The Shiv Sena hatred campaign against Shah Rukh Khan and his upcoming film ‘My Name Is Khan' is proving to be a blessing in disguise for the producer and distributor of the film, says a media report.
Industry sources say that earlier ‘My Name Is Khan' seemed to be a lackluster proposition in comparison to Aamir Khan's blockbuster ‘3 Idiots', but after the Shiv Sena raised its ante and decided to oppose ‘My Name Is Khan', the movie has been getting international coverage in the media and thereby increasing its box office chances all over the world.
In fact, when Sena activists forced theatre owners to remove the posters of the film from their premises it became national news and attracted all round attention.
Analysts say that even if Sena does not allow ‘My Name Is Khan' to be screened in Mumbai, it will incur a loss of around 30 percent of the whole collection. But it is likely to be more than managed by the collection from other parts of the country.
Observers feel that masses will throng to theatres to watch ‘My Name Is Khan' to find out the controversy themselves. Even otherwise the analysts feel that Muslim population is likely to make a beeline in India as well as Pakistan and countries of West Asia.
The NRI population residing in the US, UK etc, which is already a big fan of Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol-Karan Johar combination (recall ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai etc), will be thronging to theatres resulting in more revenue for the producers and distributors.
‘My Name Is Khan' was bought by Fox Star for a whopping sum of Rs 81 crore and to break even it must cross the magical figure of Rs 100 overall in the country.
Of these, around thirty percent comes from Mumbai. In the case of movie not being allowed to be screened in Mumbai, this amount will have to be recovered from the rest of the country, which has become easier after Shiv Sena's hate campaign against SRK and his film.
Even Aamir Khan's ‘Fanna' had not been allowed to be screened in the whole of Gujarat due to Aamir's views on Narmada movement. However, the loss of revenue in Gujarat was more than made up by collections from other parts of the country.
The buzz is Shah Rukh Khan is now unlikely to back down from his stand against Shiv Sena due to ego hassles. Now, the whole issue has turned out to be one of ‘ego' rather than business and the release of ‘My Name Is Khan' in Mumbai on February 12 has become quite uncertain. And all this, despite the fact that State Govt has assured full protection for the film.
Meanwhile, across the border in Pakistan, pirated copies of My Name is Khan have already done business worth Rs 100 crore in that country, reports Mid-Day.
A week before the film's release, Pakistani underworld gangs have released lakhs of pirated DVDs in Karachi for Rs 90 each and even uploaded the film on the Internet. Though Pakistanis had banned Khan's films after no Pakistani player was picked for IPL 3, his comments changed the situation.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria told MiD DAY that Pakistan's underworld is heavily into piracy of Bollywood films. Police sources said it has already marketed MNIK though its branches in Dubai, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.
Insiders informed that there is an ensuing battle between Dawood Ibrahim's brother Anees and Chhota Shakeel over the Rs 500 crore-per-film piracy business.
While Anees is assisted by A A Group (Ayaz and Anwar) in Pakistan, Chhota Shakeel runs an independent network from Karachi. Mumbai's Crime Branch first stumbled upon the syndicates when they arrested Ashraf Yonus Mumbaiya from his hideout near Masjid Bunder last October. He revealed that he had been paying the syndicates through a middle-man in Dubai.
Insiders informed that the master prints of almost all films are leaked by operators in Mumbai studios for around Rs 30 lakh per print.
Abbas from Mumbai and Jairam and Javed from Rajasthan dispatch the stolen DVD to New Delhi from where it is smuggled to Ayaz in Pakistan. It is then duplicated in Malaysia. The copies are then sent to Pakistan and enter India through the Rajasthan border. Local operators duplicate the copies to supply 500 pirated DVDs at Rs 110 each to about 1 lakh dealers. The dealers sell them at the rate of Rs 160. Chennai gets DVDs duplicated in Sri Lanka.
Shakeel's high-quality DVDs are sold in the city and Gujarat. Kolkata and North East India are supplied by Mansoor Bhai, the DVD kingpin in Bangladesh.
