Salman Khan’s Radhe may already be a success, trade calculations say so

Eid
is here and as promised by actor-producer Salman Khan, his highly-anticipated
 film ‘Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai’, is all set for release on May 13.
However, the movie will not have a traditional theatrical release owing to the
grim COVID situation in the country.

Also Read: Salman Khan’s ‘Radhe’ to release in theatres and OTT on May 13

In what could be a trend-setter, the
makers have opted for a hybrid release.
The film will be available on ZEE’s pay-per-view
service and also on several other DTH operators like Dish, D2H, Tata Sky and Airtel Digital TV. Apart from this, the movie,
also featuring  Jackie shroff and Disha Patani, will release in a few halls that are still
functioning.

Salman
Khan’s movies are known to be big grossers and create new records at the box
office every time, but there will be no such landmark and the actor has already
apologized to theatre owners for that.

Also Read: Completed ‘Radhe’ shooting before drug probe took over Bollywood: Salman Khan

However, when it comes to making money, it is
said that Salman Khan has sold the satellite, theatrical, music, and digital
rights of his forthcoming action-thriller to Zee Studios for Rs 230 crore.

Senior trade analyst Atul Mohan says the makers
already have “satellite rights, digital and OTT rights, global theatrical
rights, music rights with them” for the film that has been made on a budget of
Rs. 150 crore.

“For films like ‘Radhe’, the music rights go for
almost around Rs. 20 crores so obviously they will make more than that, and
satellite rights goes for seven years to exploit the movie on their satellite
channels and we all know Zee has a huge bouquet of that. They have around 44
-45 satellite channels with them where they can monetize the films,” he told
Opoyi.

Also Read: Ahead of ‘Radhe’ release, a look at movies and TV shows that were shot, released during COVID-19

“They have rights with them for 5-7 years
whatever they have signed the agreement for and they can exploit the movie for
those years and can achieve the target in this period,” he said.

Even overseas cinema will play a crucial role in
the film’s performance.

Zee Studios plans to release “Radhe” in over 40
countries, including the Middle East, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore,
and Europe.

 “Theatrical business in India won’t be
great because 99 % of cinemas are closed down and that’s why Zee has to plan
aggressively in overseas. The cinemas are open in UAE, they will be
opening in the UK from 17th, the cinemas in the US are open but some states in
US have an occupancy of 60%, some have 70 %, and other places have 100 %
occupancy. Some more cinema theatres are being added for example France is
opening up this week, Singapore is opening up,” Mohan told Opoyi.

Producer and eminent film trade analyst Girish
Johar, too, believes that makers will try to go big with the overseas market.

 “The restriction, the curfew, and the
lockdown within the country are not enabling cinemas to release the film. In
those areas where cinemas are open, audiences are in double mind because of
safety factors. The makers are trying to go big overseas for theatrical release
and also where certain markets are PPV (pay-per-view) friendly so they are
trying to push the film on OTT with the PPV model. So yes, it’s something new
which the Indian industry is having but unfortunately I feel that timings right
now is not right because the pandemic in the second wave is at peak,”

“But, I am sure the makers must have done their
revenue calculations because the number that are floating within the industry
is they have paid Rs. 200 crores for a potential period of rights so I am sure
they have done the homework but probably what they didn’t envisage is that it
will not be a theatrical release as any Salman khan film would have been.

“Indian’s domestic theatrical for a Salman Khan
films is always a big number and in absence of that and to cover up by other
resources, I think that would be a little difficult task and God forbid if the
film didn’t do well then it would become more difficult to recover irrespective
of the number of years,” he added.

Also Read: Twitterati can’t keep calm as Salman Khan hints at cameo in Shah Rukh’s ‘Pathan’

Also, what the audience is going to miss is the
charm of watching Salman Khan’s film on the big screen.

“Honestly, we are living in exceptional times
and that’s why exceptional attempts need to be made by exhibitors, producers to
stay afloat in these times. I truly hope that everyone associated with the film
recovers the money. I really hope that the movie does well but the charm of
watching a Salman Khan movie on the big screen with 100 people cheering and
whistling up is unprecedented. All of his fans are really going to miss it. We
are hoping that his next releases ‘Antim’ and ‘Tiger 3’ come to theatres and do
phenomenally well,” Akshay Rathi, senior trade exhibitor told Opoyi.