New Delhi: With the demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs 500 and RS 1000 denomination leading to a cash crunch in the country, there has been a sharp drop in footfall at cinema halls, says experts in film trade.
With the primary focus of the people being more on exchanging their old currency notes with the new ones, the footfalls at the cinema halls across the country received a severe dip on November 11 and 12, impacting the box office collection of the new releases of the week, "Chaar Sahibzaade: Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur" and ‘Rock on 2’.
Though Harry Baweja’s ‘Chaar Sahibzaade: Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur’ (RBSB) worked in some pockets and managed to draw a section of the audiences which it was targeting (in the Hindi and Punjabi belt), it earned Rs 1.75 crore on its opening day in Punjab and Delhi NCR.
However, what was more shocking was the audience response to ‘Rock On 2’, the sequel to the 2008 hit ‘Rock On’ which had created a strong Buzz in the run up to its release thanks largely to the popularity of the franchise and Presence of actors like Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal and Shraddha Kapoor.
'Rock on 2' met with a lukewarm response with earnings of just Rs 2 crore on the opening day.
Though, collections of the film yesterday were not yet available, trade sources said there was not much improvement over the opening day.Trade sources said the earnings were disappointing as the trade experts had expected the film to earn at least Rs 7 cr to Rs 8 cr on its opening day, considering the buzz around it and the popularity of the ‘Rock on’ franchise.
Trade sources also pointed out that the collections of ‘Rock on 2’ were lower than Farhan's last film ‘Wazir’, which had collections of Rs 5.57 cr on its opening day.The collections of the film on the opening day are even lesser than films like ‘Fitoor’, ‘TE3N’ and ‘Great Grand Masti’.
Those who are part of the cast and crew of the film admit that demonetization has adversely impacted the collections of the film.
Arjun who plays a key role in the film said that the producers of the film have suffered due to demonetization."Producer of my film Rock On 2 and the film has suffered because of this (demonetization ),'' Arjun said.
At the same time he supported the government decisions which he said would bring long term benefits to the country.''Sometimes you have to make some sacrifice.I believe and hope that this decision is beneficial in long run,'' the actor said.Producer of the film, Ritesh Sidhwani also accepted the adverse impact of demonetization on his film's collections.
He said they had thought about postponing the release, “It did cross my mind to push the release date of the film but it was too late, because our overseas delivery was already done.The movie had opened in Gulf so we would have got killed with piracy so if we would have shifted the India release piracy would have killed us,''the filmmakers said.
Though, the producers of the film hope that the collections are likely to pick up from tomorrow, trade experts feel that a similar situation is likely to continue in the coming days as well.They says that the decision of withdrawing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency from usage has certainly impacted the entire country; especially cinema business has gone for a toss.
Infact, the makers of ‘Saansein- The last Breath, an upcoming horror film that was also supposed to hit the screens on November 11, postponed the release of their film after Prime Minister Narendre Modi’s announcement.‘Saansein’ producer Goutam Jain decided to push the release of his debut to November 25. It will now release alongside the Shahrukh khan starrer 'Dear Zindagi'.(UNI)