Back3 Idiots is India’s biggest film ever
3 Idiots is India’s biggest film ever
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New Delhi: Rising food prices haven’t affected ticket sales of a movie that has smashed all box-office records to emerge as India’s biggest Hindi film ever—in 18 days.
3 Idiots closed the weekend with a worldwide collection of Rs315 crore. The movie released in 40 countries, including India.
Its unprecedented crowd-pulling power is evident when you consider that Ghajini, the movie that is now second best—also an Aamir Khan starrer—took 13 months to gross Rs200 crore.
3 Idiots, a rollicking tale of three students coping with the pressures of an engineering college, is now taking in an average of around Rs17 crore every day.
“All our arithmetic, all our calculations have been proved wrong," said Taran Adarsh, a veteran trade analyst.
The success of the film comes at a time when the middle class is tightening its belt because of rising food prices. Last week, when 3 Idiots was shattering all records, food inflation was at an 11-year high.
When 3 Idiots released, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra told multiplexes to charge the highest rates possible.
“I remember people saying, ‘Who will pay Rs450 for a ticket at time when people are tightening their belts?’" said Adarsh. “It’s now the biggest grosser ever, and ticket prices just don’t seem to matter."
No one can clearly explain why the movie is such a hit.
“I have no idea how to describe what is happening," Khan writes in his blog. “Some suggestions and explanations, PLEASE."
Adarsh said the movie’s success is not easy to pin down. “All I know is this," he said, “when I first saw the movie with cast and crew, I came out and told myself, ‘Wow! I want to see it again.’"
The figures for 3 Idiots are not inflation-adjusted and so do not factor in pre-multiplex all-time hits such as Sholay or Gadar-Ek Prem Katha.
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