Neerja takes off at box office

Sonam Kapoor starrer opens with Rs 4.7 crore, tribute to flight attendant draws critical acclaim

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

The cinematic tribute to Neerja Bhanot — the young flight attendant who laid down her life while saving passengers from terrorists on board a plane three decades ago — has taken off at the box office, earning acclaim from critics and audiences alike.

Ram Madhvani’s Neerja, starring Sonam Kapoor in the titular role, collected Rs 4.7 crore on the opening Friday (February 19). The audience response has exceeded expectations for a women-centric film on a niche topic — it depicts the heroic deeds of Bhanot on-board the PanAm Flight 73 that was hijacked on September 5, 1986.

And the publicity generate by word of mouth and positive reviews by critics means the film should gain momentum to finish its opening weekend campaign just shy of Rs 20 crore in collections.

Made at a budget of Rs 21 crore, the film looks set to recover costs comfortably at the Indian box office itself. Neerja was released in 700 screens, a targeted approach to balance the appeal of the film with the expected turnout across the country.

“While it is a film with a compelling story, marketing it posed a different challenge. The core movie-going audience, the youth, were not familiar with the courage and sacrifice of Neerja Bhanot back in 1986. In our promotion strategy, instead of going all out on TV and the traditional media, we took to digital. First of all we, through social media and other digital platforms, spread awareness about the events of the hijacking and Neerja’s role in it. In fact, TV formed the last leg of our promotional campaign,” says Shikha Kapur, chief marketing officer, Fox Star Studios.

Neerja is co-produced by Atul Kasbekar’s Bling Unplugged and Fox Star Studios, the latter distributing it worldwide as well. Apart from Kapoor, the film stars Shabana Azmi and Shekhar Ravjiani in pivotal roles.

Women-centric films have seen good openings over the past few years as studios take note of merit in well-scripted ventures around strong characters.

Last year, one of the biggest hits came in the form of Tanu Weds Manu Returns, starring Kangana Ranaut. The film opened with Rs 8.5 crore and finished its lifetime at the box office with Rs 152 crore. Other films with impressive openings include Piku (Rs 5.3 crore), Mary Kom (Rs 8 crore) and NH10 (Rs 3.35 crore).

While it has been released in fewer screens than is expected from a studio like Fox Star, Neerja faces little competition from Bollywood releases this week. The movies released along with it — Loveshhuda, Direct Ishq and Ishq Forever have little hope at the box office. Last week’s releases, Fitoor and Sanam Re, have fizzled out over the past week, while Akshay Kumar’s Airlift has run its course.

In fact, Fox Star has had a good start to its 2016 box office campaign with its Hollywood release Deadpool coming out with flying colours. The Ryan Reynolds-starring A-rated superhero flick gave a tough fight to the Bollywood films released on the Valentine’s Day weekend (Fitoor and Sanam Re). The Hollywood flick finished week one with Rs 22.5 crore, close on the heels of Pulkit Samrat’s Sanam Re (Rs 26.6 crore) and ahead of  Aditya Roy Kapur’s Fitoor (Rs 17.50 crore).