BY ANAND GURNANI & KHUSHALI JOBALIA
Delivering 1.8 Crores (18 Million INR) at the box office over the first four days, Green Gold Pictures Animated Feature Chota Bheem And The Curse Of Damyaan which released across 252 screens in India with 474 shows is a runaway success! The producers of the movie believe that Bheem will deliver in a range of 6 (60 Million INR) to 6.5 Crores (65 Million INR) at the box office over a span of 3 weeks.
The Super Star luster of Chhota Bheem in combo with the magic of animation is truly casting its spell on audiences. The film which got into production in February and already released to the audience within 3 months has delivered an average of 80% occupancy despite the fact that a significant % of the shows allotted to the movie were slots of 12 noon or earlier in the morning.
Now with the strong response, the film has got more shows added and is also getting better slots.
Rajiv Chilaka, Director & Producer of Chhota Bheem and the Curse of Damayaan and the Founder MD of Green Gold shared, “Based on audience response, ticket bookings and trade pundit analysis, the films is going to go into week 2 and even week 3 as well. In fact the film is right now on a number 2 position on bookmyshow.com”
“It is very important to get your timing right,” shared Rajiv, adding, “IPL is on and hence not many big bollywood movies are releasing, giving us a cleaner play at the box office plus it’s the summer holidays season, it all comes together”
“As important as the numbers of the movie’s box office, is that kids who love Chhota Bheem now experience the excitement of watching their favorite character on the large screen. The value of brand Green Gold has grown multifold and even Chhota bheem is growing bigger” he further added.
Dijan Bose, Distribution Head, PVR Pictures said that, “The Box office collection of Chhota Bheem has been incredible. It has received more than 1.8 crores (18 Million INR) over the first four days. The movie kept on getting better and better, Saturday was better than Friday, Sunday was better than Saturday. Even though Animation is a small market, it has hit the box office beautifully. Chhota Bheem has gained better response than Department. Cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore has almost attained 100% occupancy for the shows, Delhi of approximately 50% and Mumbai with 60%. I was sure about response to be good, but seeing this response made me amazed, it was far more than expected. It is an amazing feeling to see such a positive and superb response”.
Sharing his exuberance, Rajiv Chilaka candidly shared, “Honestly we did not have any expectations from the market. We were prepared to lose everything in this one. But going by the present trends, the movie is all set to be a surprise hit at the box office. For us, this is the first attempt. Our fingers are crossed and we are hoping that this would be a big hit at the box office. This has been a very big learning for us. In the next movie, we are looking forward to going to a much higher level, with higher budgets, and make a larger movie. If Bheem succeeds it would be good for the entire Indian animation industry”
Indeed!