said, PKโs final total is safe for longtime, even Aamirโs other movies canโt touch it business for next 2-3 yrs.
btw – sallu made a smart move here by NOT playing an action hero just like he did in Wanted (where he DID play the action hero and continued) – now he has Prem Ratn… as a follow up.
Dear Menaka Gandhi,
I really appreciate ur effort to protect the animals especially the mad stray dogs in Kerala and I also believe that all creatures on earth have the same rights to live n let live. But we human beings have a law system which ensures the criminal minded or the diseased human beings are put separately so that they wont hurt the fellow beings. I suggest you start a campaign to start a separate law system, a court, a jail and may be u can be their public attorney. Let us ,the human beings also live here.
Thanks
JAJ
Following boxoffice for past few years. Making 250+ is really tough. Movie should be widely accepted. Dont know how Aamir does it easily. You have to get many footfalls and all ciruits on board with/without competition with extra holidays. But again Aamir comes a package with other elite director/producer/banner etc. They eventually help getting that big number. Nothing to take away from Aamir…he should be applauded. But he is not celeberated like other two.
Kamaal R Khan-KRK โ@kamaalrkhan 3h3 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is rocking today also so today’s business will be min 15Cr. And week2 business can be 80-90Cr. So It’s a blockbuster.
taran adarsh โ@taran_adarsh 9h9 hours ago
Records are meant to be shattered. And #BajrangiBhaijaan is doing just that. Crosses *Week 1* biz of #PK [โน 183.09 cr] & #HNY [โน 157.57 cr].
taran adarsh โ@taran_adarsh 2h2 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Overseas Week 1: $ 13 million [โน 83.29 cr]. FANTABULOUS!
Komal Nahta โ@KomalNahta 10h10 hours ago
The first week of #BajrangiBhaijaan in India seems to have ended at around Rs. 184 crore! Astounding figure!!!!
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Komal Nahta โ@KomalNahta 2h2 hours ago
BB overseas first week 85 crore!!!!
Amar Butala โ@amarbutala 11h11 hours ago
BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN IS NOW THE BIGGEST WEEK 1 EVER! Await the number! @BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk #BajrangiBhaijaan
Girish Johar โ@girishjohar 9h9 hours ago
Happy to share #BajrangiBhaijaan is the new ALL TIME #1 for wk1 with 181.75crs aprox ahead of #PK BUMPER CONGRATS to @BeingSalmanKhan & team
Girish Johar โ@girishjohar 9h9 hours ago
Beauty of #BajrangiBhaijaan record is that it has no additional national holiday in its wk1, whereas #PK had Christmas Holiday on its Dy7 !
sushmita sen โ@thesushmitasen 24h24 hours ago
Watched #BajrangiBhaijaan last nite..finally a love story based on simple humanity! A film with a BIG heart:))) take a bow @kabirkhankk :)))
rishi kapoorVerified account
โ@chintskap
BB. Bestestest Best! @BeingSalmanKhan you moistened my eyes in the end.Your best! @kabirkhankk your film is the best seen in a long time!
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Diaries – YouTube linked together and all can be accessed one after the other. Interesting for movie freaks / travel enthusiast.Starting with Harshaali
“Watch: Awww! Harshali cries when Salman Khan gets beaten up!”
Itโs a character you wouldnโt have found in the Hindi film of yore where Pakistanis have long been the villains of the piece. In the Bollywood cinemascape, Indiaโs relationship with Pakistan has been typically blow hot-blow cold (see infographic). From oblique reference in a handful of Partition films, Pakistan has endlessly played the role of Enemy No. 1 in rabidly jingoistic film after another. If a war film like Borยญder was all about loving India by hating Pakistan, a love saga like Gadar glorified the Indian man taking over the Pakistani woman and hence the nation.
The tide has turned recently with films like PK and Total Siyapaa, where the Indian girl falls for the Pakistani guy. You could perhaps thank Pakistani serials on Zindagi channel and Pakistani artistesโAli Zafar, Fawad Khan and Mahira Khanโworking in Bollywood for the opening of eyes and perceptions. But as author-columnist Santosh Desai puts it, Big Brother India hitherto has always had the upper hand. โThe superior position is inbuilt,โ he says. โThen the generosity and magnanimity towยญards the other also become easier. You can give without losing the balance of storytelling.โ Shohini Ghosh, professor at the AJK Mass Communication Resยญearch Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, finds it interesting how BB inverts this romantic construct and โde-demonisesโ Pakistan. For her, Bajrangi is not โBig Brotherโ. โIndia is Big Brother,โ she says, โin the realm of politics, war cries and retaliation. Bajrangi is the sane, younger, pacifist brother.โ
Id Mubarak Muslim youth queue up to watch the movie at a Mumbai cinema hall. (Photograph by Amit Haralkar)
Director Kabir Khan himself confesses to using politics as just a backdrop. โThereโs a huge disconnect between the political establishment and the people of the two countries,โ he says. โI am not setting out to improve political relations. I donโt have the power to do that. My focus was on people-to-people friendship.โ
This very โgoodnessโ is what made it easy for BB to get past the Pakistani censors. โBajrangi was a very comfortable film to certify,โ says Sindh censor board chairman Fakhr-e-Alam. It has been given a Universal certificate. The only scene that was cut was of the attack on the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi. โThe reason we thought of the deletion was that it would evoke unnecessary resentment in some peopleโs hearts,โ he says, which he thought would be unfair on a film that in its entirety was โbeautifulโ.
Bajrangi is also extremely clever in how it stresses on Salmanโs โBeing Humanโ and uses it to make a larger political point. The Indo-Pak theme segues nicely with the Hindu-Muslim angle. It does a political tightrope walk, and nicely at that. Like just when you think it is celebrating the Indian Selfie King with the Selfie song comes the scene where Salman is asked to define a Selfie and he replies cockily: โKhud ki le lete hain,โ adding โtasveerโ after a significantly long pause. It is similarly cheeky when it takes potshots at our other hypocrisies and prejudices without being either patronising or offensive to any side of the divide: Hindu, Muslim, Indian, Pakistani, vegetarian, non-vegetarian. Even โtypecastingโ Pakistanis as fair and beautiful comes dangerously close to being impudent and brazen when Salman says of the little Shahida, โdoodh ki tarah safed hai, Brahmin hi hogiโ. โIt casually depicts everyday bigotry on both sides of the border, and is able to subvert it without getting preachy, overly political or radical,โ says Reema. So Puri playing Maulana is able to say that Pakistan too possesses a bit of Kashmir, the emphasis being on โthoda sa (little)โ. Its โchicken songโ is deliciously subversive too. As Reema puts it, โThe very powerful lyrics about overcoming prejudice for the greater interest of humanity (โthodi biriyani bukhari, thodi nalli nihari, le aao aaj dharam bhrasht ho jaayeโ) pretty much summarise the whole plot/message of the film.โ For Shohini, BB takes Hinduism away from Hindutvaโthe fun Bajrang Bali of the film a perfect counterpoint to the hardliner Bajrang Dali. โThe right wing had taken away a culture that belonged to all of us to turn it into a religious symbol,โ she says. The film is a reclaiming of that culture. โItโs not about any ideology but people growing up in a milieu, ambience without questioning it,โ says Kabir. One that you confront when perhaps a Shahida comes calling.
Re.- For Shohini, BB takes Hinduism away from Hindutvaโthe fun Bajrang Bali of the film a perfect counterpoint to the hardliner Bajrang Dali. โThe right wing had taken away a culture that belonged to all of us to turn it into a religious symbol,โ she says. The film is a reclaiming of that culture.
So what does the success of PK signify ? That everyone has given up religion and direct connection lag gaya ha ??
What does the success of TWM mean that sab Haryana kee Hindu women Nashedee ho gai , sarey bandhan tod kar ?
Holiday’s success means, all Indians believe that sab terrorists ko goli maar do ??
What about the success of Bahubali ?
What a stupid and naรฏve analysis.
Behn rehno do, aap sey na ho payega !! Outlook as a magazine has already been facing a credibility crisis.
I think the film will just about make it to the 300cr mark. The first week’s total is similar to PK’s but PK did have the new year holiday period kicking in during its second week and a further open week after that. BB has Drishyam and Bangistan coming up next week. And even without all these factors, PK would have been hard to beat.
But, on second thoughts, it doesn’t make BB’s success any lesser. Remember, even Bachan could never beat Sholay despite single handedly delivering blockbuster after blockbuster for nearly 20 years. It’s not as if this turned those blockbusters into lesser successes. For e.g. then later on, no movie could beat HAHK for 5-6 years.
Or nothing could beat Gadar 6-7 years after its release. It would have been silly to downplay the successes of the likes of KMG, Lagaan, DCH, KKKK, Fanaa, RDB, Krish, KHNH, Dhoom, B&B, VZ or Guru just because they didn’t outgross Gadar. Most of these movies barely grossed half of Gadar’s gross despite some of them releasing several years later but each of them was very successful and is still celebrated as very successful movies.
If Dangal comes out and grosses 280cr, I don’t think Aamir will view it as an under-performer just because it doesn’t beat PK or BB. It’s no mean feat to deliver such a total right now.
Maybe it would be better to simply enjoy the success of another good movie and what probably is going to be the second 300cr grosser of the industry, It’s always good to see good movies performing well.
Sholay is not a fair comparison though. Arguably the greatest hit of Hindi cinema. Also to call it just Bachchan’s film is also unfair. PK is not even 3I. And 3I is not like Sholay either. If you have DDLJ you cannot be considered lesser because you don’t have HAHK. But DDLJ was very huge on its own. With Bajrangi given the WOM and everything PK is not an unfair standard. I’m not saying 300 isn’t good. Just that if Salman cannot get more than this on his best film this will become his ceiling. Barring something like a Barjatya which is a different genre (though how sharp Barjatya can be after all these years remains to be seen). PK for instance could have done more than it did because one can easily imagine a stronger film. This isn’t 3I where you feel that for the genre it couldn’t have been bettered. And one assumes it could have grossed more. But judging from all the reactions it’s hard to imagine a better Salman film for this genre than Bajrangi.
On the rest for Dangal that sort of number would be extraordinary because it doesn’t look like blockbuster material. Commercial for sure but not one where one could expect sky high grosses. On the other hand with Bajrangi this is surely a reasonable expectation. Again this doesn’t mean that what Bajrangi is doing isn’t remarkable. Just that I see no need to not raise these caveats and treat it with kid gloves.
Dangal may turnout into another Talaash or another 3 Idiots in terms of BO. One cant be very sure when it comes to an aamir film. I thought 3 Idiots will be lame seeing its promos! And I thought Talaash will be blockbuster!
I have faith in Aamir’s script sense. He has almost always found the right balance when it comes to creative, artistic and commercial inclinations. I don’t teel he would choose Dangal if he doesn’t feel it is too viable commercially, There seems to be an epic feel to the movie with the father-daughters element sure to bring in the emotional quotients. There is going to be a meaningful social message. As for the sports background, as showed by BMB, it isn’t risky at all. The latter grossed over 100cr without a big star years back.
It is also being reported that he rejected BB for Dangal, so I guess he must have seen something special in the latter.
On to Salman’s inability to beat Aamir’s top grosser, let’s not forget the volume of films Salman does. Between PK and Dangal’s releases, Salman will have had 3 releases. And despite the volume, he consistently brings in the huge numbers.
Aamir’s releases often arrive with 2 years gap. There is this brand about him of coming up with something of quality and there is huge expectations when his movie releases after a long time gap. He never runs the risk of overexposure and of looking stale.
Salman usually has at least one film lined up every year. His movies run with his star image and with a huge mass following. People flock to the theatres just to see him.
We keep hearing that it’s the kind of stardom that won’t last but it’s 7 years since Wanted and he is looking as strong as ever. He has just had this huge grosser and he has another potentially as huge grosser lined up in 3 months time for this Diwali.
I feel it is as commendable to have three 200cr grossers in 2 years for e.g. as to have two 300cr grossers in that period. You need to be good to consistently bring in the audience in.
I have to admit I am kind of surprised to see just how successful and accepted BB has become. There wasn’t the normal hype for a Salman Khan movie..especially after his arrest. But the audience has come in flocks and I guess all is forgiven. Think I’m going to wait for to watch it until it becomes available digitally. Same goes for that Rajshri movie. Dilwale will probably be the next hindi movie I’ll be watching in a theater after PK.
I remember you said somewhere, 220 -230 is Salman’s benchmark. PK has Rajkumari Hirani as director who arguably is biggest director as of now. BB has Kabir Khan who tasted success with Salman.
Rajkumari Hirani has given successful films even with Sanjay Datt who has no box office pull currently.
This is not to undermine Aamir, he was biggest reason behind success of PK and 3I but not the sole reason.
But his last film with Dutt came in 2006, 9 years ago. The first Munnabhai was 12 years ago. On the rest fair enough though this in a sense proves the point (which I’ve also forever made) that a star no matter how big cannot hit the biggest benchmarks without a script. And sure enough Salman gets his biggest gross now precisely with a film that everyone’s calling his best script. I wouldn’t say Aamir was biggest reason for the success of those films, when it’s a director as important as Hirani you can’t take credit for him. However I am going to wonder yet again how much credit Salman ought to get for Bajrangi from those (not referring to you) who took credit away from Aamir for acting in strong scripts!
Di, i second your views. Marvellous! I beseech Satyam to watch it in the theater to let us know his views as Bahubali needs cinema viewing to absorb and soak the visuals, screenplay which are of richest quality at least for an Indian film.
I second, third that.
The director SS Rajamouli is our James Cameron. The movie (Baahubali) is grand and I was ruing that someone should make Mahabharata like game of thrones. He is a perfect candidate. I thought first half could have been better edited and short but the movie on whole is very well made and waiting for second part.
I would rather compare him to Sanjay Leela. (or even lord of the rings series instead of avatar). While SLB falls in love with his own work and forgets to use editing scissors, Rajmouli’s movie has equal emphasis on plot and are extremely well edited. The telgu crowd in the theater was most disciplined, which made me very happy (I may have chattered out of excitement the most in the movie, lol). THe female character s and in fact all side-characters are very strong and well-etched, like in a SLB movie, they have meat to their role. The females are delight to watch, each frame is poetry in motion, beauty. The hero is awesome, the villains scary and story even though from our mythology seems/feel a bit different, in its treatment. The waterfall and “rock climbing” scenes reminded me of Ravan. One can’t really compare it with avatar etc because there is strong-strong emotional content (which I personally think is always restrained in west) and drama which is not the west’s forte. I hope SLB watches Bahubali before his movie is released and get some tips for his latest! I am going in for a second viewing shortly. The movie theater was houseful on a friday and I was smart enough to pre-book it (last time I watched antman because Bahubali was houseful). The BGM is simply superb (who was the music director?). The fight scenes are not gory and there is hardly any blood, those scenes are darkened so one never gets exposed to macabre and a lot is achieved thru’ sound without showing heads rolling off etc. This is a must watch movie event on big screen and should never be missed even if one has to take 2 hour train, 1 hour bus , 45 minute car drive to reach the theater!!! And I am kinda surprised that people here on SS are busy reviewing BBhaijaan and not giving any attention to this movie event call Bahubali. There is much to learn from South cinema and directors and southern movie bias should be quickly removed. Absolutely can’t wait for part-2.
I agree on SLB editing part but I think Cameron makes visually appealing movie with drama (Titanic and Avatar).
Ticket prices in theatre me has dropped from $23 to regular $12.50 for night show. And it is playing in both Telugu and Hindi. Some of the Hindi dialogues or the stance was jarring but on whole movie is just grand (much more than SLB type movies).
$23, wow! I have never paid so much for a movie before. I saw it in Telgu and I was afraid of sitting for 2.5 hrs listening to Telgu but my fear was uncalled for. I was so entangled in the movie/plot and the magic happening on celluloid that I forgot the language/subtitle bit. There was also pin drop silence and I am not sure if it was telgu audience or the impact of the movie (haven’t watched telgu movie in theaters before so I don’t know). Who would you cast if it was a Hindi movie? And if the choice was a younger hero and villain? I think I would love to see Tabu, Rekha in the mother roles. Why didn’t they cast Rekha or a Tabu?
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is heading for 300 crore nett business as it is looking at a 12.50-13 crore nett second Friday. The film has had an excellent hold with collections a little over 50% from day one and will be less than 20% down from Thursday
There will be big growth on Saturday and the second weekend is pretty certain to go over 50 crore nett and in a worse case scenario at least 50 crore nett. It will be the biggest Salman Khan grosser before the weekend is out.
The collections willl be around 5-10% less than the second Friday of PK and the main difference on the week will be that PK got the advantage of New Years Day and strong evening collections on the day before New Years Day. That is what will leave Bajrangi Bhaijaan 10-12 crore nett short of PK’s second week total.
Amitabh Bachchan’s last release that was directed by R. Balki didn’t quite make the cut at the box office. However, despite the film’s low key response, we hear that Bachchan will soon be seen working with the director again for their fourth collaboration after Cheeni Kum, Paa and Shamitabh.
While we know that Bahchcan will be teaming up with Balki, the interesting part is that joining them will be none other than Jaya Bachchan who were last seen sharing screen space in the 2012 Bhojpuri film Ganga Devi that was produced by their make-up man, Deepak Savant. However, for those of you who think it will be yet another Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, we hear that their roles will be restricted to a cameo that will be wrapped in a two day shoot. If that wasn’t enough, we hear that the two actors will be seen playing themselves, a superstar power couple.
As for the film itself, the yet untitled venture is said to be a light-hearted love story featuring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor playing a married couple.
Thanks for the Spoilers. And a balanced review. Makes me want to watch this flick.
Will Vijayendra Prasad make a film on Seemandhra and Telengana politics like this? Can he?
My daughter from US Whatsapped me, ‘ Is bajarangi bhaijaan worth watching?”
I replied,’ Yes. The film has heart. And Salman,Nawaz, and the girl are charming.’
A day later, she replied,’ I just watched BB. Really liked it. Cried like a baby.’
That seem sto be the refrain from so many I have talked to about the film.
This one certainly has better WOM than PK. No one I know was this ovwerwhelmed by PK.
Joginder Tuteja ?@Tutejajoginder 7h7 hours ago
As I write this, #BajrangiBhaijaan is set to touch the 200 crore mark by the time morning shows conclude. #Blockbuster
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 6h6 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan continues its SUPREMACY. Will cross ? 200 cr nett today [Sat; Day 9]. Week 2: Fri 13.15 cr. Total: ? 197.77 cr. AMAZING!
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 4h4 hours ago
Exactly a year ago… On this day [25 July]… #Kick opened to HISTORIC response… Today, 25 July, #BajrangiBhaijaan enters ? 200 cr Club.
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 23h23 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Overseas Week 1: $ 13 million [? 83.29 cr]. FANTABULOUS!
Girish Johar ?@girishjohar 16h16 hours ago
Super Exclusive!! #BajrangiBhaijaan will exactly match #PK record of achieving 200crs in just 9 days !! @BeingSalmanKhan ..so both superfast
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Bollywood Unplugged ?@BollywoodUnplug 3h3 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is all set for Record 2Nd Saturday May beat #Pk numbers
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Bollywood Unplugged ?@BollywoodUnplug 7h7 hours ago
Aa per advance Booking for Evening n Night Shows #BajrangiBhaijaan will definitely earn more then 16cr+ today
Amar Butala ?@amarbutala Jul 23
The record has been broken!! #BajrangiBhaijaan does Rs.15.55cr. thur!Highest week 1 collection in India ever! #Rs184.62 cr.@BeingSalmanKhan
Shekhar Kapur ?@shekharkapur 7h7 hours ago
Fell in love with Hindi cinema all over again after watching #BajrangiBhaijaan Congratulations @BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk @Nawazuddin_S
ARY News ?@ARYNEWSOFFICIAL 57m57 minutes ago
I also had a part in the success of #BajrangiBhaijaan: #ChandNawab
Bajrangi Bhaijaan retweeted
sabina lamba ?@SabinaLamba 5h5 hours ago
These #Bhaijaans r bhakts of #Bajrangi-500Hindus&Muslims planning 2watch #BajrangiBhaijaan 2gether onJuly30.#Vododara
Afer ‘Tadap Tadap’ song from HDDCS , Kay Kay again sings in his godly voice here. I am just wondering the state of mind of the lyricists in writing these lines.
Apex – I am having trouble understanding few of the lines of the song here and could you elaborate on them when you find time…..lol
“Mushqil se hee aasaan hui manzil”
“Tu jo mila lo ho gaya main qaabil”
“Dhoondhte tere nishaan Mill gayi khudi”
“Kyunki Tu.. Dhadkan.. Main Dil…”
Somewhere all of us have a personal experience with – Mushqil se hee aasaan hui manzil
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Day Eight Business
Saturday 25 July 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed 12.75 crore nett apprx on its second Friday. The drop from day one is just a little over 50% and the weekend drop will be similar if not better. though a 50% drop over the week will be difficult as last week the film had benefit of Eid and some circuits were performing similar to its day one levels on Monday and Tuesday.
The collections are a little less than the eight day of PK but better than all others when the second Friday has not been an holiday.
The overall eight day collections are a little less than PK but it is still beating PK in some circuits liek Delhi/UP, East Punjab and Rajasthan on day eight. The film should cross 300 crore nett now and remains to be seen if its second or first biggest grosser ever in India.
Iโve been more interested in its box office than critiquing this film. But seeing the number of reviews, a few random comments are in orderโฆ
Iโm unable to write reviews due to lack of focus, inspiration, motivation, but analysing reviews remains a hobbyโฆ
This is a film based on a Universal please-all, emotive theme aimed at creating โbridgesโ (not only between nations but also for viewership & crossover appeal)
Laced with a broad stroke crowd pleasing comedyโฆitโs totally along expected lines how well itโs been received
Powered by a star at the peak of his appeal
In Salmans entire career, only two films have really enthused meโ
Dabang 1 & ETT
These two films achieved a sensible RECALIBRATION of the Salman Khan star persona (in more was than one)
Now I will look at some reviews on this film that I could skim thru..
These reviews are more interesting than the actual film
B Rangan on bajrangi bhaijaan
B Rangan decides to be nice and benevolent to this film.
But to be short he takes it easy on the snobbishness and atleast shows an intent to grow up (as Iโve been suggesting for a while)
But certain different problems stand out โ
โThe first one comes about when Pawan hands Munni to someone who says heโll take her to Pakistan and takes her elsewhere.โ
The key word here is โelsewhereโ, in a way itโs the engine and the premise for the storyline to move forward and itโs entirely at this crucial point that rangans vast vocabulary deserts him. Maybe he was careful of the โspoilerโ but the insight into the situation seems lacking or deficient โฆ
โThe only sour note is that Muslims are shown saying โJai Shri Ram,โ without a reciprocal vocal gesture from Hindusโ
This choice of โsour noteโ reveals a certain mindset that normally remains hidden under layers of words but unfortunately couldnโt when I skimmed thruโฆ.
A comment lacking maturity ( where it was needed)
The same problem persists with some voices like jayshah who follow b Rangan in being v appreciative of this filmโฆ
And this appreciation is genuine perhaps
But in both scenarios (fake and genuine) certain problems remain ..
The reasons and further dissection of these problems are somewhat complex to go through & am a bit lazy to explain now
Brings to mind another voice self-admittedly from the pak side of origin here
He/She has neither seen the film yet nor will see it
The only thing she picked up was that the Adnan Sami song was โstolenโ
My initial comment and why this argument is totally irrelevant & misplaced in this scenario was totally missed out,
As if from a totally different wavelength โฆ.unsurprisingly
Ps: miss dhoni : will try to look into those lyrics when get a chance thanx
Will continue with bb volumes later, checked this just now
Caught this song
In an interesting sequence Amy gets converted into a phone hand piece
Wherein the hero presses the dial pad
And guess where the buttons for making and discinnecting the call were ..
Innovative stuff
Dekhi aisi item chhori
Kachchi kachchi si kori kori
Smile ruke na dekha use jo
Apun ki gayi re
Girish Johar ?@girishjohar 7h7 hours ago
ALL TIME 2nd Wknd Highest Record is a SURE SHOT for #BajrangiBhaijaan …ahead of #PK … congrats once again @BeingSalmanKhan & team
Amar Butala ?@amarbutala 6h6 hours ago
If the Saturday trends are anything to go by #BajrangiBhaijaan will set a new second weekend record!@BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk #BBsunday
Kiaara Sandhu ?@KiaaraSandhu 6h6 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is RECORD BREAKER Blockbuster of Bollywood & it collected Fantastic ” 218 cr ” in Just 9 Days.
Indicine.com ?@indicine 7h7 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Mangalore multiplex: 2nd Friday Rs 1,48,030, 2nd Saturday Rs 2,73,140. 84% growth. Never seen in 2nd week!
Boxofficedetail ?@boxofficedetail 7h7 hours ago
Worldwide Gross Of #BajrangiBhaijaan Crosses 375cr approx today.. Wow!! Biggest Ever For Salman Khan..
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Set For Second Weekend Record
Saturday 25 July 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
“Bajrangi Bhaijaan is set a new second weekend record as the film continues to show phenomenal trend with second Saturday growth set to be around 50% plus. The collections should go to to 19-20 crore nett on Saturday which will give it around 32 crore nett over two days in the second weekend.
PK had grossed 53 crore nett in its second weekend and unless Sunday goes wrong which is very unlikely it is sure to have a second weekend record and it could be by a margin.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is on course to chase down the lifetime total of PK and the ways it is going its will about the the third and fourth week with the all important day being the third Friday”.
It’s on course to go north of 350 as I had said after the first 2 shows on day 1. The only issue is drishyam will hit it a bit, as it will lose theaters.
Atul admits Bahubali was forcibly pulled down from many screens in the North India. “In North though Bahubali did exceptionally well in its first week which not many expected, the fact also remains that at many centers the film was committed for one week only due to Bajrangi Bhaijaan coming in the subsequent week.”
And still making all efforts to belittle Bahubali’s mega success as if it might take the credit away from BB, which is an absurd and cloistered proclivity to derogate south Indian movie’s success. Both movies are making money and entertaining people, yet under-reporting and playing down the success from other part of the country is uncalled for and ought to be dissuaded. People believe as if under reporting can take one’s favourite ahead by a few notches, but MIRAGE can just be an ILLUSION, not the TRUTH, yet people don’t want to learn as is evident some here as well who take themselves as the epitome of ULTIMATE TRUTH!!
I am ashamed to post (for what has art gotta do with money) this but here
Rank Movie Year Worldwide Gross
1 PK 2014 Rs 740 crore
2 Dhoom 3 2013 Rs 542 crore
3 Chennai Express 2013 Rs 423 crore
4 Baahubali: The Beginning 2015 Rs 365 crore
5 3 Idiots 2009 Rs 392 crore
6 Happy New Year 2014 Rs 383 crore
7 Kick 2014 Rs 377 crore
8 Krrish 3 2013 Rs 374 crore
9 Bang Bang! 2013 Rs 340 crore
10 Ek Tha Tiger 2012 Rs 320 crore
Till second Friday, the film minted approximately 197.77 crore and adding a second Saturday’s box office, which is expected to be more than Rs 10 crore, the film’s total would easily touch Rs 205 crore mark.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan set a new record for business on the second Saturday as it grossed close to 19 crore nett. PK had grossed around 17.25 crore nett on uts secind Saturday. The two day second week business of Bajrangi Bhaijaan is as follows.
Friday – 12,75,00,000
Saturday – 18,75,00,000 apprx
TOTAL – 31,50,00,000
The second weekend record is around 53 crore nett and Bajrangi Bhaijaan should be able to beat it as it should gross more than 22 crore nett on Sunday. The film is now the highest Salman Khan starrer even with around 214 crore nett in nine days.
As I mentioned last week, the WOM is better than PK from what all I gathered, it all depends how many folks coming out again to watch this in 2nd and 3rd week. To think of, BB is not great all throughout but it has 3 strengths. Very good beginning, Extraordinary intermission and unbelievable ending(last 30 mins) and the ending is what the audience is carrying out of the movie and making this huge blockbuster.
One comment that I did want to make is that the Hindi film industry ticket prices have really gotten out of hand, with every film going further than its predecessor. Our tickets for Bajrangi Bhaijaan were significantly more expensive than those of any other earlier big film (~500 rupees each, at an “ordinary” PVR, i.e. not one with luxury seating or anything like that); this was 25-35% higher than the likes of PK or Chennai Express or Bang Bang — and THOSE films were themselves markedly higher than films released as recently as a couple of years ago. I felt especially bad because there are tons of people like my driver, a huge Salman fan, who told me he simply couldn’t afford to go with his family in Mumbai (even at the cheapest theaters, he said it would cost too large a proportion of his MONTHLY salary to go watch the film with his family). I’ve said it umpteen times, but I’ll never tire of pointing out the callous money-making strategy of the Hindi industry, where, unlike some other film industries, the aim is NOT to maximize footprint but to simply fix upon a small-but-wealthy-enough demographic and price accordingly. Makes perfect business sense, but if one believes, as I do, that cinema ought not to be a commodity like any other, it’s hard to accept.
I’ve heard that elsewhere too on this film’s ticket prices. Which is why even though it’s trending very well to the extent it’s probably keeping pace with PK and not doing more. At least so far. Because while there’s been a lot of talk on the respective holidays of each film no one really talks about the ticket prices involved. And not just for Bajrangi but just about any blockbuster. A 10% increase can make all the difference even over a week’s period let alone the kinds of hikes you’re talking about. But everyone practically ignores this most basic of data!
Yes — and despite years of people pointing out the obvious, no one is incentivised to keep track of the most obvious stat: the number of tickets sold. In juxtaposition with figures of the box office revenues it would be most telling…
In Hollywood this is among the first things they look at. So for example if say a new Avengers does better than an older one they’ll examine how much of the extra gross comes from a higher number of 3D or IMAX screens and so on. So along with competition and trending this too is an important factor. You can’t arrive at the most complete picture without taking all of this into account. Bajrangi is certainly doing extremely well at this point. Whether it’s doing more than just keeping pace with PK all things considered is debatable. Tomorrow it might do better and outgross the film significantly or fall short of it or whatever. But either way these factors have to be taken into account. If it does 10% better overall this could easily be chalked up to ticket rates. If it falls 10% behind it’s a lot worse than the number shows. And so on. And as you pointed out certain audiences are much more advantaged with this pricing structure. And this has an ideological component to it. Because it’s not just those who can afford these prices in some abstract sense. Any film to have a shot at being that big or to even consider jacking up ticket rates in this sense has to really be able to play to those core demographics (who can afford these prices). So even Bajrangi can become that big not just by being Salman’s ‘best’ script but being a strong script that also appeals to those demographics much more than his other films. Put differently you could have an equally strong script entirely around an action oriented theme or in Salman’s usual terrain and it would not put up the same result. I also made the point the other day that in a similar way you’re not likely to have any big film too often that takes an anti-Pakistan stance in any sense (whether it is so or not if it is perceived as such by those audiences they won’t show up) because you’d be affecting your overseas grosses. Here too Phantom’s choice of subject is a difficult one because not only are you playing the whole national security thing you’re specifically getting into the US raid in Abbotabad and fantasizing about doing the same as a matter of course when similar conditions arise. So if already this format has more limited viewership you reduce it further (outside India). But either way these are classic examples of how economic demographics also ensure certain ideological commitments. This is of course very different from say the 70s when there wasn’t this kind of spread between different kinds of seating and/or theaters. Or for that matter the same holds today in the US or UK (to quote two examples) where not only do you not see price hikes for movies all of a sudden even if they’re the biggest releases, you also don’t see such a spread overall favoring certain kinds of economic brackets. So no genre is favored for that reason.
It will challenge PKs second week numbers without a holiday, so this one is definitely trending better. At the rate it is going, today should be astronomical and 100 crore second week is on the cards now.
yes the PK total is certainly within reach now. And in some ways because this film has attracted the family demographic, normally not the case for Salman, it also becomes in a way a perfect transition to the Barjatya film.
Wonder if his drunken tweets from last nite will dent collections in anyway from today. Salim Khan has called the tweets “ridiculous and ignorant”!
Or perhaps even more publicity?!?
