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Till about a month back, not many actually had much of an idea around the release of Life Of Pi. In fact when its release date was announced in the week soon after the Diwali biggies Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son Of Sardaar, it was considered to be suicidal. Frankly, no one gave the film much of a chance and the niche flavour that it carried further made it appear to be quite some distance away from mainstream audience.
How most were proven wrong.
The film managed to surprise, and how! Though the film was gaining good critical acclaim from most after quite a few preview shows that were held way in advance, one took it with a pinch of salt. After all it has become a trend of sorts to see celebrities go gaga over films on social networking sites after watching a film preview. Number of times the film turns out to be a damp squib, Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana being the most recent example. However, Life Of Pi turned out to be an exception. It not just worked with the target audience, it also found good footfalls coming its way from other quarters as well.
Result? A good weekend followed by a stable week resulted in close to 21 crore coming in the first week run. This is quite good for as film which had Irrfan Khan as the only notable name with Tabu in a very brief appearance. For that matter, in terms of screen time it was rank newcomer Suraj Sharma who was seen more. Still, good credit must go to Irrfan for creating a good market for himself, especially after Paan Singh Tomar, which resulted in audience attention being drawn towards this Ang Lee film.
Just when it seemed that the Diwali releases would dominate in their second week as well, it was Life Of Pi which was actually finding a nod of approval. While it is a given that the film would cross the 25 crore mark, the release of Talaash means that there would be a speed breaker of sorts in its run. Still, if the film indeed manages to cross the 30 crore mark, it would be almost double of what Paan Singh Tomar earned. A good show all the way!
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder
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