Industry Background: The Indian Film Industry – A Century Old Young Industry
Motion pictures came to India in 1896, when the Lumière Brothers' Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films in erstwhile Bombay (now Mumbai). This was just a year after the Lumière Brothers (inventors of cinematography) had set up their company in Paris. The first Indian on record to make a movie was Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar. He made one short film on a wrestling match at the Hanging Gardens in Bombay, and another on the playfulness of monkeys. Both these shorts were made in 1897 and were publicly exhibited for the first time in 1899 using Edison's projecting kinetoscope inside a tent which the film maker had himself erected. India's first feature film was a silent movie named "King Harishchandra" made by the legendary Dhundiraj Govind Phalke and was released in 1913. By 1920, film making had taken the shape of an industry. The first talkie made in India was "Alam Ara" (produced by Imperial Film Company) released in 1931. Until the 1960s, film-making companies, many of whom owned studios, dominated the film industry. Artistes and technicians were either their employees or were contracted on long-term basis. Since the 1960s, however, most performers went the freelance way, resulting in the star system and huge escalations in film production costs.
According to unofficial estimates, in January 2001, the Indian film industry had an annual turnover of Rs. 60 billion (approximately US$1.33 billion) and employed more than 6 million people, most of whom were contract workers. Interestingly, until the late 1990s, it was not even recognised officially as an industry.
In recent years, the Indian Film Industry, especially the Hindi Film Industry based in Mumbai (often referred to as Bollywood) has undergone a wave of corporatization. In 2007 a report by CII-AT Kearney titled 'The new economics of the Indian film industry: creativity and transformation' estimated the Indian film industry was worth around US$1.8 billion in 2006 (around Rs 7,500 crore) and expected to grow at 25% per annum in value terms for the next four years to reach US$4.5 to US$5.1 billion (around Rs 20,000 crore) by 2011.
The CII–AT Kearney Report says, "The Indian film industry is on the threshold of a transformation driven by digitisation and changing customer preferences which will have a significant impact on business models - both within and across the media and entertainment value chains… Technology, changing customer preferences and globalization of Indian content is changing the context, trajectory and imperatives for the Indian creative industry. It is creating new avenues and means of delivering content to India and abroad as well as developing newer and more efficient means of creating them."
It is estimated by experts that a “big budget” Hindi movie can cost in excess of US$30 million (around Rs. 120 Crores) with the 'bigness' of the budget is attributable mainly to the high fees paid to 'stars', celebrated music directors, high-end technologies and expensive travel costs to shoot in exotic locations worldwide. In such a scenario, where the ‘product’ making cost is astronomically high, it becomes imperative that the ‘product’ is marketed well to connect with the target audience. The new millennium injected new scientific marketing techniques into the tinsel town. The industry realized that unless the communication connects with the audience, there was little hope to earn a return on investment.
We chose to dissect the campaign of Rang De Basanti primarily because both of us had immensely enjoyed watching the movie and because even after a good 2 ½ years after the movie was released, we still remember the tagline/message of the movie: “A Generation Awakens”.
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Product Description: Rang De Basanti
Rang De Basanti (Paint It Yellow) is a 2006 Indian drama film written and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It features an ensemble cast comprising of Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth Narayan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni, British actress Alice Patten and veteran actors - Waheeda Rehman, Om Puri, Kirron Kher and Anupam Kher in supporting roles. Made on a budget of Rs. 25 crores, the filming was completed in and around New Delhi. It was produced by UTV Motion Pictures and was released on 26th January (Republic Day) 2006. The soundtrack of Rang De Basanti, which was released by Sony BMG, featured music composed by A. R. Rahman and lyrics penned by Prasoon Joshi and Blaaze, an Indian-based rapper.
The storyline of the film narrates the tale of a British documentary filmmaker who based on accounts taken from diary entries of her grandfather (a former officer of the British Army in India), is determined to make a film on Indian freedom fighters. She requests a group of youngsters, which is indifferent to the state of affairs in India, to act in her film. After they agree and begin filming, the protagonists start living the lives of the freedom fighters that they essay in the documentary. A dear friend's death (a fighter pilot) in a fighter plane crash is attributed to the pilot’s fault rather than the government’s corruption metamorphosizes them into passion-driven individuals who are determined to avenge his death.