Satyam, others: If I want to start to watching Chabrol, which film(s) of his should I begin with? I mean what are his best/most important works. Also if I want to check out French thrillers, which are the other important directors/films. Thanks.
actually there are far too many films he’s made to even make a short list. but an excellent (late) work of his that is La Ceremonie. Chabrol is one of those filmmakers where even a subpar effort is always watchable. Whether he’s ever made a true blue masterpiece or an absolutely important film in that elevated sense of the term is something I find debatable and actually I;m quite likely to say no on that score but La Ceremonie is the closest he gets to that sort of significant work. But if one is talking about Hitchcock’s French heirs I think the most important name is easily Jean-Pierre Melville. Of course he belongs to the crime genre more than Chabrol’s purer mystery one. Put differently there’s a Hitchcock who makes these truly perverse mysteries that border on the surrealistic (not consistently but in terms of their overall effect) and then there’s this other Hitchcock who makes these adventure films with chases and so on. These are not exclusive categories by any means but you could put the Hitchcok of Foreign Correspondent and North by Northwest in the latter camp and the Hitchcock of Psycho or Suspicion in the former (of course there are countless examples of either genre). Then there are other Hitchcocks that don’t neatly fall into either category. By and large the ‘perverse’ is never far from any Hitchcock category. But Chabrol nonetheless belongs more generally to the Psycho/Suspicion strain whereas Melville belongs to the other one. Having said that Melville is also a great original. He’s learnt from Hitchcock but it doesn’t do justice to his work to read him simply as a Hitchcock descendant. Because he takes those lessons further in certain aesthetic and political ways. Hitchcock in any case does not have a true crime movie in Melville’s sense (though certain early British efforts might qualify). Chabrol I’d say never quite breaks out of that genealogy in the sense that he never quite rises above it. Melville on the other hand is someone who at his best (and he’s so in very many of his films) I’d probably take over Hitchcock. At least as a personal preference.
Satyam: Thanks for this very useful note. I will start with Le Ceremonie. Will also try and watch Melville’s films. The one directors whose films I loved is Clouzot, especially Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques.
remind me later though and I’ll make a list of 10 or so Chabrols. Story of Women is also one of his more interesting works. the 60s/70s stuff though worthwhile also seems a bit more dated to me at this point.
I had read those tweets of Salman while I posted the last couple of tweets and Box Office India update 12 hrs back and was wondering what is going on in his mind at 3 am in the morning. Being drunk was definitely something I considered because one cannot tweet about something so serious 3 am in the morning !!! ( Rishi Kapoor has gotten in trouble so many times due to this )
They were extremely childish and nonsensical in nature and knew he is going to get in trouble. I was seriously pissed reading those tweets and he was blabbering about Tiger Memom name and how he wasn’t a Tiger but a small cat letting his brother Yakub getting hanged for his sins. They weren’t anti national and showed concerns for family of Yakub Memom and chiding Tiger Memon; even going to the extent of asking Nawaz Sharif to hand over Tiger Memom etc to India implying he was in Pakistan, so more on antagonizing Pakistanis.
I had inkling he will surely end up retracting them later in the day. In fact aajtak was already showing breaking news in the running caption at the bottom of its other news with those tweets.
But whatever it is the damage has been done once again. I don’t know if the intent was purely humanitarian and out of concern to victim’s family or his way of creating a controversy or capturing media cycles to boost BB collections or simply to start a dialogue on this hanging and make it a national debate. ( may be helping Kabir with his Phantom theme of getting the bomb blast culprits back to India)
I hate it when Bollywood stars start to consider themselves god due to movies/ stardom and start to dabble in political matters and social engineering/ justice. There is record of such failure in the past starting with Sunil Dutt to Bachchan to Aamir to S.Sinha and even Neha Dhupia a couple of days back. There is a difference between real world and movies and all across the world there never was just society and never will be – ever !!!
Plus never think of yourself as some sort of demi – god that if movie is doing well its just because people love you. Its always the movie first and sometimes the character they play and even if one runs a Veer in theater today – no one will turn up. That’s the bottom line.
Having said all the above which may not be coherent and not well written I am simply too pissed off to consider myself his fan anymore. Yes Salman Khan go and fuck yourself for wasting my precious time on you till now !!! You simply are not worth all this !!!
This shows how idiotic some of our actors and actresses are. Some of our actors have bodies of buffaloes and brains of bedbugs. He should concentrate on what he does best : reel acting. He should not act in real life. When 257 Indians died in 1993 and in subsequent blasts thousands died, his humanity is nowhere. Himself a convict , he should have taken precaution before uttering nonsense in public fora. By his utterances he will be forcibly sending himself to jail sooner.Pity such brainless peanut heads.
Agree Jayadev. Why can’t these stars just stay apolitical. Esp for him with his own case hanging on his head. There is an apt saying in Hindi – aa baill ( bull ) mujhe maar. Totally applies here.
The link below has all the tweets and they are simply puerile / juvenile whatever one may call them –
Personally I also think Yakub Memon should not be hanged, assuming the RAW chief B. Raman’s story is true (that’s also the line Black Friday takes). But to call him completely innocent as Salman does is pretty absurd. I mean, why doesn’t Salman spend some capital talking about all the people languishing in jails who have not committed any crime or whose trials are so delayed that even when proven innocent it is as if they have served a jail sentence?!
C’mon don’t desert him now when he has a real shot of clearing the PK total!
Jokes aside and crazy as what he’s said sounds I wouldn’t take it too seriously. He’s always been a head case. What I do take seriously is running people over, which ironically you had less issues with.
Incidentally I don’t agree at all that entertainers shouldn’t make political statements. We are rather thin-skinned about this stuff in India. What Salman has said is mad but I’m referring to other statements. So if Neha Dhupia wants to criticize Modi one has every right to criticize her for whatever but not for daring to saying anything against the PM. If it’s a democracy everyone has a right to a view and to air it publicly if they want to.
Finally I’d add that I also disagree with the idea that the star necessarily owes the public something. I’m all for humility of course but that’s a different matter. The public buys the image, that’s fair enough, but not out of the goodness of its heart. For whatever reason the image satisfies the audience and they ‘invest’ in it. And the same public can ruthlessly destroy a star in different circumstances. So there’s no act of charity involved here. This transaction between a public figure and an audience is always a somewhat mysterious thing but certainly no one’s doing anyone any favors.
After the Bachchan interview there was a recent one of Ajay D. on IBN 7 Hot Seat where he rightly tells Bhupendra Chaubey, due to nature of their work and dependence on paying public, they cannot be seen controversial as public acceptance is their bred and butter. He correctly sighted loss of revenues for Aamir and Bachchan and even SRK. On top of that you had heard Bachchan say openly to Arnab, we have not matured as a society to have an open dialogue; notwithstanding the diverse nature of our populace.
On Salman I will say his recent tweets are totally unlike the other things of the past esp when he is finding such wide acceptance to his movie. But he has to be naive to think he is some sort of messiah and universally liked personality – say a bachchan or sachin in India. He should be fully aware a large section of the populace for whatever reason hates your guts and will do anything to pin you down. Look at the tweets , they are not anti national in anyway one looks at it but BJP types are already demanding his head and even want his bail rejected. In fact those daring tweets to underworld, he has put himself and his family in line of fire. Why should you give a reason to underworld to get after you when you know the country’s police and political class is all hand in gloves with them. What if ISI hates those nawaz sharif tweets and decides to teach you a lesson and gets you eliminated to ferment more communal disorder in India ( just a hypothesis)
I defend him with his court case of ‘running people over’ not because it was an accident or unintentional because i simply donโt trust the police and have no inhibitions in calling of them basterds of first order. In fact they are worse than murderers and gangsters in India because they have an open license to screw around. They are largely uneducated but highly prejudiced and driven like a tool by governing political party and then our legal system is even worse. (Just recent examples of that was seen twice in UP under akhilesh yadav where police actually burnt and killed journalists/ people). His case still has a lot of half truths there and the Judge Deshpande, instead of giving him benefit of doubt (as per past legal precedent) goes ahead and hands him a 5 year rigorous imprisonment. I may have trusted the judge/ lawyers if he had got a normal 6 month / 1 year imprisonment as per past precedent but that sentence just reeked of vendetta and eliminate him from the proceedings…
One point ( not related to his case ) is Indian roads are not meant for these high profile imported cars as basic safety is not followed on roads and there is a large populace which does not follow traffic rules plus there are many who sleep on the roads. Of course Abhijeet over stated but why cant govt allow them to sleep in parks, stations or empty fields) Why are these thullas (agree with kejri here) not allowing them to sleep safely there than on the roads. The only reason road accidents are not so catastrophic like in U.S and Western nations is due to Indian roads which donโt permit one to drive more than 20-30km per hour. Permitting these high speed cars without proper infrastructure and civic sense is going to lead to more such severe calamitous possibilites.
Anyway to each his own is my motto in life…..enuff for sunday rant. We have also graduated to world where unless your own immediate family is in harms way there is no need to get worked up as there are always two side to a story.
Reading those tweets I was also thinking the underworld will get after his case and he is taking direct panga with them as they were damn insulting to them.
Another thing I thought was if he is doing it as some pre planned move on behalf of govt to agigate tghe underworld and make them call him or threaten him so they can trce them….
But look at the irony – People of India are after his case now !!
So deservedly he gets it from all sides !!
Leaders of various parties including BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and its expelled MP Ram Jethmalani, eminent jurists and people from different walks of life on Sunday submitted a fresh petition to President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to waive the death sentence of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
Satyam – now if BB doesn’t break PK’s record – they have a genuine reason – if Sallu didn’t make any statements like this – BB would have surely broken the records ๐
Disney/Marvel is claiming that Ant-Man, with $24.765M, will retain the #1 spot at the box office, narrowly beating out the Sony newcomer Pixels, which even that studio is claiming made only $24M for the weekend.
As a group the top 12 films earned an estimated $140.6M. That’s 2.4% more than last year’s $136.8M, top-heavy, top 12 when Lucy led the competition with $43.9M for the three days. That Luc Besson/Scarlett Johansson film won out over Hercules, the Dwayne Johnson vehicle, which came in second with $29.8M.
Ironically, if that $29.8M finish had been this year, Hercules would easily have been #1.
It’s a testament to how disappointing that Pixels opening is. The Adam Sandler vehicle, on 3,723 screens, should have had cross-generational nostalgic appeal, much like last year’s Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, which opened to $65.6M in early August. But Pixels relied heavily, too heavily it turns out, on appealing to a generation that watched MTV when it actually showed music videos and hoping they’d bring their 8-bit obsessed progeny with them. Or maybe it signals an “out with the old, in with the new” shift, as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator Genisys is dragging itself to an equally disappointing $90M domestic finish (it made $2.4M this weekend). Or, most likely, it was the awful reviews.
Any way you look at it Ant-Man, on 3,868 screens, benefited from it. The Paul Rudd starrer actually did take the 2nd week -57% dip that Thor: The Dark World did to reach that $24M. But, not only can it claim #1, the film also passed the $100M mark, taking 10 days to do so.
Minions took 3rd with $22.1M on 4,066 screens. Worldwide, however, Minions is #1 for the 3rd week in a row. Minions’ overseas coin brought in $44M in 60 territories which, with its $22.1M domestic (U.S. and Canada) gives it a total of $66.1M, beating Ant-Man. Ant-Man, to be fair, made $60M worldwide and still isn’t open in Italy, Korea, Japan and China. For cumes Minions stands at $261M domestic, $497M international and a worldwide cume of $759.4M.
Trainwreck, the Judd Apatow/Amy Schumer comedy, was off 42% from last week’s $30M take, with an estimated $17.3M weekend and fourth place.
The take for Paper Towns was also a shocker, with the film becoming the most recent poster child for the term ‘frontloaded.’ Its Friday was a decent $6.3M, which indicated a finish of $20M. But all those teens that were supposed to show up Saturday either had prior commitments or were warned off by friends for the film fell -45% on Saturday with $3.5M. Just like that Sunday looked like a gloomy $2.675 for $12.5M overall. The film was based on a book by John Green, the author of last year’s sleeper hit, The Fault in Our Stars and starred two up-and-comers, Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff. But Fault had an adoring fan base from the book, one that Paper Towns clearly didn’t share. A “B+” on CinemaScore, a rating system so upbeat that anything that’s not an “A” is questionable, does indicate some customer dissatisfaction as well.
Southpaw outperformed its estimates, taking in $16M for the weekend. That puts some suave in the cuts of the mixed reviews which have put a pall on all the “this is your year” talk for Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Actor.
Perhaps the biggest news of the weekend was news we all saw coming. Universal announced that, at the end of business today, Jurassic World will have earned an estimated $623.8 million at the domestic box office, passing Marvel’s The Avengers and its $623.4M, making Jurassic World the third-highest-grossing film in North American history. Just last week it passed The Avengers worldwide gross of $1.520B. The dino-flick’s current gross stands at an estimated $1.542B.
In indie news Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse, made $700K in 370 theaters. That may not seem like much but it means the A24 flick has now passed 20 Feet from Stardom, the documentary about legendary backup singers, which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Documentary. That’s a good story to tell come awards season.
Mr. Holmes made $2.8M for Roadside Attractions on 686 screens, for an estimated $4,154 per-screen take and a $6.4M cume.
Salman Khan’s tweets have now landed his film ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ in trouble. Angry with the actor’s tweet asking for the noose to be spared for 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakoob Memon, angry Shiv sainiks on Sunday tore down posters of Salman’s movie at Satara and also disrupted the screening.
Roughly translated we cant expect magical results from certain people who are too brainwashed to listen to good advice or see something good and learn.
It is like reading scriptures to the devil.
Meanwhile, it was Bajrangi Bhaijaan that continued to bring on moolah, what with around 55 crore* coming in over the second weekend. This is huge indeed for the Salman Khan starrer as it has now crossed the 232 crore lifetime total of Kick by crossing the 240 crore* mark. The film is continuing to be quite strong at the Box Office and is now heading towards the All Time Blockbuster mark. While the Dhoom 3 lifetime total of 284 crore would certainly be crossed, Kabir Khan is now all set to join Rajkumar Hirani in the 300 crore club.
On the other hand Bahubali is moving ahead relentlessly and had another good weekend of around 10 crore*. The film has now crossed the 83 crore mark and while 90 crore is a given, it has to be seen how close does it manage to reach near the 100 crore mark. Blockbuster.
A wonderful piece, characteristically thoughtful — and very glad you highlighted Jhonta’s role here, he embodies death/re-birth in a very direct way in this film.
Re: “The virtual world opens up a window โ but leads down an abyss.”
This was the line of the piece for me — neatly encapsulates how even the promise of “the new” means something very different depending on which side of the gender divide one is on…
Bahubaliโs Hindi version minted moolah over 12 crores during its 3rd weekend. The film made a business of 3.10 crores on its 3rd Friday, 4.35 crores on 3rd Saturday and showing a little more jump on 3rd Sunday it raked in 5.11 crores.
Bahubaliโs total business from the Hindi version now stands at 85.71 crores at the Domestic Box Office.
A broad-shouldered CGI spectacular that holds its own with the best of Hollywood, Baahubali has more crossover appeal, so letโs hope non-Indian audiences get the opportunity to lap it up.
PK grossed 96 crore nett in its second week as New Years Day holiday fell on the seventh day of its second week and bumped its collections up by 6-7 crore nett. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan second week is heading towards 90 crore nett though the holiday has been called today due to the death of ex president Abdul Kalam so with schools and colleges shut the collections may be better on Tuesday than they otherwise would be.
Boxofficeindia.
Can anything be more gross than this commentary? They think of collections even at this moment.
Even though it’s true, they shouldn’t have discussed this angle.
I always feel giving holiday on such occassions is quite silly.
People don’t mourn at home. Better to be working.
Bahubaliโs performance is remarkable. The effect of BB obviously derailed some momentum, but see how the impact of losing screens is very temporary if the WOM is hot. Itโs third week is performing at the level of its second week โ i.e. whatever it lost it has gone a long way to recovering and continue to recover. Itโs second week drop itself is 40% despite BB and its third week drop will be negligible. From where 100 crore looked impossible when BB released, the film is steamrolling past it in the end.
Itโs quite clear when the 2nd part arrives we are absolutely talking about the biggest film pan India by an absolute mile this side of the millennium. If the film lives up to hype โ it will be a 500 crore + across India and 1000 crore gross worldwide. Heck those are probably low estimates. In Hindi format it will probably open like any other superstar film. I can imagine the hype for that film will be absolutely unprecedented.
But more than anything we are looking at the first real film that will penetrate every part of India in a consistent way whatever language the film is released in. That will be a massive massive win for the industry and potentially open the markets and minds of people up more.
The way this movie has penetrated across India is a cinematic equivalent of what Kolaveri Di did as a song. I expected this to do 50 crores in Hindi but getting close to 100 crores makes this the biggest box office story of our times. Without BB I wonder where this would have gone…Maybe there would have been no drop between Week 1 and 2 and 130 crores would have happened. Remarkable story…
This is really extraordinary number for a dubbed movie. This Telugu movie has breached language barrier in India and that is due to its content,deft execution and profound acting. I wish Rajamouli makes movies directly in Hindi rather than giving rights to others. Most of the Hindi blockbusters in previous decade were either copied from Telugu and Tamil scripts or remade. The bankruptcy of ideas in Hindi film industry is in stark contrast to innovative and experimental outlook of Telugu and Tamil film directors. Acting wise too some of the Telugu and Tamil actors are better than Hindi actors who are utterly egoistic and dumb-heads with sand in their heads and brains somewhere down underneath their ankles.
Let’s not get carried away now! First off Rajamouli isn’t every Telugu director nor is every film of his Bahubali. Secondly the Telugu industry hardly matches your description though the Tamil industry does. And do you know who agrees with me on this score and not with you? Rajamouli himself! I’ve forever talked about the virtues of Tamil cinema myself (not Telugu even if many of the most iconic remakes in Hindi today are in fact Telugu remakes! For that matter Rohit Shetty even when he’s making ‘original’ films is really like a Telugu director more than anything else) but there’s no need to frame thinks in such insulting fashion. It’s quite silly. Bahubali does put the Hindi industry to shame in many ways. Not just as a box office matter but more for lacking anything close to this vision in terms its own blockbusters. But that point can be made without foolish generalization.
I think there is a reason for this. Tamil industry is driven by people who are not very rich or capitalists in a big way like their counterparts from telugu industry. When you are from a disadvantaged background economically, socially, it reflects in broader vision and experimentation. I am not talking about Mani ratnam here who is also from a privileged background relatively speaking. Telugu society is still somewhat feudalistic inspite of great emphasis placed on higher education. That higher education is also used more for empowerment than enlightenment.
Satyam: I don’t think Tamil industry is currently matching upto Bollywood in any sense. Atleast over the last 4-5 years, the standards of the industry has really plummeted including that of the Tamil new-ways. 99% of the mainstream cinema made in Tamil is extremely mediocre and worse than Bollywood. And apart from Rathnam, only Mysskin and Bala can match upto the very best of the contemporary Bollywood directors. And for it what its worth, the offbeat cinema scene in Bollywood is far stronger (most of the Tamil new directors have flattered to deceive). I can vouch that one can’t find more than 4-5 good Tamil films every year (Rangan incidentally has mentioned this very many times) The other thing is that Tamil industry is really lacking good actors currently. Not that Bollywood is great on this score, but it is much better than Tamil. The one industry who has shown promise in recent times is Malayalam, some of these directors are making better, more sensible mainstream cinema. And in this regard they have clearly stolen up on Tamil. But I will still place contemporary leagues ahead of contemporary Tamil and Malayalam cinema. I will also place Bengali cinema over Tamil currently. Of course the situation was very different 3-4 years back when Tamil industry was doing very well, making good variety of films and was matching upto Bollywood, but that’s not at all the case anymore. Now is Tamil cinema more rooted than Bollywood yes? But the rooted bit is sadly not translating into good cinema. Forget something like Naan Kadavul or Virumandi, even something like Paruthiveeran/Kadhal/Subramanayapuram (quality wise) isn’t being made there anymore. Mysskin is one exception (and of course Bala is there) and I have great hopes from him. He can be one of the country’s mainstream directors. But really I don’t have much hopes from the industry at this point of time.
Also here is an interesting thing- IMO the best Indian films from 2014 and 2015 (till now) have come from Marathi cinema. But the overall standard of films from that industry is also quite mediocre.
Bollywood inspite of all its glitches still springs surprises in the form of good films. The problem is they are not well patronised by star driven audience.
As for Rajamouli not boasting and being humble does not take away his success or of his reach as of now. In this respect he is like our Bachchan who always says he is mediocre as an actor.
A good script does wonders. Interesting fact, that both BB (bahu and Bajrang) were written by SSR’s father! So at the end of the day, a good script, interesting story and solid entertainment is all the audience cares for and is key to 3 digit crore mark in true sense.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed around 9 crore nett plus on Tuesday which was similar to its figure on Monday. The second week figures of Bajrangi Bhaijaan till date are as follows.
Friday – 12,75,00,000
Saturday – 19,00,00,000
Sunday 24,00,00,000
Monday- 9,25,00,000
Tuesday – 9,25,00,000 apprx
The total for the second week is now 74 crore nett plus and should be around the 90 crore nett mark for week two. The film is phenomenal in Delhi / UP with business now hitting 50 crore nett and that is despite a tax hike in Delhi city last week to 40% from 20%.
“Masaan is all of these things. What it isnโt โ despite the mystical โsmash the skull and release the soulโ utterances, despite the (wholly deserved) Cannes citations โ is Indian exotica for a Western audience. The superb cinematography (Avinash Arun Dhaware) doesnโt prettify things. The images of burning bodies may not be as graphic and disconcerting as those in Rajesh S. Jalaโs documentary Children of the Pyre, but they made me queasy. You sense the filth all around. Like Udaan, which it recalls in both look and small-town feel, Masaan is a very Indian movie. The trains, the poetry, the poetry about trains โ itโs all very rooted. Tu kisi rail si guzarti hai / Main kisi pul sa thartharaata hoon (I rattle like a bridge when you glide by like a train) โ thatโs Deepak when faced with Shaalu. Theirs isnโt just a caste thing but a class thing too. On their first date, over pizza, as sheโs reeling off the names of her favourite poets, he casually tells the waiter he wants chutneyโฆ and then he freezesโฆ he realises sheโs there tooโฆ and he asks if sheโd like Szechwan sauceโฆ that instant change from what heโd usually have to what he thinks someone like her would have is its own kind of poetry. Vicky Kaushal is excellent throughout, but I keep thinking about the careful calibrations of his hesitation here, and the animalistic depths of his breakdown much later. …”-
Rangan is absolutely outstanding in this paragraph.
Good South Indian movies have often drawn the attention of Bollywood filmmakers, and Kannada film “RangiTaranga” is the latest to join the list of such movies.
Rumours are rife that there is a good demand for the remake rights of “RangiTaranga”. While the talks for Tamil and Telugu versions are yet to begin, there seems to be some progress in the discussion related to the Bollywood version.
Leading filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker of “Lagaan” and “Jodhaa Akbar” fame has reportedly expressed his interest in the project and has already reportedly begun talks with “RangiTaranga” makers. However, the director has refused to open up about the matter at this stage.
“RangiTaranga” has turned out to be a big hit in Kannada. The newcomers’ film performed well for weeks despite getting a poor start at the collection centres. The good word-of-mouth from the audience and celebs along with positive reviews from the critics have played a major role in its success.
The small-budget Kannada film is a mystery thriller that has been written and directed by Anup Bhandari and produced by HK Prakash. Nirup Bhandari, Avanthika Shetty, Radhika Chetan, Saikumar and others are part of the cast.
Hollywood’s Lance Kaplan and William David have handled the cinematography and Praveen Joyappa has edited the movie. Director Anup Bhandari has also composed the music and Ajaneesh Loknath has scored the background music.
Yes, he is spot on — I would strongly urge the people who are making their minds up about what sort of film this “must” be to check it out before doing so.
I am glad that they have not butchered this song with a retro, disco beat as most music is nowadays. I was expecting some fast paced, high tempo crazy version.
I must say I disagree mostly. I’m not following Tamil cinema very closely anymore for certain reasons and I concede this but I do know what’s going on. Also Rajamouli made the point about Tamil cinema just recently when he was promoting BB. But leaving aside his thoughts I’d say this very quickly:
1)I’m not a fan of contemporary Bengali cinema barring films here and there. I find it far too plastic and ‘Bollywoodized’ in certain ways. It’s better than it was for a long time but we see this paradigm in many places including Bollywood. An industry becomes stale and cliched and without any new energy, then it takes a turn but in a very cosmetic sense (Bollywood in the 90s). There is new energy and so on but it isn’t important cinema in any sense.
2)Again haven’t kept up very well with Malayalam cinema of the post-90s era but what little I’ve seen in terms of the better examples hasn’t impressed me very much. Again it’s a rejuvenated industry in some ways.
3)Once more I have limited exposure to Marathi cinema but I’ve rarely seen a film there that I’ve found impressive in an unconditional sense though this was certainly true of Court (caught it last night). Obviously the industry is going through its renaissance phase.
4)Tamil has a natural advantage here in that the scale of the industry allows it to tackle all kinds of genres. Theoretically this should be true for Telugu as well but that industry by and large has been about the most rampant commercialism.
4)Finally Bollywood once more. I don’t find the commercial films good enough (though they can often be entertaining) and I don’t find the ‘different’ stuff interesting enough or radical enough for the most part. And so leaving aside the comparisons I just don’t define Bollywood as ‘good’ in any sense.
But here I must introduce a larger point even if at the risk of sounding pretentious. For me any Indian commercial tradition is only valuable to the extent that it does things in a more rooted or specifically Indian way. In other words I want to get from these industries what I cannot anywhere else. I don’t have a problem with absorbing influences from elsewhere. This has always been the case. But once the final mix was still completely Indian whereas today a lot of the films feel like clones of non-Indian films/genres. Of course that isn’t true for the Telugu masala that’s rampant in Bollywood at the moment. In any case this point also connects with the middle cinema (Hindi) of the moment. Or even the much more offbeat stuff. By and large I feel I’m watching clones of film festival genres if not Hollywood ones. This is not just so in a thematic sense but also in terms of the visual registers, the editing, the way spaces are shot and so on. And I’m not just being tough on Bollywood here because when similar efforts come out from other countries they bore me to the same degree. But yes being more familiar with Indian culture I can pick up the ‘false’ or at least cliched moves a bit more easily. To bring up one of my favorite examples once more 99% of contemporary Chinese period pieces bore me in the very same sense, including some very acclaimed films (say Red Cliff) where despite the obviously fantastic source material the final result is a very engaging but also ultimately synthetic film. Still we’d be lucky if even one Bollywood director was capable of this sort of thing. At any rate I’m not singling out Bollywood nor am I being unfair to the more worthwhile films. Because if it’s a commercial film that’s not trying to be anything more should judge it one way (though even with something like Bajrangi the older masala registers which it hearkens to can and should be used as a fair comparison) but if it’s clearly an art house effort or obviously inspired from certain western or film festival films one should then use the same standards to judge it. So Girl with yellow boots is perfectly fine as a film but it’s also a clone of dozens and dozens of films from elsewhere. Or more precisely it’s a clone like many others. If you’re going to make this sort of film I’m not going to say ‘this is pretty good for India’ (first of all it isn’t even on that score for those of us who are willing to watch other Indian traditions.. Kashyap said here once that he’d never seen an Adoor.. what can one say about that?) because I will then compare it will all those films it’s ‘like’. I am hardly one of those colonized folks forever enamored of Hollywood or something. I am arguing for exactly the opposite here. At the same time I can’t hand out brownie points to an industry which has been largely about multiplex consumption the last twenty years. So even if I’m wrong about Tamil films at this precise moment I very much doubt I’d like it less than Bombay.
I’d also add this. I am also not very smitten by this whole notion of ‘hey this is the present’. Good films were being made yesterday, today there are other kinds of good films. This is the worst obfuscation. It’s like saying every age produces important work in the same proportion everywhere, a patently absurd claim. I have not seen a middle cinema film in contemporary Bollywood India to equal the best Hrishikesh Mukherjee efforts or the best Malayalam efforts from the 80s. Nor am I sentimental about a tradition I might be more familiar with. When I got introduced to Malayalam cinema from that rich period I felt that in some cases it even surpassed Mukherjee’s work. It’s all about following the ‘work’ as far as I’m concerned. I;m really not as bothered about where it comes from in terms of time or space.
Easy.. you are going way overboard in praising Telugu/Tamil movies/stars and ridiculing Hindi movies/stars. I don’t think anyone would believe or agree to your notion that Hindi movies/stars are other end of spectrum compared to Telugu/Tamil movies/stars.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Set For Huge Total In Overseas
Monday 27 July 2015 14.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan will easily close over $20 million in Overseas as its ten day total is $17 million plus. The overseas market can’t be judged with a total figure as before with some films releasing in countries like China, South Korea and Japan where most Hindi films won’t release.
So the Overseas market becomes a bit like the Indian market which is compared circuit by circuit. Basically it will be interesting to see where Bajrangi Bhaijaan final totals stand against the other biggies like PK and Dhoom 3 in UK, US / Canada, Gulf and Australia. This will give actual idea as to how it has performed against the other films.
The Pakistan market is also almost as big as Australia today but its a different market as a Khoobsurat will gross more than a Humpty Sharma due to local artist and films which are patriotic struggle to release there. The film has also done well in Nepal despite the country suffereing hugely from the earthquakes a few months back. Bajrangi Bhaijaan could even go to the $25 million mark with just a traditional market release. In UK and The Gulf it will cross PK and is chasing the record figures of Dhoom 3 in both circuits.
Another Record For Bajrangi Bhaijaan On Sunday
Sunday 26 July 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has set another record on its second Sunday with the highest collections ever on a second Sunday with collections looking to be around 24 crore nett. It will also be a second weekend record with collections of 55.50 crore nett
PK released last Christmas had grossed 53.40 crore nett in its second weekend with 14.4 crore nett on Friday, 17.10 crore nett on Saturday and 21.90 crore nett on Sunday Here for Bajrangi Bhaijaan the apprx figures are 12.75 crore nett for Friday, 18.75 crore nett on Saturday and 24 crore nett on Sunday. PK was ahead on the Friday but on Saturday and Sunday it has been Bajrangi Bhaijaan in overdrive.
It had looked at the time that PK had set a huge second weekend record which will take long to surpass but it has held for just 7 months. The second week record may be hard to crack for Bajrangi Bhaijaan has PK had a big New Year’s Day holiday which gave it an advantage of 6 crore nett. Its hard but impossible and a second week record will be simply phenomenal as its being done without the benefit of a holiday.
It’s certainly kept pace with PK so far, I don’t take the new year holiday seriously because Bajrangi had much higher ticket prices that no one seems to mention. see here:
what the film is doing is already very impressive. But as always dishonesty is introduced in the narrative when one just looks at one side of things and not the other which ought to be a completely glaring one.
With PK, there were lots of discussions about ticket prices and aamir was bashed for it and he had to clarify. And there was backlash from some groups and theatres had to stop screenings of PK in Gujarat. Strangely nothing like that is happening in gujarat after Salman’s tweets. It seems Salman has some very good PR and troubleshooters unlike Aamir.
yeah barring the boring Sena stuff everyone is quite silent here. Having said that it’s also the case that for that discourse on the Right PK is a far more problematic film than Salman’s asinine tweets could ever be.
I don’t think that higher ticker prices is true all over India. Even some local distributors or cinema chain can increase individually. I haven’t heard that in South India for instance. If it was constant all over, there would have been certainly few articles mentioning it somewhere like we had for PK.
Satyam, I don’t think the ticket prices for BB are higher than PK. Maybe I missed some articles on this but I don’t have this information from anywhere…
PS — I checked prices at multiple cinemas near me (all multiplexes, but all for “standard” seating, i.e. nothing like the super-premium screens with reclining couch-style seating or anything like that). And to be clear, these ticket prices are going up for big film after big film: so Bajrangi was > PK in my experience, and PK > earlier films, and so on. Doubtless something in a few months will top Bajrangi. But yes, the 350-400s at the PVRs had become 450-500 for Bajrangi (I paid 480 at PVR Juhu, and confirmed that even at PVR Market City Kurla, the price for a DAYtime weekend show was 420+; and that was especially striking not only because of the absolute number, but because in general PVR Kurla daytime weekend tickets are significantly cheaper than those for PVR Juhu (that’s why we’d often go to Kurla, as that and Juhu are equidistant from where I live). For this film, that delta was very narrow, and the absolute number was very high…
“Donโt think Qalandar is making up what he paid”
This is completely unfair, no one has said or even insinuated that Qalander is making that up. I just mentioned that its from his live experience and not from articles.
Cashing in on the Sal-mania, exhibitors are said to have increased ticket rates โ regular ones that cost R110-R150 in a suburban multiplex in Mumbai have been revised to R250-300. The price for a gold class seat varies between Rs 750 and Rs 900 in the city instead of Rs 500. The scenario is more or less the same in other major cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Indore, etc.
