There is a disappointment within the film industry for the initial weekend figures of RAMAYANA though there should not be as expectations get built too high because basically the thought is that the craze of a film will beat the circumstances of Pre Diwali. The problem is the craze thought to be there is not actually there or at least not to the level thought. This is not just for RAMAYANA but practically every film as today its word of mouth which takes them to the optimum levels and not the craze. Its the same thing for DHURANDHAR THE REVENGE which had a craze which is higher than most in recent times but still the film got stronger on word of mouth.

The craze, as it was, has been dying due to various factors be it alternate entertainment for the public and stardom levels slowly slowly eroding over the years. The stardom factor is important as films in India have generally been star driven. The South sees stardom remain at higher levels as they cater to one state while in Hindi its so many states and stardom differs in each state.

This has slowly happened over the years but there was a time when there was what what you would call a REAL CRAZE for films which superceded over things like Pre diwali and the public was just desperate to watch a film no matter what. In 1985 the Amitabh Bachchan starrer MARD was released Pre Diwali. It released on Friday and Diwali Puja was on Tuesday. The film took a HISTORIC opening on the first day smashing all records despite it being a pre Diwali release with practically every center going housefull.

Bachchan was the biggest star of that time but generally in his bigger films, he played the Bombay orphan or the films were city set rather than being rural set films which outperformed in Mumbai circuit whether they were HIT or FLOP. But MARD was that huge rural mass film where North, Central, and Bihar led the way and these are the areas where films take the biggest hit pre Diwali. For MARD, it was like there is no Pre Diwali as the film could not collect any better.

It is always tough to compare films from today and forty years ago and it cant be done with collections as today RAMAYANA has an average ticket price of over Rs. 400 for the first weekend while in 1985 it was around Rs. 5. Even footfalls, its tough as films today release far wider . So, initial footfalls are far higher but like for like centre comparisons can tell the story.

In Patiala, for instance, RAMAYANA was released in 4 cinemas and it had 1915 people come to see the film on Sunday which was Diwali Puja. MARD (1986) released in one cinema where Diwali Puja fell on Tuesday and had 5361 people coming to see the film. The theatres in 2026 for RAMAYANA are PVR, MovieMax, Miraj and Phul while for MARD, in 1985, it was Malwa. This is when the population was much lower and daily footfalls of films were also much less due to films releasing on lesser screens.

MARD in 1985 had almost 3500 more people coming to cinemas on Diwali Puja to watch the big Diwali release in Patiala compared with RAMAYANA in 2026. In those days the centres in East Punjab were allowed to go over capacity and the extra 400-500 people allowed over the day in are not counted as they were not reported in the collections. So in reality it maybe roughly 5800 against 1915.

In Delhi city, RAMAYANA has released on around 50 cinemas and MARD was released in 11 cinemas. Although we have not done the number crunching it will be no surprise if the admits here for MARD are also higher and this is the biggest centre there is today for most films.

It could actually be that most center to center contributions will show these type of results but as there were prints costs which created restrictions to releases in the older days, the daily footfalls were less compared to now. However, if those restrictions were not there, then its unthinkable what sort of footfalls a film like MARD could get on day one. It will not be just MARD showing these sort of admits in pre Diwali but other films as well. Basically the craze for cinema, films and stars today is overstated which leads to initial expectations which cant be matched. The expectations have to be matched through content and eventually even a film like RAMAYANA its come down to that.