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The Market:
1. The Corporation: UTV Software Communications Limited, popularly known as UTV, is amongst India’s foremost Media & Entertainment Company with interest in 4 verticals that include:
• Movies
• Interactive (Animation and Gaming)
• Broadcasting
• Television content & services
UTV ventured into movie making with the launch of UMP Plc in 1995-96. Over time, UMP Plc has emerged as one of the largest movie studios in South Asia. UMP Plc has been a catalyst in corporatising the Indian system of movie making by pioneering the Studio Model. Apart from Rang De Basanti, it has also produced movies such as Lakshya, Swades and Fiza. UMP Plc has also entered into strategic Hollywood co-productions with studios like 20thCentury Fox, Sony and Will Smith’s Overbrook becoming the first Indian company to do so.
UTV’s movie production is complimented by its strong distribution networks spanning a large number of screens across the world. This network endows distribution girth and depth to multilingual movies in global markets like US, UK, Middle East, South Africa, Australia, and Japan. Besides its own productions, movies like Mughal-E-Azam, Parineeta and Bluffmaster are some of the heavyweights distributed by UMP.
Listed on India’s premier stock exchange, The Bombay Stock Exchange, UTV is a diversified media and entertainment company with content creation abilities across platforms and genres. It has subsidiaries with offices across India, Mauritius, UK and USA. Walt Disney Inc. holds a strategic stake in UTV. For the quarter ended June 30, 2008, UTV, as compared with the same period previous fiscal, reported a growth of 154% in Total Revenue to Rs 1,452 million from Rs 571 million, and 176% in Net Profit to Rs 251 million from Rs 91 million.
2. The Customers: Cricket and Cinema are an intrinsic part of the Indian way of life, with cricketers and film stars enjoying demigod status in the country. According to the national readership survey in India for 2006, 39 million Indians go to the movies (at least once a month) and although cinema viewership has declined in recent times, these figures are still staggering for they indicate the importance of cinema in India.
The survey also reveals that cinema viewership among urban Indian audiences is on the increase unlike in rural India. There were also 23 million regular theatre goers in urban Indian in 2005, in comparison to the 25 million in 2006. The audience for mainstream Indian films is comprised not only of Indians in their home country but also diasporic viewers in large parts of the Middle-East and South-East Asia, the UK, US and Europe. Indian diaspora constitutes more than 20 million people, settled in around 70 countries of the world. In 2003, Indian films reached around 3.4 billion viewers in all parts of the world. (A record number of Indian films reached the blockbuster status in the US in 2006 with half of the 14 foreign language films that grossed over US$2 million being in Hindi. No other language came close to contributing so many box office hits to the list.)
Additionally, the onset of satellite television in India during the early 90s also aided the popularization of Indian cinema. This is because Indian television satisfied the demand for films as well as film based programming. Moreover, “Television offered the film industry not just additional viewership but also an additional revenue stream” and this made it profitable for television channels to support the Indian film industry. It is also necessary to note that although 39 million Indians go to the movies, the majority of these audiences are under the age group of 25 , which is why most filmmakers target their films to this demographic group. Industry estimates of the youth market state that Indian youngsters wield US$2.8 billion worth of discretionary income, and their families spend an additional US$3.7 billion on them every year. By 2015, Indians under 20 will make up 55% of the population and wield proportionately higher spending power. The release of Bollywood youth films, especially in the years post 2000 bear testimony to this fact. Apart from sporting a fresh, youthful look, these films also have themes that the youth can identify with as in the case of Rang De Basanti that captured the imagination of the country.
