Can Fitoor recover its Rs 60-cr budget?

A lot is riding on this Aditya Roy Kapoor and Katrina Kaif-starrer, which is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic novel Great Expectations

In 2013, Aditya Roy Kapoor starred in one of the biggest surprise hits of the year Aashiqui 2, playing the movie's brooding dysfunctional protagnoist, who is a singer-musician. The actor is once again going to play the lead in the romantic drama Fitoor, opposite Katrina Kaif. His 2014 release, Daawat-e-Ishq, failed to make any impact at the box office and so a lot is at stake in Fitoor for him.

The film, directed by Abhishek Kapoor and starring Kaif in a pivotal role, is an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic Great Expectations.

Analysts believe the movie’s fate could go either way. While it has a few things working in its favour – the chemistry of the lead pair, the presence of Tabu in the cast, the music, and Abhishek Kapoor’s direction (he has delivered two hits Kai Po Che and Rock On!) — there are many things that can go wrong.

For one, being an adaptation of a classic English novel, the scrutiny around the film in this case, will be great. Additionally, the film’s budget is massive at Rs 60 crore. So the film will need to fire on all cylinders — box office in India and abroad,  ancillary revenues — to break even and make profits.

Suniel Wadhwa, independent distributor and box office analyst, says, “Trailer of Fitoor looks visually stunning, which deserves special mention for cinematography and art direction. Marketing campaign is targeted towards both male and female audience with age group of 20-30 getting 60% and above 30 around 40% of the targeted communication. Opening day box office performance looks in range of Rs 7-8 crore, which has potential to grow with word-of-mouth.”

The film has been released in 1,225 screens in India and 460 screens abroad. The distribution strategy is similar to the one adopted by UTV for 2012 release Barfi! and 2014 release Haider. Haider too was an interpretation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but was budgeted at almost half the cost of Fitoor.