Although the ticket prices have been hiked from the normal price, I Don’t think the ticket prices overall as high as PK. Even if BB falls a little short of PK’s final total, the footfalls for BB will be greater. As Krish and Master said, unlike when CE, D3, and PK released, there aren’t really articles from major news outlets about a substantial increase in ticket prices for BB.
From Indicine:
“The multiplex ticket prices of both films were about the same, although at select premium multiplexes the tickets of Bajrangi Bhaijaan were more expensive. Bajrangi Bhaijaan has performed much better than PK at single-screens, so the all India average ticket price of the Salman starrer is lower.”
Come on MS Dhoni..You didn’t pissed off when Salman was beating his girl friends..When he is killing black Bucks..When he is running over people in footpath. Now you got pissed of on his Tweets written in Drunken state. Strange.
Film critic-turned-director Karan Anshuman admits he’ll never write a review again.
During his three-year tenure as Mirror’s film critic, Karan Anshuman admits he never gave a Salman Khan film a good review. Kick was no exception. But when he greeted Jacqueline Fernandez with a cake which had ‘Congratulations for Kick’s 200-crore’ iced on it, Karan, who makes his directorial debut with the satirical Bangistan, knew he had moved to the other side. “It was my sell-out moment,” he agrees. “I will never return to reviewing films again.”
“I took a David Dhawan film to the cleaners once. The review went viral. It must have affected the film’s business too,” he reminisces, saying that when he met David recently, for the first time, he wanted to kill himself. “He is the nicest person I’ve ever met. If I was to review a David Dhawan film today I’d never write it the way I did.”
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Is Rock Steady On Second Monday
Monday 27 July 2015 23.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan remained rock steady on its second Monday with collections likely to be around 9.50 crore nett plus. The general drop is 30% from Friday which would mean a 9 crore nett total but the tax free status is helping in UP and that will give an extra boost as Delhi/UP will end up close to 3 crore nett with a huge contribution from UP.
The collections of PK on Monday were 10 crore nett plus and its unlikely that Bajrangi Bhaijaan will be better. PK second week was in holiday week so what is happenning is the weekday collections are better for PK and weeeknds are better for Bajrangi Bhaijaan..
The total after 11 days will be 248.75 crore nett and after a similar period P.K was 245.25 crore nett so it still has the edge but by the end of the week it will probably be less as PK got advantage of New Years Day holiday. The film will have actually trended better than PK in the second week but collections will be lower as PK second week was in holiday period.
Top US Canada Second Weekends – Bajrangi Bhaijaan Second
Tuesday 28 July 2015 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had to settle for second place in US / Canada for second weekend collections but still its a huge number as the PK number came in Christmas week. In fact barring Chennai Express, all the other films in top five below are Christmas films.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has so far grossed $5.8 million apprx in eleven days. This makes it the fourth highest grosser ever in US / Canada already with the $6.53 million figure of 3 Idiots being the next target.
Bajrngi Bhaijaan Sets All Time Records In Eight Circuits
Tuesday 28 July 2015 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan broke first week records in eight circuits. Delhi / UP, East Punjab, CP Berar, CI, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha all saw first week records. In Delhi / UP it smashed the records of Dhoom 3 and PK by a huge 5 crore nett. The top first week collections in Delhi / UP are as follows.
1. Bajragi Bhaijaan – 37,30,00,000
2. Dhoom 3 – 32,23,00,000
3. PK – 32,08,00,000
The full list for top first week collections in Delhi / UP can be found here
The film would have broken the record in Rajasthan also but the circuit was tax free until a year ago so Bajrangi Bhaijaan remains behind Kick and Dhoom 3,
The top first weeks in East Punjab can be seen here with Bajrangi Bhaijaan leading by a distance. It also smashed records in West Bengal which sometimes underperforms for Salman Khan starrers but not for Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The top first weeks in West Bengal can be seen here
Mumbai was not able to set a new first record with PK remaining comfortably at the top. The top first week grossers in Mumbai can be seen here
The worst collections were in Tamil Nadu / Kerala where it was outside the top five. Top First Weeks in Tamil Nadu / Kerala
The Tamil Nadu / Kerala circuit is small but collections are less than 50% of some of the bigger films. It was a similar story for the biggest blockbuster this century Gadar which also did not perform too well in this circuit.
The complete first week territory breakdown of Bajrangi Bhaijaan can be seen here.
This was posted on Facebook at 4 am by the former President’s aide, Srijan Pal Singh.
What I will be remembered for… my memory of the last day with the great Kalam sir…
It has been eight hours since we last talked – sleep eludes me and memories keep flushing down, sometimes as tears. Our day, 27th July, began at 12 noon, when we took our seats in the flight to Guwahati. Dr. Kalam was 1A and I was 1C. He was wearing a dark colored “Kalam suit”, and I started off complimenting, “Nice color!” Little did I know this was going to be the last color I will see on him.
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Long, 2.5 hours of flying in the monsoon weather. I hate turbulence, and he had mastered over them. Whenever he would see me go cold in shaking plane, he would just pull down the window pane and saw, “Now you don’t see any fear!”.
That was followed by another 2.5 hours of car drive to IIM Shillong. For these two-legged trip of five hours we talked, discussed and debated. These were amongst hundreds of the long flights and longer drives we have been together over the last six years.
As each of them, this was as special too. Three incidents/discussions in particular will be “lasting memories of our last trip”.
First, Dr. Kalam was absolutely worried about the attacks in Punjab. The loss of innocent lives left him filled with sorrow. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was Creating a Livable Planet Earth. He related the incident to the topic and said, “It seems the manmade forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution”. We discussed on how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continues we will forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world”
Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr. Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, “I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.” He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted them to suggest three innovative ways to make Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. “But how can I ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself”.
For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, to come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, Advantage India.
Third, was an experience from the beauty of his humility. We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead of us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to be given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, that did not work. For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aapke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge”.
I doubt SRK will agree to share screen space on equal footing with Salman — it would be too stark a reminder of how things have changed from the days of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. And I wouldn’t blame him: the juxtaposition would, in terms of physicality and screen presence, not be flattering to SRK. Sure he acts better than Salman does (I imagine so do I, and I’ve never acted), but nothing matters less in the Sallu-economy.
โ bajrangi bhaijaan โ finally able to watch it last night here in odeon Trafford centre ,Manchester
We booked it early to avoid disappointment for 21:20 show.we arrived at 2100 hrs and were to see 20% occupancy but thought the film has got another 20 minutes,amazing just about the film to start there was 70% and after the film started into 15 minutes people were still pouring in,90% occupancy and that it amazing on Monday night.
Anyway to summarise the film ,first 20 minutes it was snail pace as shahida is getting known to viewers as what a world we live in and how bad is it to get from Pakistan to india and vice-versa.
The film gattered the pace where salman makes the entry,brilliant song โ jai bajrang bali โ ,any monkey he sees he makes pranam,it was funnyโฆthe film takes incredible pace and the way that travel-agent got battered ,uski to nani yaad agayee.The match between india & pakistaan was a decider where shahidas originates from but her innocent charm and salmans honesty brings the Indians & Pakistanis down on kneel.During the film of three quarter way it reminded me of late raj kapoors โHeenaโ which eventually was directed by his son Rajeev Kapoor,the guy who played a villain in โKICKโ Nawazuddin Siddiqui he was simply superb.
funny how he helps salman here but in kick, salman kick his ass
This film was like a football mtach ,firt half was like attack,attack and second half was like defence,defence.
whatever the pace getterness achieved in first half of the film in contrast on second half ,in the whole no one will ever bothered with it
Kareena Kapoor had small role but as usual she was superb,oops sorry I should say kareena Kapoor khanโฆ
It s amazing & hard to go from india to Pakistan without visa or ticket and people who had visas still find it difficult.,tell you what om-puri was just excellent ,I failed to recognise him,his deep voice was his biggest clue as who he was,looked proper Pakistani .
Overall the film has done well and it deserved it.If here anyone thinks that srk is still way ahead then he needs to check his mental status because this film is another nail in the coffin not only for srk but also amir khan ,they have a fight for supremecy .
Everyone needs to see this film and anyone not seen it yet then they have my blessing because you will not get bored for one minute,if you cannot see it cinema the recommendation is watch it on HD DVD.
I think July, 2015 might be one of the best months ever for Indian Cinema- Quality and Box Office wise. It started with the Punjabi film Sardaarji which I heard has become the biggest Punjabi blockbuster ever. Then Kamal Hassaan’s Drishyam remake which was a blockbuster for the Tamil Industry. Even Dhanush’s Maari is doing pretty well. Followed by Baahubali, which needs no explanation, and now Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Finally, Ajay Devgan’s Drishyam is also a sure shot superhit just because of its story, and will probably be the best Ajay Devgan movie of the decade.
Alarm bells in Bollywood as โBahubaliโ, Hollywood films reap box-office gold.
“and itโs not just โBahubali,โ billed as Indiaโs most expensive film and featuring top-notch visual effects, that is challenging Bollywoodโs monopoly in the country. Three of Indiaโs top five blockbusters in the first half of 2015 were from Hollywood, squeezing out domestic competition until โBahubaliโ and โBajrangi Bhaijaanโ rode to the top”
โI cannot tell you the number of phone calls Iโve got after Bahubali,โ Anil Thadani, whose AA Films distributed it in north India, told Reuters. โAlmost every producer wants to explore this market.โ
In a promotional video ahead of the filmโs release, Bollywood movie star Amitabh Bachchan described โBahubaliโ as a โmagnificent visualโ comparable to Hollywood films.
Not sure how many people remember him, but Clive Rice expired yesterday- one of the all time S. African cricketing greats and one of the most talented allrounders of his time.
As far as the film’s performances are concerned, it is needless to say that the film belongs totally to Ajay Devgn and Tabu. They are the quintessential torchbearers of the film right from the word go. It is really heartening to see Ajay Devgn (who is mostly known for his action roles) to underplay his usual self and yet come out a winner of sorts. One just cannot to afford to miss him in the scenes where he and his family recreate the entire events and incidents and also his helpless condition in the police station when his family gets beaten up mercilessly. His smoldering eyes emote effortlessly. On the other hand, Tabu (who had earlier played a policewoman’s role in the 90’s film KOHRAAM), plays an inspector with oodles of aplomb and elan. At the same time, she also handles the role of a concerned mother with equal ease. With the kind of portrayal that she has done in the film, it becomes almost impossible to think of any other actress to have played this role with such flawless perfection. Shriya Saran, on the other hand, comes up with a winning performance in the role of Ajay Devgn’s wife. The other mentionable roles belong to Rajat Kapoor, Ishita Dutta and Mrinal Jadhav, all of whom jointly deliver a masterpiece called DRISHYAM. A special mention goes out to Kamlesh Sawant for his cop act, which was in top form. Even other small characters have done excellent job in their parts.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Second Tuesday Business
Wednesday 29 July 2015 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed around 9 crore nett plus on Tuesday which was similar to its figure on Monday. The second week figures of Bajrangi Bhaijaan till date are as follows.
The total for the second week is now 74 crore nett plus and should be around the 90 crore nett mark for week two. The film is phenomenal in Delhi / UP with business now hitting 50 crore nett and that is despite a tax hike in Delhi city last week to 40% from 20%.
The director of Masaan, Neeraj Ghaywan, commented on Rangan’s piece (though atleast for me it’s not necessary to read a film in exactly the manner director has intended it)-
“I loved your review!! I cannot believe you got so much under the skin of the film. Youโve read it EXACTLY the way me and Varun Grover intended it. It felt as though you were there with us in all the two years of research in Varanasi, or when we are jamming in our pad, when we were intently listening to feedback from peers and also being by our side at Cannes standing ovation. Heck! You even saw the C and Java books at Deviโs desk ๐ I am happy that you saw the film as characters in the fore and socio-political background as just an aid to the narrative and not the moot point.”
Second Week Four Days – Bajrangi Bhaijaan V PK
Tuesday 28 July 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
The first four day collections of the second week for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and PK are as follows. PK is better on the weekdays due to holiday period while Bajrangi Bhaijaan scored better on Saturday and Sunday.
TOTAL
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 65,00,00,000 apprx
PK – 63,55,00,000
PK grossed 96 crore nett in its second week as New Years Day holiday fell on the seventh day of its second week and bumped its collections up by 6-7 crore nett. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan second week is heading towards 90 crore nett though the holiday has been called today due to the death of ex president Abdul Kalam so with schools and colleges shut the collections may be better on Tuesday than they otherwise would be.
It’s fun to see BOI do this day by day.. oh on day 25 it rained more heavily for Bajrangi whereas PK had a fine sunny day and this helped it add 20 crores to the gross..
I don’t see what BOI is doing to have BB beat PK!! There is zero proof that they are inflating the numbers are BOI is usually on the lower side of any movie numbers that come out.
Also, who cares about Drishyam as far as the box office numbers are concerned? This is not a numbers type movie anyway so i don’t see how ‘badmouthing’ it does anything. I think some folks here pay way too much attention to BOI commentary instead of numbers!
By the end of week 2 it will be 7-7 on day by day wins for PK and BB โ but you would not think that reading BOI commentary. And PK will be ahead for the first time.
the problem that the pro-Bajrangi folks have is this — either you say PK is a fantastically good film and Bajrangi though good is not in the same league and therefore the formed ultimately trends better in the later stages. But no one wants to say this because the sense is that Bajrangi is an outstanding film (by the way I’ve finally getting to this over the weekend.. and tomorrow it’s Bahubali) and many of the same folks also felt earlier that PK was nothing special.
Explanation no 2: just say Aamir is the bigger star. And one way to measure these things is that for any given genre it’s not just about the initial but the extent to which people will show up for a movie in the later stages because of the same star and specially if WOM is good. Put differently what star is likely to make any given genre unmissable for the largest cross-section of the audience. This is why doing it just by day 1 opening or whatever is misleading. Because there might be a large demographic that is certain it will see an Aamir film, it’s just not certain what day it will do this. In most other cases if the same audience doesn’t do so initially the WOM has to be that much better for it to show up eventually. If you don’t want to say PK is the better film nor that Aamir might be the bigger star (or at least bigger in more genres than Salman) you run into serious logical problems!
If Salman gets these massive initials each time one can hardly deny his standing but by the same token one should also look at what genre he’s specializing in. So Aamir even without that kind of history or image and certainly without those kinds of opening numbers created history with Ghajini. What if he’s done a few more like that? Secondly family films never max out the audience on day 1. All else being equal you will still get a bigger day 1 for the mass film. These films cater to a demographic that is much more likely to show up on day 1. The genre in question plays to a certain kind of hysteria and/or generates it. But no one would go crazy about 3I on day 1. It’s just not that sort of genre. And this happens the world over. What are the biggest opening days or weekends? For blockbuster type entertainment in certain genres. But conversely the family audience is also a more stable demographic.
There are other ways to slice and dice these things. Yes Salman has a mass following that Aamir does not have. Yes SRK had a base at his peak in ways Aamir did not have. These are important distinctions but these are not necessarily box office ones. If an audience is going to show up for a star most days the reasons why they do so are a different sort of discussion. The people who invest money in a film are only interest in whether people will show up for a star or not and in what numbers given any genre. Of course the same people are not stupid (even if many are online, or at least pretend to be). No one invests money in Talaash thinking it’s going to pull off a Hirani! The reason I say this is because there’s this other dirty subtext that’s often operative whereby Aamir could have a film like HAHK every single year and folks would say he’s not really a huge star like some others.
Anyway the larger point is that you can analyze the differential but if at every point you frame the argument in a way that always gives credit to one kind of film and never the other one knows what’s going on. It’s for example utterly laughable that after years of never being interested in this (and this includes all the online folks who too used to ridicule all of this) suddenly they’re interested in terms like ‘competition’ and ‘trending’ and what genres pull in the greater audience and what not. They’ve even learnt a term like ‘event film’!
Lastly and for the record (since some here might be confused about this) I don’t really have an issue if Bajrangi crosses PK. But what I resist is this dishonest framing (not only by BOI). When things don’t go well somehow it’s because of all the advantages PK has, when they do then it’s about how Bajrangi and Salman are greater in every sense, when they don’t go well again then it’s because of new year holidays and Drishyam derailing things! On that note films that have a repeat audience can also show greater jumps later on if there’s a holiday. For instance I might want to watch PK again without feeling any great urgency to do so. But when there’s a holiday I suddenly get that opportunity. On the other hand if CE gets that sort of holiday it probably doesn’t matter much because not many would be likely to see it again. So this whole holiday stuff beyond the very initial period can also be overrated. There is something called content! yes WOM is very strong on Bajrangi. It might or might not be as strong as that of PK. How do we know either way? Unlike Hollywood there’s no refined and unbiased way of measuring these things. People just operate with imaginary positions (the old ‘word on the street’ claim!). I am the first to concede that certain genres are better placed than others. But that also means that the audience ‘likes’ these genres more for whatever reason. Beyond this it’s a bit absurd to suggest that with a guy like Salman who’s landing these huge initials and in this case (Bajrangi) also has family audiences on board (even the overseas ones in a big way) that somehow there’s some other built-in disadvantage preventing the film from shattering all records!
finally it will come to this: as a matter-of-fact – BB was originally offered to aamir – so if he had done this film – it wud have surely beaten PK’s record ๐
These numbers are still producer’s numbers. By diwali period, these numbers will be revised and you will see PRDP chasing again first week and second weekend of PK.
BOI second tuesday is higher than Taran’s numbers that says how BOI inflated numbers to create such hype.
I think its silly by BOI in trying to beat PK with BB. I think BB is good success for everyone associated even at 300 crore, no need to push up near PK if it isn’t going to.
I’d like to point out that after 25 years, Salman Khan produces the 1st film and he made a huge blockbuster out of it. That’s very lucky and good start for SKF.
Unless there is proof that BOI are inflating the numbers big time for BB (and looking at other sources, there is no proof), I don’t see how BOI is ‘trying to beat Pk with BB’. Their commentary ‘excitement’ is pretty much the same for all big stars. Again, the most excited I have ever seen BOI is when they reported on Ghajini and 3I!
Actually the most happiest I have seen BOI is when they reported Happy New Yearโs 13th day figuresโฆ.75 lakhs or something or other. When they reported each damn day for so long when the collections were so stupidly low โ who gave a monkeys? And the total was hardly anything to jump around for!
I donโt think they celebrate each star the same way. I think they do what they have to when it is not a star they love (itโs quite civil and roboticโฆFilm X made YY crores and it is record, but they will never have a big headline for it with โRECORDโ like they do for BB or get orgasmic about it)
When it is a star they love or a star they are indifferent too but on the way to toppling one they donโt like they are pretty sly about things. Most the comparisons are in a tone to suggest the liked stars films had to overcome certain barriers or obstacles and the disliked starโs film had X, Y and Z as advantages.
On Ghajini and 3 Idiots. It would have been foolish not to recognise the โwattageโ of opening Ghajini garnered. It was absolutely out of the park. The hype for that film was incredible. It opened pan India to an incredible response. That was a big event โ in opening terms probably the absolute biggest since Gadar. Only D3 was on a par since and that is readily missed on BOI as a record on a normal day.
On 3 Idiots, BOI only got crazy on Day 4. I remember these articles well at the height of debates on NG. On Day 4 it was incredible business what that film was doing. It SHUT everyone up and it was impossible to resist such performance. They knew then that 3 Idiots was going to do something quite sensational at that point and when you know you have to change your tone.
But if Ghajini or 3 Idiots were SRK films โ you know how it will be. Every day, every minute an update. You will get collections from Indore to show how great Indore is. You will get collections from Kanpur to show great Kanpur is. You will get occupancy from Lucknow compared to other films.
Even on PK they never released any update on evenings for each day of its run. For BB there has been an update each evening. For HNY an update each day for like 20 days!
Donโt get me wrong โ one should not lose sleep over things like this. Just calling out how I see it and I do not care to the extent that grieves me! It grieves me that people โacceptโ this and promote it!
I know when I visit BoxofficemojoโฆI will get an update pre Friday and Sunday. It is equally โresponsibleโ and very factual. If itโs raining, itโs raining. Its โacceptedโ that way โ its not used to reduce another films total. There is clear understanding of demographic, the costs of the film and the performance. Trends are clear. Expectations clear. There is very little opinion.
Look what they did with Kickโs pre-Eid opening day โ they came up with some model to suggest it was like a 30 crore opening!!!
These are just subtle things but very obvious when you piece it over a number of years. A certain tone exists. A resistance to certain stars and adulation for others.
A narrative is as important as the facts that go along with it.
Sly is the best way to describe the site. The numbers have improved for sure, but the slyness still exists.
jayshah…check out this Q&A on BOI on December 27…just a couple of days after 3I released. Take a look at the last Q&A. If this is not ‘excitement’, I don’t know what is….
One swallow does not a summer make..! I can find you Fox statements that are positive on Obama!
They have the ‘anyone but Bachchan policy’. They prefer Aamir to the Bachchans but they’re not ‘kind’ to him the way they are to Salman or SRK or Akshay (even Devgan in certain cases). Once they favored SRK hugely because he was the guy with the high profile films and consequently the big grossers. But even then they were very soft on Akshay. When Salman got into this current phase of his there’s no doubt that they’d rather have Salman at the top than anyone else. So on and so forth. Also on Aamir along with the entire media they were rather late to the party. After Ghajini or 3I you can’t exactly deny this sort of thing unless you’re a real idiot! But prior to this even when he had Fanaa and RDB in the same year they weren’t exactly jumping to give him credit. Much like Taran and Nahta and so on. There are certain clearly discernible narratives in this sense. I’ve seen them give Devgan or Ranbir a lot more credit with a lot less under their belts than Aamir had even before 2008. For them Emran Hashmi was some kind of important star! I could go on and on. Tomorrow if Abhishek has 3 200 crore grossers and they ‘accept’ it that will hardly mean anything because it’s a bit difficult to deny the obvious. But when it was about BnB or Guru or Sarkar or BM or whatever they were quite happy to do this. Of course in those days they also messed with the numbers. Plus Taran and co put up whatever they liked. These days everyone seems to be within 10% of the producer number. It wasn’t this way once. Secondly their commentary was terribly biased once. These days these do it with less venom but the pattern is still there. By the way I’ve also noticed over a long time that everyone online who’s really soft on BOI also has more or less the same choices in terms of stars. Whatever they might say they too give the benefit of the doubt to exactly the same people BOI do and vice versa. Aamir has never been a hot favorite with these folks. And you can see this elsewhere too. Depending on who the star is. They do it blatantly. Now of course one could argue that if the numbers today are more or less the same with all the sources what’s the problem? Well because the framing is dishonest. The numbers don’t exist in a vacuum. Narratives can be misleading. And some of the stuff is a ‘lie’ to begin with. It’s not just about the gross numbers. It’s also about saying stuff like ‘x film opened to 40% in morning show’ and ‘y opened to 10%’. In each case this is not an ‘average’, it’s about selective reporting. Similarly on the actual numbers. Jay has already pointed this out (incidentally I agree with everything he’s said) but they have an obsession with the North and specially the E Punjab territory. Probably says something about them but the largest territory Bombay is mostly underrepresented in all their write-ups. Then when a film is doing well they put up stuff from centers that they pull out of a hat. Nahta does the same. He’ll say anecdotal stuff like ‘x film all sold out at a morning show in some Jaipur theater’! Look at it this way. Does anyone every report things this way in the US or the UK or any other professional industry? No. If you can’t verify all the numbers first off stop pretending that a film grossed ‘24.75 crores’ or whatever. Yeah right. To be that accurate you need a completely verifiable system. When you don’t have this how do you have such a precise number? All of these guys are compromised or corrupt or both. I’m not saying that people start believing a film is a hit or a flop based on what these sources say (though a lot of times their narratives are disseminated in the media) but it’s dishonest whether that dishonesty ultimately carries the day or not. I know for instance that a lot of this stuff is really for online consumption in the sense that out there audiences aren’t exactly hanging by every word of Taran’s or Nahta’s much less that of BOI. But still it should be pointed out. A stray statement here or there doesn’t mean anything (of the sort you’ve pointed out). Even when Salman was nobody and had releases like Garv BOI would try their best to give these a positive gloss. The thing is that there’s a difference between being a fan of a star and putting up stuff on him all the time and quite another when you pretend you’re a box office source and behave in the same way. When MS Dhoni puts up every single tweet on Salman I don’t have an issue with it at all. He’s a fan, even when he gets carried away one can argue with him but there’s no other agenda here. With those box office sources it’s completely different. These guys behave like total fanboys. By the way the Q&A on BOI is quite often their most ridiculous section. It’s often hard to believe that people are even asking those questions. Most of them sound made-up.
actually it doesn’t because it takes this kind of grosser for them to be so big on Aamir! It’s like someone giving SRK credit for DDLJ or Salman credit for HAHK! In fact I’d say that when BOI go ‘mad’ as I said in that comment it’s a sign of just what the magnitude of the success is for Aamir (in this case). But with other stars they go ‘madder’ with far less. And then they make excuses of the kind they’re making here for Bajrangi. Recently they had some good reports on Piku. That doesn’t prove anything either. Actually to even have to prove BOI is biased is a bit like having to prove Fox isn’t ‘fair and balanced’! And let’s not even get into the subject of how many films they’ve reduced their initial numbers on weeks or months after the event. Suspiciously this happens more with certain stars. I’ve been following them from day 1 and it’s easy to see what they’ve been upto. Why you should insist on the opposite is a mystery to me. Very few believe anymore that they’re aboveboard. Incidentally I’ve been saying this for years now that it was only after Ghajni and then specially with 3I that the media/trade in general started giving Aamir a lot of credit. but that proves the point!
My issue is that BOI’s commentary is given way too much coverage here but no one really disputes their numbers which is what their site should be all about…but if we are going to start giving importance to their commentary then we have to look at the history. I have seen them go orgasmic with other movies and stars as well but my point of giving all these links was that their BB reporting is really nothing compared to 3I. I can go back and look up their hysteria over Ghajini as well. Yes..they do sometimes give idiotic 13th day Happy New Year type of figure but I don’t see them having a bias in favor of any big star. Again, their most ‘exciting’ commentary usually comes with box office record breakers of some typle (Ghajini, 3I, Dabbang, D3, PK, and now BB). Don’t recall them going crazy over any SRK movie (for obvious reasons!!). Can’t fault for them getting a little excited when a Roudy Rathod or Happy New Year get some big numbers.
I must confess that it’s to Satyam’s credit in exposing what Boi is up to by reading between the lines through their “astute and prevaricated” commentary. Their commentary is so full of dishonesty and knavery that it seems as if they are politicians not willing to yield an inch to the opposition! I’ve got very many examples to cite just to prove how desperate they get when anyone not named Aamir seems to be going ahead of him, they’ll throw away such adjectives that it appears as if “Renaissance” is on the corner!!
And Shahrukh has always been their darling, which is easily evident by their shady verdicts in recent updation of the data. Mangal Pandey has been given a flop verdict but Paheli is below average, until this MP was always an average and Paheli a flop in their verdicts. RDB is just hit and Shahrukh’s all expensive movies despite their miserable performance have been given way too much leniency by giving them hit and semi-hit verdicts. Take Ra-1, KANK, MNIK, HNY,Don, Don-2 for example, all of them are big budget movies and in most cases recoverd their investment or made some small profit, but nowhere did they do such business to be declared clean hits. So one has to be smart enough to make out their moot commentary and verdicts. Numbers alone can not prove anything but contexts can, so they don’t limit themselves to giving data but keep coming up with idiotic and moronic commentary just to undermine indisputable successes and aggrandize their own favorites ( case in point is their stupid attempt to belittle Bahubali’s grand success).
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had its first noticeable drop since release on Wednesday which was the 13th day. The collections on Wednesday will be around 7.50 crore nett which is around 20% less than Tuesday. The collections till date around 265 crore nett
This will probably mean the second week finishing at around 88-89 crore nett which is the second highest second week total of all time after PK which grossed around 96 crore nett It will leave the film around 5 crore nett short of the two week total of PK. It is quite a lot of ground to make up but not impossible.
The business in Delhi /UP is still on a phenomenal run with its business being better than Mumbai circuit. Delhi / UP probably has best chance to surpass PK out of the main circuits.
It’s not going to get anywhere close to PK though it will of course cross 300. And let’s give a shout out to Aamir here whether people like it or not. Salman is not likely to do a better film than Bajrangi and he still cannot get close to PK despite being ahead in the earlier stages. Could he do it with Barjatya? Sure. But then I hope will also take points away for the ‘family genre’ the way they have been for PK!
slightly disagree here satyam – salman’s best will be rajshri’s Prem……..and the stage is set for a massive massive box-office result there – a family film coming from a superstar who has just delivered a 300 cr and sooraj+salman combo is the most lethal one………..
actually those who weren’t around then don’t know just how much HAHK became a Madhuri deal post-release. It was universally called her film more than Salman’s and the proof of this is the fact that even after this Salman’s career didn’t go anywhere. He’d already had failures by then and this film despite the historic success did nothing to give his career a new direction.
my point is a different one.. if one is going to take points away from Aamir for scoring big with family-friendly genres then one should do the same for the Barjatya film.
And though this film might well be massive I’m still not willing to take this at face value for the simple reason that HAHK was 21 years ago and HSSH the followup didn’t do great after a big initial (which was nonetheless enough to make one of the big grossers that year). Now I do concede that this is the right time for that film given how Salman has drawn the family audiences in with Bajrangi. But it remains to be seen how sharp Barjatya still is. It’s possible that he’s found new inspiration with Salman after all these years but I can’t take this on face value. The film being big is not in question here, every Salman film is huge in that sense. This will also attract a larger audience but as we’ve seen time and time again it’s not easy to get to the biggest grosses without a film truly connecting in some important sense.
yes but note what’s happening here. Barjatya is trying to make the film a bit more masala, perhaps as a nod to Salman’s current image. But is this the sort of terrain that he’s completely comfortable with? A family masala mix if done right could be huge because it would please all the demographics but is Barjatya the guy for the job? Remains to be seen. Note how he was completely out of his league when he tried the Yahsraj deal in MPKDH even though this was a remake of Chitchor and an easy one to get right. The second half was fine but the first half was miserable. In any case on the current film and though I don’t mind Sonam myself she’s an odd fit for a Barjatya film. In any case there are enough unknowables here from Bajratya’s form after all these years to the lead actress to the masala elements (for Barjatya) that simply saying it will be the biggest involves a leap of faith.
And here I’d repeat a certain point. Without inflation (real and otherwise) becoming a significant factor the initial can’t just keep going up significantly with each new huge release. Even maintaining huge numbers for 7-10 days is very possible assuming a certain WOM. But it becomes tricky after this. As we’re seeing with Bajrangi relative to PK. And PK isn’t even 3I. This by the way is another bit of dishonesty with all the current comparisons. Everyone talks about how much more Bajrangi might have done if x, y and z had happened/not happened but everyone avoids the obvious question of how much 3I would be worth today. It would minimally be a 400 crore film if not more. Ghajini itself would be way ahead in this sense. The point I;m trying to make is that trending is very important. Jurassic World is at 630 currently or whatever because of trending and not just because of massive opening numbers. No matter how extraordinary the initial it alone can never get you to the biggest totals. People are just too foolish or too partisan to realize this. Why was Bachchan so extraordinary? Not just because he got the biggest opening numbers but also for the reason that his films minimally ran for a certain period of time even when they were ‘flops’. The standards of trending change over time but ‘some’ standard has to be in place. And even today with all these big bang initials we see films falling short of the highest grosses all the time despite beating previous numbers on the initials.
I’ve seen people says tons of times for years now about how every such new big release with SRK (and in recent years with Salman, sometimes even with hrithik) is going to beat the existing benchmarks (usually an Aamir one since Ghajini) but it never happens. Any of these big films is always well-placed to do it on paper and of course the initials confirm this. But then there are speed-breakers along the way. Because the films are usually not good enough. Bajrangi though is an interesting case study because here the WOM is very strong and everyone has loved it (barring Saurabh I haven’t come across anyone who hasn’t liked it). And yet the film is going to fall short of PK. In many ways this comparison is much more problematic for the Salman partisans. Specially those who also didn’t think PK was anything great. Because in the past one could at least say ‘Salman’s films are not great, it’s all because of him, wait for the right script’. Well here you have the right script! And the film is even crossing 300. It could hardly be said that some disadvantage kicks in after 300!
anyway think about how many times you yourself felt a srk or salman film would break all records. could a Barjatya film do it? Sure. But it’s not a given. And by the way folks in the trade and elsewhere should save themselves the diwali excuses (‘oh Diwali is actually a bad time to release films!’ I’m only exaggerating slightly!)