According to observers of the Hindi film industry, Indian filmmakers are increasingly being guided by the choices of this youth brigade which is fast replacing the family audiences of yesteryears. In every market, “white spaces” or niches need to be identified and addressed. As a result, producers are now open to the idea of making films that satisfy the needs of the younger crowds who demand “aesthetic realism”. Young audiences who have grown up watching films from Hollywood are now unwilling to watch excessively dramatic and over the top Hindi films. This change in audience tastes is also a result of globalization and urbanization in the Indian society post 1991. Analyzing the changing economic and social trends during the 1990’s reveals that the Indian society underwent a great deal of transition in this period due to economic liberalization and globalization. The tinsel town is finally realizing the untapped potential of the Indian youth market best captured in the words of leading Indian film producer Pahlaj Nihalani - “The youth are our biggest market.” One such youth movie which broke new grounds in India in terms of its box office success, marketing, as well as audience response was Rang De Basanti.
3. The Competition: During the time that Rang De Basanti was to be released, the Indian Cricket Team was tour archrivals Pakistan (January 2006). This one of the biggest competitions faced by the film given India’s cricket crazy public. More traditional completion was from the other high profile movies to be released in 2006 including Hrithik Roshan starrer Dhoom 2, Omkara, Lage Raho Munna Bhai and the other Aamir Khan starrer Fanaah. Thus Team Rang De Basanti had to ensure that the marketing campaign of the movie connected with the target audience and it translated into financial success.
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The 6 M Model:
1. Mission: As UTV (United Television) spent 40% of the film’s production budget on promotion, UTV’s mission was very clear –launch the film with a bang and ensure maximum collections in the first few weeks. UTV went out of its way to tie-up with numerous brands to promote Rang De Basanti with the dual intention of 360 degree promotion while at the same time recovering its production costs through advertising/promotions if not through the sales of its tickets and music rights. In order to recover its heavy production costs, UTV needed to create a unique brand image for Rang De Basanti and it needed to create a buzz about the film much before its release so that the film could gain from co-branding and advertising revenues. It was this aspect that framed the marketing and communication strategy of Rang De Basanti.
The mission of the campaign changed as the film moved along the PLC (illustrated before):
• Pre-Launch Stage --> Ensure Successful Film Launch [Pioneering Campaign]
• Introduction --> Maximize Box Office Collections [Pioneering Campaign]
• Growth --> DVD Sales + Keep Box Office Collections Going [Competitive Campaign]
• Maturity --> Maximum Viewership of TV Premiere [Retentive Campaign]
2. Message: “Be Socially Relevant”
The brand image of Rang De Basanti was centered on its tagline which read, ‘a generation awakens’ and even the entire marketing campaign of the movie was centered on this theme. Everything from the use of the graffiti wall (shown in the picture below) in the publicity designs reflecting youth, attitude and rebellion; to ensuring a seamless personality fit with the brands associated with the film, the marketing of Rang De Basanti tried to stay true to the theme of the film.
Though Rang De Basanti had patriotic overtones and its protagonists played the roles of freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh and Chandra Shekhar Azad, it was initially not promoted as patriotic film. (Introduction Phase) This was especially due to the fact that recent past, four Hindi films made on Shaheed Bhagat Singh had been released and these had subsequently bombed at the box office. However, with the movie being released on Republic Day 26th January 2006, it did have a subliminal patriotic message.
The message that the film sent out was “Be Socially Relevant” and in doing so and by choosing themes that lent themselves to TV discussions (such as MiG-21 deaths in Rang de Basanti), the film garnered valuable free airtime. It also helped that they had tied up with popular news broadcaster NDTV as a media partner – in fact NDTV had substantial in-film advertising. The film connected with the target audience well and by the time it entered the growth phase, i.e. when the Home Video DVD was launched, the film’s message of had firmly hit home as it can be gauged by Rang De Basanti style youth activism for various causes such as Jessica Lall murder case.
Internationally, the message to the audience was that the film captured the pulse of the new, vibrant and young India. The TV premiere (on Star Gold) of the film was on 2 October 2006 (Gandhi Jayanti) had an all out patriotic message and was accompanied by a special program called ‘Rang De Basanti Salaam’ that celebrated India’s’ unsung heroes’ and was hosted by Aamir Khan.
