Ever since the announcement for ‘Rock On 2’ was made, there was a heavy anticipation among the cinebuffs as the prequel had left a long-lasting impact on them. However, little did the filmmakers know that when the much-awaited movie does hit theatres after three years of blood and sweat, it would receive a disastrous response at the box-office.
The musical that introduced Farhan Akhtar as an actor earned a cult status for itself. The film had built a loyal fan base and it was due to their unending demands that the makers decided to make a sequel to “Rock On” in 2013.
Unfortunately, just before the release of the 2008-film sequel, the government made an announcement following which even the ardent fans of the flick couldn’t make it to the theatres, or so the makers would like you to believe.
In the fight against black money, PM Modi decided to demonetise Rs 500 and 1000 notes and somehow the film also had to bear the brunt of the move.
In it’s first three days of release, ‘Rock On 2’ managed to mint just Rs 7.01 crore. Even though the trailer and the songs of the film haven’t been much appreciated either, the film would have earned this amount on its opening day itself, had it not clashed with the scrapping of big notes.
One of the producers of the film, Ritesh Sidhwani, said that the demonetisation has had an adverse effect on the box office collections.
If Excel Entertainment had prior intimation about the decision it would have pushed the release date of the movie, he says.
"People are busy queueing up outside the banks and even if they are able to get the new Rs 2000 note they are not able to get the change for it which is affecting the overall collection of the film. If we had any clue about the decision we would have definitely pushed the release date," Ritesh said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement on November 8 night but by then it was too late for the makers to change the scheduled release date as the prints were already with the cinema owners both in Indian and abroad, he says.
"We have made a beautiful film and by the time announcement was made, it was Wednesday and the prints were already out. We couldn't afford to push the release date as the privacy laws in our country are not strong enough to protect the movie from getting leaked. Our two years of efforts would have been wasted.
"But if the decision had come over the weekend, we would have pushed the release by weeks but that was not possible."
The producer hopes that the movie will be able to do well after Sunday as word-of-mouth is good.
"The film has received mixed critical reviews, but public opinion by large is positive. It is a true sequel and the story starts eight years later from where the first film ended. People have a connection with the film. We hope the collections will pick from Monday."
Ritesh says it is not possible to guess the monetary loss at this point of time but the decision has certainly hit the collections.
Starring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor, Purab Kohli and Shashank Arora, "Rock On 2" is helmed by debutant Shujaat Saudagar and is majorly shot in Meghalaya.