Barjatyaโs record is pretty strong, but the last time he directed was nearly a decade ago and last โSalmanโ he directed some 16 years ago.
To me itโs a question of how current he has remained in this time without losing all the values that make his films liked. With MPKDH he tried to sex up proceedings and it was a trainwreck. With Vivaah he returned to form but it was a film with little ambition and was not a lavish scale like MPK or HSSH or HAHK.
But his films have always formed around family values, principles and values. The modernisation, growth, technological leaps India has taken over the last decade + has changed many things. His core values still remain but they are taking new forms and guises. Has he moved with the times and is he capable of making a simple film that can be consumed by todayโs audiences or will he make something out of the 90โs and hope that nostalgia kicks in. Or will it be quite regressive. A whole generation has passed by and a family drama like HAHK is not easy to pull off โ I would be quite impatient with a film like that nowadays. Films like Baghban are the closest you get. He will need to invest in some currency in re-invention here to really knock one out of the park. I am sure Salman will keep his end of the bargain, the last trope he wore in Barjatyaโs HSSH, I found him quite refreshingly subdued. And I really am not a fan of Sonam, so she wonโt excite me like previously Madhuri did. Heck I even thought Sonali Bendre was quite fine opposite Salman, normally quite a wooden actress her quiet demeanour suited her role.
But it really boils down to whether Barjatya has grown up with the audiences or whether the audiences can resonate and identify to a past world.
Barjatya’s type of family dramas will always be huge in India. No one expected Vivah to do anything when it came out yet the movie was a big hit and had a great trending. The only time Barjatya has really failed is with MPKDH when he tried to change his style. Lesson learned! This one has absolutely everything working for it. Salman, after BB, now isn’t just about Dabbang type of movies anymore. With Barjatya, presumably good music, and the biggest holiday of the year….sky is the limit here. This one has the potential to shock the box office in a big way. Do not underestimate a family drama with a top tier supestar.
there is one more side to salman we saw before the release of BB – he went all out to market the film unlike earlier films – ok so he was a producer there but barjatyas are a riot when it comes to market the film – vividly remember they had informed all the exhibitors to clean up their theaters if they wanted to release HAHK in their theaters! and they all obliged……….i m sure Sooraj is not dumb not to cash on salman’s current form………..
The drop is a tad fiction. Tuesday probably benefited due to schools so naturally a steeper drop would be expected on Wednesday.
But basically Thursday’s BB number will be more like PK’s 3rd Friday so it suggests its pretty tough from now for BB to challenge PK. It really needed to do the job over the first two weeks.
@Salman is not likely to do a better film than Bajrangi
Satyam I don’t know how to dig earlier comments. But after Ek tha Tiger (ETT) you said it is unlikely that Salman would cross ETT figure in future but he done it twice.
pretty sure satyam was referring to the quality of BB. BB is his best reviewed film and it still will fall short of PK.
IMO his last really good film was Dabangg, but apparently BB is better than that. I don’t think the Rajshri film will be any where near as good quality wise. I’ve never really enjoyed Sooraj’s ‘brand’ of movies. It will be a candy floss film and the initial will be huge but it will probably come crashing down.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is way better than Dabangg: the latter was a lot of fun but did seem abrupt at points (the whole falling out with Abhinav Kashyap and subsequent editing/re-shooting left a mark somewhere). Bajrangi isn’t much longer, but is better crafted. That being said, Dabangg features a much more memorable Salman-persona,and the one he will likely be most remembered for…
Itโs way better on some aspects. Dabangg has a superior soundtrack and a Salman character that is bonafide fun. But BB, I would be surprised to hear if anyone thinks there is a better Salman film this side of the decade to be honest. Itโs far superior to anything post Dabangg for sure. Iโd say the legit reviews and responses are not exaggerating here too much – the film is damn good and worth a watch.
“Tamil actor-filmmaker R. Parthepanโs daughter R.S. Keerthana is currently assisting filmmaker Mani Ratnam on his yet-untitled Tamil project, which features Karthi and Dulquer Salmaan in the lead roles.
โKeerthana is one of the assistant directors on the team. Sheโs currently busy auditioning the supporting cast for the project,โ a source from the filmโs unit told IANS.
Interestingly, Keerthana made her acting debut as a young girl in Ratnamโs critically acclaimed 2002 Tamil drama โKannathil Muthamittalโ.
The team is currently on the lookout for the heroine. Actress Keerthy Suresh is one of the top contenders for the role.
This week will see a major release in Drishyam but it may have to play second fiddle to Bajrangi Bhaijaan which will be in its third week but still may outdo Drishyam. Bajrangi Bhaijaan dropped for the first time on Wednesday but it should still get a solid third weekend. Especially if the trend is like last week when Saturday and Sunday saw huge growth.
The Friday will be interesting and it is not of the question that the Bajrangi Bhaijaan 15th day can be better than the first day of Drishyam. Drishyam looks a Mumbai circuit film with not much for North and East India so collections in North and East will most likley be better for Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
There will not be much between the two films on Friday as Drishyam does not look like opening and Bajrangi Bhaijaan is on a steady run. For Drishyam it is about word of mouth and a huge jump will required on Saturday but even here Bajrangi Bhiajaan will compete as it is sure to get a huge jump on Saturday.
Drishyam will have paid previews starting at around 8pm on Thursday with multiplexes having 1 or 2 screenings.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a huge second week of 87 crore nett apprx which takes the two week business to 270.50 crore nett in two weeks. The second week is the second highest of alltime after PK which grossed 96 crore nett. The total of PK after two weeks was 277.50 crore nett.
The collections of Bajrangi Bhaijaan had noticeable falls on the 13th (Wednesday) and 14th (Thursday) which has probably meant that it won’t beat PK and become the highest nett grosser ever unless the third weekend somehow goes to 25 crore nett plus which would mean it is still in the race though this is very unlikely.
The 300 crore nett benchmark is there for the film and may come before the end of the third week, if not then in the fourth weekend. More importantly it is on course to set all time records in quite a few circuits and if it holds well enough to do this then the film will stand amongst PK and Dhoom 3 as the three All Time Blockbusters of this decade.
How biased! So BOI decides How much screens should a film have? they are miffed that their BB is getting less screens because of Drishyam.
Some other site reported 23 to 24 percent occupancy.
have the entire thing on VHS…grew up watching it numerous times. Became an Aamir fan partly because of this show. The best part to me was when Big B brings Jaya out in ‘jiski biwi’… the names in this show are iconic now…no concert will ever come close IMO. Thanks for posting!
SATYAMSHOT 
July 23, 2015 at 11:40 PM
***But I donโt quite have the energy to get into all the numbers except to say that it was like having 4 films like 3I every year and no one else even getting to 75 on most days. ***
1978 was stupendous. TRISHUL, DON, MUKADDAR KA SIKANDER, KASME VAADE – that WAS/IS really BIGGG..
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July 24, 2015 at 12:06 AM
yes that was his single greatest year. Ganga ki saugandh also the same year. MKS is his biggest grosser barring Sholay. But he also had films running over from ’77 at that point. It was something like 6-7 jubilees running at the same time at one point that year. And again people forget that his greatest contemporaries look like they’re not even part of the same profession when you compare them in this sense. So the average film did better and had longer runs and so on but no other star was within light years of doing this. And really one could go year by year. Even after having gone through these lists many times it’s still hard to believe how this was possible. Take 1981. he had NAseeb and Lawaaris release 3 weeks apart, both massive. Then Yaarana the same year was huge, Kaalia and Barsaat ki ek raat were also hits. Silsila was the one ‘failure’ that year and that too didn’t lose money.
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July 24, 2015 at 1:00 AM
stupendous? dont you mean S-T-U-P-E-N-D-O-U-S!!!!!!!!! but in all seriousness that sentence by satyam sums up what amitabh’s movies did perfectly…”like having 4 films like 3I every year”….yeah i don’t see anyone coming close to that. I will say that salman and aamir are widening the gap between the rest at this point…SRK is still trying to catch up. But yeah even if it is Aamir and Salman..it is still two against one if one tried to compare to Amitabh. And I brought up the question only because I think we all agree he is the standard when it comes to box office recognition.
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July 24, 2015 at 3:03 AM
Bachchan’s personality and impact is so overpowering that one cannot make a proper assessment of him as a pure actor though as an actor he surpasses. A Nawajuddin siddiqui does not have that burden or that kind of personality.
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July 24, 2015 at 10:58 AM
DON, TRISHUL, MUQADDAR KA SIKANDAR, KASME VAADE, GANGA KI SAUGANDH and BESHARAM. Interestingly all the movies proved super hit at the box office except BESHARAM, which was a major debacle.
did amitabh had a solo blockbuster? because according to BOI he never had solo block-buster,maybe some here can correct me
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July 24, 2015 at 11:02 AM
LOL. what was mard, natwarlal, shehanshah, aaj ka arjun?
wasnt DON a solo ?
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July 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM
raghav,
they were superhits,not a solo BB, I do not think he has had any BB yet,lol
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July 24, 2015 at 11:39 AM
So mard was just superhit , while it was 1985’s biggest hit by margin. if these movies were not Blockbuster, then only Sholay, HAHK, Sholay, Gadar, 3i are only Blockbusters.
Btw, there is no point in arguing and opening such discussion, i rest my case saying salman is biggest star ever in whole known and unknown universe.
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July 24, 2015 at 3:08 PM
think besharam released in ’77. But yeah this was a failure. Deven Varma directed it. Bachchan did it as a favor. It’s a poor effort.
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July 24, 2015 at 4:33 PM
Actually the biggest Amitabh disaster during that time especially with a major director is Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Alaap in 1977. Didn’t run even for a week in major cities.
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July 24, 2015 at 4:36 PM
Even Do aur Do Paanch did not do well, it came to smaller towns within two weeks, whereas big films used to take at least two-three months to trickle down to smaller towns.
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July 24, 2015 at 4:44 PM
Do aur do Paanch was a normal Bachchan failure. A hit by most other standards. just not his.
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July 24, 2015 at 5:08 PM
What is at least as amazing as his hits of the frequency or the magnitude and so on is really the ‘Bachchan flop’. A [eculiar creature that still made money for everyone concerned and in most cases would have been considered a hit with anyone else. Consider the number of films he did between ’73 and ’86 (when he left for politics) and only 6-7 lost money. It’s just mind-boggling. Even Taran and Nahta, not always friends of Bachchan, specially the latter, have said so as much (I’ve put up the posts before and of course everyone has seen them). So it’s not ‘dogmatic’ to keep asserting his supremacy as many think. Because they don’t know enough of the history. If Bachchan even at his age is still a force of nature, can still pull off successes in all sorts of genres despite mishandling his career so badly in certain ways and if he can still put any younger contemporary in the shade in terms of sheer physicality and performance in the most literal sense what must he have been like at his peak? This is what should give people pause. It’s like Sachin was pretty incredible even at the fag end of his career but what must he have been like at his peak to have that longevity and to play that way even in later stages? One could multiply these examples. But this of course also requires the right exposure to the history and certainly some logic in the same sense. Some of us were exposed to that history in a direct sense. But even someone like Rajesh Khanna for his peak 3-4 year period was so far ahead of everyone else. He was called the first superstar for a reason. Today the word is used indiscriminately. People think of Salman today and wonder what could be greater than this. Well they ain’t seen nothin’ yet! If you recall people used to be offended when I would say the same with respect to SRK. But consider how just Salman puts SRK in the shade. SRK was of course a hugely iconic star and he still has a base but he never had just the kind of track record that Salman had had since Dabanng where every film opens hugely and is always on track to have a big gross even when it fizzles out. When it’s something like Bajrangi anything is possible. If you couldn’t even match this where does Bachchan even come in?! But nor was it like Aamir where he’s built a unique brand-name over time with incredible consistency and delivered grossers that Salman still hasn’t matched. Whether Bajrangi can get close to PK remains to be seen or whether it even crosses 300. but certainly even PK is hardly 3I. It’s not even Ghajini in real terms. So there are many ways of slicing and dicing things. Now of course to be fair to SRK it’s not always about such direct comparisons. Because SRK represents an extraordinary foundational moment for New India and for the diaspora. And unlike Salman he wasn’t doing the Yashraj format all that often. So there are some contexts here and one must be fair (even if the SRK fans hardly deserve such kindness in most cases!). But the fact remains that for whatever reason he wasn’t chalking up such numbers in film after film. And judgment matters of course as we’ve said many times. Then we;ve seen with hrithik, a true-blue star in every sense since he arrived but someone who’s never quite lived upto his initial billing. He’s had some very good years but has never quite been able to take it to the next level. Whatever the point in time no one has ever considered him ahead of SRK (though he’s sometimes had much stronger numbers), ahead of Aamir (with justification) and now ahead of Salman (again with justification). So we don’t have to go back to Bachchan. You can make a case for many individual stars. Currently Salman has a very strong one just given how his films open in every single case but these openings still do not put his strongest contemporaries (certainly Aamir.. but also some of the biggest SRK openings, at least on day 1) in the shade. And the same for the final grosses where Aamir is still ahead in terms of consistency and for the final grosses (absolutely so far but also after the adjustments have been made). Once again the question of Bachchan does not even arise unless one doesn’t know what one is talking about! I’ve always been very blunt about this but also merely factual!
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July 24, 2015 at 4:37 PM
The other two movies I remember are Mehbooba ( RK) and The Great Gambler !
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July 24, 2015 at 4:43 PM
yes Alaap is one of his 6-7 films between ’73 and ’86 that actually lost money.
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July 24, 2015 at 4:44 PM
I have a funny story associated with Besharam, where me and my elder cousin were coming back from relatives from another town to our town.
My relative arranged the Rickshaw for us to go to the Bus Station, but we told the guy to drop us at the hall where Besharam was playing.
In about an hour the screening stopped and light were on. and my Mama jee was staring at us both.
as it happens in smaller towns, he saw the Rickshaw wala and asked him- Chod aaye bhaiyya ?
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July 24, 2015 at 5:09 PM
ha! great story! I’ve revisited this film a couple of times. it’s alright for a while but it’s overall a very flat film and also one where you know the guy doing this job is simply not a director.
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July 24, 2015 at 5:34 PM
The suicide and spitting scene was etched in memory for long time. Not in a good way.
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July 24, 2015 at 6:24 PM
Agree that it’s a pretty flat film, and too much of Deven Varma.
Munna – remembered the snake in Amjad Khan’s arms – and not in a good way !!
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July 24, 2015 at 9:30 PM
Alaap is also one of the most underrated Bachchan films (I actually prefer it to Abhimaan). Just never got its due. And Koi Gaata Mai So Jaata is one for the ages.
The only thing I enjoyed in Besharam was Deven Varma playing “sutradhar”.
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July 27, 2015 at 10:10 AM
Agreed on all counts on “Alaap.” The muted weariness that Amitabh brings to this portrayal of the ‘angry-young-man’ character lends it a layer of sadness that I found very affecting. A friend once observed that Amitabh has better chemistry with Sanjeev K and Om Prakash than with Rekha in the film and I tend to agree and think the movie the better for it!
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July 24, 2015 at 12:47 AM
Boxofficeindia in a new getup.
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July 24, 2015 at 3:06 AM
So Amitabh starring in Vijay Krishna Acharya’s next ? and Deepika opt out … ?? http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/bollywood-celebrities-mired-in-controversies/photostory/48197696.cms?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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July 24, 2015 at 11:20 AM
Not sure what happened between Deepika and Amitabh, something for sure!!
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July 24, 2015 at 2:45 PM
Hmm seems amitabh has spoilt the HR–deepika make out party..
It also seems amitabh has done something dodgy /inappropriate and even objectionable to deepika …
Didn’t expect this from amitabh!
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July 24, 2015 at 3:36 AM
http://www.rediff.com/movies/column/mohammad-asim-siddiqui-how-bajrangi-bhaijaan-subverts-ideology/20150724.htm
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July 24, 2015 at 3:44 AM
(Full disclosure: Masaan is produced by Drishyam Films and they are the people producing Raja Sen’s directorial debut, X, as well.)
http://www.rediff.com/movies/review/review-masaan-is-a-truly-impressive-directorial-debut/20150724.htm
Atlast Rajasen is directing a movie!
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July 24, 2015 at 4:52 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has had an extraordinary first week as the collections on Thursday finished at around 15.25 crore nett which takes the week to 180.25 crore nett. The first week record stands at 181.23 crore nett and it remains to be seen if Bajrangi Bhaijaan is a record or not when final collections come in over the next day or so. Its looking a photo finish with PK.
Basically if it was not for Baahubali retaining important single screens in the South then Bajrangi Bhaijaan would have set a first week record by a margin. The other places where it is set to behind PK is Mumbai but in most other circuits it has smashed PK records.
The last two days have been important as the Eid holidays came to an end in various states and Bajrangi Bhaijaan has held up extremely well. The film is a huge hit but the next two Fridays are important for the benchmarks. The business today will tell whether it can reach the 300 crore nett mark and if this test is passed then it goes to next Friday which will determine if the PK lifetime can be challenged.
Boxofficeindia
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July 24, 2015 at 4:55 AM
Q. Bajrangi Bhaijaan was seen as the biggest blockbuster of Salman Khan but an opening of 26 crore has to called a disappointment?
Ans. It is probably meant biggest grosser which it be. The fact is that Salman Khan is unlikley to give a bigger blockbuster than Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. You never say never but these sort of blockbusters come to very few and the rare stars that get such a blockbuster do not repeat it. As far as the opening goes it was Pre Eid and the real value of the opening is on par with Dhoom 3 which in real value is the biggest opening in recent times.
Q. Baahubali grossed 150 crore in its first weekend and Bajrangi Bhaijaan did 105 crore. Does this not show the real value of Bajrangi Bhaijaan which is being called a blockbuster and a great film?
Ans. This is like comparing houses with cars. Box Office numbers are generally inflated but there is a degree to that inflation. There are highly inflated numbers and others which are less inflated. Here is one number which is near actuals and another which is highly inflated so comparison is pointless. Basically Bajrangi Bhaijaan is the highest weekend for a film in one language and the second highest in multiple languages after Dhoom 3. Baahubali has also done incredible business but the numbers going around are much higher than its actual business.
Q. Does Drishyam have a chance at the box office?
Ans. It is totally dependent on the word of mouth but even if word of mouth is strong the business will be limited as the film looks like a regional film.
Q. Will Bajrangi Bhaijaan have to beat the business of PK to be and All Time Blockbuster?
Ans. An All Time Blockbsuter is not record gross holder but just a film that is a lot bigger than the regular blockbuster. A film may beat PK in 3 years time but that does not mean its an All Time Blockbsuter because business will be generally higher. It will depend what the final Bajrangi Bhaijaan shares are and how the territories finish up. Easiest way to sum it is if it does not cross PK in any circuit in India then it won’t be an All time Blockbuster because its not as if PK set records by distances that films like Sholay and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun did.
Boxofficeindia
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July 24, 2015 at 4:56 AM
Why he never talks about 3 Idiots?
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July 24, 2015 at 5:05 AM
http://www.abplive.in/incoming/2015/07/23/article660154.ece/Salman-Khans-Bajrangi-Bhaijaan-has-these-massive-blunders
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July 24, 2015 at 5:43 AM
Let us come to the specifics now. Bajrangi Bhaijaan missed being at the top of the list in first week earners too by just a whisker, as it netted around 184.62 crore, hence falling a little short of Dhoom 3 [188 crore]. Not to mention the competition it is facing from Bahubali not just in South (which was expected) but also North (which was unexpected). However, the film is being appreciated by one and all, which would help it gain consistent footfalls in the second week as well. The film couldnโt surpass the lifetime total of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (190 crore) in a single week but it would do by this morning itself.
On the other hand Bahubali is doing great guns too, and brought in further 26 crore. This is terrific as the film still collected more in its second week than the lifetime total of the biggest dubbed release till date, Robot (20 crore). With around 73 crore already in, the film is making a dash towards the 90 crore mark. What is working in the favor of this S.S. Rajamouli directed affair is the fact that it is continuing to gain footfalls with an ever-spreading word of mouth, which is bringing in new audience. This is the reason why theaters are continuing to screen the film on a very good screen count in the third week as well.
Expect yet another bountiful week again for Bollywood.
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder
Koimoi
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July 24, 2015 at 9:38 AM
Bajrangi is has matched PK in week 1. It’s so close that it’s hard to tell which one is ahead. In any case it doesn’t make a difference. So far so good. Now it has to match Pk in week 2. It might given the strong WOM it enjoys but let’s see. On the Bahubali competition this is certainly a factor but I don’t see it as a special case. Why? PK without that sort of competition did the same amount. Unless one accepts on ‘faith’ that Bajrangi would have definitely done more one cannot easily accept that explanation, specially given the usual excuses that are made (or made up) in these cases. D3 was ahead by a few crores. That film too wasn’t facing bahubali. That’s point 1.
The second point though is that one can’t only stress the competition in this case. For years and years BOI and Taran and whoever never cared about this stuff. It’s only now that they want stars that they favor to have the biggest grosses that all these things start falling out of the bag. Much like people on the blogosphere doing the same.
And so once again one should of course look at all possible factors from genre strength to release traffic to trending and so on. This is the way any professional industry does it. But this can’t happen only in selective cases.
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July 24, 2015 at 9:42 AM
I will here once again append my comment from yesterday. It’s related but also because there’s always been a certain resistance to Aamir in many contexts. He eventually gave so many hits and such big ones that it became impossible to argue against him. Still it took the longest time for people to accept the obvious (with Salman it just took one Dabanng) and even beyond this there has never quite been the celebration of his numbers the way one sees with some of these other stars. And this makes all the difference in the commentary. Again not just in the trade and so forth but also online. You always get the strong sense that people are dying to have SRK or Salman upend Aamir somehow. Now I can understand one supporting one’s favorite star but there also seems to be this more common sentiment where SRK or Salman and maybe some others are ok with a top grossing film but not Aamir. I’ve seen this for years. Anyway here’s the comment again:
[Master.. the point is a completely different one. Itโs about changing the goalpost constantly. Salman is supposed to outgross Aamir but when he doesnโt itโs because he does junk films. Well whose fault is that? When he does the one good film then heโs going to break all records. When that doesnโt happen well itโs supposedly a good film by Salmanโs standards. Or people show up more for Aamir films for other reasons. I could go on. There might be some truth in each claim and I have myself made some of these. However itโs also about contexts and the โtruthโ of the overall framing. You canโt suddenly go all subtle about these things just with Bajrangi! Like the folks who discovered trending and competition and what not one day (including BOI, including those on blogs like this one) but used to make fun of the same in the past. Similarly if you want to come up with all these subtleties do so universally. Then letโs also talk about how Aamir gets non-blockbuster type films to the best possible gross. So on and so forth. But no people discover โart filmsโ when Hrithik or SRK do something half-decent! Itโs not about putting up Aamir on a pedestal. But the others mostly do junk entertainment or enjoyable entertainment (on a good day). They deviate slightly from this and everyone pretends itโs something extraordinary. As everyone has been for Fan and Raees recently! Itโs not even that different for SRK because he has done a lot more interesting stuff in the past. He did a Ratnan in 1998! But forget this. Suddenly everyone thinks these trailers and posters are fantastic. really? So those who pretend that Aamir fans have this attitude themselves do these things by constantly changing the standards. And letโs act dumb about this. These days every other star tries all sorts of different stuff. You get no brownie points for doing this this late in the day. And again thereโs no consistency. When a star does Rohit Shetty we need not even talk about quality because itโs only about the gross. When he does something other than this the quality discussions must begin only then! Aamir on the other hand even after doing so many different genres consistently is called a sellout the moment he does a blockbuster. As if the folks protesting were otherwise Aamirโs greatest fans! Then the very prestige that Aamir has painstakingly built up for 15 years or more is used against him! As if the folks who show up for his films do so for no reason. When he has the biggest benchmarks in 4 out of the last 5 films its like that doesnโt matter because โhey theyโre good filmsโ! But now when Salman suddenly has a good one it โdoesโ matter. or when he now has a Barajtya that should be the biggest grosser because hey it should get all the audiences in. On and on. Itโs not about one claim or the other but the overall dishonest framing (consciously or otherwise). Itโs about constantly changing the goalpost. Iโve never heard as many excuses as I have on Bajrangi. And amazingly the film is doing so well. What are the excuses needed for? Because of course the moment Aamir gets to 200 or 300 or whatever many start with the proposition that SRK or Salman or whoever โcanโ do this. itโs just assumed. And when they routinely fail to hey that doesnโt mean anything because the film wasnโt good! Even now things are dishonest. So even if Bajrangi crosses 300 so what? Is it crossing PK? Even if it gets close (assuming huge tax breaks arenโt part of the deal) so what? A huge result for Salman for sure but Aamir did this in 4 out of his last 5 major releases! Ghajini, 3I, D3, PK were all record-setters. Some have not yet been crossed adjusting for inflation and trending (yes the very same things that are selectively used by some), some have not yet been crossed absolutely. What;โs the debate about then even if Bajrangi does some of these things? Why not wait for Salman to do the same 4 out of 5 times like Aamir? The rest of the time he wasnโt even close to those benchmarks. But hey a star is just expected to deliver an initial. never heard this anywhere. The initial is the โminimalโ thing a bona fide star is expected to deliver not the โonlyโ thing!
A small note on Talaash. the film did 90 or a bit more. Yes it didnโt trend well. But apparently scores of films that have a 70-30 ratio on week 1:final gross numbers are ok, even though theyโre in blockbuster formats, many of these in the 100-120 range, but a different film with a dark theme with not much entertainment value in the usual sense isnโt. So Bajrangi doesnโt have enough comedy like PK but Talaash I guess has lots of comedy.
So yes I say this stuff ad nauseam. And when thereโs a little more honesty on the other side I can retire these long comments!]
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July 24, 2015 at 9:48 AM
You always get the strong sense that people are dying to have SRK or Salman upend Aamir somehow.
This is the real face of ……….
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July 24, 2015 at 10:46 AM
Dying is an underestimation. Itโs a story that has unfolded for 6.5 years. That in that period, only Chennai Express for a paltry 3 months sat at the top of the pile. Otherwise itโs been 4 Aamir films.
The opposition has proposed all this bad luck for their star is to do with the choices of SRK/Salman/Hrithik and Aamirโs โluckโ in landing scripts that run for long in cinemas.
Well the time has come. Salman has a chance here to prove that point. The first week is over and it is only a photo finish between D3/PK/BB. Not the devastating victory craved! Now the marathon begins. Another 160 crores to climb. Weโll see how far this one goes.
There will be excuses aplomb.
Because what the opposition basically needs is an incredible script or a great film to make the point come true โ not the stardom of their own star. They actually crave what Aamir has been dishing out for donkeyโs years!
Oh the irony!!!
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July 24, 2015 at 10:36 AM
Satyam: Honestly, not many knew that BB is not an usual Salman movie and I had no expectations till the promos started. Also, if you pull out my old comment, I had mentioned many times that PK’s record is safe for 2-3 years easily. You can’t blame media, they always sing for the latest hit, be it Salman, Aamir or SRK.
“https://satyamshot.wordpress.com/2014/12/26/ugly-pk-ongoing-the-rest-of-the-box-office/#comment-291653”
Yes, among Salmanโs films โ only Soorajโs movie has that kind of possibility to do huge business (touching 300cr). I donโt expect it to open big but almost everyone likes Sooraj to some extent and then if he makes a good movie, then WOM will turn its business. Similarly, I donโt think Rohit Shetty can deliver big hit but he donโt have the kind of following where the movie can touch 300cr. Some people, however big it is, would not watch a Rohit Shetty film in theaters. Salmanโs Bajrani Bhaijaan can do similar to Kick, SRKโs Fan, Raees will be lucky to even go near 200 cr.
But all said, PKโs final total is safe for longtime, even Aamirโs other movies canโt touch it business for next 2-3 yrs.
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July 24, 2015 at 4:29 PM
No Master – Sallu’s next with rajshri – “Prem ratan…..” will comfortably break all the records – esp. after this massive BB results……….
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July 24, 2015 at 4:32 PM
btw – sallu made a smart move here by NOT playing an action hero just like he did in Wanted (where he DID play the action hero and continued) – now he has Prem Ratn… as a follow up.
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July 24, 2015 at 9:33 AM
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/this-what-shah-rukh-khan-thinks-about-box-office-race-salman-khan-aamir-khan-640398
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July 24, 2015 at 9:43 AM
Dear Menaka Gandhi,
I really appreciate ur effort to protect the animals especially the mad stray dogs in Kerala and I also believe that all creatures on earth have the same rights to live n let live. But we human beings have a law system which ensures the criminal minded or the diseased human beings are put separately so that they wont hurt the fellow beings. I suggest you start a campaign to start a separate law system, a court, a jail and may be u can be their public attorney. Let us ,the human beings also live here.
Thanks
JAJ
Jude Anthany Joseph
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/celebs-divided-over-kerala-stray-dog-issue-mohanlal-vishal-jude-anthany-raai-laxmi-others-640406
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July 24, 2015 at 10:15 AM
Following boxoffice for past few years. Making 250+ is really tough. Movie should be widely accepted. Dont know how Aamir does it easily. You have to get many footfalls and all ciruits on board with/without competition with extra holidays. But again Aamir comes a package with other elite director/producer/banner etc. They eventually help getting that big number. Nothing to take away from Aamir…he should be applauded. But he is not celeberated like other two.
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July 24, 2015 at 10:40 AM
“But again Aamir comes a package with other elite director/producer/banner etc.”
Forgot about Ghajini? Except Aamir(& AR Rahman), there was no recognized cast,crew from Hindi film Industry!
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July 24, 2015 at 11:37 AM
Kamaal R Khan-KRK โ@kamaalrkhan 3h3 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is rocking today also so today’s business will be min 15Cr. And week2 business can be 80-90Cr. So It’s a blockbuster.
taran adarsh โ@taran_adarsh 9h9 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Fri 27.25 cr, Sat 36.60 cr, Sun 38.75 cr, Mon 27.05 cr, Tue 21.40 cr, Wed 18.02 cr, Thu 15.55 cr. Total: โน 184.62 cr. WOW!
taran adarsh โ@taran_adarsh 9h9 hours ago
Records are meant to be shattered. And #BajrangiBhaijaan is doing just that. Crosses *Week 1* biz of #PK [โน 183.09 cr] & #HNY [โน 157.57 cr].
taran adarsh โ@taran_adarsh 2h2 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Overseas Week 1: $ 13 million [โน 83.29 cr]. FANTABULOUS!
Komal Nahta โ@KomalNahta 10h10 hours ago
The first week of #BajrangiBhaijaan in India seems to have ended at around Rs. 184 crore! Astounding figure!!!!
628 retweets 644 favorites
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Komal Nahta โ@KomalNahta 2h2 hours ago
BB overseas first week 85 crore!!!!
Amar Butala โ@amarbutala 11h11 hours ago
BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN IS NOW THE BIGGEST WEEK 1 EVER! Await the number! @BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk #BajrangiBhaijaan
Girish Johar โ@girishjohar 9h9 hours ago
Happy to share #BajrangiBhaijaan is the new ALL TIME #1 for wk1 with 181.75crs aprox ahead of #PK BUMPER CONGRATS to @BeingSalmanKhan & team
Girish Johar โ@girishjohar 9h9 hours ago
Beauty of #BajrangiBhaijaan record is that it has no additional national holiday in its wk1, whereas #PK had Christmas Holiday on its Dy7 !
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July 24, 2015 at 11:40 AM
sushmita sen โ@thesushmitasen 24h24 hours ago
Watched #BajrangiBhaijaan last nite..finally a love story based on simple humanity! A film with a BIG heart:))) take a bow @kabirkhankk :)))
rishi kapoorVerified account
โ@chintskap
BB. Bestestest Best! @BeingSalmanKhan you moistened my eyes in the end.Your best! @kabirkhankk your film is the best seen in a long time!
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July 24, 2015 at 11:46 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Diaries – YouTube linked together and all can be accessed one after the other. Interesting for movie freaks / travel enthusiast.Starting with Harshaali
“Watch: Awww! Harshali cries when Salman Khan gets beaten up!”
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July 24, 2015 at 12:31 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan 7 days/ Day 7(seven) Box Office Collection โ Salman Khan, Harshaali
http://www.thewiire.com/news/bajrangi-bhaijaan-7-days-day-7seven-box-office-collection-salman-khan/4068/
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July 24, 2015 at 2:20 PM
There is some news going around the trade that Anand rai has signed SRK for his next movie. Wait for confirmation in a weeks time.
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July 24, 2015 at 2:54 PM
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/shah-rukh-khan-romance-deepika-padukone-tanu-weds-manu-returns-director-anand-l-rais-next-640043
would like to see a SRK-Kangana pairing instead of the now bland SRK/Deepika pairing.