3. Market: Urban Youth: Rang De Basanti focused on the urban and educated youngsters of post – independent India, it conveyed their mindset by portraying their ways and speaking their language. It therefore provided a perfect backdrop for highlighting the issues of changing culture, identities, participation in public sphere of life among others.
Also, Indians love their cinema which is why India is the world’s largest producer of films. India boasts of a thriving film industry that produces more than 1000 feature films annually in almost all Indian languages and these are seen in over 13,000 cinema halls in the country. Also a stunning statistic from The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) reveals that: “Every three months an audience as large as India’s entire population flocks to the cinema halls.” - proving the regular movie watching habit of the masses.
Rang De Basanti was predominantly marketed towards the cinema going urban youth, and it was quite successful in accomplishing that as youngsters connected with the theme of the movie. The film had a distinct North Indian flavour, having been largely shot in New Delhi, but clever co-branding associations ensured that it connected with the intended Pan-Indian Gen X audience.
In fact Rang De Basanti was filmed keeping this particular audience in mind and was in fact scripted by Kamlesh Pandey, the scriptwriter after a focus group interview with 150 youngsters. Intensive research of this kind is highly uncommon for a Hindi film and the director, Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra, used the information from the focus group interviews in order to come up with the true to life story of Rang De Basanti. According to Mehra, the Rang De Basanti strategy owed a lot to one shelved project he had 10 years back. He elaborated, "There was this project Aahuti and the story revolved around the pre-independence patriotism. I had spent five years, researching on the project. However, I was disappointed with feedback I received from youth groups in Mumbai and Delhi. I learnt the bitter truth that, patriotism doesn't appeal today's youth. Those discussions actually revealed the weaknesses of the project. Later, when the Rang De Basanti project came up, I revisited my earlier learnings. Something different was required to provide Rang De Basanti a mass appeal. I thought, I must speak to today's generation. Taking tips from various age-old youth imageries around the world, I decided to promote the film in a totally new light. We pulled off a method that appeals to the youth and make them think about the issues around them. The tagline 'A generation awakens' summed up what we wanted to convey through our promos."
4. Medium: Used 360 degree Integrated Marketing Media
"We have tied up with media partners such as Radio Mirchi, MSN and Channel [V] to ensure a 360-degree surround impact with viewers for Rang De Basanti. Each of these partners comes on board with massive media support, which is a win-win for both parties."
- Mr. Ronnie Screwala, CEO, UTV
1. Co Branding:
a. Rang De Basanti Special Edition Bottles From Coca-Cola: For the very first time in the history of Indian Movie Marketing, the most recognized consumer brand in the World - Coca-Cola launched a special edition bottle - inspired by the ‘spirit of Rang De Basanti'. The bottle was packaged with a wrap-around label featuring the key art of the film - a bunch of friends who decide to accept responsibility for change taking pride in their beliefs, thus propagating Coca-Cola's key message - "Piyo sar utha ke". The unique association was extended across specially produced television commercials , print ads and radio spots.
b. Rang De Basanti Range Of Merchandise In Association With Provogue: In a pioneering first-of-its-kind licensing tie-up in Indian Movie Marketing, wherein the apparel brand Provogue launched a whole new range of clothing ‘inspired by Rang De Basanti'. The merchandise was aimed at giving audiences another 'touch-feel' opportunity to interact with the brand, with the clothing designs reflecting the tone, look and message of the film. 'Rang De Basanti - Provogue' merchandise was launched with a star-studded fashion event in which the cast of the film walked the ramp showcasing the apparel, and vocalists from the film, including Daler Mehndi, performed to hits from the popular soundtrack of the movie. The event was broadcast in primetime on Zee TV, driving incredible reach and visibility for both Rang De Basanti and Provogue. 'Rang De Basanti' merchandise, was made available at key Provogue outlets, was also promoted with full-page print ads across major cities.
