All rising for Mangal Pandey - Plexes plan up to 10 screenings a day, single-screen halls rake in advance bookings The Telegaph
As he rises on the silver screen after four long years, you expect nothing but umeed se dugna. So, with Aamir Khan returning this Friday with Mangal Pandey: The Rising, the city cineplexes have gone double with shows. With up to 10 daily screenings at each of the multiplexes, an extended first weekend (Independence Day falling on Monday), and block booking requests galore, the Mangala mangala chant is set to ring out loud even as advances opened to historic numbers on Sunday. There is a huge buzz around the movie and its also very costly so we have had to go for more number of screenings a day to make the most of the first week, says Prashant Srivastava, general manager of 89 Cinemas. Also, with no other new releases on August 5 and 12, it makes sense to go big with Mangal Pandey. But with bulk corporate bookings rising, the number of multiplex shows may come down effectively. There has been an unprecedented number of inquiries from banks and other houses, wanting to book an entire show, reveals Vikas Syal, general manager of INOX (Forum). If the plexes are ruling the roost, the single-screen theatres are not doing too badly either. Says Pritam Jalan, the distributor of Mangal Pandey in Calcutta: On Sunday morning, Paradise sold around 5,000 tickets, amounting to Rs 9 lakh of gross sales, in three hours flat. It is easily the biggest-ever advance booking for them. Menoka, too, sold out in no time. Overall, the film should have the best opening since Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Made at an estimated budget of Rs 40 crore, the tickets for the Ketan Mehta magnum opus wont come cheap. If a ticket for Sarkar could cost Rs 200, Mangal Pandey tickets should come for Rs 400 each, adds Jalan. But keeping the viewers in mind, the pricing has been kept around Rs 200 and more number of screenings arranged to compensate. Even Aamir Khan himself, last seen in his Dil Chahta Hai goatee and Lagaan dhoti in 2001, wants his fans to catch his much-moustached moves at the earliest. Its the first time that he has personally requested his producers and distributors to release the film with maximum number of prints, says a source in Kaleidoscope Entertainment, one of the producers of the film that also stars Rani Mukherjee, Amisha Patel and British actor Toby Stephens. "We neglect our cities at our peril. For, in neglecting them, we neglect the nation." -John F. Kennedy ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h5vgsp5/M=362335.6886442.7839733.3022183/D=grplch/S=1705331874:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123469463/A=2894366/R=0/SIG=138c78jl6/*http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/arts_culture/?source=YAHOO&cmpgn=GRP&RTP=http://groups.yahoo.com/";>What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater? Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> This August, Discover the Birth of Your Independence and The Magic of A.R.Rahman's Music in Mangal Pandey - The Rising http://www.risingthefilm.com http://www.mangalpandeythefilm.com Music released: Jul 14, 2005 Movie releases: Aug 12, 2005 Explore, Experience, Enjoy A.R.Rahman - The Man, The Music, The Magic. Only at arrahmanfans - The definitive A.R.Rahman e-community. Homepage: http://www.arrahmanfans.com Admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arrahmanfans/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
