Shah Rukh's 'Ra.One' loses out to low-budget film

'Ra.One' - Shah Rukh Khan's magnum opus, the film that saw unprecedented promotion and that claimed to recover the cost in the opening weekend - has reportedly lost to a small-budget movie.

If you thought that a film’s budget ensures its box-office success, then you are in for a surprise. This Diwali saw the release of three films - Himesh Reshammiya’s 'Damadamm', Hema Malini’s 'Tell Me O Kkhuda' and King Khan’s 'Ra.One'.

While 'Ra.One' definitely garnered maximum eye balls, thanks to Shah Rukh Khan’s stupendous PR skills, when it came to setting the cash registers ringing, it wasn’t the real G.One. It lost out to 'Damadamm'. According to industry experts, 'Damadamm' in spite critics’ views, has already recovered its cost, and is running to more packed houses than the other two.

Reasons enough to make singer turned actor a happy man. After all, winning against the King Khan’s big project is no mean a feat. But there are other reasons too. Besides recovering the production cost, the film is also gaining from the satellite rights and music album sale.

Says Himesh, “Anything that comes from the theatres now is a profit for me.

Thanks to the music sale, I have already recovered the cost on prints and advertising.”

The actor cum composer, who also is the distributor of the film further adds, “This is my second hit after 'Aap Kaa Surroor'. I really needed this hit to prove my credibility as an actor. This was a very challenging moment for me, as I had two big movies pitted against mine. It was very important for me to get a hit and make my comeback appeal. I am happy that my fans are still the same for me. Now I am gearing up for my next projects, which will be much bigger in scale.”

Movie trade guru Atul Mohan says: "'Damadamm' has recovered the money. It is a low budget movie and hence has been the most successful movie this week. It has one good job. It had 'Ra.One' and 'Tell Me O Kkhuda' opposite to it. 'Ra.One' was in fact the big challenge but 'Tell Me O Kkhuda' completely failed. So 'Damadamm' stood tall at the end of the day. 'Tell Me O Kkhuda' was supposed to release last year and there was no word of mouth. The film did not even have good media attention so there were many reason for its failure.”

Money Wise

The figure says it all - 'Damadamm' was made at a cost of Rs3crore (Dh2.23m).The cost on print and advertising was about Rs2crore and Rs10lakh (Dh100,000).
Indian video and music rights went for Rs4crore and Rs62lakh.
The satellite rights for India and overseas were given out for Rs3crore. The theatrical collection in the first week itself was calculated around Rs2crore and 40lakh.