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July 24, 2015 at 3:02 PM
He is upgrading.
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July 24, 2015 at 3:58 PM
Namrata Joshi in Outlook.
Itโs a character you wouldnโt have found in the Hindi film of yore where Pakistanis have long been the villains of the piece. In the Bollywood cinemascape, Indiaโs relationship with Pakistan has been typically blow hot-blow cold (see infographic). From oblique reference in a handful of Partition films, Pakistan has endlessly played the role of Enemy No. 1 in rabidly jingoistic film after another. If a war film like Borยญder was all about loving India by hating Pakistan, a love saga like Gadar glorified the Indian man taking over the Pakistani woman and hence the nation.
The tide has turned recently with films like PK and Total Siyapaa, where the Indian girl falls for the Pakistani guy. You could perhaps thank Pakistani serials on Zindagi channel and Pakistani artistesโAli Zafar, Fawad Khan and Mahira Khanโworking in Bollywood for the opening of eyes and perceptions. But as author-columnist Santosh Desai puts it, Big Brother India hitherto has always had the upper hand. โThe superior position is inbuilt,โ he says. โThen the generosity and magnanimity towยญards the other also become easier. You can give without losing the balance of storytelling.โ Shohini Ghosh, professor at the AJK Mass Communication Resยญearch Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia, finds it interesting how BB inverts this romantic construct and โde-demonisesโ Pakistan. For her, Bajrangi is not โBig Brotherโ. โIndia is Big Brother,โ she says, โin the realm of politics, war cries and retaliation. Bajrangi is the sane, younger, pacifist brother.โ
Id Mubarak Muslim youth queue up to watch the movie at a Mumbai cinema hall. (Photograph by Amit Haralkar)
Director Kabir Khan himself confesses to using politics as just a backdrop. โThereโs a huge disconnect between the political establishment and the people of the two countries,โ he says. โI am not setting out to improve political relations. I donโt have the power to do that. My focus was on people-to-people friendship.โ
This very โgoodnessโ is what made it easy for BB to get past the Pakistani censors. โBajrangi was a very comfortable film to certify,โ says Sindh censor board chairman Fakhr-e-Alam. It has been given a Universal certificate. The only scene that was cut was of the attack on the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi. โThe reason we thought of the deletion was that it would evoke unnecessary resentment in some peopleโs hearts,โ he says, which he thought would be unfair on a film that in its entirety was โbeautifulโ.
Bajrangi is also extremely clever in how it stresses on Salmanโs โBeing Humanโ and uses it to make a larger political point. The Indo-Pak theme segues nicely with the Hindu-Muslim angle. It does a political tightrope walk, and nicely at that. Like just when you think it is celebrating the Indian Selfie King with the Selfie song comes the scene where Salman is asked to define a Selfie and he replies cockily: โKhud ki le lete hain,โ adding โtasveerโ after a significantly long pause. It is similarly cheeky when it takes potshots at our other hypocrisies and prejudices without being either patronising or offensive to any side of the divide: Hindu, Muslim, Indian, Pakistani, vegetarian, non-vegetarian. Even โtypecastingโ Pakistanis as fair and beautiful comes dangerously close to being impudent and brazen when Salman says of the little Shahida, โdoodh ki tarah safed hai, Brahmin hi hogiโ. โIt casually depicts everyday bigotry on both sides of the border, and is able to subvert it without getting preachy, overly political or radical,โ says Reema. So Puri playing Maulana is able to say that Pakistan too possesses a bit of Kashmir, the emphasis being on โthoda sa (little)โ. Its โchicken songโ is deliciously subversive too. As Reema puts it, โThe very powerful lyrics about overcoming prejudice for the greater interest of humanity (โthodi biriyani bukhari, thodi nalli nihari, le aao aaj dharam bhrasht ho jaayeโ) pretty much summarise the whole plot/message of the film.โ For Shohini, BB takes Hinduism away from Hindutvaโthe fun Bajrang Bali of the film a perfect counterpoint to the hardliner Bajrang Dali. โThe right wing had taken away a culture that belonged to all of us to turn it into a religious symbol,โ she says. The film is a reclaiming of that culture. โItโs not about any ideology but people growing up in a milieu, ambience without questioning it,โ says Kabir. One that you confront when perhaps a Shahida comes calling.
http://www.outlookindia.com/article/pakistan-khush-hua/294911
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July 24, 2015 at 4:24 PM
Re.- For Shohini, BB takes Hinduism away from Hindutvaโthe fun Bajrang Bali of the film a perfect counterpoint to the hardliner Bajrang Dali. โThe right wing had taken away a culture that belonged to all of us to turn it into a religious symbol,โ she says. The film is a reclaiming of that culture.
So what does the success of PK signify ? That everyone has given up religion and direct connection lag gaya ha ??
What does the success of TWM mean that sab Haryana kee Hindu women Nashedee ho gai , sarey bandhan tod kar ?
Holiday’s success means, all Indians believe that sab terrorists ko goli maar do ??
What about the success of Bahubali ?
What a stupid and naรฏve analysis.
Behn rehno do, aap sey na ho payega !! Outlook as a magazine has already been facing a credibility crisis.
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July 24, 2015 at 9:37 PM
I think the film will just about make it to the 300cr mark. The first week’s total is similar to PK’s but PK did have the new year holiday period kicking in during its second week and a further open week after that. BB has Drishyam and Bangistan coming up next week. And even without all these factors, PK would have been hard to beat.
But, on second thoughts, it doesn’t make BB’s success any lesser. Remember, even Bachan could never beat Sholay despite single handedly delivering blockbuster after blockbuster for nearly 20 years. It’s not as if this turned those blockbusters into lesser successes. For e.g. then later on, no movie could beat HAHK for 5-6 years.
Or nothing could beat Gadar 6-7 years after its release. It would have been silly to downplay the successes of the likes of KMG, Lagaan, DCH, KKKK, Fanaa, RDB, Krish, KHNH, Dhoom, B&B, VZ or Guru just because they didn’t outgross Gadar. Most of these movies barely grossed half of Gadar’s gross despite some of them releasing several years later but each of them was very successful and is still celebrated as very successful movies.
If Dangal comes out and grosses 280cr, I don’t think Aamir will view it as an under-performer just because it doesn’t beat PK or BB. It’s no mean feat to deliver such a total right now.
Maybe it would be better to simply enjoy the success of another good movie and what probably is going to be the second 300cr grosser of the industry, It’s always good to see good movies performing well.
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July 24, 2015 at 10:26 PM
Sholay is not a fair comparison though. Arguably the greatest hit of Hindi cinema. Also to call it just Bachchan’s film is also unfair. PK is not even 3I. And 3I is not like Sholay either. If you have DDLJ you cannot be considered lesser because you don’t have HAHK. But DDLJ was very huge on its own. With Bajrangi given the WOM and everything PK is not an unfair standard. I’m not saying 300 isn’t good. Just that if Salman cannot get more than this on his best film this will become his ceiling. Barring something like a Barjatya which is a different genre (though how sharp Barjatya can be after all these years remains to be seen). PK for instance could have done more than it did because one can easily imagine a stronger film. This isn’t 3I where you feel that for the genre it couldn’t have been bettered. And one assumes it could have grossed more. But judging from all the reactions it’s hard to imagine a better Salman film for this genre than Bajrangi.
On the rest for Dangal that sort of number would be extraordinary because it doesn’t look like blockbuster material. Commercial for sure but not one where one could expect sky high grosses. On the other hand with Bajrangi this is surely a reasonable expectation. Again this doesn’t mean that what Bajrangi is doing isn’t remarkable. Just that I see no need to not raise these caveats and treat it with kid gloves.
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July 24, 2015 at 10:32 PM
Dangal may turnout into another Talaash or another 3 Idiots in terms of BO. One cant be very sure when it comes to an aamir film. I thought 3 Idiots will be lame seeing its promos! And I thought Talaash will be blockbuster!
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July 25, 2015 at 4:30 AM
I have faith in Aamir’s script sense. He has almost always found the right balance when it comes to creative, artistic and commercial inclinations. I don’t teel he would choose Dangal if he doesn’t feel it is too viable commercially, There seems to be an epic feel to the movie with the father-daughters element sure to bring in the emotional quotients. There is going to be a meaningful social message. As for the sports background, as showed by BMB, it isn’t risky at all. The latter grossed over 100cr without a big star years back.
It is also being reported that he rejected BB for Dangal, so I guess he must have seen something special in the latter.
On to Salman’s inability to beat Aamir’s top grosser, let’s not forget the volume of films Salman does. Between PK and Dangal’s releases, Salman will have had 3 releases. And despite the volume, he consistently brings in the huge numbers.
Aamir’s releases often arrive with 2 years gap. There is this brand about him of coming up with something of quality and there is huge expectations when his movie releases after a long time gap. He never runs the risk of overexposure and of looking stale.
Salman usually has at least one film lined up every year. His movies run with his star image and with a huge mass following. People flock to the theatres just to see him.
We keep hearing that it’s the kind of stardom that won’t last but it’s 7 years since Wanted and he is looking as strong as ever. He has just had this huge grosser and he has another potentially as huge grosser lined up in 3 months time for this Diwali.
I feel it is as commendable to have three 200cr grossers in 2 years for e.g. as to have two 300cr grossers in that period. You need to be good to consistently bring in the audience in.
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July 25, 2015 at 5:55 AM
I have to admit I am kind of surprised to see just how successful and accepted BB has become. There wasn’t the normal hype for a Salman Khan movie..especially after his arrest. But the audience has come in flocks and I guess all is forgiven. Think I’m going to wait for to watch it until it becomes available digitally. Same goes for that Rajshri movie. Dilwale will probably be the next hindi movie I’ll be watching in a theater after PK.
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July 25, 2015 at 12:49 AM
I remember you said somewhere, 220 -230 is Salman’s benchmark. PK has Rajkumari Hirani as director who arguably is biggest director as of now. BB has Kabir Khan who tasted success with Salman.
Rajkumari Hirani has given successful films even with Sanjay Datt who has no box office pull currently.
This is not to undermine Aamir, he was biggest reason behind success of PK and 3I but not the sole reason.
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July 25, 2015 at 6:33 AM
But his last film with Dutt came in 2006, 9 years ago. The first Munnabhai was 12 years ago. On the rest fair enough though this in a sense proves the point (which I’ve also forever made) that a star no matter how big cannot hit the biggest benchmarks without a script. And sure enough Salman gets his biggest gross now precisely with a film that everyone’s calling his best script. I wouldn’t say Aamir was biggest reason for the success of those films, when it’s a director as important as Hirani you can’t take credit for him. However I am going to wonder yet again how much credit Salman ought to get for Bajrangi from those (not referring to you) who took credit away from Aamir for acting in strong scripts!
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July 24, 2015 at 10:38 PM
Saw Bahubali. Loved, loved, loved it! Whattamovie!
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July 25, 2015 at 12:28 AM
Di, i second your views. Marvellous! I beseech Satyam to watch it in the theater to let us know his views as Bahubali needs cinema viewing to absorb and soak the visuals, screenplay which are of richest quality at least for an Indian film.
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July 25, 2015 at 4:04 AM
I second, third that.
The director SS Rajamouli is our James Cameron. The movie (Baahubali) is grand and I was ruing that someone should make Mahabharata like game of thrones. He is a perfect candidate. I thought first half could have been better edited and short but the movie on whole is very well made and waiting for second part.
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July 25, 2015 at 5:08 AM
Truly our own James Cameron.
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July 25, 2015 at 8:50 AM
I would rather compare him to Sanjay Leela. (or even lord of the rings series instead of avatar). While SLB falls in love with his own work and forgets to use editing scissors, Rajmouli’s movie has equal emphasis on plot and are extremely well edited. The telgu crowd in the theater was most disciplined, which made me very happy (I may have chattered out of excitement the most in the movie, lol). THe female character s and in fact all side-characters are very strong and well-etched, like in a SLB movie, they have meat to their role. The females are delight to watch, each frame is poetry in motion, beauty. The hero is awesome, the villains scary and story even though from our mythology seems/feel a bit different, in its treatment. The waterfall and “rock climbing” scenes reminded me of Ravan. One can’t really compare it with avatar etc because there is strong-strong emotional content (which I personally think is always restrained in west) and drama which is not the west’s forte. I hope SLB watches Bahubali before his movie is released and get some tips for his latest! I am going in for a second viewing shortly. The movie theater was houseful on a friday and I was smart enough to pre-book it (last time I watched antman because Bahubali was houseful). The BGM is simply superb (who was the music director?). The fight scenes are not gory and there is hardly any blood, those scenes are darkened so one never gets exposed to macabre and a lot is achieved thru’ sound without showing heads rolling off etc. This is a must watch movie event on big screen and should never be missed even if one has to take 2 hour train, 1 hour bus , 45 minute car drive to reach the theater!!! And I am kinda surprised that people here on SS are busy reviewing BBhaijaan and not giving any attention to this movie event call Bahubali. There is much to learn from South cinema and directors and southern movie bias should be quickly removed. Absolutely can’t wait for part-2.
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July 25, 2015 at 3:19 PM
I agree on SLB editing part but I think Cameron makes visually appealing movie with drama (Titanic and Avatar).
Ticket prices in theatre me has dropped from $23 to regular $12.50 for night show. And it is playing in both Telugu and Hindi. Some of the Hindi dialogues or the stance was jarring but on whole movie is just grand (much more than SLB type movies).
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July 25, 2015 at 6:30 PM
$23, wow! I have never paid so much for a movie before. I saw it in Telgu and I was afraid of sitting for 2.5 hrs listening to Telgu but my fear was uncalled for. I was so entangled in the movie/plot and the magic happening on celluloid that I forgot the language/subtitle bit. There was also pin drop silence and I am not sure if it was telgu audience or the impact of the movie (haven’t watched telgu movie in theaters before so I don’t know). Who would you cast if it was a Hindi movie? And if the choice was a younger hero and villain? I think I would love to see Tabu, Rekha in the mother roles. Why didn’t they cast Rekha or a Tabu?
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July 24, 2015 at 11:58 PM
Mahesh’s next-
[post created]
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July 25, 2015 at 1:00 AM
Like this sir.. Tnx
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July 25, 2015 at 12:14 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is heading for 300 crore nett business as it is looking at a 12.50-13 crore nett second Friday. The film has had an excellent hold with collections a little over 50% from day one and will be less than 20% down from Thursday
There will be big growth on Saturday and the second weekend is pretty certain to go over 50 crore nett and in a worse case scenario at least 50 crore nett. It will be the biggest Salman Khan grosser before the weekend is out.
The collections willl be around 5-10% less than the second Friday of PK and the main difference on the week will be that PK got the advantage of New Years Day and strong evening collections on the day before New Years Day. That is what will leave Bajrangi Bhaijaan 10-12 crore nett short of PK’s second week total.
Boxofficeindia
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July 25, 2015 at 12:22 AM
PK phobia?
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July 25, 2015 at 12:38 AM
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/15265057/R.-Balki%27s-next-to-feature-Amitabh-Bachchan-and-Jaya-Bachchan
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July 25, 2015 at 12:39 AM
Amitabh Bachchan’s last release that was directed by R. Balki didn’t quite make the cut at the box office. However, despite the film’s low key response, we hear that Bachchan will soon be seen working with the director again for their fourth collaboration after Cheeni Kum, Paa and Shamitabh.
While we know that Bahchcan will be teaming up with Balki, the interesting part is that joining them will be none other than Jaya Bachchan who were last seen sharing screen space in the 2012 Bhojpuri film Ganga Devi that was produced by their make-up man, Deepak Savant. However, for those of you who think it will be yet another Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, we hear that their roles will be restricted to a cameo that will be wrapped in a two day shoot. If that wasn’t enough, we hear that the two actors will be seen playing themselves, a superstar power couple.
As for the film itself, the yet untitled venture is said to be a light-hearted love story featuring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor playing a married couple.
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July 25, 2015 at 2:29 AM
[post created]
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July 25, 2015 at 5:01 AM
Thanks for the Spoilers. And a balanced review. Makes me want to watch this flick.
Will Vijayendra Prasad make a film on Seemandhra and Telengana politics like this? Can he?
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July 25, 2015 at 5:36 AM
Actually considering he directed a pretty decent film on the Razakars movement (Rajanna), it wouldn’t be a bad idea for him on Seemandhra.
A terrific Telugu film on the the Telangana rebellion is “Maa Bhoomi”- Goutam Ghose’s debut work.
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July 25, 2015 at 5:07 AM
I love that song from Chalia.
chhaliya mera naam, hindu muslim sikh isaai sab ko mera salaam
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July 25, 2015 at 8:21 AM
My daughter from US Whatsapped me, ‘ Is bajarangi bhaijaan worth watching?”
I replied,’ Yes. The film has heart. And Salman,Nawaz, and the girl are charming.’
A day later, she replied,’ I just watched BB. Really liked it. Cried like a baby.’
That seem sto be the refrain from so many I have talked to about the film.
This one certainly has better WOM than PK. No one I know was this ovwerwhelmed by PK.
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July 25, 2015 at 8:37 AM
Joginder Tuteja ?@Tutejajoginder 7h7 hours ago
As I write this, #BajrangiBhaijaan is set to touch the 200 crore mark by the time morning shows conclude. #Blockbuster
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 6h6 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan continues its SUPREMACY. Will cross ? 200 cr nett today [Sat; Day 9]. Week 2: Fri 13.15 cr. Total: ? 197.77 cr. AMAZING!
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 4h4 hours ago
Exactly a year ago… On this day [25 July]… #Kick opened to HISTORIC response… Today, 25 July, #BajrangiBhaijaan enters ? 200 cr Club.
taran adarsh ?@taran_adarsh 23h23 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Overseas Week 1: $ 13 million [? 83.29 cr]. FANTABULOUS!
Girish Johar ?@girishjohar 16h16 hours ago
Super Exclusive!! #BajrangiBhaijaan will exactly match #PK record of achieving 200crs in just 9 days !! @BeingSalmanKhan ..so both superfast
Details
Bollywood Unplugged ?@BollywoodUnplug 3h3 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is all set for Record 2Nd Saturday May beat #Pk numbers
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Bollywood Unplugged ?@BollywoodUnplug 7h7 hours ago
Aa per advance Booking for Evening n Night Shows #BajrangiBhaijaan will definitely earn more then 16cr+ today
Amar Butala ?@amarbutala Jul 23
The record has been broken!! #BajrangiBhaijaan does Rs.15.55cr. thur!Highest week 1 collection in India ever! #Rs184.62 cr.@BeingSalmanKhan
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July 25, 2015 at 8:38 AM
Shekhar Kapur ?@shekharkapur 7h7 hours ago
Fell in love with Hindi cinema all over again after watching #BajrangiBhaijaan Congratulations @BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk @Nawazuddin_S
ARY News ?@ARYNEWSOFFICIAL 57m57 minutes ago
I also had a part in the success of #BajrangiBhaijaan: #ChandNawab
Read more: http://arynews.asia/1OEpNpC
Bajrangi Bhaijaan retweeted
sabina lamba ?@SabinaLamba 5h5 hours ago
These #Bhaijaans r bhakts of #Bajrangi-500Hindus&Muslims planning 2watch #BajrangiBhaijaan 2gether onJuly30.#Vododara
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July 25, 2015 at 8:39 AM
This is the song which made me go for a repeat viewing and this time waited for the end credits. Beautiful lyrics !!!
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July 25, 2015 at 10:37 AM
Afer ‘Tadap Tadap’ song from HDDCS , Kay Kay again sings in his godly voice here. I am just wondering the state of mind of the lyricists in writing these lines.
Apex – I am having trouble understanding few of the lines of the song here and could you elaborate on them when you find time…..lol
“Mushqil se hee aasaan hui manzil”
“Tu jo mila lo ho gaya main qaabil”
“Dhoondhte tere nishaan Mill gayi khudi”
“Kyunki Tu.. Dhadkan.. Main Dil…”
Somewhere all of us have a personal experience with – Mushqil se hee aasaan hui manzil
but simply amazing writing !!!
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July 26, 2015 at 5:38 PM
@ miss dhoni—
Runj se khugar hua insaan to mit jaata hai runj
Mushkilein mujh par padi itni ke aasaan ho gayi…
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July 26, 2015 at 6:56 PM
Zabardast !!
I see so Ghalib is the source / inspiration to our lyricist Kausar Munir.
No wonder there is so much depth in those lines !!
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July 26, 2015 at 7:01 PM
In context of what Mr. Salman Khan has done to his numerous fans today ek sher yaad aata hai. Arz kiya hai –
“Shiddt-e Dard se Sharminda nahi meri Wafa Ghalib,,
Jin Se Rishte Gehre ho. Wo Zakhm Bhi Gehre Dete Hain”
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July 26, 2015 at 7:28 PM
women are not a bad consolation after such intense dejectionโฆ
just saying..
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July 26, 2015 at 7:39 PM
lol…I knew it was coming after I realized what I had posted just to keep the flow of ghalib’s shayri….so have a field day with it if you may!
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July 25, 2015 at 2:02 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Day Eight Business
Saturday 25 July 2015 12.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed 12.75 crore nett apprx on its second Friday. The drop from day one is just a little over 50% and the weekend drop will be similar if not better. though a 50% drop over the week will be difficult as last week the film had benefit of Eid and some circuits were performing similar to its day one levels on Monday and Tuesday.
The collections are a little less than the eight day of PK but better than all others when the second Friday has not been an holiday.
The overall eight day collections are a little less than PK but it is still beating PK in some circuits liek Delhi/UP, East Punjab and Rajasthan on day eight. The film should cross 300 crore nett now and remains to be seen if its second or first biggest grosser ever in India.
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July 25, 2015 at 2:11 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan –review of reviews vol 1
Iโve been more interested in its box office than critiquing this film. But seeing the number of reviews, a few random comments are in orderโฆ
Iโm unable to write reviews due to lack of focus, inspiration, motivation, but analysing reviews remains a hobbyโฆ
This is a film based on a Universal please-all, emotive theme aimed at creating โbridgesโ (not only between nations but also for viewership & crossover appeal)
Laced with a broad stroke crowd pleasing comedyโฆitโs totally along expected lines how well itโs been received
Powered by a star at the peak of his appeal
In Salmans entire career, only two films have really enthused meโ
Dabang 1 & ETT
These two films achieved a sensible RECALIBRATION of the Salman Khan star persona (in more was than one)
Now I will look at some reviews on this film that I could skim thru..
These reviews are more interesting than the actual film
B Rangan on bajrangi bhaijaan
B Rangan decides to be nice and benevolent to this film.
But to be short he takes it easy on the snobbishness and atleast shows an intent to grow up (as Iโve been suggesting for a while)
But certain different problems stand out โ
โThe first one comes about when Pawan hands Munni to someone who says heโll take her to Pakistan and takes her elsewhere.โ
The key word here is โelsewhereโ, in a way itโs the engine and the premise for the storyline to move forward and itโs entirely at this crucial point that rangans vast vocabulary deserts him. Maybe he was careful of the โspoilerโ but the insight into the situation seems lacking or deficient โฆ
โThe only sour note is that Muslims are shown saying โJai Shri Ram,โ without a reciprocal vocal gesture from Hindusโ
This choice of โsour noteโ reveals a certain mindset that normally remains hidden under layers of words but unfortunately couldnโt when I skimmed thruโฆ.
A comment lacking maturity ( where it was needed)
The same problem persists with some voices like jayshah who follow b Rangan in being v appreciative of this filmโฆ
And this appreciation is genuine perhaps
But in both scenarios (fake and genuine) certain problems remain ..
The reasons and further dissection of these problems are somewhat complex to go through & am a bit lazy to explain now
Brings to mind another voice self-admittedly from the pak side of origin here
He/She has neither seen the film yet nor will see it
The only thing she picked up was that the Adnan Sami song was โstolenโ
My initial comment and why this argument is totally irrelevant & misplaced in this scenario was totally missed out,
As if from a totally different wavelength โฆ.unsurprisingly
Ps: miss dhoni : will try to look into those lyrics when get a chance thanx
To be continued โฆ.
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July 25, 2015 at 2:14 PM
removed the one you told me to.
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July 25, 2015 at 2:29 PM
Bajrangi bhaijaan –review of reviews –vol 2
Nawazuddin siddiqui
I find him over rated and perhaps I’m the ONLY person on earth not to be bowled over by him
Yeah he’s good but the exaggerated expletives sorry the bouquets perplex me
In bb, his was a crowd pleasing & easy role and he did well
But NOTHING clap worthy beyond the point
The timing falters in some points and even the
spontaneity seems
designed
Fortunately most people fell for this design it seems, so the criticism is pointless
Imo the only film I really liked Nawaaz
Was in GoW 2 as Faisal
But in that film, even reema sen (I think she played ‘bangaalan’!) ‘acted’ like a stalwart …
And the so-called doyen of commercial Bollywood acting raj kumar rao seemed like a junior actor given the average acting standards !!
To be continued …
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July 25, 2015 at 5:01 PM
Will continue with bb volumes later, checked this just now
Caught this song
In an interesting sequence Amy gets converted into a phone hand piece
Wherein the hero presses the dial pad
And guess where the buttons for making and discinnecting the call were ..
Innovative stuff
Dekhi aisi item chhori
Kachchi kachchi si kori kori
Smile ruke na dekha use jo
Apun ki gayi re
Aqal maari, aqal maari, aqal maari
Issak taari, issak taari,
Ps: pressing the right ‘buttons’ gets an apt meaning ๐
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July 25, 2015 at 9:41 PM
Girish Johar ?@girishjohar 7h7 hours ago
ALL TIME 2nd Wknd Highest Record is a SURE SHOT for #BajrangiBhaijaan …ahead of #PK … congrats once again @BeingSalmanKhan & team
Amar Butala ?@amarbutala 6h6 hours ago
If the Saturday trends are anything to go by #BajrangiBhaijaan will set a new second weekend record!@BeingSalmanKhan @kabirkhankk #BBsunday
Kiaara Sandhu ?@KiaaraSandhu 6h6 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan is RECORD BREAKER Blockbuster of Bollywood & it collected Fantastic ” 218 cr ” in Just 9 Days.
Indicine.com ?@indicine 7h7 hours ago
#BajrangiBhaijaan Mangalore multiplex: 2nd Friday Rs 1,48,030, 2nd Saturday Rs 2,73,140. 84% growth. Never seen in 2nd week!
Boxofficedetail ?@boxofficedetail 7h7 hours ago
Worldwide Gross Of #BajrangiBhaijaan Crosses 375cr approx today.. Wow!! Biggest Ever For Salman Khan..
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July 25, 2015 at 9:47 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Set For Second Weekend Record
Saturday 25 July 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
“Bajrangi Bhaijaan is set a new second weekend record as the film continues to show phenomenal trend with second Saturday growth set to be around 50% plus. The collections should go to to 19-20 crore nett on Saturday which will give it around 32 crore nett over two days in the second weekend.
PK had grossed 53 crore nett in its second weekend and unless Sunday goes wrong which is very unlikely it is sure to have a second weekend record and it could be by a margin.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is on course to chase down the lifetime total of PK and the ways it is going its will about the the third and fourth week with the all important day being the third Friday”.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/Details/art_detail/bajrangibhaijaansetforsecondweekendrecord#.VbQ7yvlViko
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July 25, 2015 at 11:21 PM
It’s on course to go north of 350 as I had said after the first 2 shows on day 1. The only issue is drishyam will hit it a bit, as it will lose theaters.
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July 25, 2015 at 11:34 PM
Superb… Salman Khan is on all time high.. after the Sooraj Barjatya’s movie can do wonders as well. Now, Raees should move!
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July 26, 2015 at 1:05 AM
SRK will leave no stone unturned to get the biggest record.
Dilwale will do it.
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July 26, 2015 at 1:30 AM
I am not confident about it. Neither SRK has that kind of pull today nor will they get the required amount of screens because of Bajirao Mastani.
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July 26, 2015 at 12:28 AM
Atul admits Bahubali was forcibly pulled down from many screens in the North India. “In North though Bahubali did exceptionally well in its first week which not many expected, the fact also remains that at many centers the film was committed for one week only due to Bajrangi Bhaijaan coming in the subsequent week.”
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/movies/features/type/view/id/8726
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July 26, 2015 at 1:04 AM
No one expected Bahubali’s strength. They underestimated it.
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July 26, 2015 at 1:21 AM
And still making all efforts to belittle Bahubali’s mega success as if it might take the credit away from BB, which is an absurd and cloistered proclivity to derogate south Indian movie’s success. Both movies are making money and entertaining people, yet under-reporting and playing down the success from other part of the country is uncalled for and ought to be dissuaded. People believe as if under reporting can take one’s favourite ahead by a few notches, but MIRAGE can just be an ILLUSION, not the TRUTH, yet people don’t want to learn as is evident some here as well who take themselves as the epitome of ULTIMATE TRUTH!!
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July 26, 2015 at 1:31 AM
On the otherhand they are angry with Bahubali’s success.
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July 26, 2015 at 10:05 AM
I am ashamed to post (for what has art gotta do with money) this but here
Rank Movie Year Worldwide Gross
1 PK 2014 Rs 740 crore
2 Dhoom 3 2013 Rs 542 crore
3 Chennai Express 2013 Rs 423 crore
4 Baahubali: The Beginning 2015 Rs 365 crore
5 3 Idiots 2009 Rs 392 crore
6 Happy New Year 2014 Rs 383 crore
7 Kick 2014 Rs 377 crore
8 Krrish 3 2013 Rs 374 crore
9 Bang Bang! 2013 Rs 340 crore
10 Ek Tha Tiger 2012 Rs 320 crore
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July 26, 2015 at 11:16 AM
that’s ok.. most of the films here if not all are not in any danger of being confused for art..
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July 26, 2015 at 1:11 AM
Parvathy is BAAAACK…Beautiful teaser-
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July 26, 2015 at 2:35 AM
Till second Friday, the film minted approximately 197.77 crore and adding a second Saturday’s box office, which is expected to be more than Rs 10 crore, the film’s total would easily touch Rs 205 crore mark.
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/bajrangi-bhaijaan-9-days-box-office-collection-salman-rs-200-crore-beats-happy-new-year-3-idiots-640520
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July 26, 2015 at 3:41 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan set a new record for business on the second Saturday as it grossed close to 19 crore nett. PK had grossed around 17.25 crore nett on uts secind Saturday. The two day second week business of Bajrangi Bhaijaan is as follows.
Friday – 12,75,00,000
Saturday – 18,75,00,000 apprx
TOTAL – 31,50,00,000
The second weekend record is around 53 crore nett and Bajrangi Bhaijaan should be able to beat it as it should gross more than 22 crore nett on Sunday. The film is now the highest Salman Khan starrer even with around 214 crore nett in nine days.
Boxofficeindia
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July 26, 2015 at 4:37 AM
No doubt about the trending now. It is trending as well as PK, if not slightly better. I wasn’t expecting that.
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July 26, 2015 at 4:45 AM
As I mentioned last week, the WOM is better than PK from what all I gathered, it all depends how many folks coming out again to watch this in 2nd and 3rd week. To think of, BB is not great all throughout but it has 3 strengths. Very good beginning, Extraordinary intermission and unbelievable ending(last 30 mins) and the ending is what the audience is carrying out of the movie and making this huge blockbuster.
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July 26, 2015 at 6:40 AM
One comment that I did want to make is that the Hindi film industry ticket prices have really gotten out of hand, with every film going further than its predecessor. Our tickets for Bajrangi Bhaijaan were significantly more expensive than those of any other earlier big film (~500 rupees each, at an “ordinary” PVR, i.e. not one with luxury seating or anything like that); this was 25-35% higher than the likes of PK or Chennai Express or Bang Bang — and THOSE films were themselves markedly higher than films released as recently as a couple of years ago. I felt especially bad because there are tons of people like my driver, a huge Salman fan, who told me he simply couldn’t afford to go with his family in Mumbai (even at the cheapest theaters, he said it would cost too large a proportion of his MONTHLY salary to go watch the film with his family). I’ve said it umpteen times, but I’ll never tire of pointing out the callous money-making strategy of the Hindi industry, where, unlike some other film industries, the aim is NOT to maximize footprint but to simply fix upon a small-but-wealthy-enough demographic and price accordingly. Makes perfect business sense, but if one believes, as I do, that cinema ought not to be a commodity like any other, it’s hard to accept.
