'Khuda Kay Liye' starts well at box-office

Mumbai, April 7 (IANS) 'Khuda Kay Liye,' the first Pakistani film to find a theatrical release in India in a big way in over four decades, has got a decent opening here.

Released Friday, director Shoaib Mansoor's film about the predicament of Muslims has registered 40 to 50 percent collection in Mumbai till Sunday. While the collection in the city has remained at 40 percent, it has gradually been picking up in the suburbs.

Till Sunday, the collections reached 50 percent in all suburban multiplexes showing the movie.

Considering the fact that 'Khuda Kay Liye' was released in 25 theatres in Mumbai with 35 prints, the 50 percent collections mean that the movie has earned more money per print than some recent Bollywood releases.

'The movie has been released in 100 screens across the main cities of India with 63 prints and it has been doing well everywhere,' said Ashok Ahuja, director, Percept Picture Company, the movie's India distributor.

Shyam Shroff of Shringar Films, which released the movie in Mumbai for Percept, described the audience's response to the movie as 'very good'.

Shroff said the movie's collections would pick up further as the week progressed and its merits spread by word of mouth.

Percept planned the release strategy of 'Khuda Kay Liye' carefully so as not to raise expectations.

'In any case, given the movie's sensitive theme, it was never expected to get a bumper opening. But the response it has received so far is close to our expectations,' Shroff added.

Percept and Shringar knew fully well that 'Khuda Kay Liye' would gain popularity in India only through word-of-mouth publicity. Therefore, they did not try to create hype over the movie before its release.

The good opening is despite the fact that the chaste Urdu the characters speak is not easily comprehensible to the general audience.

According to trade analysts, 'Khuda Kay Liye' has achieved more at the box-office than some of the commercial Hindi movies do with a lot of publicity.

Ahuja said that the movie would be released in smaller towns in the coming weeks.

Starring Shaan, Fawad Khan, Iman Ali, Rasheed Naaz and Naseeruddin Shah, the film was huge success in Pakistan.