c. Rang De Basanti LG Association: The movie also lent its colors and vibrancy to LG when it launched the new LGC2500 mobile, targeted at the youth. LG had packed the phone with exclusive wallpapers and screensavers from the film. This period also saw the launch of the Rang De Basanti game for mobile phones which was all about five friends defeating corrupt politicians in India. This media campaign by LG was very successful and promoted nationwide in print and television. Additionally, LG’s marketing strategy was clever because it induced Indian consumers to purchase the LG mobile as a part of their patriotic duty towards the country. The above is a reason why Rang De Basanti’s brand partnerships were perceived as social, patriotic and evaluated in a positive manner by the Indian public.
d. Rang De Paathshaala Tour In Association With Airtel: In an effort to reach out to Gen Next, the cast and crew of the film visited a Delhi campus to interact with the students, asking each one of them to "Express Yourself!" (the Airtel tagline). The student talked about a range of issues about the current state of the country and our youth - and it was covered by NDTV to be aired in the week before the release. This partnership between Rang De Basanti and Airtel was very profitable for both the parties as it took their campaign directly to schools and colleges and also prevented their partnership from being viewed from the commercial standpoint.
e. Rang De Basanti And Berger Paints: Berger Paints tied up with the film with a multimedia campaign covering Television, Print and Outdoor.
f. Rang De Basanti And Club HP: Hindustan Petroleum tied up with Rang De Basanti in a unique association which involved the film’s branding at 200 key HP petrol stations across the country, including banners, hoardings and standees at prominent spots.
2. Aamir Khan: Aamir Khan is not only known as one of the most versatile and intelligent actors in the Hindi Film Industry but is also recognised to be an uncanny marketer of his films. He is known to be very choosy about his movies and “live his character” for the movie including sporting a new look for each of his releases since “Dil Chahta Hai” (2001) get mass media hype and create a buzz about the film.
Costume Designer Arjun Bhasin described Aamir’s Rang De Basanti youthful look as “Aamir's look came out of the fact that he is slightly older than the other boys. His character is the type who does not go out shopping or look at any fashion magazine. If he is comfortable in a pair of jeans, he will not buy another till this one falls off his body. DJ is a free spirit. He has a paternal feel to his character, because he takes care of the boys. His look is a little sloppy and not refined. A hardcore Punjabi boy, residing in Delhi.”
3. Promotion: The movie was also well promoted through the all ‘conventional’ media vehicles including print, television, radio, OOH and the internet. The music director for the film was A.R. Rahman and this was well publicized right from the very start. The music and television trailer promos started appearing from November 2005 and were well received. The music was launched in December 2005 and was an instant hit - Rahman had worked his magic yet again with superhit chartbusters like “Roobaroo” and “Rang De Basanti” (the latter being the title track of the film sung by Daler Mehendi). These promos created a lot of buzz around the movie. A reviewer described the television trailer as: “As the trailer of Rang De Basanti opens, some color literally flows in as graffiti is spray painted on walls of dilapidated ancient monuments in Delhi. 'This January… a generation awakens' says the tagline as it introduces its lead star cast starting with Aamir Khan who plays the central character. In a wayward youthful hairdo (a pleasant change after the long locks of Mangal Pandey) and clad in jeans and leather jackets, it's a treat to watch Aamir Khan get back into the young-at-heart Dil Chahta Hai mode. Daler Mehendi grabs your attention with his spirited rendition of the title track of Rang De Basanti in the background. A.R.Rehman comes up with one of his most peppy compositions for this number and while his music usually takes time to grow on you, this one is of the instantly catchy varieties. Expect more magic from the maestro in this album.”
In early January 2006, the theatrical promos hit the screens and generated the anticipated curiosity. In the words of a reviewer describing the theatre trailer: “The dialogues that follow clearly imply the theme of the movie. While one might have imagined that Rang De Basanti is a fun comedy flick from the first trailer, this trailer gives the movie a more social look talking about the upliftment of the country and the corrupt systems within. Still it doesn't get conventionally preachy.”
