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Journalism of Courage
A Bollywood biggie and a time-tested Bengali institution are expected to lure the crowds back to cinema halls this week
We can blame it on the global recession, we can blame it on the Mumbai terror attacks but it all boils down to one thing— these are bleak times for film business. Sample this: of the five Bollywood films released last week, Maharathi, Dil Kabaddi, Meerabai Not Out, Oh, My God!! and Gumnam, not one managed to make an impact at the box office. Even recent Tollywood releases like Love Story and Chiro Sathi have hardly set the cash register jingling.
Yet, this Friday is expected to dispel the gloom at the box office. Bollywood’s most dependable messiah, Shah Rukh Khan, comes to the rescue yet again. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, which is King Khan’s first release of the year, is being looked upon as the Bollywood’s one big hope. “Rab Ne Bana De Jodi is definitely a huge film and there are a lot of patron enquiry for the film. Advances have opened and tickets are flying off the counters thick and fast so we are looking at a complete houseful this weekend,” says Captain Virendra Marya- Regional Director (East), INOX Leisure Ltd. Yash Raj Films too is going for the whole hog and has released as many as 1,200 prints including both analog print as well as digital cinemas, a spokesperson of Yash Raj said, adding that the order for prints in India is increasing by the day with a lot of excitement in the exhibition sector. The overseas release is the widest first day release of any Hindi film, with simultaneous release in USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, all over the Middle East.“Things haven’t exactly been upbeat for us, which is why Rab Ne… is such an important release. We all want to let our hair down and watch a real entertainer,” says Shunali Shroff of Fame Cinemas.
Giving the Bollywood Badshah company at the halls will be our very own Feluda, who travels to glitzy Hong Kong in his new adventure Tintorettor Jishu. “With the festive season setting in, all schools and colleges will remain closed for winter holidays so we are expecting record footfalls for Tintorettor Jishu. Moreover, Feluda is an iconic character in Bengal appealing to a diverse cross-section of audience predominated mainly by the family crowd,” says Virendra Marya.
Though it might not be exactly practical to pit these two releases against each other, Arijit Dutta, owner of Priya Cinema and Vice President of Eastern India Motion Pictures Association feels that in Kolkata films that appeal to the Bengali middle class have an enduring appeal. “Bollywood blockbusters create initial euphoria and then fizzle out. Feluda films manage sustained box office returns,” he says.
