eady for a crackling Diwali, India? You better be. For, with a staggering Rs 230 crore riding on Bollywood releases this week, this sure does
promise to be a blockbuster weekend. It’s virtually a cine feast this week with India’s first full-blown underwater adventure, ‘Blue’ (Rs 120 crore) clashing with Ajay Devgn’s ‘All the Best’ (Rs 70 crore) and UTV’s ‘Main aur Mrs Khanna’ (Rs 40 crore).
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Traditionally, Diwali has supposedly been the auspicious, gilt-edged week for Bollywood moguls who have specially tried to time their releases to cash in on the festival fervour. Most of the blockbusters from Yash Raj films and Karan Johar have earned their millions during the Diwali week. In fact, according to the industry’s urban legend, Shah Rukh Khan’s superstardom has been scripted mostly due to the festival of lights. Almost all his films which went on to rewrite box-office history — and create a mass hysteria — were released during the Diwali weekend.
If 1997 belonged to ‘Dil to Paagal Hai’, then Diwali 1998 saw the debut of one of the most prominent filmmakers of contemporary mainstream: Karan Johar, who burst on the scene with ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’. The film clashed with David Dhawan’s ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan’ and ended up as the bigger sparkler, overshadowing the Amitabh-Govinda comic caper with its indigenous Archie meets Veronica, loves Betty feel.
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Shah Rukh resurfaced again in 2000 with Aditya Chopra’s ‘Mohabbatein’, in 2004 with Yash Chopra’s ‘Veer Zara’, in 2006 with Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Don’ and in 2007 with Farah Khan’s ‘Om Shanti Om’. Needless to say, all these films have been box-office winners, having scorched all other films that clashed with them during the historic weekend. Remember Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Saawariya’ (2007) and the Salman-Akshay-Preity starrer ‘Jaan-e-mann’ (2006)?
In money terms, Aamir Khan too has had an unforgettable tryst with Diwali, which saw him catapulting into superstardom with ‘Raja Hindustani’. The film was released in 1996 and completely overshadowed the other big release, Raj Kumar Santoshi’s ‘Ghatak’, which failed to create magic despite Sunny Deol’s star power.
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The industry has all its hopes pinned on the three releases this week, specially as it hasn’t been a great year for Bollywood that’s still reeling under Rs 300 crore loss it suffered during the two-month strike. Also, there have been just five or six films that have created a buzz this year — ‘Raaz’, ‘Dev D’, ‘New York’, ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Kaminey’... Amongst recent releases, Salman Khan’s ‘Wanted’ leads with a three-week gross of Rs 57 over ‘Wake Up Sid’ and ‘Do Knot Disturb’, with first week collections between Rs 14-16 crore. So, who’s going to have the last laugh? Akshay
Kumar (‘Blue’), Ajay Devgn (‘All the Best’), Salman Khan (‘Main or Mrs Khanna’) or the audience?
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