Prosenjit’s ‘Jaatishwar’, first Bengali film to release in more than 20 cities

This is one of his most ambitious films and Bengal’s superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee was looking to a very good response to his last release Jaatishwar. But the unfortunate demise of Suchitra Sen on January 17, the day the film released, had even the ardent movie goers of Bengal mourning for the legendary actress.
“January 17 was a dull day at the theatres. People assumed that the theatres were shut. The film picked up on Sunday and PVR was houseful. One show at Inox Highland Park was packed while other shows had 85 per cent occupancy. So on an average there was a 70-85 per cent occupancy. One show at Priya, a single screen theatre, ran to packed house, while all shows at Nandan went houseful,” stated Chatterjee’s spokesperson. Meanwhile, Mahesh Ramanathan, COO and Head of Regional Movies, Reliance Entertainment stated that in Bengal the film is doing well. “Friday was a slow start being a week day but the box-office figures all over India have picked up by word of mouth publicity,” he said. While attributing the slow start to the legendary actress Sen’s demise, he said, “That cannot be substantiated.”
“On Friday, the day Jaatishwar released came the news of Suchitra Sen’s demise. In Kolkata, it was like the death of a family member. Even the TV channels ran programmes dedicated to her throughout the day. It was assumed that the theatres were shut as part of the mourning. Normally mine and Srijit’s (Mukherjee) films are packed to the house right from the opening day, but this time the film picked up at the box-office only on Sunday, with almost 88 to 100 per cent occupancy. We are hoping that by next week it will pick up further. The kind of response that we normally get in the initial week was not there. However in rest of India, mainly Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, the film is doing very well with 70-80 percent occupancy,” states the superstar who is reprising the iconic character of Antony Phiringee after 47 years since the release of the Uttam Kumar-Tanuja’s 1967 starrer by the same name. Jaatishwar is Reliance Entertainment’s biggest Bengali release outside West Bengal. For the first time ever, a Bengali film was released in more than 20 cities in India like Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Vashi, Delhi, Bangalore, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Patna, Indore, Raipur, Guwahati, Bhubaneshwar and Chennai. Outside Bengal, it was released with English subtitles. What makes it even more special is that this film is coming after two back-to-back hits of Prosenjit; Mishwar Rahasya and Hanuman.com. “The audience is looking forward to the director-actor team of Srijit Mukherjee and Prosenjit who have a record of hits in Autograph, Baishey Srabon and Mishwar Rahasya,” says the actor.
Talking about the pan India release, Prosenjit said, “Jaatishwar has a storyline that is very close to Bengal. Besides, the kind of network that Reliance has worked in favour of the film. Also every Bengali wants to watch Srijit and my work. Our main aim is to target the pan India audience, like Tamil and Telugu films do. And I think this was the right film to do so.”
Jaatishwar also stars Jisshu Sengupta, Swastika Mukherjee and others with Riya Sen in a guest appearance.