2009, one of the worst years for Bollywood in recent times, just got battered some more. Tuesday’s call for closure of all multiplexes for the next three days (see report in city section) means that one of the year’s most-awaited films, the UTV-produced Kaminey, takes a hit. Here’s why: Mumbai is the most lucrative film territory in the country. Seventy per cent of a film’s gross earnings in the first week comes from collections in the opening weekend and Mumbai accounts for 40 per cent of that.
In Kaminey’s case, for instance, the paid previews, a relatively new concept that allows one to see a film before official release at a premium, were all sold out. “We had paid previews at 12 locations in Mumbai and we will suffer a loss of around Rs 50 lakh per day on an average on account of cancellation,” says Devang Sampat, senior vice president, Cinemax. “However we are covered by insurance.”
The Shahid Kapoor-Priyanka Chopra caper directed by Vishal Bharadwaj was to be one of UTV’s big films of the year and is slated to be released across the world with 1,200 prints. The bigger the film, the more number of prints to saturate the market, which producers hope to encash in the first week itself on the strength of the hype built around it.
Both Mumbai and Pune are big markets for such films. Once the film has been seen elsewhere there is the danger of it getting stale and an even bigger risk is of piracy.
“The prints are out and people will be looking at getting pirated copies to Mumbai to satiate the curiosity, it can spell doom for a film,” says a trade analyst not wanting to be quoted. Something similar happened to another UTV film, Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye, which was released in the weekend of the November 26 terror attack when fear psychosis of another kind kept people indoors and away from cinema theatres. By the time Mumbaikars woke up to the idea of entering a cinema hall, the damage had been done and a perfectly good film paid the price for it.
Rumy Jaffrey, the director of Life Partner, the other film to be released along with Kaminey this Friday, said, “This is just a financial loss. The important thing is to safeguard everyone’s health. However, I would like to say that since the government has taken such a decision, it should also look into the piracy problem. I hope they try and stop pirated CDs and DVDs coming in to Mumbai.”
However, UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapoor still remains upbeat, pointing out that in the absence of any major release till September 18, Kaminey still stands a good chance. Vishal Bhardwaj, the film’s director, refers to the closure as an unpleasant surprise, but also points to the, “terrific buzz about the film all over India and the fact is that Mumbai and Pune are not all that India is about. Yes, I can’t deny that they are important, but I also can’t deny swine flu,” he said.
Sandeep Bhargava of Indian films which is releasing Life Partner also said that they were going ahead with the film’s release as it was too late to withdraw and push the release. “All our prints have been sent across India,” he said.
With just one mega hit so far – Love Aaj Kal – and the film industry still to recover from the two-month multiplex ban earlier this year, Bollywood’s run of bad luck continues.