Fenil’s Bollywood Talk # 489

WILL THE UNCONVENTIONAL ITTEFAQ SUCCEED?

Nowadays, a big film releasing without multiple events and interviews is unheard of. Such kind of massive promotional activities have become an indispensable part of movie business. At such a juncture, the makers of Ittefaq are releasing their suspense thriller with very little promotions! At one point, they had actually decided not to promote the film at all. But it seems like the buzz was very low. Hence, they had to come out and talk about the film. Earlier this week, the entire cast and crew attended an event which helped the film to an extent. Also, two of the film’s producers – Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar – gave an interesting print interview.

However, all these things still haven’t helped the film much. The buzz is still low. But it can massively pick up if the response is positive. It’s a suspense flick and such films can be fun to watch. Also the star cast is interesting – Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha and Akshaye Khanna. This is a remake of the 1969 film of the same name which starred Rajesh Khanna and Nanda in leading roles. It was produced by B R Chopra’s B R Films who have also produced this film along with Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment and Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. B R Chopra’s grandson Abhay Chopra is the director. It’s not a scene by scene remake and there have been some changes, including the climax and the identity of the murderer. The suspense is a closely guarded secret and that’s the reason they didn’t wanted to do promotions as they didn’t want anything of the film to be out. Not just that, they even cancelled the Thursday release of the film in Dubai, fearing that the suspense will be out. And yes, no pre-release screenings of the press either. It’s only on Friday when viewers will get first-hand the knowledge of the murderer.

The costs are limited and the chances of it becoming a flop are rare. But you never know in today’s times. Everybody expected Chef to underperform, but it hardly did 6-7 crore, which sent shockwaves. Ittefaq might not do that less but it needs to do at least around 25 crore and only then will the figures seem respectable.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE ITTEFAQ AND WHY? DO LET ME KNOW!

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