The premiere party for the film received tremendous media coverage and on 26 January the film was released amidst a lot of fanfare with the cast and crew visiting theatres across the country to promote the film.
4. Controversies: Days before the movie was slated to release, in mid-January 2006, reports in the media had the Indian Air Force objected to a computer-generated scene in the movie showing the crash of a MiG-21 fighter aircraft. The controversy was resolved when a special screening was held for senior Government and military officials, who after viewing the movie, commented that it was "open-minded" and believed in freedom of speech and expression and had no objections to the screening of the film.
A day after the Indian Air Force said it had no objections to the movie, it was embroiled in a fresh controversy over its use of animals with Animal rights activists and Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) member Maneka Gandhi alleging the film's producer had used animals without getting the mandatory permission of the board. This controversy was resolved when the “offending scene” deleted from the movie. These controversies were widely covered by the local and international media and the film’s promoters ensured that in their interaction with the media, they extracted maximum mileage out of these controversies to add to the buildup of the movie.
5. Special Screenings: Rakyesh Mehra along with the cast and crew also promoted the screening of Rang De Basanti in another unique manner – they literally took the product to the target audience. The film was screened at various places including, ‘Infosys’ (Hyderabad and Bangalore locations) the leading software company in India, boasting of a workforce predominantly in the age group of 23-35.The movie was also screened at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai) the premium institute of technology in India having on its rolls the brightest minds in India. The director Rakyesh Mehra also attended the screening of Rang De Basanti in Ahmedabad, Gujarat which has seen some of the worst Hindu-Muslim riots in recent times. The promotion of Rang De Basanti was therefore unprecedented. The special screenings of Rang De Basanti were also always followed by a discussion which helped spark debates about its theme, the role of citizens while enabling rational discussions about the nation state, national identity and nationalism. This aspect also helped promote citizenship in India as youngsters moved by the realist images and the marketing strategies of Rang De Basanti now felt encouraged take part in public life and debates and discussions about the movie.
6. Media Partners: Media partners of Rang De Basanti included ‘Radio Mirchi’ , ‘Channel [V]’ and MSN website. Rang De Basanti in an exclusive tie-up with MSN “used the power of MSN blogs to generate hype around the movie”. In this unique tie-up, MSN set up blogs for all the six lead actors of Rang De Basanti so as to enable the public to “chat and interact” with them on a regular basis. The premier of the movie was also “web-cast” on MSN on the 26th January, the day the film released in the theatre. The movie also had in-film advertising of news broadcaster NDTV and it stars appeared on many shows on the news channel in the period during which the film released garnering free airtime. Popular website Rediff.com also had a special section on their portal dedicated to the film. Mobile2win, a leading Indian mobile content company, had also launched a mobile game based on the movie in an exclusive tie-up with UTV and Rakyesh Om Prakash Mehra Pictures, the producers of the film.
7. Screening at International film festivals: The film was screened at several international film festivals to promote the film abroad. In 2006, it premiered in France with the Lyon Asiexpo Film Festival, the Wisconsin Film Festival and the Morocco-based International Film Festival of Marrakech
8. Awards: As the film moved from the Growth Stage of its PLC where the DVD was released and entered maturity phase where it was premiered on television on STAR Gold, various reports in the media documented several high profile awards for which the movie was nominated including, the Golden Globe, the Oscars and the BAFTA awards. These awards are an important cog in the marketing campaign of an movie – planetbollywood.com highlights this by saying: “It is a commonly known fact that following the Academy's stamp of "Best Picture" or "Best Director", films' box-office and DVD sales sky-rocket.”
5. Money:
Out of the Rs. 25 Crore Production Budget, UTV spent Rs. 10 Crore – a whopping 40% compared to the usual 5% of a typical Bollywood film on its marketing and promotions alone. Out of the Rs. 10 Crore marketing campaign, Rs. 2 Crore came from the producers while the rest was obtained through brand tie-ups and partnering. The marketing campaign clearly paid off as it had gross revenues of Rs. 30 Crores in India in the first thirteen weeks of its release. According to Saurabh Varma, the erstwhile marketing head of PVR Cinemas, "It got a phenomenal opening and so far it has sustained the success. The total collection till now (after 3 weeks) from the film is approximately Rs.35 million and the occupancy rate is 75 percent in most of the PVR outlets."
