Salman Khan’s Tubelight distributors suffer losses, many small time players in tears.
The law of averages finally caught up with Salman Khan on Eid. In the past few years, Salman Khan films have generated 200 to 300 crore business at the box office during Eid. With Kabir Khan on board, expectations were high from Tubelight as well, after their huge success with Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
However, luck was not on Salman’s side this Eid (even Virat Kohli goes out for a duck at times…despite getting dropped on the previous ball).
As per trade experts, its the single screen owners in small cities and towns who’re the hardest hit.
- Two cinemas in Ferozabad in Uttar Pradesh have lost an amount close to Rs 9.11 lakhs.
- Another cinema in Uttar Pradesh, Maya Cinemas, lost around 4.11 lakhs (everything that they earned from Baahubali 2: The Conclusion and Dangal).
- Several small distributors are literally in tears after suffering huge losses due to the Tubelight debacle.
There’s buzz that few of those distributors are in Mumbai hoping to meet Salman Khan and getting some of their losses refunded (taking a cue from their Southern counterparts).
We will keep you updated on this.
When Rajinikanth compensated for losses due to his films failures
Even the mighty Rajinikanth gives flops once in a while. When the superstar’s film ‘Lingaa’ bombed at the box office, few distributors and cinema theatre owners started demanding refunds for the losses incurred (around Rs. 40 crores). Few threatened to go to court, and a few threatened to go on fast unless their losses were refunded.
Before this incident, distributors demanding a refund for a flop film was completely unheard of, because its a business after all, and on certain occasions things do not go as expected.
“Since most distributors suffered heavy losses due to the failure of the film, we had urged the producer and actor Rajinikanth to repay the initial investment. Since there was no response, I submitted this petition to go on a fast,” saida distributor.
Hounded by distributors, Rajinikanth relented and compensated for their losses.
Experienced distributors know the trade and what sells. When they felt Lingaa was not worth the price it was offered at, they decided to stay away. This made way for a new distributors. Many took personal loans and even sold property to buy the rights, they were betting on the film making record collections. The short-sighted ‘Lingaa’ distributors, new entrants to the industry, overpaid for the rights. Unfortunately the film flopped.
Rajinikanth refunded their losses purely on humanitarian grounds.
When Rajini’s ‘Baba’ flopped on the box office, the superstar probably became the first and “only producer and actor” to refund losses to his producers and distributors on his own.
In the good old days, MGR would compensate losses to producers and distributors by acting in another film for a lower fee; the trust factor was high between them. Rajinikanth took forward this tradition, when ‘Kuselan’ failed.
