Q. There has been much support from the trade and other organizations in the industry but the big stars like Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan have said nothing to support the film. Only if the industry is one can the industry survive against all these political groups.

A. The trade and these organisations can say what they like as are nobodies and nobody takes them seriously anyway. Now all these stars can only say let the film the release and then decide. They cant say the film is correct and go out in full support that way as just like the groups against it have not seen it nor have the stars. So by doing this you are basically doing the same as the groups by making a judgement before viewing. The voice of these stars will be taken seriously and you will be in trouble if you give full support and when it releases the rajputs see it against there culture.

Harsh Gupta

Q. Last week i read the Dangal v Bajrangi Bhaijaan article and i think you are giving too less importance to China. It is the biggest market for filsm after America and China should be taken account when saying how big a film is compared to other films.

A. China is irrelevant for Hindi films or at least 99.9% of them as most will not release there. The home market is what it is about and always be and despite China being a huge market it hardly matters until more Hindi films get numbers there. Aamir Khan in the Far East is a somewhat like what Raj Kapoor was in Russia and Easter Europe in the 50's.  The following may not be as big as Raj Kapoor but there is a following so at the moment only his films have chances of numbers.

J. Rao

Q. Can Padman crack the 200 crore or even 150 crore mark as you have said the theatrical is good and you said same about Toilet before release?

A. The film is not in that format where you can expect those numbers especially 200 crore. To get these numbers the films have to be bigger productions as at this level the opening to get over 150 crore is hard to get. You can have a superhit item song but that sometimes takes away from the content and the wrong audience comes which does not allow the film to hold. Eventually Padman is a small film in terms of production but the presence of Akshay Kumar and an earthy feel gives it potential of good footfalls against the other small films. The potential is Jolly LLB 2 or Toilet Ek Prem Katha number or a little higher depending on how the audience likes the content.

Mohan Bakshi