6. Measurement:
In a year that was stupendous for the Hindi Film Industry, Rang De Basanti stood out as result of its focused integrated marketing communication campaign which managed to create the desired audience connect and the product lived up to the billing. The Hindu noted: “The year 2006 was unlike any other for the Hindi film industry. Gandhigiri, superheroes, new age patriotism, broken marriages, comedies... almost everything worked. Subhanallah (Fanaa) and Masti ki Paatshala (Rang De Basanti) topped the charts as did Beedi (Omkara) and Rock`n' Roll (Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna)… Not being preachy also worked for new-age patriotism, Rang De Basanti being case in point. RDB became a reference point to a number of protests across the nation.“ The Box Office Collections of the film also reflect the success of the campaign as shown in the following table.
Domestic Box Office Collections:
Week Collections (INR) Avg. Per Print (INR)
1 11,06,83,169 6,74,555
2 5,53,97,698 5,22,620
3 4,92,44,627 4,51,786
4 2,73,80,029 2,68,432
5 1,61,85,394 1,83,925
6 1,29,12,851 1,61,411
7 1,13,00,830 1,59,167
8 89,33,060 1,25,818
10 66,44,996 93,591
11 14,29,876 64,994
12 9,23,303 35,512
13 4,15,957 69,326
Total Gross 30,14,51,790
International Box Office Collections: (all figures in local currency)
Country Date Rank Amount Screens Average Per Screen Total Gross
Australia 26-Feb-06 N.A. 81,367 8 10,171 N.A.
Singapore 26-Feb-06 N.A. 31,000 N.A. N.A. N.A.
United 27-Feb-06 13 2,21,226 38 5,822 N.A.
Kingdom 3-Feb-06 16 1,25,000 37 3,378 4,30,000
10-Feb-06 14 90,814 33 2,752 5,63,142
17-Feb-06 19 63,778 33 1,933 6,90,163
3-Mar-06 34 18,287 20 914 7,78,435
10-Mar-06 38 9,780 10 978 7,94,296
17-Mar-06 41 7,409 6 1,235 8,05,227
24-Mar-06 38 8,316 8 1,040 8,15,951
31-Mar-06 49 2,987 4 747 8,21,275
7-Apr-06 53 1,484 5 297 8,24,148
United 27-Feb-06 23 7,01,666 61 11,503 N.A.
States 3-Feb-06 28 4,25,533 66 6,447 12,07,233
Of America 10-Feb-06 34 2,54,566 65 3,916 15,05,166
17-Feb-06 35 2,82,647 63 4,486 18,39,413
24-Mar-06 46 1,27,775 51 2,505 20,08,301
3-Mar-06 52 72,442 39 1,857 20,95,931
10-Mar-06 59 36,453 30 1,215 21,43,354
17-Mar-06 62 25,138 25 1,006 21,77,949
24-Mar-06 75 10,941 18 608 21,93,052
31-Mar-06 108 2,144 6 357 21,97,331
The international awards for which the film was nominated for as well as the clean sweep of the domestic awards including winning a National Award (as illustrated earlier in the timeline), especially in a year of high profile and huge successful other releases, also bear testimony to the successful campaign. In fact by the time the film led Oscar’s race (January 2007) it had collected Rs 125 crore at the box office till date (Rs 75 crore in the domestic market, Rs 25 crore overseas and Rs 25 crore through auxiliary income) and has had the highest DVD sales of 72,000 units. But perhaps none of these metrics measure the success of the campaign more than the ‘Pepsi & MTV Youth Icon 2007' where the youth of India have voted 'ORKUT' - the biggest youth social networking forum, as the undisputed winner of the 'Pepsi & MTV Youth Icon 2007' with Rang De Basanti coming in a close second. This decisively proved that the message had reached the intended market indeed and how!
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