Bollywood's Top Production House Trying To Sabotage 'Paheli'

Bollywood's Top Production House Trying To Sabotage 'Paheli'
- Abid Let us know what you think about this story

It may come as a shock to many but it is true that Bollywood's top production house is trying to undermine the success of Shah Rukh Khan's 'Paheli' , pulling strings here and there (using its media clout). While the 10 crore budget movie that has earned close to 10 crore in just its first week from India (not talking about its overseas business for the time being) , it is being publicised as a loser and the usual Monday fall is being classified as a crash . Let us check out a few facts .

'Paheli' earned close to 2.25 crores during the first weekend in Bombay territory ( where it was sold for its highest price of 3.25 crores to Shri Ashtavinayak) and by the end of the week the total collections were over 4 crores . Trade usually dubs a weeks collections as good , if a movie can just about double its weekend collections . In Delhi-U.P. (the second biggest territory) the movie collected over 2.50 crores in the first week (was sold to Dharma productions for 1.75 to 2 crore) .

Smaller territories like Rajasthan (where it has mopped up over 40 lakhs from just Jaipur, Jodhpur , Ajmer and Kota and with a price of 30 lakhs that can only be called excellent ) , as also C.I. ( where it has done very well) are being ignored , while places like West Bengal (where 'Paheli' is not doing well) are being highlighted .

A top Bollywood distribution house ( also having a chain of theatres) reveals that it is Bollywood's top production house which is behind this and wants to prove that " It is us who rule the box-office and not any star in particular and we can even make stars out of non-entities ."

A top trade journalist , who a day earlier (while interviewing Shah Rukh for a leading Hindi channel) talked of " Excellent and humungous opening " , had just the opposite to say , after being 'contacted' by the production house .

While apparently the reigning superstar and the top production house are on the best of terms , the truth is just the opposite . It will be interesting to see how this game of one-upmanship proceeds from here !

As far as 'Paheli' is concerned , it is a safe bet for most of its distributors ( as the second week collections will demonstrate ) and Shah Rukh Khan has yet again proved that it is just not the NRI movies where he is the king , his magic can work even for off-beat movies !