By
KOMAL NAHTA
With new films flopping and falling like nine pins at the box office, it seems like it’s revival time. After Imtiaz Ali’s Laila Majnu, which was revived all over India three weeks back, it was the turn of Rajshri’s Maine Pyar Kiya to hit the screens last week. This week sees the revival of the Kannada film Kantara, Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein, Gangs Of Wasseypur, and Gangs Of Wasseypur II. Not just that, there’s a slew of old films lined up for revival in the coming weeks.
On September 13, Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara will be revived in a big way. The following week, Subhash Ghai’s Taal will be adorning cinema screens. The same maker’s Pardes and N. Chandra’s Tezaab are said to be in the queue too.
It’s no secret that Laila Majnu did excellent business in its repeat run, collecting much more in the first week than it did in its entire first run! PVR-Inox has sold around 5,000 tickets of RHTDM in advance while Cinepolis has sold approximately 1,000!
For the national multiplex chains, it becomes easy as, more often than not, they have to deal with one distributor because distribution rights are often held by one all-India distributor nowadays. Since new films are doing poor business, the habitual moviegoers find it more exciting to go for the revived films, contributing to more occupancy in cinemas and hence monetary returns for the distributors of old films.
Last year, Gadar Ek Prem Katha had been revived in a big and planned manner a few weeks prior to the release of Gadar 2. One may recall that it had fared very well.
