BackOn 9 August, it’s ‘Chennai Express’ versus the rest
Shah Rukh-Deepika flick targeting over 3,500 screens in India, around 700 outside the country
Premium(The film will have a clean run in most of India, except Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, where competing releases are lined up. )
Mumbai: At least one underdog has emerged to nip at the heels of the Chennai Express top hound.
The only other movie that will dare to open on 9 August along with Chennai Express in Maharashtra is Rajeev Patil’s Marathi-language 72 Miles Ek Pravaas.
There is no serious contest between the two. The former is an escapist comedy packed with box-office magnets, including marquee names Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone and director Rohit Shetty’s reputation for laugh-a-minute comedy and elaborately choreographed action sequences, invariably featuring cars exploding in slow motion. The latter is a 1960s set drama, based on a real life story about a 13-year-old runaway who walks from Satara to Kolhapur.
Chennai Express is targeting over 3,500 screens across India and is the widest domestic release yet for its distributor, Disney-UTV, said Gaurav Verma, the company’s director, India theatrical distribution. Plans for 72 Miles Ek Pravas, a co-production between Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Grazing Goat Productions, will be far more modest. It will open in single screen cinemas and multiplexes located in neighbourhoods with sizable Marathi speaking populations, such as Parel, Dadar and Sion in Mumbai.
“I am not worried about coming on the same day as Chennai Express, since both the films have very different content," said Patil, who has previously directed rural dramas Savarkhed Ek Gaon and Jogwaa. His new movie, based on a section of Marathi writer Ashok Watsa’s book 72 Mail, follows a 13-year-old boy who flees his hostel in Satara and treks 72 miles to Kolhapur, accompanied by a woman who has similarly left home with her children.
Outside Maharashtra, Chennai Express will have a clean run in the rest of western India, the north and the east, since no other Hindi or English movie is being released on the same day.
The movie, in which Shah Rukh Khan’s generic northern male falls in love with Deepika Padukone’s generic Tamil female and faces the wrath of her strongman father, is the first in a series of big-banner titles to open during the festive season, which stretches from Eid till Christmas.
Krrish 3, the sequel to Koi… Mil Gaya (2003) and Krrish (2006) starring Hrithik Roshan, will lay its claim on Diwali spenders by opening on 4 November, while Yash Raj Films’ Dhoom 3, starring Aamir Khan in a negative role, will open on 25 December.
Shetty’s movie was originally scheduled for 8 August according to previous calculations that the month of ritual fasting—and abstinence from movie-going—for Muslims will end by that day. Releases on Eid-ul-Fitr in the past, such as Wanted (2009), Dabangg (2010) and Bodyguard (2011), have traditionally scored big bucks for filmmakers and leading man Salman Khan, who starred in all three movies. Paid previews for Chennai Express will start on Thursday night itself, extending the opening weekend takings from Thursday night to Sunday night.
Chennai Express is all set to become another multi-crore mopper, given the swirl of advance publicity, the carpet bombing of cinemas and enhanced weekend ticket rates at premium multiplexes. There’s more than prestige involved in crossing the ₹ 100-crore target for Disney-UTV, Shetty and Khan, who has co-produced the movie.
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s newly launched movie channel &Pictures has paid ₹ 48 crore for the satellite rights of Chennai Express for seven years. Jayantilal Gada, chief managing director of Pen India, who sources movies for the network’s channels, said, “Only about 40-50 movies of the 200-odd Hindi movies released in a year suit the requirements of the four main movie channels Zee, Sony, Star TV and Colours, and these are the ones on which we pounce."
The acquisition price is linked to box-office performance: if Chennai Express earns over ₹ 100 crore, &Pictures will pay an additional ₹ 2 crore for every ₹ 10 crore of the net collections.