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July 26, 2015 at 6:51 AM
I’ve heard that elsewhere too on this film’s ticket prices. Which is why even though it’s trending very well to the extent it’s probably keeping pace with PK and not doing more. At least so far. Because while there’s been a lot of talk on the respective holidays of each film no one really talks about the ticket prices involved. And not just for Bajrangi but just about any blockbuster. A 10% increase can make all the difference even over a week’s period let alone the kinds of hikes you’re talking about. But everyone practically ignores this most basic of data!
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July 26, 2015 at 6:54 AM
Yes — and despite years of people pointing out the obvious, no one is incentivised to keep track of the most obvious stat: the number of tickets sold. In juxtaposition with figures of the box office revenues it would be most telling…
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July 26, 2015 at 7:24 AM
In Hollywood this is among the first things they look at. So for example if say a new Avengers does better than an older one they’ll examine how much of the extra gross comes from a higher number of 3D or IMAX screens and so on. So along with competition and trending this too is an important factor. You can’t arrive at the most complete picture without taking all of this into account. Bajrangi is certainly doing extremely well at this point. Whether it’s doing more than just keeping pace with PK all things considered is debatable. Tomorrow it might do better and outgross the film significantly or fall short of it or whatever. But either way these factors have to be taken into account. If it does 10% better overall this could easily be chalked up to ticket rates. If it falls 10% behind it’s a lot worse than the number shows. And so on. And as you pointed out certain audiences are much more advantaged with this pricing structure. And this has an ideological component to it. Because it’s not just those who can afford these prices in some abstract sense. Any film to have a shot at being that big or to even consider jacking up ticket rates in this sense has to really be able to play to those core demographics (who can afford these prices). So even Bajrangi can become that big not just by being Salman’s ‘best’ script but being a strong script that also appeals to those demographics much more than his other films. Put differently you could have an equally strong script entirely around an action oriented theme or in Salman’s usual terrain and it would not put up the same result. I also made the point the other day that in a similar way you’re not likely to have any big film too often that takes an anti-Pakistan stance in any sense (whether it is so or not if it is perceived as such by those audiences they won’t show up) because you’d be affecting your overseas grosses. Here too Phantom’s choice of subject is a difficult one because not only are you playing the whole national security thing you’re specifically getting into the US raid in Abbotabad and fantasizing about doing the same as a matter of course when similar conditions arise. So if already this format has more limited viewership you reduce it further (outside India). But either way these are classic examples of how economic demographics also ensure certain ideological commitments. This is of course very different from say the 70s when there wasn’t this kind of spread between different kinds of seating and/or theaters. Or for that matter the same holds today in the US or UK (to quote two examples) where not only do you not see price hikes for movies all of a sudden even if they’re the biggest releases, you also don’t see such a spread overall favoring certain kinds of economic brackets. So no genre is favored for that reason.
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July 26, 2015 at 4:57 AM
It will challenge PKs second week numbers without a holiday, so this one is definitely trending better. At the rate it is going, today should be astronomical and 100 crore second week is on the cards now.
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July 26, 2015 at 6:48 AM
yes the PK total is certainly within reach now. And in some ways because this film has attracted the family demographic, normally not the case for Salman, it also becomes in a way a perfect transition to the Barjatya film.
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July 26, 2015 at 7:27 AM
Wonder if his drunken tweets from last nite will dent collections in anyway from today. Salim Khan has called the tweets “ridiculous and ignorant”!
Or perhaps even more publicity?!?
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July 26, 2015 at 7:46 AM
If the court case car killing incident fiasco has not dented his popularity I doubt much will.
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July 26, 2015 at 8:50 AM
He retracted his statement.
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July 26, 2015 at 9:52 AM
What did he say? DID he finally admit he was the EK THA DRIVER?
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July 26, 2015 at 10:58 AM
LOL, line of the week!
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July 26, 2015 at 9:03 AM
http://www.mid-day.com/articles/hangman-reaches-nagpur-central-jail-as-state-prepares-to-hang-yakub-memon/16400157
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July 26, 2015 at 10:50 AM
Satyam, others: If I want to start to watching Chabrol, which film(s) of his should I begin with? I mean what are his best/most important works. Also if I want to check out French thrillers, which are the other important directors/films. Thanks.
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July 26, 2015 at 11:07 AM
actually there are far too many films he’s made to even make a short list. but an excellent (late) work of his that is La Ceremonie. Chabrol is one of those filmmakers where even a subpar effort is always watchable. Whether he’s ever made a true blue masterpiece or an absolutely important film in that elevated sense of the term is something I find debatable and actually I;m quite likely to say no on that score but La Ceremonie is the closest he gets to that sort of significant work. But if one is talking about Hitchcock’s French heirs I think the most important name is easily Jean-Pierre Melville. Of course he belongs to the crime genre more than Chabrol’s purer mystery one. Put differently there’s a Hitchcock who makes these truly perverse mysteries that border on the surrealistic (not consistently but in terms of their overall effect) and then there’s this other Hitchcock who makes these adventure films with chases and so on. These are not exclusive categories by any means but you could put the Hitchcok of Foreign Correspondent and North by Northwest in the latter camp and the Hitchcock of Psycho or Suspicion in the former (of course there are countless examples of either genre). Then there are other Hitchcocks that don’t neatly fall into either category. By and large the ‘perverse’ is never far from any Hitchcock category. But Chabrol nonetheless belongs more generally to the Psycho/Suspicion strain whereas Melville belongs to the other one. Having said that Melville is also a great original. He’s learnt from Hitchcock but it doesn’t do justice to his work to read him simply as a Hitchcock descendant. Because he takes those lessons further in certain aesthetic and political ways. Hitchcock in any case does not have a true crime movie in Melville’s sense (though certain early British efforts might qualify). Chabrol I’d say never quite breaks out of that genealogy in the sense that he never quite rises above it. Melville on the other hand is someone who at his best (and he’s so in very many of his films) I’d probably take over Hitchcock. At least as a personal preference.
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July 26, 2015 at 2:07 PM
Satyam: Thanks for this very useful note. I will start with Le Ceremonie. Will also try and watch Melville’s films. The one directors whose films I loved is Clouzot, especially Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques.
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July 26, 2015 at 2:08 PM
yes I like both of those films but especially Wages of Fear.
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July 26, 2015 at 2:43 PM
On Melville, Army of Shadows is of course the greater film but Le Samourai is (along with Blow Up) one of the most stylish films I have ever seen.
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July 26, 2015 at 11:11 AM
remind me later though and I’ll make a list of 10 or so Chabrols. Story of Women is also one of his more interesting works. the 60s/70s stuff though worthwhile also seems a bit more dated to me at this point.
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July 26, 2015 at 11:32 AM
I had read those tweets of Salman while I posted the last couple of tweets and Box Office India update 12 hrs back and was wondering what is going on in his mind at 3 am in the morning. Being drunk was definitely something I considered because one cannot tweet about something so serious 3 am in the morning !!! ( Rishi Kapoor has gotten in trouble so many times due to this )
They were extremely childish and nonsensical in nature and knew he is going to get in trouble. I was seriously pissed reading those tweets and he was blabbering about Tiger Memom name and how he wasn’t a Tiger but a small cat letting his brother Yakub getting hanged for his sins. They weren’t anti national and showed concerns for family of Yakub Memom and chiding Tiger Memon; even going to the extent of asking Nawaz Sharif to hand over Tiger Memom etc to India implying he was in Pakistan, so more on antagonizing Pakistanis.
I had inkling he will surely end up retracting them later in the day. In fact aajtak was already showing breaking news in the running caption at the bottom of its other news with those tweets.
But whatever it is the damage has been done once again. I don’t know if the intent was purely humanitarian and out of concern to victim’s family or his way of creating a controversy or capturing media cycles to boost BB collections or simply to start a dialogue on this hanging and make it a national debate. ( may be helping Kabir with his Phantom theme of getting the bomb blast culprits back to India)
I hate it when Bollywood stars start to consider themselves god due to movies/ stardom and start to dabble in political matters and social engineering/ justice. There is record of such failure in the past starting with Sunil Dutt to Bachchan to Aamir to S.Sinha and even Neha Dhupia a couple of days back. There is a difference between real world and movies and all across the world there never was just society and never will be – ever !!!
Plus never think of yourself as some sort of demi – god that if movie is doing well its just because people love you. Its always the movie first and sometimes the character they play and even if one runs a Veer in theater today – no one will turn up. That’s the bottom line.
Having said all the above which may not be coherent and not well written I am simply too pissed off to consider myself his fan anymore. Yes Salman Khan go and fuck yourself for wasting my precious time on you till now !!! You simply are not worth all this !!!
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July 26, 2015 at 12:22 PM
This shows how idiotic some of our actors and actresses are. Some of our actors have bodies of buffaloes and brains of bedbugs. He should concentrate on what he does best : reel acting. He should not act in real life. When 257 Indians died in 1993 and in subsequent blasts thousands died, his humanity is nowhere. Himself a convict , he should have taken precaution before uttering nonsense in public fora. By his utterances he will be forcibly sending himself to jail sooner.Pity such brainless peanut heads.
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July 26, 2015 at 12:55 PM
Agree Jayadev. Why can’t these stars just stay apolitical. Esp for him with his own case hanging on his head. There is an apt saying in Hindi – aa baill ( bull ) mujhe maar. Totally applies here.
The link below has all the tweets and they are simply puerile / juvenile whatever one may call them –
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/everything-social/when-salman-khan-broke-the-internet/
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July 26, 2015 at 1:42 PM
Personally I also think Yakub Memon should not be hanged, assuming the RAW chief B. Raman’s story is true (that’s also the line Black Friday takes). But to call him completely innocent as Salman does is pretty absurd. I mean, why doesn’t Salman spend some capital talking about all the people languishing in jails who have not committed any crime or whose trials are so delayed that even when proven innocent it is as if they have served a jail sentence?!
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July 26, 2015 at 7:31 PM
Salman is creating some base for “Ek that Yakub” ๐
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July 26, 2015 at 7:31 PM
*Ek tha Yakub*
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July 26, 2015 at 2:26 PM
C’mon don’t desert him now when he has a real shot of clearing the PK total!
Jokes aside and crazy as what he’s said sounds I wouldn’t take it too seriously. He’s always been a head case. What I do take seriously is running people over, which ironically you had less issues with.
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July 26, 2015 at 2:28 PM
Incidentally I don’t agree at all that entertainers shouldn’t make political statements. We are rather thin-skinned about this stuff in India. What Salman has said is mad but I’m referring to other statements. So if Neha Dhupia wants to criticize Modi one has every right to criticize her for whatever but not for daring to saying anything against the PM. If it’s a democracy everyone has a right to a view and to air it publicly if they want to.
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July 26, 2015 at 2:31 PM
Finally I’d add that I also disagree with the idea that the star necessarily owes the public something. I’m all for humility of course but that’s a different matter. The public buys the image, that’s fair enough, but not out of the goodness of its heart. For whatever reason the image satisfies the audience and they ‘invest’ in it. And the same public can ruthlessly destroy a star in different circumstances. So there’s no act of charity involved here. This transaction between a public figure and an audience is always a somewhat mysterious thing but certainly no one’s doing anyone any favors.
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July 26, 2015 at 3:42 PM
After the Bachchan interview there was a recent one of Ajay D. on IBN 7 Hot Seat where he rightly tells Bhupendra Chaubey, due to nature of their work and dependence on paying public, they cannot be seen controversial as public acceptance is their bred and butter. He correctly sighted loss of revenues for Aamir and Bachchan and even SRK. On top of that you had heard Bachchan say openly to Arnab, we have not matured as a society to have an open dialogue; notwithstanding the diverse nature of our populace.
On Salman I will say his recent tweets are totally unlike the other things of the past esp when he is finding such wide acceptance to his movie. But he has to be naive to think he is some sort of messiah and universally liked personality – say a bachchan or sachin in India. He should be fully aware a large section of the populace for whatever reason hates your guts and will do anything to pin you down. Look at the tweets , they are not anti national in anyway one looks at it but BJP types are already demanding his head and even want his bail rejected. In fact those daring tweets to underworld, he has put himself and his family in line of fire. Why should you give a reason to underworld to get after you when you know the country’s police and political class is all hand in gloves with them. What if ISI hates those nawaz sharif tweets and decides to teach you a lesson and gets you eliminated to ferment more communal disorder in India ( just a hypothesis)
I defend him with his court case of ‘running people over’ not because it was an accident or unintentional because i simply donโt trust the police and have no inhibitions in calling of them basterds of first order. In fact they are worse than murderers and gangsters in India because they have an open license to screw around. They are largely uneducated but highly prejudiced and driven like a tool by governing political party and then our legal system is even worse. (Just recent examples of that was seen twice in UP under akhilesh yadav where police actually burnt and killed journalists/ people). His case still has a lot of half truths there and the Judge Deshpande, instead of giving him benefit of doubt (as per past legal precedent) goes ahead and hands him a 5 year rigorous imprisonment. I may have trusted the judge/ lawyers if he had got a normal 6 month / 1 year imprisonment as per past precedent but that sentence just reeked of vendetta and eliminate him from the proceedings…
One point ( not related to his case ) is Indian roads are not meant for these high profile imported cars as basic safety is not followed on roads and there is a large populace which does not follow traffic rules plus there are many who sleep on the roads. Of course Abhijeet over stated but why cant govt allow them to sleep in parks, stations or empty fields) Why are these thullas (agree with kejri here) not allowing them to sleep safely there than on the roads. The only reason road accidents are not so catastrophic like in U.S and Western nations is due to Indian roads which donโt permit one to drive more than 20-30km per hour. Permitting these high speed cars without proper infrastructure and civic sense is going to lead to more such severe calamitous possibilites.
Anyway to each his own is my motto in life…..enuff for sunday rant. We have also graduated to world where unless your own immediate family is in harms way there is no need to get worked up as there are always two side to a story.
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July 26, 2015 at 11:37 AM
Reading those tweets I was also thinking the underworld will get after his case and he is taking direct panga with them as they were damn insulting to them.
Another thing I thought was if he is doing it as some pre planned move on behalf of govt to agigate tghe underworld and make them call him or threaten him so they can trce them….
But look at the irony – People of India are after his case now !!
So deservedly he gets it from all sides !!
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July 26, 2015 at 3:33 PM
Leaders of various parties including BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha and its expelled MP Ram Jethmalani, eminent jurists and people from different walks of life on Sunday submitted a fresh petition to President Pranab Mukherjee requesting him to waive the death sentence of Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Eminent-people-urge-President-Pranab-Mukherjee-to-reconsider-Yakub-Memons-mercy-plea/articleshow/48227145.cms
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July 26, 2015 at 3:48 PM
Irresponsible statements when Supreme Court itself rejected mercy plea.
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July 26, 2015 at 7:39 PM
Satyam – now if BB doesn’t break PK’s record – they have a genuine reason – if Sallu didn’t make any statements like this – BB would have surely broken the records ๐
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July 26, 2015 at 10:04 PM
yeah was thinking the same thing myself!
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July 26, 2015 at 10:05 PM
Disney/Marvel is claiming that Ant-Man, with $24.765M, will retain the #1 spot at the box office, narrowly beating out the Sony newcomer Pixels, which even that studio is claiming made only $24M for the weekend.
As a group the top 12 films earned an estimated $140.6M. That’s 2.4% more than last year’s $136.8M, top-heavy, top 12 when Lucy led the competition with $43.9M for the three days. That Luc Besson/Scarlett Johansson film won out over Hercules, the Dwayne Johnson vehicle, which came in second with $29.8M.
Ironically, if that $29.8M finish had been this year, Hercules would easily have been #1.
It’s a testament to how disappointing that Pixels opening is. The Adam Sandler vehicle, on 3,723 screens, should have had cross-generational nostalgic appeal, much like last year’s Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles, which opened to $65.6M in early August. But Pixels relied heavily, too heavily it turns out, on appealing to a generation that watched MTV when it actually showed music videos and hoping they’d bring their 8-bit obsessed progeny with them. Or maybe it signals an “out with the old, in with the new” shift, as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator Genisys is dragging itself to an equally disappointing $90M domestic finish (it made $2.4M this weekend). Or, most likely, it was the awful reviews.
Any way you look at it Ant-Man, on 3,868 screens, benefited from it. The Paul Rudd starrer actually did take the 2nd week -57% dip that Thor: The Dark World did to reach that $24M. But, not only can it claim #1, the film also passed the $100M mark, taking 10 days to do so.
Minions took 3rd with $22.1M on 4,066 screens. Worldwide, however, Minions is #1 for the 3rd week in a row. Minions’ overseas coin brought in $44M in 60 territories which, with its $22.1M domestic (U.S. and Canada) gives it a total of $66.1M, beating Ant-Man. Ant-Man, to be fair, made $60M worldwide and still isn’t open in Italy, Korea, Japan and China. For cumes Minions stands at $261M domestic, $497M international and a worldwide cume of $759.4M.
Trainwreck, the Judd Apatow/Amy Schumer comedy, was off 42% from last week’s $30M take, with an estimated $17.3M weekend and fourth place.
The take for Paper Towns was also a shocker, with the film becoming the most recent poster child for the term ‘frontloaded.’ Its Friday was a decent $6.3M, which indicated a finish of $20M. But all those teens that were supposed to show up Saturday either had prior commitments or were warned off by friends for the film fell -45% on Saturday with $3.5M. Just like that Sunday looked like a gloomy $2.675 for $12.5M overall. The film was based on a book by John Green, the author of last year’s sleeper hit, The Fault in Our Stars and starred two up-and-comers, Cara Delevingne and Nat Wolff. But Fault had an adoring fan base from the book, one that Paper Towns clearly didn’t share. A “B+” on CinemaScore, a rating system so upbeat that anything that’s not an “A” is questionable, does indicate some customer dissatisfaction as well.
Southpaw outperformed its estimates, taking in $16M for the weekend. That puts some suave in the cuts of the mixed reviews which have put a pall on all the “this is your year” talk for Jake Gyllenhaal for Best Actor.
Perhaps the biggest news of the weekend was news we all saw coming. Universal announced that, at the end of business today, Jurassic World will have earned an estimated $623.8 million at the domestic box office, passing Marvel’s The Avengers and its $623.4M, making Jurassic World the third-highest-grossing film in North American history. Just last week it passed The Avengers worldwide gross of $1.520B. The dino-flick’s current gross stands at an estimated $1.542B.
In indie news Amy, the documentary about Amy Winehouse, made $700K in 370 theaters. That may not seem like much but it means the A24 flick has now passed 20 Feet from Stardom, the documentary about legendary backup singers, which won the 2014 Oscar for Best Documentary. That’s a good story to tell come awards season.
Mr. Holmes made $2.8M for Roadside Attractions on 686 screens, for an estimated $4,154 per-screen take and a $6.4M cume.
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4090&p=.htm
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July 26, 2015 at 10:33 PM
Salman Khan’s tweets have now landed his film ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ in trouble. Angry with the actor’s tweet asking for the noose to be spared for 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakoob Memon, angry Shiv sainiks on Sunday tore down posters of Salman’s movie at Satara and also disrupted the screening.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/salman-khans-film-bajrangi-bhaijaan-posters-torn-film-screening-disrupted-by-shiv-sena/articleshow/48227216.cms
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July 26, 2015 at 11:04 PM
Terror attack in Punjab, these attackers must be captured alive and subjected to repeated screenings of Bajrangi Bhaijaan to make them see the light
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July 26, 2015 at 11:42 PM
There is a saying in telugu. Mantralaku chintakayalu ralthaya.
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July 27, 2015 at 12:04 AM
No clue what that means, can you give the English translation
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July 27, 2015 at 12:41 AM
Roughly translated we cant expect magical results from certain people who are too brainwashed to listen to good advice or see something good and learn.
It is like reading scriptures to the devil.
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July 27, 2015 at 9:42 AM
“Terror attack in Punjab, these attackers must be captured alive and subjected to repeated screenings of Bajrangi Bhaijaan to make them see the light”
Is this comment a joke or serious? Can’t figure out.
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July 27, 2015 at 9:58 AM
Didn’t mean it to be cryptic really
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July 27, 2015 at 1:01 AM
An extremely candid interview of Ajay Devgn with Shekhar Gupta on NDTV’S Walk The Talk –
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/walk-the-talk/walk-the-talk-with-ajay-devgn/375463
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July 27, 2015 at 2:34 AM
Meanwhile, it was Bajrangi Bhaijaan that continued to bring on moolah, what with around 55 crore* coming in over the second weekend. This is huge indeed for the Salman Khan starrer as it has now crossed the 232 crore lifetime total of Kick by crossing the 240 crore* mark. The film is continuing to be quite strong at the Box Office and is now heading towards the All Time Blockbuster mark. While the Dhoom 3 lifetime total of 284 crore would certainly be crossed, Kabir Khan is now all set to join Rajkumar Hirani in the 300 crore club.
On the other hand Bahubali is moving ahead relentlessly and had another good weekend of around 10 crore*. The film has now crossed the 83 crore mark and while 90 crore is a given, it has to be seen how close does it manage to reach near the 100 crore mark. Blockbuster.
*Final numbers awaited
Koimoi
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July 27, 2015 at 3:44 AM
[post created]
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July 27, 2015 at 5:25 AM
A wonderful piece, characteristically thoughtful — and very glad you highlighted Jhonta’s role here, he embodies death/re-birth in a very direct way in this film.
Re: “The virtual world opens up a window โ but leads down an abyss.”
This was the line of the piece for me — neatly encapsulates how even the promise of “the new” means something very different depending on which side of the gender divide one is on…
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July 27, 2015 at 10:03 PM
RIP.
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July 27, 2015 at 10:48 PM
Bahubaliโs Hindi version minted moolah over 12 crores during its 3rd weekend. The film made a business of 3.10 crores on its 3rd Friday, 4.35 crores on 3rd Saturday and showing a little more jump on 3rd Sunday it raked in 5.11 crores.
Bahubaliโs total business from the Hindi version now stands at 85.71 crores at the Domestic Box Office.
Koimoi
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July 28, 2015 at 1:53 AM
OUTSTANDING number, really one of the great box-office stories of all time.
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July 28, 2015 at 3:06 AM
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/54989-out-now-ranbir-and-deepika-in-tamasha.htm
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July 28, 2015 at 3:15 AM
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/jul/27/global-box-office-pixels-monster-hunt-baahubali-bajrangi-bhaijaan
A broad-shouldered CGI spectacular that holds its own with the best of Hollywood, Baahubali has more crossover appeal, so letโs hope non-Indian audiences get the opportunity to lap it up.
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July 28, 2015 at 4:10 AM
PK grossed 96 crore nett in its second week as New Years Day holiday fell on the seventh day of its second week and bumped its collections up by 6-7 crore nett. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan second week is heading towards 90 crore nett though the holiday has been called today due to the death of ex president Abdul Kalam so with schools and colleges shut the collections may be better on Tuesday than they otherwise would be.
Boxofficeindia.
Can anything be more gross than this commentary? They think of collections even at this moment.
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July 28, 2015 at 7:33 AM
Even though it’s true, they shouldn’t have discussed this angle.
I always feel giving holiday on such occassions is quite silly.
People don’t mourn at home. Better to be working.
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July 28, 2015 at 8:50 AM
They are a box office site…..what else should be thinking??
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July 28, 2015 at 9:42 AM
“Can anything be more gross than this commentary? They think of collections even at this moment.”
Any kind of holiday is profitable for the movies!
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July 28, 2015 at 4:22 AM
Bahubaliโs performance is remarkable. The effect of BB obviously derailed some momentum, but see how the impact of losing screens is very temporary if the WOM is hot. Itโs third week is performing at the level of its second week โ i.e. whatever it lost it has gone a long way to recovering and continue to recover. Itโs second week drop itself is 40% despite BB and its third week drop will be negligible. From where 100 crore looked impossible when BB released, the film is steamrolling past it in the end.
Itโs quite clear when the 2nd part arrives we are absolutely talking about the biggest film pan India by an absolute mile this side of the millennium. If the film lives up to hype โ it will be a 500 crore + across India and 1000 crore gross worldwide. Heck those are probably low estimates. In Hindi format it will probably open like any other superstar film. I can imagine the hype for that film will be absolutely unprecedented.
But more than anything we are looking at the first real film that will penetrate every part of India in a consistent way whatever language the film is released in. That will be a massive massive win for the industry and potentially open the markets and minds of people up more.
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July 28, 2015 at 4:57 AM
The way this movie has penetrated across India is a cinematic equivalent of what Kolaveri Di did as a song. I expected this to do 50 crores in Hindi but getting close to 100 crores makes this the biggest box office story of our times. Without BB I wonder where this would have gone…Maybe there would have been no drop between Week 1 and 2 and 130 crores would have happened. Remarkable story…
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July 28, 2015 at 6:58 AM
This is really extraordinary number for a dubbed movie. This Telugu movie has breached language barrier in India and that is due to its content,deft execution and profound acting. I wish Rajamouli makes movies directly in Hindi rather than giving rights to others. Most of the Hindi blockbusters in previous decade were either copied from Telugu and Tamil scripts or remade. The bankruptcy of ideas in Hindi film industry is in stark contrast to innovative and experimental outlook of Telugu and Tamil film directors. Acting wise too some of the Telugu and Tamil actors are better than Hindi actors who are utterly egoistic and dumb-heads with sand in their heads and brains somewhere down underneath their ankles.
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July 28, 2015 at 7:05 AM
Let’s not get carried away now! First off Rajamouli isn’t every Telugu director nor is every film of his Bahubali. Secondly the Telugu industry hardly matches your description though the Tamil industry does. And do you know who agrees with me on this score and not with you? Rajamouli himself! I’ve forever talked about the virtues of Tamil cinema myself (not Telugu even if many of the most iconic remakes in Hindi today are in fact Telugu remakes! For that matter Rohit Shetty even when he’s making ‘original’ films is really like a Telugu director more than anything else) but there’s no need to frame thinks in such insulting fashion. It’s quite silly. Bahubali does put the Hindi industry to shame in many ways. Not just as a box office matter but more for lacking anything close to this vision in terms its own blockbusters. But that point can be made without foolish generalization.
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July 28, 2015 at 7:47 AM
I think there is a reason for this. Tamil industry is driven by people who are not very rich or capitalists in a big way like their counterparts from telugu industry. When you are from a disadvantaged background economically, socially, it reflects in broader vision and experimentation. I am not talking about Mani ratnam here who is also from a privileged background relatively speaking. Telugu society is still somewhat feudalistic inspite of great emphasis placed on higher education. That higher education is also used more for empowerment than enlightenment.
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July 28, 2015 at 8:05 AM
Satyam: I don’t think Tamil industry is currently matching upto Bollywood in any sense. Atleast over the last 4-5 years, the standards of the industry has really plummeted including that of the Tamil new-ways. 99% of the mainstream cinema made in Tamil is extremely mediocre and worse than Bollywood. And apart from Rathnam, only Mysskin and Bala can match upto the very best of the contemporary Bollywood directors. And for it what its worth, the offbeat cinema scene in Bollywood is far stronger (most of the Tamil new directors have flattered to deceive). I can vouch that one can’t find more than 4-5 good Tamil films every year (Rangan incidentally has mentioned this very many times) The other thing is that Tamil industry is really lacking good actors currently. Not that Bollywood is great on this score, but it is much better than Tamil. The one industry who has shown promise in recent times is Malayalam, some of these directors are making better, more sensible mainstream cinema. And in this regard they have clearly stolen up on Tamil. But I will still place contemporary leagues ahead of contemporary Tamil and Malayalam cinema. I will also place Bengali cinema over Tamil currently. Of course the situation was very different 3-4 years back when Tamil industry was doing very well, making good variety of films and was matching upto Bollywood, but that’s not at all the case anymore. Now is Tamil cinema more rooted than Bollywood yes? But the rooted bit is sadly not translating into good cinema. Forget something like Naan Kadavul or Virumandi, even something like Paruthiveeran/Kadhal/Subramanayapuram (quality wise) isn’t being made there anymore. Mysskin is one exception (and of course Bala is there) and I have great hopes from him. He can be one of the country’s mainstream directors. But really I don’t have much hopes from the industry at this point of time.
Also here is an interesting thing- IMO the best Indian films from 2014 and 2015 (till now) have come from Marathi cinema. But the overall standard of films from that industry is also quite mediocre.
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July 28, 2015 at 8:21 AM
Bollywood inspite of all its glitches still springs surprises in the form of good films. The problem is they are not well patronised by star driven audience.
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July 28, 2015 at 8:25 AM
As for Rajamouli not boasting and being humble does not take away his success or of his reach as of now. In this respect he is like our Bachchan who always says he is mediocre as an actor.
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July 28, 2015 at 9:18 AM
Interestingly I just watched this..
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July 28, 2015 at 9:19 AM
Not sure why it didn’t post correct link. I was trying for “Amitabh Bachchan On Baahubali”
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July 28, 2015 at 11:04 AM
it is the correct one but it’s part of a playlist.
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July 28, 2015 at 4:05 PM
A good script does wonders. Interesting fact, that both BB (bahu and Bajrang) were written by SSR’s father! So at the end of the day, a good script, interesting story and solid entertainment is all the audience cares for and is key to 3 digit crore mark in true sense.
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July 28, 2015 at 4:09 PM
there is no substitute for a good script. None whatsoever. No matter how great the star.
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July 28, 2015 at 8:36 PM
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/salman-khans-sultan-vs-shah-rukhs-raees-no-change-release-dates-640771
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July 28, 2015 at 10:04 PM
Rangan on Masaan.
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July 29, 2015 at 1:48 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed around 9 crore nett plus on Tuesday which was similar to its figure on Monday. The second week figures of Bajrangi Bhaijaan till date are as follows.
Friday – 12,75,00,000
Saturday – 19,00,00,000
Sunday 24,00,00,000
Monday- 9,25,00,000
Tuesday – 9,25,00,000 apprx
The total for the second week is now 74 crore nett plus and should be around the 90 crore nett mark for week two. The film is phenomenal in Delhi / UP with business now hitting 50 crore nett and that is despite a tax hike in Delhi city last week to 40% from 20%.
Boxofficeindia
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July 29, 2015 at 1:52 AM
“Masaan is all of these things. What it isnโt โ despite the mystical โsmash the skull and release the soulโ utterances, despite the (wholly deserved) Cannes citations โ is Indian exotica for a Western audience. The superb cinematography (Avinash Arun Dhaware) doesnโt prettify things. The images of burning bodies may not be as graphic and disconcerting as those in Rajesh S. Jalaโs documentary Children of the Pyre, but they made me queasy. You sense the filth all around. Like Udaan, which it recalls in both look and small-town feel, Masaan is a very Indian movie. The trains, the poetry, the poetry about trains โ itโs all very rooted. Tu kisi rail si guzarti hai / Main kisi pul sa thartharaata hoon (I rattle like a bridge when you glide by like a train) โ thatโs Deepak when faced with Shaalu. Theirs isnโt just a caste thing but a class thing too. On their first date, over pizza, as sheโs reeling off the names of her favourite poets, he casually tells the waiter he wants chutneyโฆ and then he freezesโฆ he realises sheโs there tooโฆ and he asks if sheโd like Szechwan sauceโฆ that instant change from what heโd usually have to what he thinks someone like her would have is its own kind of poetry. Vicky Kaushal is excellent throughout, but I keep thinking about the careful calibrations of his hesitation here, and the animalistic depths of his breakdown much later. …”-
Rangan is absolutely outstanding in this paragraph.
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July 29, 2015 at 2:17 AM
Good South Indian movies have often drawn the attention of Bollywood filmmakers, and Kannada film “RangiTaranga” is the latest to join the list of such movies.
Rumours are rife that there is a good demand for the remake rights of “RangiTaranga”. While the talks for Tamil and Telugu versions are yet to begin, there seems to be some progress in the discussion related to the Bollywood version.
Leading filmmaker Ashutosh Gowariker of “Lagaan” and “Jodhaa Akbar” fame has reportedly expressed his interest in the project and has already reportedly begun talks with “RangiTaranga” makers. However, the director has refused to open up about the matter at this stage.
“RangiTaranga” has turned out to be a big hit in Kannada. The newcomers’ film performed well for weeks despite getting a poor start at the collection centres. The good word-of-mouth from the audience and celebs along with positive reviews from the critics have played a major role in its success.
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/ashutosh-gowariker-remake-rangitaranga-bollywood-640780
The small-budget Kannada film is a mystery thriller that has been written and directed by Anup Bhandari and produced by HK Prakash. Nirup Bhandari, Avanthika Shetty, Radhika Chetan, Saikumar and others are part of the cast.
Hollywood’s Lance Kaplan and William David have handled the cinematography and Praveen Joyappa has edited the movie. Director Anup Bhandari has also composed the music and Ajaneesh Loknath has scored the background music.
