Bollywood business

Veer still going strong

A film embroiled in controversy often sees more business than a film that’s not had one, http://www.localphone.com/call/india?rb=4mxYybTp28BHU1qOd%2Fe6zFC17xWV2n9dxezWZlat7GP7Dq4Vjq81luHdgB506BPFXFcEQHlPaBtv4fROhthh9w%3D%3D with audiences turning up to watch the film to 

Khan during the shoot of Veer More Pics

figure out what the controversy is all about. 
And this seems to have worked for Veer too, the Salman-starrer period flick that saw better occupancy on Sunday, than the last week, in various cinema halls in Jaipur. The film ran into rough waters on Saturday morning when a representative group of the Rajput community, Karni Sena, protested against some dialogues used in the film that they feel are derogatory to Rajputs. 

But apparently, after the protests on Saturday, Veer saw more footfalls on Sunday in at least some of the movie halls in the city. Says Vikramaditya Maitreya, unit manager of Inox Vaibhav, where members of Karni Sena carried out protests against the film, “We have registered nearly 30 percent increase in the occupancy on our shows on Sunday, after the controversy sprang up. But I would also attribute the higher footfalls to the weekend.” Adds Ujjwal Srivastava, manager of First Cinema, “Since Veer didn’t witness a great opening, we were expecting a dip of 20 per cent occupancy in the second week. But surprisingly, the occupancy has gone up by 15 percent on all our shows on Sunday. I would attribute this to the controversy and the protests surrounding it. I think people are intrigued about the issue and the scenes that led to the controversy.” But there are some who say that the footfalls have remained unaffected, post the controversy.

Ashish Sharma, team leader operations, Entertainment Paradise, opines, “The controversy hasn’t changed the level of occupancy at all because in my opinion, in case of films, the word-of-mouth matters a lot. As the film isn’t a runaway hit, even the controversy can’t attract the audiences at this stage. And new films are also on from this Friday, and people are thinking twice before buying the tickets.” Similarly Vishal Kapur, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Fun Cinema observes, “Because of the ruckus created by the Karni Sena in our property, we had to cancel two morning show on Saturday. But police then provided protection and now things are back to normal. But the numbers don’t show any significant change in the occupancy. It is pretty normal.” However, on conditions of anonymity a source at Fun Cinema says, “Any publicity is good publicity. So this one has also worked in favour of the film and the occupancy has gone up because of increase in curiosity among Jaipurites about the movie. Usually, a film that has a slow start doesn’t see a rise in occupancy in the second week. But this has.”