Shocking! Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani to be premier

By Subhash K Jha

The year-old fledgling but flourishing channel Colors is really on a eyeball-grabbing spree. After premiering the big-budget underwater caper Blue on Sunday November 29 barely two months after its theatrical release October 16 Colors has now acquired this year's mega money-spinner as their yaer-ender whammy.

Unlike Blue which sank without a trace at the boxoffice Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani released in theatres on November 6, is a blockbuster, putting Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in the bracket of the super-A listers.

Naturally Colors has paid almost double of Blue for Ajab…almost 4.5 crores for first-satellite screening rights.

It's expected to be telecast in the last week of December.

Telecasting such a whammer so prematurely could be a sign of the desperation that has crept into the entertainment industry.

The Ajab Prem… producer Ramesh Taurani of Tips seems unfazed by the boxing of his blockbuster.

Says Taurani, "The satellite premiere of Ajab… is happening at December-end which is two months after its theatrical release. The theatrical business nowadays is anyways for four weeks, however successful the film."

Does the telecast of two almost-new mega-budget films on Colors signal a trend towards shrinking the theatrical life-span of new releases?

Not quite. A highly-placed source at Colors says that after Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani the channels would cease to telecast almost-new releases.

Says the source, "With Blue and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani we wanted to enter the feature-film slots with a bang. So far we had desisted from telecasting feature films.

Once we decided to show films we had to grab eyeballs immediately. And to do so we needed films that would elicit instant reaction. Having got that with two new biggies we'll now settle down to telecasting less recent films."

The movie business can heave a sigh of relief.

However the trend may catch on and cause immense harm to the prospects of new films that have a longer shelf life than the average release. When Sohail Khan's Main Aur Khanna was screened on satellite just two days after the film's release there was dismay in the film trade.

Says a young director on condition of anonymity, "When Colors showed Blue it was on some level justifiable since the film tanked and had no shelf life. But Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is still running houseful in many centres. Now I'm scared my small movie when it releases in theatres in two months will have a simultaneous satellite screening. I just hope my producer sees sense."

Says Anees Bazmi, "This is not a healthy trend at all." But Sajid Khan begs to defer. "It's definitely healthier than downloading the film on the first day of release free of cost on the internet."

Adds Mahesh Bhatt, "Change is inevitable. Bend like a bamboo and you'll survive. Resist like an unyielding oak and you'll perish."

But Suneel Darshan has a slightly different take on the matter. "This trend needs to be assessed closely by all sections of the industry namely producers, exhibitors and distributors before more damage is done to the already-troubled industry."

However Pritish Nandy doesn't think airing an almost-new film is such a bad idea. "If distributors are okay with it, no harm done. The market defines its own compulsions and if different segments are in sync with each other, I guess it is fine.

The theatrical window is in any case, shrinking by the Friday as more and more films are crowding theatres. Theatres should be happy to see movies move out to give room to new ones. That's the nature of the business today."

David Dhawan echoes Nandy. "Tell me, which film lasts in theatres beyond two months?"

Producer-director Harry Baweja, reeling under the losses suffered by son Harman's debut Love Story 2050, says, "We really need to maximize our films' boxoffice performance. The theatrical collections sustain for 2-3 weeks at the most. The satellite rights are a better and quicker avenue to earn back a producers' investment."

But the director of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani Raj Santoshi says it all. "I don't know what to say!"