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July 29, 2015 at 3:16 AM
Yes, he is spot on — I would strongly urge the people who are making their minds up about what sort of film this “must” be to check it out before doing so.
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July 29, 2015 at 5:02 AM
I am glad that they have not butchered this song with a retro, disco beat as most music is nowadays. I was expecting some fast paced, high tempo crazy version.
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July 28, 2015 at 11:02 AM
I must say I disagree mostly. I’m not following Tamil cinema very closely anymore for certain reasons and I concede this but I do know what’s going on. Also Rajamouli made the point about Tamil cinema just recently when he was promoting BB. But leaving aside his thoughts I’d say this very quickly:
1)I’m not a fan of contemporary Bengali cinema barring films here and there. I find it far too plastic and ‘Bollywoodized’ in certain ways. It’s better than it was for a long time but we see this paradigm in many places including Bollywood. An industry becomes stale and cliched and without any new energy, then it takes a turn but in a very cosmetic sense (Bollywood in the 90s). There is new energy and so on but it isn’t important cinema in any sense.
2)Again haven’t kept up very well with Malayalam cinema of the post-90s era but what little I’ve seen in terms of the better examples hasn’t impressed me very much. Again it’s a rejuvenated industry in some ways.
3)Once more I have limited exposure to Marathi cinema but I’ve rarely seen a film there that I’ve found impressive in an unconditional sense though this was certainly true of Court (caught it last night). Obviously the industry is going through its renaissance phase.
4)Tamil has a natural advantage here in that the scale of the industry allows it to tackle all kinds of genres. Theoretically this should be true for Telugu as well but that industry by and large has been about the most rampant commercialism.
4)Finally Bollywood once more. I don’t find the commercial films good enough (though they can often be entertaining) and I don’t find the ‘different’ stuff interesting enough or radical enough for the most part. And so leaving aside the comparisons I just don’t define Bollywood as ‘good’ in any sense.
But here I must introduce a larger point even if at the risk of sounding pretentious. For me any Indian commercial tradition is only valuable to the extent that it does things in a more rooted or specifically Indian way. In other words I want to get from these industries what I cannot anywhere else. I don’t have a problem with absorbing influences from elsewhere. This has always been the case. But once the final mix was still completely Indian whereas today a lot of the films feel like clones of non-Indian films/genres. Of course that isn’t true for the Telugu masala that’s rampant in Bollywood at the moment. In any case this point also connects with the middle cinema (Hindi) of the moment. Or even the much more offbeat stuff. By and large I feel I’m watching clones of film festival genres if not Hollywood ones. This is not just so in a thematic sense but also in terms of the visual registers, the editing, the way spaces are shot and so on. And I’m not just being tough on Bollywood here because when similar efforts come out from other countries they bore me to the same degree. But yes being more familiar with Indian culture I can pick up the ‘false’ or at least cliched moves a bit more easily. To bring up one of my favorite examples once more 99% of contemporary Chinese period pieces bore me in the very same sense, including some very acclaimed films (say Red Cliff) where despite the obviously fantastic source material the final result is a very engaging but also ultimately synthetic film. Still we’d be lucky if even one Bollywood director was capable of this sort of thing. At any rate I’m not singling out Bollywood nor am I being unfair to the more worthwhile films. Because if it’s a commercial film that’s not trying to be anything more should judge it one way (though even with something like Bajrangi the older masala registers which it hearkens to can and should be used as a fair comparison) but if it’s clearly an art house effort or obviously inspired from certain western or film festival films one should then use the same standards to judge it. So Girl with yellow boots is perfectly fine as a film but it’s also a clone of dozens and dozens of films from elsewhere. Or more precisely it’s a clone like many others. If you’re going to make this sort of film I’m not going to say ‘this is pretty good for India’ (first of all it isn’t even on that score for those of us who are willing to watch other Indian traditions.. Kashyap said here once that he’d never seen an Adoor.. what can one say about that?) because I will then compare it will all those films it’s ‘like’. I am hardly one of those colonized folks forever enamored of Hollywood or something. I am arguing for exactly the opposite here. At the same time I can’t hand out brownie points to an industry which has been largely about multiplex consumption the last twenty years. So even if I’m wrong about Tamil films at this precise moment I very much doubt I’d like it less than Bombay.
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July 28, 2015 at 11:08 AM
I’d also add this. I am also not very smitten by this whole notion of ‘hey this is the present’. Good films were being made yesterday, today there are other kinds of good films. This is the worst obfuscation. It’s like saying every age produces important work in the same proportion everywhere, a patently absurd claim. I have not seen a middle cinema film in contemporary Bollywood India to equal the best Hrishikesh Mukherjee efforts or the best Malayalam efforts from the 80s. Nor am I sentimental about a tradition I might be more familiar with. When I got introduced to Malayalam cinema from that rich period I felt that in some cases it even surpassed Mukherjee’s work. It’s all about following the ‘work’ as far as I’m concerned. I;m really not as bothered about where it comes from in terms of time or space.
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July 28, 2015 at 2:17 PM
Easy.. you are going way overboard in praising Telugu/Tamil movies/stars and ridiculing Hindi movies/stars. I don’t think anyone would believe or agree to your notion that Hindi movies/stars are other end of spectrum compared to Telugu/Tamil movies/stars.
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July 28, 2015 at 2:22 PM
My comment was in reply to Jayadev.
Satyam, the reply is not working.. its no more in nested format.
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July 28, 2015 at 2:43 PM
you can reply only 5 levels deep, you might have exceeded that limit.
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July 27, 2015 at 5:06 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Set For Huge Total In Overseas
Monday 27 July 2015 14.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan will easily close over $20 million in Overseas as its ten day total is $17 million plus. The overseas market can’t be judged with a total figure as before with some films releasing in countries like China, South Korea and Japan where most Hindi films won’t release.
So the Overseas market becomes a bit like the Indian market which is compared circuit by circuit. Basically it will be interesting to see where Bajrangi Bhaijaan final totals stand against the other biggies like PK and Dhoom 3 in UK, US / Canada, Gulf and Australia. This will give actual idea as to how it has performed against the other films.
The Pakistan market is also almost as big as Australia today but its a different market as a Khoobsurat will gross more than a Humpty Sharma due to local artist and films which are patriotic struggle to release there. The film has also done well in Nepal despite the country suffereing hugely from the earthquakes a few months back. Bajrangi Bhaijaan could even go to the $25 million mark with just a traditional market release. In UK and The Gulf it will cross PK and is chasing the record figures of Dhoom 3 in both circuits.
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July 27, 2015 at 5:08 AM
Another Record For Bajrangi Bhaijaan On Sunday
Sunday 26 July 2015 23.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has set another record on its second Sunday with the highest collections ever on a second Sunday with collections looking to be around 24 crore nett. It will also be a second weekend record with collections of 55.50 crore nett
PK released last Christmas had grossed 53.40 crore nett in its second weekend with 14.4 crore nett on Friday, 17.10 crore nett on Saturday and 21.90 crore nett on Sunday Here for Bajrangi Bhaijaan the apprx figures are 12.75 crore nett for Friday, 18.75 crore nett on Saturday and 24 crore nett on Sunday. PK was ahead on the Friday but on Saturday and Sunday it has been Bajrangi Bhaijaan in overdrive.
It had looked at the time that PK had set a huge second weekend record which will take long to surpass but it has held for just 7 months. The second week record may be hard to crack for Bajrangi Bhaijaan has PK had a big New Year’s Day holiday which gave it an advantage of 6 crore nett. Its hard but impossible and a second week record will be simply phenomenal as its being done without the benefit of a holiday.
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July 27, 2015 at 6:19 AM
It’s certainly kept pace with PK so far, I don’t take the new year holiday seriously because Bajrangi had much higher ticket prices that no one seems to mention. see here:
what the film is doing is already very impressive. But as always dishonesty is introduced in the narrative when one just looks at one side of things and not the other which ought to be a completely glaring one.
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July 27, 2015 at 6:30 AM
Satyam: What did you think of Haider?
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July 27, 2015 at 6:39 AM
will put up some brief thoughts on it in one of the Haider threads..
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July 27, 2015 at 6:34 AM
With PK, there were lots of discussions about ticket prices and aamir was bashed for it and he had to clarify. And there was backlash from some groups and theatres had to stop screenings of PK in Gujarat. Strangely nothing like that is happening in gujarat after Salman’s tweets. It seems Salman has some very good PR and troubleshooters unlike Aamir.
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July 27, 2015 at 6:45 AM
yeah barring the boring Sena stuff everyone is quite silent here. Having said that it’s also the case that for that discourse on the Right PK is a far more problematic film than Salman’s asinine tweets could ever be.
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July 27, 2015 at 6:50 AM
Just imagine if aamir had tweeted them!
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July 27, 2015 at 9:40 AM
“Just imagine if aamir had tweeted them!”
Or else worse.. imagine Srk tweeting that!
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July 27, 2015 at 9:37 AM
I don’t think that higher ticker prices is true all over India. Even some local distributors or cinema chain can increase individually. I haven’t heard that in South India for instance. If it was constant all over, there would have been certainly few articles mentioning it somewhere like we had for PK.
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July 28, 2015 at 12:03 AM
Satyam, I don’t think the ticket prices for BB are higher than PK. Maybe I missed some articles on this but I don’t have this information from anywhere…
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July 28, 2015 at 12:04 AM
There are actually no articles anywhere except Qalandar’s post and live experience.
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July 28, 2015 at 1:14 AM
Don’t think Qalandar is making up what he paid. And also don’t think he went to the only theater in India that did this.
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July 28, 2015 at 1:42 AM
PS — I checked prices at multiple cinemas near me (all multiplexes, but all for “standard” seating, i.e. nothing like the super-premium screens with reclining couch-style seating or anything like that). And to be clear, these ticket prices are going up for big film after big film: so Bajrangi was > PK in my experience, and PK > earlier films, and so on. Doubtless something in a few months will top Bajrangi. But yes, the 350-400s at the PVRs had become 450-500 for Bajrangi (I paid 480 at PVR Juhu, and confirmed that even at PVR Market City Kurla, the price for a DAYtime weekend show was 420+; and that was especially striking not only because of the absolute number, but because in general PVR Kurla daytime weekend tickets are significantly cheaper than those for PVR Juhu (that’s why we’d often go to Kurla, as that and Juhu are equidistant from where I live). For this film, that delta was very narrow, and the absolute number was very high…
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July 28, 2015 at 2:54 AM
“Donโt think Qalandar is making up what he paid”
This is completely unfair, no one has said or even insinuated that Qalander is making that up. I just mentioned that its from his live experience and not from articles.
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July 28, 2015 at 1:13 AM
Cashing in on the Sal-mania, exhibitors are said to have increased ticket rates โ regular ones that cost R110-R150 in a suburban multiplex in Mumbai have been revised to R250-300. The price for a gold class seat varies between Rs 750 and Rs 900 in the city instead of Rs 500. The scenario is more or less the same in other major cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Indore, etc.
http://www.mid-day.com/articles/salmans-bajrangi-bhaijaan-seems-set-to-shatter-all-box-office-records/16379197#sthash.NUEAMxd7.dpuf
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July 28, 2015 at 1:23 AM
Although the ticket prices have been hiked from the normal price, I Don’t think the ticket prices overall as high as PK. Even if BB falls a little short of PK’s final total, the footfalls for BB will be greater. As Krish and Master said, unlike when CE, D3, and PK released, there aren’t really articles from major news outlets about a substantial increase in ticket prices for BB.
From Indicine:
“The multiplex ticket prices of both films were about the same, although at select premium multiplexes the tickets of Bajrangi Bhaijaan were more expensive. Bajrangi Bhaijaan has performed much better than PK at single-screens, so the all India average ticket price of the Salman starrer is lower.”
http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/pk-vs-bajrangi-bhaijaan-box-office-collection-comparison/
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July 27, 2015 at 5:12 AM
Come on MS Dhoni..You didn’t pissed off when Salman was beating his girl friends..When he is killing black Bucks..When he is running over people in footpath. Now you got pissed of on his Tweets written in Drunken state. Strange.
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July 27, 2015 at 10:52 AM
RIP Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam jee, you were a true hero !!
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July 27, 2015 at 11:21 AM
I screwed up, I think he is hospitalized ..I am really sorry .
Satyam can you please delete my above comment.
I pray for his speedy recovery.
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July 27, 2015 at 11:46 AM
ANI โ@ANI_news 1m1 minute ago
The death of Dr. Kalam is an irreparable loss to this nation. He has left a big void hard to fill: HM’s tweet
NDTV โ@ndtv 1m1 minute ago
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam dies at 83: Press Trust of India http://goo.gl/KoeEWO
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July 27, 2015 at 12:33 PM
RIP Mr. Kalam!
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July 27, 2015 at 11:46 AM
restored the comment.
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July 27, 2015 at 11:42 AM
No your news was correct. He is dead. RIP. True Indian Hero !
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July 27, 2015 at 4:40 PM
RIP
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July 27, 2015 at 1:23 PM
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CK7-dVfUwAA8JsX.jpg:large
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July 27, 2015 at 1:47 PM
Looks really good (it’s with subs)-
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July 27, 2015 at 4:10 PM
Film critic-turned-director Karan Anshuman admits he’ll never write a review again.
During his three-year tenure as Mirror’s film critic, Karan Anshuman admits he never gave a Salman Khan film a good review. Kick was no exception. But when he greeted Jacqueline Fernandez with a cake which had ‘Congratulations for Kick’s 200-crore’ iced on it, Karan, who makes his directorial debut with the satirical Bangistan, knew he had moved to the other side. “It was my sell-out moment,” he agrees. “I will never return to reviewing films again.”
“I took a David Dhawan film to the cleaners once. The review went viral. It must have affected the film’s business too,” he reminisces, saying that when he met David recently, for the first time, he wanted to kill himself. “He is the nicest person I’ve ever met. If I was to review a David Dhawan film today I’d never write it the way I did.”
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/entertainment/bollywood/I-took-a-David-Dhawan-film-to-the-cleaners-once/articleshow/48243117.cms
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July 27, 2015 at 11:08 PM
Re: “The review went viral. It must have affected the filmโs business too..”
Ha. Ha. He wishes.
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July 27, 2015 at 4:27 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Is Rock Steady On Second Monday
Monday 27 July 2015 23.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan remained rock steady on its second Monday with collections likely to be around 9.50 crore nett plus. The general drop is 30% from Friday which would mean a 9 crore nett total but the tax free status is helping in UP and that will give an extra boost as Delhi/UP will end up close to 3 crore nett with a huge contribution from UP.
The collections of PK on Monday were 10 crore nett plus and its unlikely that Bajrangi Bhaijaan will be better. PK second week was in holiday week so what is happenning is the weekday collections are better for PK and weeeknds are better for Bajrangi Bhaijaan..
The total after 11 days will be 248.75 crore nett and after a similar period P.K was 245.25 crore nett so it still has the edge but by the end of the week it will probably be less as PK got advantage of New Years Day holiday. The film will have actually trended better than PK in the second week but collections will be lower as PK second week was in holiday period.
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July 27, 2015 at 7:36 PM
Now Boxoficeindia can request Government of India to declare a big holiday or two to compensate Salman Khan starrer!
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July 27, 2015 at 7:46 PM
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/baahubali-bahuabli-hindi-version-set-cross-rs-100-crore-mark-indian-box-office-640645
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July 27, 2015 at 10:03 PM
Morning terror attack and night the news of our former President.
So sudden and unexpected. Very sad.
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July 28, 2015 at 1:53 AM
Top US Canada Second Weekends – Bajrangi Bhaijaan Second
Tuesday 28 July 2015 11.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had to settle for second place in US / Canada for second weekend collections but still its a huge number as the PK number came in Christmas week. In fact barring Chennai Express, all the other films in top five below are Christmas films.
1. PK – $1,705,839 (264 Sites)
2. Bajrangi Bhajaan $1,631,783 (257 Sites)
3. 3 Idiots – $1,494,541 (132 Sites)
4. Dhoom 3 – $1,068,145 (220 Sites)
5. Chennai Express – $893,459 (190 Sites)
Bajrangi Bhaijaan has so far grossed $5.8 million apprx in eleven days. This makes it the fourth highest grosser ever in US / Canada already with the $6.53 million figure of 3 Idiots being the next target.
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July 28, 2015 at 1:54 AM
Bajrngi Bhaijaan Sets All Time Records In Eight Circuits
Tuesday 28 July 2015 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan broke first week records in eight circuits. Delhi / UP, East Punjab, CP Berar, CI, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam and Odisha all saw first week records. In Delhi / UP it smashed the records of Dhoom 3 and PK by a huge 5 crore nett. The top first week collections in Delhi / UP are as follows.
1. Bajragi Bhaijaan – 37,30,00,000
2. Dhoom 3 – 32,23,00,000
3. PK – 32,08,00,000
The full list for top first week collections in Delhi / UP can be found here
The film would have broken the record in Rajasthan also but the circuit was tax free until a year ago so Bajrangi Bhaijaan remains behind Kick and Dhoom 3,
The top first weeks in East Punjab can be seen here with Bajrangi Bhaijaan leading by a distance. It also smashed records in West Bengal which sometimes underperforms for Salman Khan starrers but not for Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The top first weeks in West Bengal can be seen here
Mumbai was not able to set a new first record with PK remaining comfortably at the top. The top first week grossers in Mumbai can be seen here
The worst collections were in Tamil Nadu / Kerala where it was outside the top five. Top First Weeks in Tamil Nadu / Kerala
The Tamil Nadu / Kerala circuit is small but collections are less than 50% of some of the bigger films. It was a similar story for the biggest blockbuster this century Gadar which also did not perform too well in this circuit.
The complete first week territory breakdown of Bajrangi Bhaijaan can be seen here.
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July 28, 2015 at 2:40 AM
This was posted on Facebook at 4 am by the former President’s aide, Srijan Pal Singh.
What I will be remembered for… my memory of the last day with the great Kalam sir…
It has been eight hours since we last talked – sleep eludes me and memories keep flushing down, sometimes as tears. Our day, 27th July, began at 12 noon, when we took our seats in the flight to Guwahati. Dr. Kalam was 1A and I was 1C. He was wearing a dark colored “Kalam suit”, and I started off complimenting, “Nice color!” Little did I know this was going to be the last color I will see on him.
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Long, 2.5 hours of flying in the monsoon weather. I hate turbulence, and he had mastered over them. Whenever he would see me go cold in shaking plane, he would just pull down the window pane and saw, “Now you don’t see any fear!”.
That was followed by another 2.5 hours of car drive to IIM Shillong. For these two-legged trip of five hours we talked, discussed and debated. These were amongst hundreds of the long flights and longer drives we have been together over the last six years.
As each of them, this was as special too. Three incidents/discussions in particular will be “lasting memories of our last trip”.
First, Dr. Kalam was absolutely worried about the attacks in Punjab. The loss of innocent lives left him filled with sorrow. The topic of lecture at IIM Shillong was Creating a Livable Planet Earth. He related the incident to the topic and said, “It seems the manmade forces are as big a threat to the livability of earth as pollution”. We discussed on how, if this trend of violence, pollution and reckless human action continues we will forced to leave earth. “Thirty years, at this rate, maybe”, he said. “You guys must do something about it… it is going to be your future world”
Our second discussion was more national. For the past two days, Dr. Kalam was worried that time and again Parliament, the supreme institution of democracy, was dysfunctional. He said, “I have seen two different governments in my tenure. I have seen more after that. This disruption just keeps happening. It is not right. I really need to find out a way to ensure that the parliament works on developmental politics.” He then asked me to prepare a surprise assignment question for the students at IIM Shillong, which he would give them only at the end of the lecture. He wanted them to suggest three innovative ways to make Parliament more productive and vibrant. Then, after a while he returned on it. “But how can I ask them to give solutions if I don’t have any myself”.
For the next one hour, we thwarted options after options, to come up with his recommendation over the issue. We wanted to include this discussion in our upcoming book, Advantage India.
Third, was an experience from the beauty of his humility. We were in a convoy of 6-7 cars. Dr. Kalam and I were in the second car. Ahead of us was an open gypsy with three soldiers in it. Two of them were sitting on either side and one lean guy was standing atop, holding his gun. One hour into the road journey, Dr. Kalam said, “Why is he standing? He will get tired. This is like punishment. Can you ask a wireless message to be given that he may sit?” I had to convince him, he has been probably instructed to keep standing for better security. He did not relent. We tried radio messaging, that did not work. For the next 1.5 hours of the journey, he reminded me thrice to see if I can hand signal him to sit down. Finally, realizing there is little we can do – he told me, “I want to meet him and thank him”. Later, when we landed in IIM Shillong, I went inquiring through security people and got hold of the standing guy. I took him inside and Dr. Kalam greeted him. He shook his hand, said thank you buddy. “Are you tired? Would you like something to eat? I am sorry you had to stand so long because of me”. The young lean guard, draped in black cloth, was surprised at the treatment. He lost words, just said, “Sir, aapke liye to 6 ghante bhi khade rahenge”.
For the rest follow the link-
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/on-facebook-president-apj-abdul-kalams-aide-recalls-his-last-day-1201268?pfrom=home-lateststories
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July 28, 2015 at 4:21 AM
เคเฅเคฒเคเคพเคฐ เคเฅ เคถเคฌเฅเคฆเฅเค เคฎเฅเค เคกเฅ เคเคฒเคพเคฎ… เคฎเฅเค เคเค เคเคนเคฐเคพ เคเฅเคเค เคนเฅเค เคเคธ เคเคฎเฅเคจ เคชเคฐ
Gulzar’s fitting tribute to Dr. Abdul Kalam in the link below-
http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/gulzar-tribute-to-dr-kalam/376693?video-justadded
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July 28, 2015 at 5:05 AM
Rumors doing the rounds – SRK, Salman to come together for a YRF movie…
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July 28, 2015 at 5:10 AM
Maybe they will sign Vivek, Aishwariya and Katrina too
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July 28, 2015 at 5:10 AM
I doubt SRK will agree to share screen space on equal footing with Salman — it would be too stark a reminder of how things have changed from the days of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. And I wouldn’t blame him: the juxtaposition would, in terms of physicality and screen presence, not be flattering to SRK. Sure he acts better than Salman does (I imagine so do I, and I’ve never acted), but nothing matters less in the Sallu-economy.
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July 28, 2015 at 5:15 AM
Salman would be pretty dumb anyway to sign this. Why help the oppositionโs career out?
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July 28, 2015 at 6:39 AM
LOL, agreed on all counts..
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July 28, 2015 at 6:35 AM
โ bajrangi bhaijaan โ finally able to watch it last night here in odeon Trafford centre ,Manchester
We booked it early to avoid disappointment for 21:20 show.we arrived at 2100 hrs and were to see 20% occupancy but thought the film has got another 20 minutes,amazing just about the film to start there was 70% and after the film started into 15 minutes people were still pouring in,90% occupancy and that it amazing on Monday night.
Anyway to summarise the film ,first 20 minutes it was snail pace as shahida is getting known to viewers as what a world we live in and how bad is it to get from Pakistan to india and vice-versa.
The film gattered the pace where salman makes the entry,brilliant song โ jai bajrang bali โ ,any monkey he sees he makes pranam,it was funnyโฆthe film takes incredible pace and the way that travel-agent got battered ,uski to nani yaad agayee.The match between india & pakistaan was a decider where shahidas originates from but her innocent charm and salmans honesty brings the Indians & Pakistanis down on kneel.During the film of three quarter way it reminded me of late raj kapoors โHeenaโ which eventually was directed by his son Rajeev Kapoor,the guy who played a villain in โKICKโ Nawazuddin Siddiqui he was simply superb.
funny how he helps salman here but in kick, salman kick his ass
This film was like a football mtach ,firt half was like attack,attack and second half was like defence,defence.
whatever the pace getterness achieved in first half of the film in contrast on second half ,in the whole no one will ever bothered with it
Kareena Kapoor had small role but as usual she was superb,oops sorry I should say kareena Kapoor khanโฆ
It s amazing & hard to go from india to Pakistan without visa or ticket and people who had visas still find it difficult.,tell you what om-puri was just excellent ,I failed to recognise him,his deep voice was his biggest clue as who he was,looked proper Pakistani .
Overall the film has done well and it deserved it.If here anyone thinks that srk is still way ahead then he needs to check his mental status because this film is another nail in the coffin not only for srk but also amir khan ,they have a fight for supremecy .
Everyone needs to see this film and anyone not seen it yet then they have my blessing because you will not get bored for one minute,if you cannot see it cinema the recommendation is watch it on HD DVD.
Looking forward for salmas next already….
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July 28, 2015 at 7:20 AM
Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan to Star Together in a YRF Film?
it will never happen,its a class of the titans…what a bull s**t
http://movies.ndtv.com/bollywood/salman-khan-and-shah-rukh-khan-to-star-together-in-a-yrf-film-1201276
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July 28, 2015 at 12:20 PM
Before Baahubali and Rajamouli, This Man Made Spectacular Films
glad SS Vasan is getting the shootout here..
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July 28, 2015 at 2:01 PM
Tamasha first look
[post created]
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July 28, 2015 at 2:06 PM
Bajrangi bhaijaan to Phantom
All the ‘bonhomie’ ripped apart by cross border attacks …apparently
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-33671593
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July 28, 2015 at 3:22 PM
I think July, 2015 might be one of the best months ever for Indian Cinema- Quality and Box Office wise. It started with the Punjabi film Sardaarji which I heard has become the biggest Punjabi blockbuster ever. Then Kamal Hassaan’s Drishyam remake which was a blockbuster for the Tamil Industry. Even Dhanush’s Maari is doing pretty well. Followed by Baahubali, which needs no explanation, and now Bajrangi Bhaijaan. Finally, Ajay Devgan’s Drishyam is also a sure shot superhit just because of its story, and will probably be the best Ajay Devgan movie of the decade.
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July 28, 2015 at 3:22 PM
Drishyam review http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/2626987
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July 28, 2015 at 4:57 PM
S. S. Rajamouli’s father narrated two scripts to Aamir https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDgcdkrx-3o&feature=youtu.be&t=1m53s
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July 28, 2015 at 9:08 PM
Not sure is anyone aware of this sad news .. http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/bollywood/filmmaker-prakash-mehras-son-amit-mehra-dies-at-40/
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July 28, 2015 at 11:50 PM
RIP
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July 28, 2015 at 9:54 PM
Alarm bells in Bollywood as โBahubaliโ, Hollywood films reap box-office gold.
“and itโs not just โBahubali,โ billed as Indiaโs most expensive film and featuring top-notch visual effects, that is challenging Bollywoodโs monopoly in the country. Three of Indiaโs top five blockbusters in the first half of 2015 were from Hollywood, squeezing out domestic competition until โBahubaliโ and โBajrangi Bhaijaanโ rode to the top”
โI cannot tell you the number of phone calls Iโve got after Bahubali,โ Anil Thadani, whose AA Films distributed it in north India, told Reuters. โAlmost every producer wants to explore this market.โ
In a promotional video ahead of the filmโs release, Bollywood movie star Amitabh Bachchan described โBahubaliโ as a โmagnificent visualโ comparable to Hollywood films.
โI doubt if anything like this has been seen in Indian cinema before,โ Bachchan said. โEvery time I see something astonishing, I feel very envious and I wish I was part of it.โ
http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2015/07/28/bollywood-bahubali-hollywood-films-box-office/
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July 28, 2015 at 10:40 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan 12th Day Collection | BB 2nd Tuesday Collection
Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) Movie total Collection in India till now (28th July 2015) ::โ
1st weekend total bo collection report of movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) โ Rs. 103 Crores (approx)
1st Week total box office collection report of movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) โ Rs. 185 Crores (approx)
Second or 2nd weekend total bo income report of movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) โ Rs. 55 Crores (approx)
12th day expected bo income report of movie Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) โ Rs. 9 Crores (approx)
Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) movie total 12 days box office collection report in India โ Rs. 261 Crores (approx)
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July 28, 2015 at 10:41 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan(BB) movie total 12 days box office collection report in India โ Rs. 261 Crores (approx)
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July 29, 2015 at 1:44 AM
Not sure how many people remember him, but Clive Rice expired yesterday- one of the all time S. African cricketing greats and one of the most talented allrounders of his time.
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July 29, 2015 at 2:33 AM
As far as the film’s performances are concerned, it is needless to say that the film belongs totally to Ajay Devgn and Tabu. They are the quintessential torchbearers of the film right from the word go. It is really heartening to see Ajay Devgn (who is mostly known for his action roles) to underplay his usual self and yet come out a winner of sorts. One just cannot to afford to miss him in the scenes where he and his family recreate the entire events and incidents and also his helpless condition in the police station when his family gets beaten up mercilessly. His smoldering eyes emote effortlessly. On the other hand, Tabu (who had earlier played a policewoman’s role in the 90’s film KOHRAAM), plays an inspector with oodles of aplomb and elan. At the same time, she also handles the role of a concerned mother with equal ease. With the kind of portrayal that she has done in the film, it becomes almost impossible to think of any other actress to have played this role with such flawless perfection. Shriya Saran, on the other hand, comes up with a winning performance in the role of Ajay Devgn’s wife. The other mentionable roles belong to Rajat Kapoor, Ishita Dutta and Mrinal Jadhav, all of whom jointly deliver a masterpiece called DRISHYAM. A special mention goes out to Kamlesh Sawant for his cop act, which was in top form. Even other small characters have done excellent job in their parts.
http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/moviemicro/criticreview/id/2626987
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July 29, 2015 at 2:41 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan Second Tuesday Business
Wednesday 29 July 2015 11.00 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
Bajrangi Bhaijaan grossed around 9 crore nett plus on Tuesday which was similar to its figure on Monday. The second week figures of Bajrangi Bhaijaan till date are as follows.
Friday – 12,75,00,000
Saturday – 19,00,00,000
Sunday 24,00,00,000
Monday- 9,25,00,000
Tuesday – 9,25,00,000 apprx
The total for the second week is now 74 crore nett plus and should be around the 90 crore nett mark for week two. The film is phenomenal in Delhi / UP with business now hitting 50 crore nett and that is despite a tax hike in Delhi city last week to 40% from 20%.
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July 29, 2015 at 3:30 AM
The director of Masaan, Neeraj Ghaywan, commented on Rangan’s piece (though atleast for me it’s not necessary to read a film in exactly the manner director has intended it)-
“I loved your review!! I cannot believe you got so much under the skin of the film. Youโve read it EXACTLY the way me and Varun Grover intended it. It felt as though you were there with us in all the two years of research in Varanasi, or when we are jamming in our pad, when we were intently listening to feedback from peers and also being by our side at Cannes standing ovation. Heck! You even saw the C and Java books at Deviโs desk ๐ I am happy that you saw the film as characters in the fore and socio-political background as just an aid to the narrative and not the moot point.”
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July 29, 2015 at 7:09 AM
Second Week Four Days – Bajrangi Bhaijaan V PK
Tuesday 28 July 2015 12.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
The first four day collections of the second week for Bajrangi Bhaijaan and PK are as follows. PK is better on the weekdays due to holiday period while Bajrangi Bhaijaan scored better on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 12,75,00,000
PK – 14,40,00,000
Saturday
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 19,00,00,000 apprx
PK – 17,10,00,000
Sunday
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 24,00,00,000 apprx
PK – 21,90,00,000
Monday
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 9,25,00,000 apprx
PK – 10,15,00,000
TOTAL
Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 65,00,00,000 apprx
PK – 63,55,00,000
PK grossed 96 crore nett in its second week as New Years Day holiday fell on the seventh day of its second week and bumped its collections up by 6-7 crore nett. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan second week is heading towards 90 crore nett though the holiday has been called today due to the death of ex president Abdul Kalam so with schools and colleges shut the collections may be better on Tuesday than they otherwise would be.
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July 29, 2015 at 7:11 AM
well at least Abdul Kalam is helping Bajrangi..
It’s fun to see BOI do this day by day.. oh on day 25 it rained more heavily for Bajrangi whereas PK had a fine sunny day and this helped it add 20 crores to the gross..
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July 29, 2015 at 7:20 AM
His life hangs on BB beating PK. He will do anything to ensure that. He already started badmouthing Drishyam. Spreading bad wom.
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July 29, 2015 at 10:59 AM
“His life hangs on BB beating PK.”
Who is this particular person you keep referring to?
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July 29, 2015 at 11:40 AM
I don’t see what BOI is doing to have BB beat PK!! There is zero proof that they are inflating the numbers are BOI is usually on the lower side of any movie numbers that come out.
Also, who cares about Drishyam as far as the box office numbers are concerned? This is not a numbers type movie anyway so i don’t see how ‘badmouthing’ it does anything. I think some folks here pay way too much attention to BOI commentary instead of numbers!