In terms of screen space, Chennai Express will have to deal with previously released films that continue to entice audiences, such as the Milkha Singh biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag and the Marathi movie Duniyadari. In Mumbai, at least, these movies will continue to get screens after 9 August, said Girish Wankhede, general manager at PVR Cinemas and Cinemax.
“We won’t pull off a film that is doing well, whichever language it might be in," he said, dismissing recently reported concerns that Chennai Express would shunt aside Duniyadari. Wankhede was less sanguine about the prospects of 72 Miles Ek Pravaas. “If you are coming on 9 August, you should be aware that there is Chennai Express as well as another Marathi film that is doing well," he said. “Whether it’s Hindi or Marathi or English, the platform is the same and when there is competition, only the movie with good content wins."
Filmmakers, distributors, and programmers have had to engage in various contortions in recent years to balance the increased volume of releases with the number of screens in India, which is said to be around 9,000. The month of Ramzan, which is traditionally seen as a barren period for the box office, gives low-budget movies a once-in-a-year chance to sneak into theatres. By blocking dates in advance and grabbing as many screens as possible, giga-star and mega-budget movies only increase the backlog for smaller films.
Another kind of adjustment will take place in the southern territories, where Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala all have competing releases.
In Tamil Nadu, local superstar Vijay’s Thalaivaa (Leader) opens on 9 August, the same day as leading Telugu star Pawan Kalyan’s Attarintiki Daredi (Which is the Way to the Mother-in-Law’s House). In Kerala, at least four movies are targeting the lucrative Eid weekend.
Hindi movies have traditionally taken a back seat to local cinema in the South, and there is no doubt that Thalaivaa will hog the screens in Tamil Nadu on 9 August, as will Attarintiki Daredi in Andhra Pradesh.
However, Chennai Express has greater incentive than previous releases because of its storyline and efforts to publicize the movie in cities like Chennai. “Shah Rukh has been doing very well in the South for some time now compared to other stars," said Gaurav Verma. “This time, we will go a little wider because of his acceptance in the market." There are no plans to dub Chennai Express in Tamil or Telugu.
While it is healthy to have competing releases, the high-wattage nature of the Friday releases might cast a shadow on their earnings, said Swaroop Reddy, director, at the multiplex chain SPI Cinemas, which has screens in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
“In a way, it’s good to have all this content flowing in, but you might not be able to do justice to the maximum possible extent," Reddy said. “While it is unfair to tell people from another language to coordinate releases here, the fact is that if the three films had come a couple of weeks apart, each of them would have been showcased better."
The actual headache and heartburn will be felt in overseas territories, where the non-resident Indian population audience gets further divided on the basis of language preferences. “Overseas will be a bigger challenge than India," Reddy said. “In places where all three languages are equally popular, they will have to split the space between all three."
Vijay’s footprint is strongest in places like Dubai, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, while Kalyan has a huge following in the US and Australia, said Sreedhar Pillai, a Chennai-based critic and trade analyst. “All the screens across the world will showcase Chennai Express except Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, but the real problem lies overseas, where they will find it difficult to compete with Shah Rukh Khan," he predicted.
Not surprisingly, Disney-UTV has already made moves to corner the majority share. The company is targeting over 700 screens, at least 200 more than Yash Chopra’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan, which opened last December in over 500 screens. Apart from the traditional foreign territories such as the US, the UK, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, the movie will also open in Germany, France and Switzerland.
“In many countries, Eid and school mid-term holidays have made the next weekend one of the busiest in terms of the number of English and international language releases," said Amrita Pandey, executive director, syndication, international distribution and Disney Media distribution, studios, Disney-UTV. “In such a week, the number of screens, locations and shows we’ve secured for this movie gives it the right footprint."
Among the most unusual countries into which Chennai Express will roll is Peru.
Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, was the first Indian movie to get a delayed release in the South American country in 2010, followed by Guzaarish later that year.
Chennai Express will open in Peru on 9 August itself—a first for the Hindi film industry, but not the last, given its appetite for more screens and higher profits.
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