Superhero Krishna hits screen today

Friday, June 23, 2006

New Delhi (UNI): The first Indian superhero hit cinema screens tomorrow! The much awaited Krrish, sequel of the sci-fi film Koi Mil Gaya, opens at theatres across the world with a record number of 750 prints, 250 of them in the overseas alone. Trade sources said it is for the first time that a film is being released with such a large number of prints. The release of Krrish, which features the Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan as ''a human being with superhuman qualities, with 750 prints is a record for the Mumbai film industry as no film had such a saturated release before this.

Of the 750 prints, 250 are being released by Adlabs, the overseas distributors of the film, in various foreign markets alone. Also, around 60-70 prints of the Tamil and Telugu dubbed versions of Krrish will open simultaneously with the Hindi prints. Trade analysts say the release of the film with such a large number of prints is a move aimed at cashing in on the huge curiosity levels for the film both in India and overseas. The tremendous buzz around the film is evident from the huge rush for advance bookings for the film in several parts of India.

The huge excitement for the film led exhibitors to open advance bookings almost a week to ten days before its release. The Wave cinemas in Ghaziabad and some others multiplexes opened advance bookings on Saturday (June 17) instead of Monday, as is the norm. Both the PVR mutiplexes and Wave cinemas reported heavy rush for advance bookings. The same was the case in the multiplexes in Mumbai, where the rush for advance bookings is even greater than Kunal kohli's Aamir Khan Kajol-starrer Fanaa, which opened on May 26 to a stupendous response.

Trade sources said that given the huge craze for Krrish, the film could well rewrite box office history in India. '' Given the tremendous curiosity that has been preceding the release of Krrish, the film could well turn out to be the next superhit of the year,''analysts said. In fact, they feel that Krrish could far surpass box office collections of Rang De Basanti, Fanaa and Phir Hera Pheri. Even before its release, there has been a tremendous buzz around Krrish. The buzz around Krish is evident from the fact that no filmmaker has released his film today or even next week, perhaps to avoid a competition with the 'superhero' film.

The only big release in the coming four weeks is Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate, starring Bipasha Basu and Kay Kay Menon in the lead roles, which releases on July 7, two weeks after Krrish. The brilliant promos and trailers of the film, coupled with the trade reports of the film's extensive use of 'Hollywoodesque' special affects promising to put India on the world map as a country capable of matching the best of Hollywood, seems to have generated huge curiosity for the film which explains the fact that Krrish is perhaps the first Hindi film in recent times to have been dubbed in Tamil and Telugu'. In fact, keeping in view the huge curiosity level for the film in the South East Asian countries, the producers have been considering dubbing the film in Chinese language as well.

The film boasts of ''never-before-seen'' special effects which have been done by international special effects experts Mark Kolbe and Craig Mumma from the United States, who had also done the special effects for Koi Mil Gaya. ''Krrish is a landmark film in that for the first time audiences in India will get to see in an Indian film the kind of special effects only seen in Hollywood films,'' says Shashank Jare of Filmcraft India limited, the film's producer. Elaborating on the special effects that will be seen in the film, Jare said ''In Krrish Hrithik will be seen flying in the air, climbing atop huge buildings or performing several breathtaking stunts similar to those done by, say, Spiderman, Superman or Batman. No wonder then, a huge proportion of the Rs 50 crore cost of the film has been spent on special effects.

Given the huge rush for advance bookings for the film, trade analysts feel the film will be able to recover its cost and even rake in much more money. Perhaps considering the huge stake involved in Krrish, the producer Rakesh Roshan has made special arrangements to prevent any piracy of his film. Roshan met Mumbai DCP Mr Aparanti last week to discuss ways to prevent piracy of Krrish.