'My Name Is Khan' advance booking steady in capital

New Delhi, Feb 10 (IANS) Advance bookings for 'My Name Is Khan' may have been halted in Mumbai following violent protests by the Shiv Sena, but the cash registers are ringing in the capital for the Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol starrer.

Most cinema halls and multiplex chains had opened their ticket windows for the film Monday and have been receiving a positive response ever since despite the brouhaha in Mumbai over the film's release.

'We had opened advance bookings for 'My Name...' on Sunday. The bookings are quite decent as of now. We have sold about 300-400 tickets per day since Sunday for the entire weekend for the Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region). So in effect about 2,000 tickets have been sold in all - which is a good figure,' Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, told IANS.

Spice Cinemas has also been registering good advance bookings, says Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of the multiplex chain.

'The advance is very good as of now and we are going to run 25 shows per day. The maximum ticket price is Rs.175 and minimum is Rs.80. We are getting good response so far and it will be too early to say about the future of the movie. May be it heats up the counters and picks up like '3 Idiots' over the weekend,' said Awasthi.

Delhi-based distributor Joginder Mahajan says that the advance booking for 'My Name Is Khan' in Delhi is good, but comparatively lower than that of Vishal Bharadwaj's recently released 'Ishqiya'.

'Surprisingly, the bookings for 'My Name Is Khan' is just 60 percent of 'Ishqiya'. Probably because the subject has no tempo and there already have been movies based on the same subject like 'New York' and 'Kurbaan'. But the main advantage this movie has is that there is no big release before April,' said Mahajan.

Single screen theatres like Sapna and Sangam in south Delhi too are hopeful about doing good business by screening the film.

'We had opened our bookings for the film on Monday. We can't share details about how good the bookings are, but tickets are available,' said an official in Sangam.

A representative for Sapna Cinema said: 'The bookings are good so far and we are expecting good business from this film.'

Set in post 9/11 US, 'My Name Is Khan' is scheduled for release Friday. It has been in the news after Shiv Sena activists decided to 'ban' the film in Mumbai.

The decision came soon after Shah Rukh commented that Pakistani cricketers should be allowed to take part in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now bookings for the film have been shut in India's financial and film capital and the issue is being dealt with by politicians.