Q. Which film will open better? 2.0 or Zero and how many screens will they release on?.

Moin Butt

A. That is difficult to tell as both will be in that 25 crore nett plus range. 30 crore nett will be the target for both but will be tough as Zero is not the killer initial type of film from the trailer even though it has Shahrukh Khan. 2.0 (Hindi) is a huge initial film but will have 12% business missing due to regional versions and on top most of the film is dubbed in Tamil with only Akshay Kumar speaking most of his lines in Hindi which will be dubbed in the Tamil version. If that South business was not missing for 2.0 (Hindi) then you would give the edge to 2.0 but now either can have the higher first day. The screen issue is not that important for Zero as its about getting that 45-50 crore capacity at the 900 multiplexes like Thugs of Hindustan. Then it will have the good collecting single screens, it does not matter if it does not go down to the Nampur's, Neera's, Nawabganj's or Nagina's of the country. 2500 multiplex screens and 1500 single screens will do nicely for Zero. The other 600-800 single screens will have very limited collections. 2.0 can do with a 5000 screen release but places like Nagarkurnool or Narsapur in Andhra or Nagarthpet in Mysore will not release the Hindi versions while a film like Race 3 releases in these places and gets decent collections also. The Hindi version can go to a little over 4000 screens on a best case scenario.

Q. Why is the film industry making content for digital like Sacred Games, Ghoul, Lust Stories and Mirzapur which will not be passed for screening in cinemas and television. Its all C grade sexually explicit content, is it because the industry has these sort of fantasies or is it because they think the West will like this? Iam sure the West has better programs like this and very few in India will watch this and the sexually starved will always prefer porn so it has to be the makers fulfilling there desires by making this rubbish.

Prakash Sharma

A. This is a good question and although we dont know all the above content is sexually explicit but it will be no surprise if it is. Its about the disconnect of a large section of the industry with the audience and the belief that sex enhances a product. A lot within the industry think the normal audience thinks like them and the media but as you rightly pointed most of the audience will not watch all this sort of stuff. This section of the industry and the media which supports it is basically the biggest disease in the industry. It has been slowly moved away from the film industry but has gone towards web content. The big players in the digital field also know this as 100 crore are given to films like Race 3 and Thugs of Hindustan while these programs which are originals however bad they may be get 10-15% of that outlay. Its not as if they are adjusting the numbers of these big films, after the fiasco of Tubelight you would expect Race 3 to get less but it picks up 20% more. The potential of digital is huge in India but for that explosion it has to be good clean entertainment. It will be up to Amazon and Netflix to find the good makers, at the moment they are getting the people who have flopped badly in films. The single fact is that the audience is one. A Tiger Zinda Hai will work in cinemas, television and digital. A Sacred Games will tank on digital, cinemas and television. All common sense but PR will play a different game.