August 17th, 2007 
Deepak INDIAN FILMS: THE HIT AND MISS
Although ‘hit film’ and ‘successful film’ are terms that are used very lightly in the film industry, there is a marked difference between the two.
A hit film is one in which a distributor doubles his investment. If a distributor acquires a film for Rs 1 crore (including print and publicity cost), and it does a business of Rs 2 crore, it is termed a hit. However, if the film does not reach the Rs 2 crore mark, it is termed a successful film but NOT a hit.
For instance, if the film in question does a business of Rs 1.25 crore, it will be termed a commission earner (20 per cent of Rs 1.25 crore or, in other words, Rs 25 lakh is the commission). If the film does a business of more than Rs 1.25 crore but less than Rs 2 crore, it is termed an overflow film. In other words, a commission earner or an overflow film is termed a successful film.
HOUSE FULL:
In filmi (film related) parlance ‘opening’ is a term used to describe the first show and, to an extent, the first day’s collections. In the good old days, a fantastic opening denoted house-full shows everywhere. But full houses are a thing of the past now. With the number of cinemas in which a film is released increasing manifold and with multiplexes not restricting the shows of a new release to three or four a day, there is easy availability of tickets for every new film, even on the Friday of its release.
So a fantastic opening today may not necessarily mean full houses. What it does mean is “lots of money on the opening day because of the total attendance in all the shows put together at all the cinemas”. And so if you hear that a particular film has opened to bumper houses, don’t assume that tickets aren’t available at a cinema close to your house.
Tickets may be available openly in current booking and yet, it may be construed as an extraordinary opening or initial.
Now let’s have a look on the value of some of film stars.
AKSHAY KUMAR: Akshay Kumar can take solace in the fact that he was part of Namastey London but two things must’ve come in the way of his celebrations:
Firstly, Namastey London just about managed to scrape through and was not a patch on his line of recent hits including Phir Hera Pheri, Garam Masala and Waqt – The Race Against Time; and secondly; the real hero of the film was Katrina, not Akshay. But, this did not come in the way of Akshay demanding Rs 6 crore as his fee!
SALMAN KHAN: Salman Khan’s Partner had better partner success; otherwise his fans will feel let down. David Dhawan’s comic caper, a remake of the Hollywood hit, Hitch that stars the sexy Khan with Govinda, is due for release on July 20 and is carrying excellent under-production reports. Salaam-E-Ishq, Salman’s only release during the year so far, was hardly a film he could boast of, even if one were to overlook its box office performance.
SAIF ALI KHAN’s box-office standing didn’t take much of a drubbing only because his Ta Ra Rum· Pum managed to appeal to the audience in Bombay. He’d got more appreciation in Hum Tum and Salaam Namaste.
JOHN ABRAHAM and Bipasha Basu, of course, made more news for their off-screen, now-on-now-off romance than their onscreen histrionics. Even Deepa Mehta’s Water couldn’t do anything for John’s Hollywood career which refused to take off.
PREITY ZINTA was suddenly out of work. Yes, that’s the way it is for heroines. The bubbly Ms Zinta almost found her wings clipped – despite dating airline boss Ness Wadia. Her’ only release in 2007 so far is Jhoom Barabar Jhoom which, of course, didn’t add up to much. She’s had better luck in the past than she’s had this year. AISHWARYA RAI: followed up the super-success of Dhoom 2.1ate last year with Guru early this year. She didn’t have any release thereafter.
EMRAAN HASHMI‘S career may not be under threat of derailment but the debacle of The Train did not augur well for the kiss-happy actor who had no success to his credit but two misses (the other being Bhatt brothers’ Awarapan), besides, of course, lots of screen kisses. For TABU, the six-month period was quite eventful. After more than a year-long hiatus, she resurfaced in the very stale Sarhad Paar, followed by Mira Nair’s successful: The Namesake and the love story with a difference Cheeni Kum. Now, she may take an year off.
SANJAY DUTT: had the TADA court’s sword hanging on his head and, therefore, the industry was more bothered about the court verdict than the box office verdict of his starrers like Eklavya, Sarhad Paar and Shootout at Lokhandwala. AKSHAYE KHANNA and ANIL KAPOOR, who’ve become best pals after the former began working in the latter’s production venture, Gandhi My Father, suffered the same fate at the turnstiles because they had just one release – Salaam-E-Ishq! SHAHID KAPOOR could not follow up the success of Vivah with anything worthwhile. His only release in 2007 so far was Fool N Final.
For VIVEK, Fool N Final was bad news while Shootout At Lokhandwala at least salvaged his reputation. SUNNY DEOL, yet another hero of Fool N Final, tasted some success at the fag end of the six-month period when Apne hit the screens. . For BOBBY DEOL also, Apne was the only consolation after Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
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