Black is back

Friday, January 2, 2009
Black is back -gagini



The city last saw movie tickets being sold in black 7 years ago. Ghajini has brought touts back in business despite multiplexes

By Dilip Patel, Shraddha Singh and Megha Bhatt
Posted On Monday, December 29, 2008 at 03:08:35 AM


AM’s Dilip Patel (circled, right) negotiates for a Ghajini ticket with a tout outside Cinemagic in Odhav. (Above) Aamir Khan in Ghajini
Aamir Khan’s much-hyped action thriller Ghajini, which hit the cinema halls on December 25, has gone far beyond just setting the cash registers ringing in the city.

Running house-full in Amdavad’s multiplexes and single-screen theatres, Ghajini has achieved what another Aamir Khan starrer, Lagaan, managed to do in 2001.

Lagaan, along with Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar, ran to packed houses for weeks, forcing Amdavadis to buy tickets illegally from touts.

But after Lagaan and Gadar, no other movie, including Sanjay Dutt’s Munnabhai MBBS and Lage Raho Munnabhai, has managed to capture Amdavadis’ imagination over the last seven years the way Ghajini has done.

Over the past couple of days, movie tickets touts are in business in the city once again. With Ghajini shows packed for weeks in advance, tickets for the movie are being sold in the black market for more than double the actual price.

One of our correspondents paid Rs 70 for an officially-priced-at-Rs 30 upper stall ticket of a 6.30 pm show at Cinemagic cinema on Sunday. This single-screen theatre, located off Odhav highway, has seen a Rs 60 ticket for the 9.30 show of Ghajini going for as high as Rs 200, according to those living in the theatre’s vicinity.

The movie’s success has lifted the pall of gloom that had descended upon single-cinema theatre owners as well as multiplexes’ managements in the wake of the economic slowdown.

Estimating that approximately, a mind-numbing 15 lakh people from Ahmedabad alone have already viewed Ghajini in theatres and multiplexes since its release, Vinod Kankare, owner of Anupam Theatre in Khokhra area, likened the movie’s success to blockbusters like Sholay and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.

Said Kankare, “Ghajini is a path-breaking film on the lines of Sholay, which is Bollywood’s greatest-ever hit, and Rajshree Productions’ Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, arguably the best-selling social drama ever in Hindi film industry.”

Kankare said the hype around Ghajini’s lead actor Aamir Khan’s look and physique, and the secrecy about its plot contributed to the film’s success.


Tickets bought and sold away from counters at a theatre screening Ghajini on Sunday
According to the experts, Ghajini is expected to sweep in a gross of about Rs 200 million only from western India.

In Ahmedabad, every multiplex is showing more than 15 shows of the movie every day. And all the shows are running house-full. In fact, Fun Cinema in Satellite is screening 17 shows of the film while City Pulse in Raipur has been holding 19 shows.

Neeraj Ahuja, general manager (Gujarat operations), Wide Angle Multiplex, said, “We are running 18 shows of the movie and all are going house-full.”

According to R World mall’s assistant manager (operations), Jitendra Chauhan, the mall has earned Rs 5,52,582 from Ghajini between December 25 and December 28. He said, “Ghajini has been getting awesome response and tickets, at least for another week, will be difficult to come by.”

Rejoicing at some good news in the times of economic slowdown, Vandan Shah, owner of Rupam Cinema said Ghajini was a godsend. “The crowds’ response to Ghajini has been historical. Almost all the shows in our theatre are running to packed houses. For us, who run single-cinema theatres, we could not have asked for a better New Year gift.”