While ‘Avatar’ continues to plunder America, Bollywood’s mammoth tentacled monster ‘3 Idiots’ keeps hogging copious amounts of moolah worldwide. The film has grossed an astonishing Rs 315 crore in a space of 19 days, quoted india.com.
According to box office analysts, more than 60 million people in the world have watched 3 Idiots in theatres. As a result the film has become the biggest Bollywood hit of all time, beating Aamir’s own ‘Ghajini’ which arrived a year ago. 3 Idiots’ run is quite like The Dark Knight when it released in 2008. The caped crusader opened with a bang and continued to steamroll the competition back then, raking in almost a billion dollars in a matter of weeks.
And like ‘Avatar’, the percentage drop of ‘3 Idiots’ through the third week has been minuscule, confirming that word of mouth has been excellent and people are recommending the film to others. Most Bollywood films make their money back in the opening week when people are curious, and if the film is bad theaters are left empty by Tuesday, this was not the case with ‘3 Idiots’. As impossible as it seemed, Rajkumar Hirani has got better response than to his ‘Munnabhai’ films. Aamir Khan is ecstatic about the film’s success. “As a member of the team I am so happy with the kind of success that the film is achieving. I thank Raju, for making the film so well, Vinod, for being such a great producer and Reliance Big Pictures for the kind of release they gave the film,” said Aamir.
‘3 Idiots’ rose to the top ten in the UK box office, and multiplexes there are increasing the number of screenings of the film. I am thrilled and humbled that so many people all over the world have loved this film. It proves Rancho`s mantra true: chase excellence and success will follow,” said producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra. “3 Idiots has opened new vistas for the Indian Film Industry. The huge response across continents reinforces our belief that a well-made, well-exploited film can still create magic in the darkened auditorium,” said Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance BIG Entertainment.
Meanwhile Aamir’s 2007 film ‘Taare Zameen Par’ released this week in the US on DVD by the Walt Disney Studio. The title of the film distributed in the US is ‘Like Stars on Earth’. As expected, the DVD has got glowing reviews from American critics. A major news channel referred to the film as ‘a little twinkling star of a movie’.
