Raking it in

CINEMA: Rang De Basanti emerges as the second film this decade to cross the Rs 50-crore collection mark

Viewers are still lapping up the colourful depiction of the saga of freedom in Rang De Basanti, filling up not only the cinema halls but the collection registers as well.

The film has pierced a crucial psychological level with over Rs 50 crore in box office collections, according to the makers of the film. What's more, the movie is still running with 100 prints across various cinema halls in the country.

With this, Rang De Basanti (RDB) has emerged as the second largest box-office hit this decade, after Zee Telefims' Gadar, which had raked in about Rs 65 crore.

A UTV Motion Pictures co-production with Rakeysh Mehra Productions, RDB has also been creating waves in the overseas markets that has brought in an additional Rs 20 crore to its kitty.

Commenting on the film and its response, Ronnie Screwvala, CEO, UTV, says that the engagement diary is overflowing with invites from not just colleges and universities across the country, but also from the US.

"Rakeysh Mehra is now going on tour to the US, where he's been invited by East Michigan and Ohio University. After the screening, he will be spending time with the students and faculty discussing the movie. He's accompanying A R Rahman," says he.

Obviously, this spells good news for the makers as usually the Indian films suffer in the International awards circuit for lack of exposure to appropriate audiences.

On being quizzed if this was a planned move to work up to the Oscar awards, Screwvala says that UTV would definitely pitch for the award and would leave no stone unturned to prepare for the event.

"However, that comes much later and we still have to see how and what the other regional movies have on offer. After all, we do have a very rich presentations from other parts of the country. But before this, we are happy that we have been invited by the Golden Globe Awards' organisers and are looking forward to it," says Rakeysh Mehra, the co-producer of RDB.

Grouped in the "new cinema" genre, this non-conventional film has bucked the industry trend not only in content but in marketing strategies too. Almost 40 per cent of its production cost of Rs 25 crore was allocated to marketing. To top that, DVDs of the film are available in the market much before it ends its winning run in the cinema halls of the country.