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July 29, 2015 at 10:06 AM
By the end of week 2 it will be 7-7 on day by day wins for PK and BB โ but you would not think that reading BOI commentary. And PK will be ahead for the first time.
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July 29, 2015 at 11:13 AM
the problem that the pro-Bajrangi folks have is this — either you say PK is a fantastically good film and Bajrangi though good is not in the same league and therefore the formed ultimately trends better in the later stages. But no one wants to say this because the sense is that Bajrangi is an outstanding film (by the way I’ve finally getting to this over the weekend.. and tomorrow it’s Bahubali) and many of the same folks also felt earlier that PK was nothing special.
Explanation no 2: just say Aamir is the bigger star. And one way to measure these things is that for any given genre it’s not just about the initial but the extent to which people will show up for a movie in the later stages because of the same star and specially if WOM is good. Put differently what star is likely to make any given genre unmissable for the largest cross-section of the audience. This is why doing it just by day 1 opening or whatever is misleading. Because there might be a large demographic that is certain it will see an Aamir film, it’s just not certain what day it will do this. In most other cases if the same audience doesn’t do so initially the WOM has to be that much better for it to show up eventually. If you don’t want to say PK is the better film nor that Aamir might be the bigger star (or at least bigger in more genres than Salman) you run into serious logical problems!
If Salman gets these massive initials each time one can hardly deny his standing but by the same token one should also look at what genre he’s specializing in. So Aamir even without that kind of history or image and certainly without those kinds of opening numbers created history with Ghajini. What if he’s done a few more like that? Secondly family films never max out the audience on day 1. All else being equal you will still get a bigger day 1 for the mass film. These films cater to a demographic that is much more likely to show up on day 1. The genre in question plays to a certain kind of hysteria and/or generates it. But no one would go crazy about 3I on day 1. It’s just not that sort of genre. And this happens the world over. What are the biggest opening days or weekends? For blockbuster type entertainment in certain genres. But conversely the family audience is also a more stable demographic.
There are other ways to slice and dice these things. Yes Salman has a mass following that Aamir does not have. Yes SRK had a base at his peak in ways Aamir did not have. These are important distinctions but these are not necessarily box office ones. If an audience is going to show up for a star most days the reasons why they do so are a different sort of discussion. The people who invest money in a film are only interest in whether people will show up for a star or not and in what numbers given any genre. Of course the same people are not stupid (even if many are online, or at least pretend to be). No one invests money in Talaash thinking it’s going to pull off a Hirani! The reason I say this is because there’s this other dirty subtext that’s often operative whereby Aamir could have a film like HAHK every single year and folks would say he’s not really a huge star like some others.
Anyway the larger point is that you can analyze the differential but if at every point you frame the argument in a way that always gives credit to one kind of film and never the other one knows what’s going on. It’s for example utterly laughable that after years of never being interested in this (and this includes all the online folks who too used to ridicule all of this) suddenly they’re interested in terms like ‘competition’ and ‘trending’ and what genres pull in the greater audience and what not. They’ve even learnt a term like ‘event film’!
Lastly and for the record (since some here might be confused about this) I don’t really have an issue if Bajrangi crosses PK. But what I resist is this dishonest framing (not only by BOI). When things don’t go well somehow it’s because of all the advantages PK has, when they do then it’s about how Bajrangi and Salman are greater in every sense, when they don’t go well again then it’s because of new year holidays and Drishyam derailing things! On that note films that have a repeat audience can also show greater jumps later on if there’s a holiday. For instance I might want to watch PK again without feeling any great urgency to do so. But when there’s a holiday I suddenly get that opportunity. On the other hand if CE gets that sort of holiday it probably doesn’t matter much because not many would be likely to see it again. So this whole holiday stuff beyond the very initial period can also be overrated. There is something called content! yes WOM is very strong on Bajrangi. It might or might not be as strong as that of PK. How do we know either way? Unlike Hollywood there’s no refined and unbiased way of measuring these things. People just operate with imaginary positions (the old ‘word on the street’ claim!). I am the first to concede that certain genres are better placed than others. But that also means that the audience ‘likes’ these genres more for whatever reason. Beyond this it’s a bit absurd to suggest that with a guy like Salman who’s landing these huge initials and in this case (Bajrangi) also has family audiences on board (even the overseas ones in a big way) that somehow there’s some other built-in disadvantage preventing the film from shattering all records!
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July 29, 2015 at 1:31 PM
finally it will come to this: as a matter-of-fact – BB was originally offered to aamir – so if he had done this film – it wud have surely beaten PK’s record ๐
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July 29, 2015 at 10:33 AM
These numbers are still producer’s numbers. By diwali period, these numbers will be revised and you will see PRDP chasing again first week and second weekend of PK.
BOI second tuesday is higher than Taran’s numbers that says how BOI inflated numbers to create such hype.
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July 29, 2015 at 10:51 AM
LOL, true!
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July 29, 2015 at 11:06 AM
I think its silly by BOI in trying to beat PK with BB. I think BB is good success for everyone associated even at 300 crore, no need to push up near PK if it isn’t going to.
I’d like to point out that after 25 years, Salman Khan produces the 1st film and he made a huge blockbuster out of it. That’s very lucky and good start for SKF.
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July 29, 2015 at 11:44 AM
Unless there is proof that BOI are inflating the numbers big time for BB (and looking at other sources, there is no proof), I don’t see how BOI is ‘trying to beat Pk with BB’. Their commentary ‘excitement’ is pretty much the same for all big stars. Again, the most excited I have ever seen BOI is when they reported on Ghajini and 3I!
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July 29, 2015 at 12:16 PM
Actually the most happiest I have seen BOI is when they reported Happy New Yearโs 13th day figuresโฆ.75 lakhs or something or other. When they reported each damn day for so long when the collections were so stupidly low โ who gave a monkeys? And the total was hardly anything to jump around for!
I donโt think they celebrate each star the same way. I think they do what they have to when it is not a star they love (itโs quite civil and roboticโฆFilm X made YY crores and it is record, but they will never have a big headline for it with โRECORDโ like they do for BB or get orgasmic about it)
When it is a star they love or a star they are indifferent too but on the way to toppling one they donโt like they are pretty sly about things. Most the comparisons are in a tone to suggest the liked stars films had to overcome certain barriers or obstacles and the disliked starโs film had X, Y and Z as advantages.
On Ghajini and 3 Idiots. It would have been foolish not to recognise the โwattageโ of opening Ghajini garnered. It was absolutely out of the park. The hype for that film was incredible. It opened pan India to an incredible response. That was a big event โ in opening terms probably the absolute biggest since Gadar. Only D3 was on a par since and that is readily missed on BOI as a record on a normal day.
On 3 Idiots, BOI only got crazy on Day 4. I remember these articles well at the height of debates on NG. On Day 4 it was incredible business what that film was doing. It SHUT everyone up and it was impossible to resist such performance. They knew then that 3 Idiots was going to do something quite sensational at that point and when you know you have to change your tone.
But if Ghajini or 3 Idiots were SRK films โ you know how it will be. Every day, every minute an update. You will get collections from Indore to show how great Indore is. You will get collections from Kanpur to show great Kanpur is. You will get occupancy from Lucknow compared to other films.
Even on PK they never released any update on evenings for each day of its run. For BB there has been an update each evening. For HNY an update each day for like 20 days!
Donโt get me wrong โ one should not lose sleep over things like this. Just calling out how I see it and I do not care to the extent that grieves me! It grieves me that people โacceptโ this and promote it!
I know when I visit BoxofficemojoโฆI will get an update pre Friday and Sunday. It is equally โresponsibleโ and very factual. If itโs raining, itโs raining. Its โacceptedโ that way โ its not used to reduce another films total. There is clear understanding of demographic, the costs of the film and the performance. Trends are clear. Expectations clear. There is very little opinion.
Look what they did with Kickโs pre-Eid opening day โ they came up with some model to suggest it was like a 30 crore opening!!!
These are just subtle things but very obvious when you piece it over a number of years. A certain tone exists. A resistance to certain stars and adulation for others.
A narrative is as important as the facts that go along with it.
Sly is the best way to describe the site. The numbers have improved for sure, but the slyness still exists.
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July 29, 2015 at 2:55 PM
jayshah…check out this Q&A on BOI on December 27…just a couple of days after 3I released. Take a look at the last Q&A. If this is not ‘excitement’, I don’t know what is….
http://www.naachgaana.com/2009/12/27/the-sort-of-success-aamir-has-seen-in-2008-2009-has-never-ever-been-seen-by-anyone-else-in-the-history-of-hindi-cinema/
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July 29, 2015 at 3:32 PM
One swallow does not a summer make..! I can find you Fox statements that are positive on Obama!
They have the ‘anyone but Bachchan policy’. They prefer Aamir to the Bachchans but they’re not ‘kind’ to him the way they are to Salman or SRK or Akshay (even Devgan in certain cases). Once they favored SRK hugely because he was the guy with the high profile films and consequently the big grossers. But even then they were very soft on Akshay. When Salman got into this current phase of his there’s no doubt that they’d rather have Salman at the top than anyone else. So on and so forth. Also on Aamir along with the entire media they were rather late to the party. After Ghajini or 3I you can’t exactly deny this sort of thing unless you’re a real idiot! But prior to this even when he had Fanaa and RDB in the same year they weren’t exactly jumping to give him credit. Much like Taran and Nahta and so on. There are certain clearly discernible narratives in this sense. I’ve seen them give Devgan or Ranbir a lot more credit with a lot less under their belts than Aamir had even before 2008. For them Emran Hashmi was some kind of important star! I could go on and on. Tomorrow if Abhishek has 3 200 crore grossers and they ‘accept’ it that will hardly mean anything because it’s a bit difficult to deny the obvious. But when it was about BnB or Guru or Sarkar or BM or whatever they were quite happy to do this. Of course in those days they also messed with the numbers. Plus Taran and co put up whatever they liked. These days everyone seems to be within 10% of the producer number. It wasn’t this way once. Secondly their commentary was terribly biased once. These days these do it with less venom but the pattern is still there. By the way I’ve also noticed over a long time that everyone online who’s really soft on BOI also has more or less the same choices in terms of stars. Whatever they might say they too give the benefit of the doubt to exactly the same people BOI do and vice versa. Aamir has never been a hot favorite with these folks. And you can see this elsewhere too. Depending on who the star is. They do it blatantly. Now of course one could argue that if the numbers today are more or less the same with all the sources what’s the problem? Well because the framing is dishonest. The numbers don’t exist in a vacuum. Narratives can be misleading. And some of the stuff is a ‘lie’ to begin with. It’s not just about the gross numbers. It’s also about saying stuff like ‘x film opened to 40% in morning show’ and ‘y opened to 10%’. In each case this is not an ‘average’, it’s about selective reporting. Similarly on the actual numbers. Jay has already pointed this out (incidentally I agree with everything he’s said) but they have an obsession with the North and specially the E Punjab territory. Probably says something about them but the largest territory Bombay is mostly underrepresented in all their write-ups. Then when a film is doing well they put up stuff from centers that they pull out of a hat. Nahta does the same. He’ll say anecdotal stuff like ‘x film all sold out at a morning show in some Jaipur theater’! Look at it this way. Does anyone every report things this way in the US or the UK or any other professional industry? No. If you can’t verify all the numbers first off stop pretending that a film grossed ‘24.75 crores’ or whatever. Yeah right. To be that accurate you need a completely verifiable system. When you don’t have this how do you have such a precise number? All of these guys are compromised or corrupt or both. I’m not saying that people start believing a film is a hit or a flop based on what these sources say (though a lot of times their narratives are disseminated in the media) but it’s dishonest whether that dishonesty ultimately carries the day or not. I know for instance that a lot of this stuff is really for online consumption in the sense that out there audiences aren’t exactly hanging by every word of Taran’s or Nahta’s much less that of BOI. But still it should be pointed out. A stray statement here or there doesn’t mean anything (of the sort you’ve pointed out). Even when Salman was nobody and had releases like Garv BOI would try their best to give these a positive gloss. The thing is that there’s a difference between being a fan of a star and putting up stuff on him all the time and quite another when you pretend you’re a box office source and behave in the same way. When MS Dhoni puts up every single tweet on Salman I don’t have an issue with it at all. He’s a fan, even when he gets carried away one can argue with him but there’s no other agenda here. With those box office sources it’s completely different. These guys behave like total fanboys. By the way the Q&A on BOI is quite often their most ridiculous section. It’s often hard to believe that people are even asking those questions. Most of them sound made-up.
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July 29, 2015 at 3:13 PM
this is BOI’s report BEFORE the release of the movie. Show me another one like this that they have done for another star!!
http://www.naachgaana.com/2009/12/24/three-idiots-all-set-to-embark-on-huge-start-2/
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July 29, 2015 at 3:23 PM
and now from the archives of satyamshot….do read Satyam’s comment on December 28 @ 4:43 PM. Proofs my point!!!
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July 29, 2015 at 3:39 PM
actually it doesn’t because it takes this kind of grosser for them to be so big on Aamir! It’s like someone giving SRK credit for DDLJ or Salman credit for HAHK! In fact I’d say that when BOI go ‘mad’ as I said in that comment it’s a sign of just what the magnitude of the success is for Aamir (in this case). But with other stars they go ‘madder’ with far less. And then they make excuses of the kind they’re making here for Bajrangi. Recently they had some good reports on Piku. That doesn’t prove anything either. Actually to even have to prove BOI is biased is a bit like having to prove Fox isn’t ‘fair and balanced’! And let’s not even get into the subject of how many films they’ve reduced their initial numbers on weeks or months after the event. Suspiciously this happens more with certain stars. I’ve been following them from day 1 and it’s easy to see what they’ve been upto. Why you should insist on the opposite is a mystery to me. Very few believe anymore that they’re aboveboard. Incidentally I’ve been saying this for years now that it was only after Ghajni and then specially with 3I that the media/trade in general started giving Aamir a lot of credit. but that proves the point!
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July 29, 2015 at 3:24 PM
here is the link
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July 29, 2015 at 3:24 PM
*proves my point*
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July 29, 2015 at 3:52 PM
My issue is that BOI’s commentary is given way too much coverage here but no one really disputes their numbers which is what their site should be all about…but if we are going to start giving importance to their commentary then we have to look at the history. I have seen them go orgasmic with other movies and stars as well but my point of giving all these links was that their BB reporting is really nothing compared to 3I. I can go back and look up their hysteria over Ghajini as well. Yes..they do sometimes give idiotic 13th day Happy New Year type of figure but I don’t see them having a bias in favor of any big star. Again, their most ‘exciting’ commentary usually comes with box office record breakers of some typle (Ghajini, 3I, Dabbang, D3, PK, and now BB). Don’t recall them going crazy over any SRK movie (for obvious reasons!!). Can’t fault for them getting a little excited when a Roudy Rathod or Happy New Year get some big numbers.
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July 29, 2015 at 5:05 PM
I don’t agree at all but we’re going in circles.
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July 31, 2015 at 3:06 AM
I must confess that it’s to Satyam’s credit in exposing what Boi is up to by reading between the lines through their “astute and prevaricated” commentary. Their commentary is so full of dishonesty and knavery that it seems as if they are politicians not willing to yield an inch to the opposition! I’ve got very many examples to cite just to prove how desperate they get when anyone not named Aamir seems to be going ahead of him, they’ll throw away such adjectives that it appears as if “Renaissance” is on the corner!!
And Shahrukh has always been their darling, which is easily evident by their shady verdicts in recent updation of the data. Mangal Pandey has been given a flop verdict but Paheli is below average, until this MP was always an average and Paheli a flop in their verdicts. RDB is just hit and Shahrukh’s all expensive movies despite their miserable performance have been given way too much leniency by giving them hit and semi-hit verdicts. Take Ra-1, KANK, MNIK, HNY,Don, Don-2 for example, all of them are big budget movies and in most cases recoverd their investment or made some small profit, but nowhere did they do such business to be declared clean hits. So one has to be smart enough to make out their moot commentary and verdicts. Numbers alone can not prove anything but contexts can, so they don’t limit themselves to giving data but keep coming up with idiotic and moronic commentary just to undermine indisputable successes and aggrandize their own favorites ( case in point is their stupid attempt to belittle Bahubali’s grand success).
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July 31, 2015 at 4:16 AM
Try telling anyone here in Mumbai that Ra-1 or Happy New Year is a hit — you will be greeted with derision!
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July 29, 2015 at 8:15 AM
http://www.koimoi.com/bollywood-news/revealed-kareena-kapoors-look-as-ki-in-r-balkis-ki-and-ka/
Kareena’s new look.
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July 29, 2015 at 9:19 AM
http://www.filmfare.com/news/meet-kareena-as-ki-from-balkis-next-10017.html
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July 29, 2015 at 11:22 AM
Deepa Mehta’s next…looks quite mediocre-
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July 29, 2015 at 9:54 PM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had its first noticeable drop since release on Wednesday which was the 13th day. The collections on Wednesday will be around 7.50 crore nett which is around 20% less than Tuesday. The collections till date around 265 crore nett
This will probably mean the second week finishing at around 88-89 crore nett which is the second highest second week total of all time after PK which grossed around 96 crore nett It will leave the film around 5 crore nett short of the two week total of PK. It is quite a lot of ground to make up but not impossible.
The business in Delhi /UP is still on a phenomenal run with its business being better than Mumbai circuit. Delhi / UP probably has best chance to surpass PK out of the main circuits.
Boxofficeindia
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July 29, 2015 at 10:02 PM
It’s not going to get anywhere close to PK though it will of course cross 300. And let’s give a shout out to Aamir here whether people like it or not. Salman is not likely to do a better film than Bajrangi and he still cannot get close to PK despite being ahead in the earlier stages. Could he do it with Barjatya? Sure. But then I hope will also take points away for the ‘family genre’ the way they have been for PK!
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July 29, 2015 at 10:35 PM
slightly disagree here satyam – salman’s best will be rajshri’s Prem……..and the stage is set for a massive massive box-office result there – a family film coming from a superstar who has just delivered a 300 cr and sooraj+salman combo is the most lethal one………..
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July 29, 2015 at 10:41 PM
What about Sonam Kapoor?
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July 29, 2015 at 10:51 PM
actually those who weren’t around then don’t know just how much HAHK became a Madhuri deal post-release. It was universally called her film more than Salman’s and the proof of this is the fact that even after this Salman’s career didn’t go anywhere. He’d already had failures by then and this film despite the historic success did nothing to give his career a new direction.
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July 29, 2015 at 11:05 PM
The time of Chopras, Barjatyas and Ghais is done. They can still make good movies but they are past their peaks.
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July 29, 2015 at 10:46 PM
my point is a different one.. if one is going to take points away from Aamir for scoring big with family-friendly genres then one should do the same for the Barjatya film.
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July 29, 2015 at 10:49 PM
And though this film might well be massive I’m still not willing to take this at face value for the simple reason that HAHK was 21 years ago and HSSH the followup didn’t do great after a big initial (which was nonetheless enough to make one of the big grossers that year). Now I do concede that this is the right time for that film given how Salman has drawn the family audiences in with Bajrangi. But it remains to be seen how sharp Barjatya still is. It’s possible that he’s found new inspiration with Salman after all these years but I can’t take this on face value. The film being big is not in question here, every Salman film is huge in that sense. This will also attract a larger audience but as we’ve seen time and time again it’s not easy to get to the biggest grosses without a film truly connecting in some important sense.
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July 30, 2015 at 7:27 AM
Salman in a double role is an additional USP in PRDP – http://www.premratandhanpayo.in/2015/03/salman-khan-playing-a-double-role-in-prem-ratan-dhan-payo.html
being a diwali release – 12 Nov’15 – this one is going to be massive
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July 30, 2015 at 7:47 AM
yes but note what’s happening here. Barjatya is trying to make the film a bit more masala, perhaps as a nod to Salman’s current image. But is this the sort of terrain that he’s completely comfortable with? A family masala mix if done right could be huge because it would please all the demographics but is Barjatya the guy for the job? Remains to be seen. Note how he was completely out of his league when he tried the Yahsraj deal in MPKDH even though this was a remake of Chitchor and an easy one to get right. The second half was fine but the first half was miserable. In any case on the current film and though I don’t mind Sonam myself she’s an odd fit for a Barjatya film. In any case there are enough unknowables here from Bajratya’s form after all these years to the lead actress to the masala elements (for Barjatya) that simply saying it will be the biggest involves a leap of faith.
And here I’d repeat a certain point. Without inflation (real and otherwise) becoming a significant factor the initial can’t just keep going up significantly with each new huge release. Even maintaining huge numbers for 7-10 days is very possible assuming a certain WOM. But it becomes tricky after this. As we’re seeing with Bajrangi relative to PK. And PK isn’t even 3I. This by the way is another bit of dishonesty with all the current comparisons. Everyone talks about how much more Bajrangi might have done if x, y and z had happened/not happened but everyone avoids the obvious question of how much 3I would be worth today. It would minimally be a 400 crore film if not more. Ghajini itself would be way ahead in this sense. The point I;m trying to make is that trending is very important. Jurassic World is at 630 currently or whatever because of trending and not just because of massive opening numbers. No matter how extraordinary the initial it alone can never get you to the biggest totals. People are just too foolish or too partisan to realize this. Why was Bachchan so extraordinary? Not just because he got the biggest opening numbers but also for the reason that his films minimally ran for a certain period of time even when they were ‘flops’. The standards of trending change over time but ‘some’ standard has to be in place. And even today with all these big bang initials we see films falling short of the highest grosses all the time despite beating previous numbers on the initials.
I’ve seen people says tons of times for years now about how every such new big release with SRK (and in recent years with Salman, sometimes even with hrithik) is going to beat the existing benchmarks (usually an Aamir one since Ghajini) but it never happens. Any of these big films is always well-placed to do it on paper and of course the initials confirm this. But then there are speed-breakers along the way. Because the films are usually not good enough. Bajrangi though is an interesting case study because here the WOM is very strong and everyone has loved it (barring Saurabh I haven’t come across anyone who hasn’t liked it). And yet the film is going to fall short of PK. In many ways this comparison is much more problematic for the Salman partisans. Specially those who also didn’t think PK was anything great. Because in the past one could at least say ‘Salman’s films are not great, it’s all because of him, wait for the right script’. Well here you have the right script! And the film is even crossing 300. It could hardly be said that some disadvantage kicks in after 300!
anyway think about how many times you yourself felt a srk or salman film would break all records. could a Barjatya film do it? Sure. But it’s not a given. And by the way folks in the trade and elsewhere should save themselves the diwali excuses (‘oh Diwali is actually a bad time to release films!’ I’m only exaggerating slightly!)
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July 30, 2015 at 8:51 AM
Barjatyaโs record is pretty strong, but the last time he directed was nearly a decade ago and last โSalmanโ he directed some 16 years ago.
To me itโs a question of how current he has remained in this time without losing all the values that make his films liked. With MPKDH he tried to sex up proceedings and it was a trainwreck. With Vivaah he returned to form but it was a film with little ambition and was not a lavish scale like MPK or HSSH or HAHK.
But his films have always formed around family values, principles and values. The modernisation, growth, technological leaps India has taken over the last decade + has changed many things. His core values still remain but they are taking new forms and guises. Has he moved with the times and is he capable of making a simple film that can be consumed by todayโs audiences or will he make something out of the 90โs and hope that nostalgia kicks in. Or will it be quite regressive. A whole generation has passed by and a family drama like HAHK is not easy to pull off โ I would be quite impatient with a film like that nowadays. Films like Baghban are the closest you get. He will need to invest in some currency in re-invention here to really knock one out of the park. I am sure Salman will keep his end of the bargain, the last trope he wore in Barjatyaโs HSSH, I found him quite refreshingly subdued. And I really am not a fan of Sonam, so she wonโt excite me like previously Madhuri did. Heck I even thought Sonali Bendre was quite fine opposite Salman, normally quite a wooden actress her quiet demeanour suited her role.
But it really boils down to whether Barjatya has grown up with the audiences or whether the audiences can resonate and identify to a past world.
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July 30, 2015 at 7:28 AM
music has been one of the main USPs of Rajshris – lets c what HR has done with PRDP this time – http://www.premratandhanpayo.in/2015/06/prem-ratan-dhan-payo-songs-have-salman-khan-style-himesh-reshammiya.html
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July 30, 2015 at 9:29 AM
Barjatya’s type of family dramas will always be huge in India. No one expected Vivah to do anything when it came out yet the movie was a big hit and had a great trending. The only time Barjatya has really failed is with MPKDH when he tried to change his style. Lesson learned! This one has absolutely everything working for it. Salman, after BB, now isn’t just about Dabbang type of movies anymore. With Barjatya, presumably good music, and the biggest holiday of the year….sky is the limit here. This one has the potential to shock the box office in a big way. Do not underestimate a family drama with a top tier supestar.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:28 AM
I think it will get to within 10 to 15 crores of PK at this rate in BOI. Not sure of producers numbers.
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July 30, 2015 at 10:33 AM
there is one more side to salman we saw before the release of BB – he went all out to market the film unlike earlier films – ok so he was a producer there but barjatyas are a riot when it comes to market the film – vividly remember they had informed all the exhibitors to clean up their theaters if they wanted to release HAHK in their theaters! and they all obliged……….i m sure Sooraj is not dumb not to cash on salman’s current form………..
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July 30, 2015 at 2:03 AM
The drop is a tad fiction. Tuesday probably benefited due to schools so naturally a steeper drop would be expected on Wednesday.
But basically Thursday’s BB number will be more like PK’s 3rd Friday so it suggests its pretty tough from now for BB to challenge PK. It really needed to do the job over the first two weeks.
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July 30, 2015 at 12:54 AM
@Salman is not likely to do a better film than Bajrangi
Satyam I don’t know how to dig earlier comments. But after Ek tha Tiger (ETT) you said it is unlikely that Salman would cross ETT figure in future but he done it twice.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:13 AM
Inflation? Increase in ticket prices? Increase in population? Increase in popularity?
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July 30, 2015 at 3:26 AM
pretty sure satyam was referring to the quality of BB. BB is his best reviewed film and it still will fall short of PK.
IMO his last really good film was Dabangg, but apparently BB is better than that. I don’t think the Rajshri film will be any where near as good quality wise. I’ve never really enjoyed Sooraj’s ‘brand’ of movies. It will be a candy floss film and the initial will be huge but it will probably come crashing down.
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July 30, 2015 at 3:35 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan is way better than Dabangg: the latter was a lot of fun but did seem abrupt at points (the whole falling out with Abhinav Kashyap and subsequent editing/re-shooting left a mark somewhere). Bajrangi isn’t much longer, but is better crafted. That being said, Dabangg features a much more memorable Salman-persona,and the one he will likely be most remembered for…
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July 30, 2015 at 3:59 AM
Itโs way better on some aspects. Dabangg has a superior soundtrack and a Salman character that is bonafide fun. But BB, I would be surprised to hear if anyone thinks there is a better Salman film this side of the decade to be honest. Itโs far superior to anything post Dabangg for sure. Iโd say the legit reviews and responses are not exaggerating here too much – the film is damn good and worth a watch.
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July 30, 2015 at 1:43 AM
This is far and away the best motion-poster of an Indian film…just brilliant (even better than the film)-
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July 30, 2015 at 2:03 AM
“Tamil actor-filmmaker R. Parthepanโs daughter R.S. Keerthana is currently assisting filmmaker Mani Ratnam on his yet-untitled Tamil project, which features Karthi and Dulquer Salmaan in the lead roles.
http://www.canindia.com/2015/07/parthepans-daughter-to-assist-mani-ratnam/#
โKeerthana is one of the assistant directors on the team. Sheโs currently busy auditioning the supporting cast for the project,โ a source from the filmโs unit told IANS.
Interestingly, Keerthana made her acting debut as a young girl in Ratnamโs critically acclaimed 2002 Tamil drama โKannathil Muthamittalโ.
The team is currently on the lookout for the heroine. Actress Keerthy Suresh is one of the top contenders for the role.
The project will go on floors in December. “
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July 30, 2015 at 5:18 AM
This week will see a major release in Drishyam but it may have to play second fiddle to Bajrangi Bhaijaan which will be in its third week but still may outdo Drishyam. Bajrangi Bhaijaan dropped for the first time on Wednesday but it should still get a solid third weekend. Especially if the trend is like last week when Saturday and Sunday saw huge growth.
The Friday will be interesting and it is not of the question that the Bajrangi Bhaijaan 15th day can be better than the first day of Drishyam. Drishyam looks a Mumbai circuit film with not much for North and East India so collections in North and East will most likley be better for Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
There will not be much between the two films on Friday as Drishyam does not look like opening and Bajrangi Bhaijaan is on a steady run. For Drishyam it is about word of mouth and a huge jump will required on Saturday but even here Bajrangi Bhiajaan will compete as it is sure to get a huge jump on Saturday.
Drishyam will have paid previews starting at around 8pm on Thursday with multiplexes having 1 or 2 screenings.
Boxofficeindia
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July 30, 2015 at 5:47 AM
i wonder after all the hype and BO furore – drashyam will hold any appeal at all…………it is coming at a wrong time?
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July 30, 2015 at 8:17 AM
This is how Aamir is preparing for his role in Dangal http://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/this-is-how-aamir-is-preparing-for-his-role-in-dangal/article1-1374639.aspx
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July 30, 2015 at 10:26 AM
I’m waiting to see Aamir play a dead man’s role and for the preparation lying inside a grave for days to get into the mind of a dead person ๐
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July 30, 2015 at 10:35 AM
ha ha – he must do a biopic of Manmohan desai in that case ๐
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July 30, 2015 at 8:31 AM
Film like this would need a better director not sure if Nitesh tiwari is the right guy hope Aamir pulls it off .
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July 30, 2015 at 9:31 AM
Aamir has made a career out of making ordinary directors extra ordinary!
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July 30, 2015 at 4:36 PM
Gyllenhall seems to be in form currently
& here …
Reminds me of his sis Maggie…
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July 31, 2015 at 12:05 AM
Inflation? Increase in ticket prices? Increase in population? Increase in popularity?
I think Wo bhi janta hoga ye batain aisa dawa karne se pehle.
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July 31, 2015 at 2:14 AM
Bajrangi Bhaijaan had a huge second week of 87 crore nett apprx which takes the two week business to 270.50 crore nett in two weeks. The second week is the second highest of alltime after PK which grossed 96 crore nett. The total of PK after two weeks was 277.50 crore nett.
The collections of Bajrangi Bhaijaan had noticeable falls on the 13th (Wednesday) and 14th (Thursday) which has probably meant that it won’t beat PK and become the highest nett grosser ever unless the third weekend somehow goes to 25 crore nett plus which would mean it is still in the race though this is very unlikely.
The 300 crore nett benchmark is there for the film and may come before the end of the third week, if not then in the fourth weekend. More importantly it is on course to set all time records in quite a few circuits and if it holds well enough to do this then the film will stand amongst PK and Dhoom 3 as the three All Time Blockbusters of this decade.
Boxofficeindia
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July 31, 2015 at 2:38 AM
I’m doing Aamir khan’s next movie which is very music based : AR Rahman http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/interviews/a660380/ar-rahman-interview-the-mozart-of-madras-on-the-greatest-lesson-hes-learned.html#~pjZJzxxbgphJnQ
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July 31, 2015 at 2:43 AM
Is it for Dangal or some other future movie?
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July 31, 2015 at 2:48 AM
Cant be Dangal think Its Aamir’s next production ‘Aaj Phir Jeene Ki Tamanna Haiโ http://www.media247.co.uk/showbiz/aamir-khans-next-titled-aaj-phir-jeene-ki-tamanna-hai-2015
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July 31, 2015 at 2:51 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/Aamirs-manager-Advait-Chandans-directorial-borrows-its-title-from-Guide-film/articleshow/47562637.cms
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July 31, 2015 at 4:10 AM
Drishyam Has Very Poor Opening
Friday 31 July 2015 13.30 IST
Box Office India Trade Network
[added to new box office post]
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July 31, 2015 at 4:28 AM
How biased! So BOI decides How much screens should a film have? they are miffed that their BB is getting less screens because of Drishyam.
Some other site reported 23 to 24 percent occupancy.
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July 31, 2015 at 4:28 AM
Probably first time someone uploaded Jumma Chumma In London in full … This was released in theatres https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9keHms2OF4
Satyam, probably this deserves separate post.
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July 31, 2015 at 6:02 AM
have the entire thing on VHS…grew up watching it numerous times. Became an Aamir fan partly because of this show. The best part to me was when Big B brings Jaya out in ‘jiski biwi’… the names in this show are iconic now…no concert will ever come close IMO. Thanks for posting!
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