On National Cinema Day, people thronged the cinema halls across the country on Friday. The offer of movie tickets for Rs 75 attracted people to theatres. This benefited Brahmastra as well as director R Balki’s thriller film Chup: Revenge of the Artist. In terms of advance ticket sales, the film has left behind the Hindi versions of Laal Singh Chaddha, JugJugg Jiyo, and RRR.
Media sources claim that 1.3 lakh tickets for the movie starring Sunny Deol, Dulquer Salmaan, and Shreya Dhanwantri had been sold in three national chains. Comparing it with the big films of the year, film 83 had pre-sold 1.17 lakh tickets, Jug Jug Jiyo 57 thousand tickets, and the Hindi version of RRR 1.05 lakh tickets. The film Chup has also left behind films like Gangubai Kahiawadi, Samrat Prithviraj, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. This experiment has indicated that people shy away from visiting cinema halls even because of the high ticket prices for movies.
If such offers are introduced from time to time, there may be an increase in the movement of viewers towards multiplexes. Ayan Mukerji’s film Brahmastra has made a record in terms of pre-booking of tickets. It created panic with nearly 6 lakh advance bookings for National Cinema Day. Comparing this with big hits, all-time hits like KGF: Chapter 2 and Baahubali 2 had pre-sold 5.15 lakh and 6.5 lakh tickets.
The audience is becoming increasingly obsessed with R Balki's silent movies. Earlier this film was to be released in about 600 theaters, but the increasing demand took the film to 800 theatres. In comparison, Brahmastra was released in 5000 theaters. If compared accordingly, Chup seems to be getting a very good response from the audience. However, Saturday and Sunday are more important. This will be the first weekend for Chup and there will be no National Cinema Day offer. The collections of Saturday and Sunday will reveal how much water the film gets into.