'Namesake' sets benchmarks for crossover films in India

New Delhi, May 4 (UNI) Brilliant performances by Tabu, Irrfan Khan and British Indian actor Kal Penn coupled with the UTV's distribution strategy have contributed to what is being seen in film circles as the surprise box office success of Mira Nair's 'The Namesake' in India, setting a benchmark for Indian crossover films at the box office.

'The Namesake' which has won rave reviews from critics in India as well as abroad for the 'once-in-a-lifetime' performance by Tabu which many feel could fetch her the Oscar award for Best actress this year, has emerged a stunning box office success in the Indian market, sources in the UTV, the producers of the film, say.

A co-production between UTV Motion Pictures and Fox Searchlight, Mira Nair's 'The Namesake', which also boasts of brilliant performances by actor Irrfan Khan and British Indian actor Kal Penn, has generated a cumulative per print average Gross Box Office (GBO) of Rs 10,51,570 in only 4 weeks of release, one of the highest per print average collections for an Indian crossover film.

In doing so, 'The Namesake', the first Indian crossover film to be co-produced by an Indian company (UTV), has set a benchmark for Indian crossover films at the box office, with a Gross India Box Office of 6.62 crores for the week which ended on April 27, the UTV said.

Infact, in terms of its box office earnings in India as well as its per print average, 'The Namesake' has left other critically and commercially acclaimed films such as 'Water', 'Monsoon Wedding', 'Bend It Like Beckham', 'Bollywood Hollywood' and 'The Guru' far behind.

Trade observers say that the box office performance of 'The Namesake', which mirrors life of millions of South Asians who have left their homes for the US to experience a world of limitless opportunities, only to be confronted with the perils and confusion of trying to build a meaningful life in a baffling new society, heralds the commercial acceptance of a new kind of English cinema in India.

The film is already a smashing success in the US, having created box office history with the earnings of a mind boggling 10,771,198 Dollars so far.

According to the UTV, what contributed to the success of the film in India, apart from the fact that it is an intimate family saga that spans continents and generations yet stay in close to the heart, is the innovative distribution strategy adopted by the UTV for the movie.

Infact, it is the distribution strategy followed by the UTV that has acted as a catalyst to achieve this success at the box office.

Rather than going by the conventional distribution wisdom of maximum revenues with maximum prints, the film opened with a phase-wise release across the country, with just 48 prints in the top 10 cities in the first 7 days.

''We were confident of the product and banked on positive reviews and word of mouth to drive demand for the film. The strategy worked, Siddharth Roy Kapur, EVP - Marketing, Distribution and Syndication, UTV.

Buoyed by the tremendous response of the audience, in the second week we added 12 prints along with new territories and did the same print and territory expansion in week 3. This enabled word of mouth to build and occupancy levels to be maximised. This also kept print costs low and optimised the realisation per print, while ensuring that supply of tickets always matched demand and did not exceed it by too high a margin,'' he added This breakthrough strategy has helped the film sustain presence across markets for more than 4 weeks and it is still successfully running in theatres across the country.

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