Bollywood Business Talk with Taran Adarsh

By Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama News Network

There’s a direct co-relation between the incoming calls that I receive on a Friday, with the status of a film. If it happens to be a low-budget fare with no curiosity attached to it, my phone remains silent most of the times, except for a few regulars who, anyways, will never stop calling.

But if the movie happens to be a big-budget extravaganza starring the high and mighty or is helmed by a top notch story teller, the cell phone rings incessantly. Last Friday onwards, right till the time of writing this piece, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Expectedly, the discussions were limited to TASHAN, just TASHAN, only TASHAN.

Everyone I spoke to is in a state of shock. What went wrong? Let’s analyze…

* Akshay Kumar – in top form after a string of hits.

* Saif Ali Khan – riding high after RACE.

* Kareena Kapoor – stronger than ever after JAB WE MET.

* Anil Kapoor – back with a bang, post WELCOME and RACE.

* Add to it the name that once guaranteed house full boards from Day 1 itself – Yash Raj. Yet, TASHAN failed to drive into the viewer’s heart.

I wouldn’t like to get into the plusses and minuses of the film [already highlighted in the review], so let’s talk business. That’s what everyone’s keen to know.

A leading North India distributor/exhibitor and I got into a discussion over the financial implications of its no-show at multiplexes. “Do you think Yash Raj would be affected by a Rs. 8-10 crore loss? It won’t pinch them one bit,” he opined.

Agreed, Yash Raj has made a fortune with a string of hits, but in this business [or any business for that matter], every penny counts. TASHAN has cost ‘x’ amount to make and whether you accept it or not, the no-show at multiplexes means that they’ve lost out on a good chunk of revenue. Had the film opened at the plexes, the losses would’ve been controlled/minimal.

But more than anything else, TASHAN has hit the credibility of Yash Raj hard. Last year, RGV faced a major crisis when RGV KI AAG was mauled, ridiculed and written off. I saw and heard similar negative talk doing the rounds of the industry for TASHAN.

Yash Raj’s last three films [JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM, LAAGA CHUNARI MEIN DAAG and AAJA NACHLE] were forgettable ventures. But TASHAN will not be erased from our memory. Its non-performance will haunt us all through this year!

The second release of the week, SIRF – LIFE LOOKS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE, hardly saw any greenery at the ticket window. A damp squib!

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