Phone Bhoot expected to perform better than Double XL and Mili, here’s what trade experts predict

The festive period of Diwali couldn’t bring in joy for either film producers, exhibitors and dributors or the cinephiles this year. It was rather a dull period at the box office despite the films of two superstars, Akshay Kumar (Ram Setu) and Ajay Devgn (Thank God) releasing simultaneously. However, the film trade experts have now put their faith in the upcoming releases, Mili, Double XL and Phone Bhoot. Given that all three releases of the week have a variety of concepts to offer, trade is expecting they would be able to bring people to theatres.
Mili is a survival thriller starring Janhvi Kapoor in the lead role. It is a remake of the hit Malayalam movie Helen. The horror-comedy Phone Bhoot is headlined Katrina Kaif, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Ishaan Khatter. Double XL, starring Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi in the lead roles, presents a commentary on plus-sized women’s battle against body-shaming in society.

Film producer and trade analyst, Girish Johar believes this week’s releases have a chance to click with the audience because they have something different to offer, as against “similar-looking content on the OTT platforms.” He said, “The Hindi box office has already witnessed a dull and lacklustre Diwali. We have experienced the lowest-ever Diwali box office for Hindi films. Strangely, both the films (Thank God and Ram Setu) couldn’t attract the audience. So coming from that, as we come into regular box office days, we have three films which are different from each other. Similar content we can easily find on OTT platforms.”

But he agrees the road is “tough” for all three releases, with the key factor being their ticket prices. Johar thinks people won’t be as keen on spending a lot on the tickets of Mili, Phone Bhoot and Double XL. Also, since the films are not riding high on star power, they will have to ace the content game to survive at the ticket counters until the next week, when Black Panther, Uunchai and Samantha Ruth Prabhu’s Yashoda release.
Film dributor Akshaye Rathi opined that though tentpoles like Black Panther and Yashoda are in the pipeline, films like Mili, Phone Bhoot and Double XL are important to keep the “box office churning.” But only if the content of these will be at par, they will withstand the competition from the big-ticket releases.

Citing the example of Kannada superhit Kantara, he said, “Kantara released along with Thank God and Ram Setu, still it sustained as it had the merits to sustain. Ultimately, if these films have any merit, they will sustain.”
Out of the three releases, Phone Bhoot has an edge over Mili and Double XL, simply because of the popularity of Katrina Kaif. Rathi said, “It has an edge over the other releases this week for the simple reason that Katrina Kaif is a bonafide star. There is no doubt she has lakhs and lakhs of fans across the country. She is coming to the big screen after quite a gap, so I am hopeful there will be a sufficient amount of anticipation around the film.” Girish Johar agreed with Rathi and pegged the film’s opening at Rs 1.5 crore to 2 crores on its opening day.

The next to follow will be Mili, with probably a crore in its kitty, and Double XL might earn somewhere around Rs 50 lakhs. In all, Johar has predicted a “decent” turnaround of the audience at the box office during the upcoming weekend.

But if we look at the past, Hindi remakes of superhit South films have struggled to pull people to the theaters. The most recent example is Hrithik Roshan and Saif Ali Khan’s Vikram Vedha. So, this might put Mili’s chances at risk. But Rathi and Johar suggest that if the remakes are not ‘blindly copied’ from the original, they might work.
Rathi said, “If you do a frame-to-frame copy of the original movie whose subtitled version is available on popular platforms, then yes, a remake’s potential is in trouble. But they need to be adaptions and should cater to the needs of the section of the audience it is aimed at. If we can do that, we can definitely deliver.”

Johar added, “It’s not like remakes are out of business. It’s just that you have to customise them accordingly. Currently, they are under the radar and are being scanned thoroughly. If they are well-remade and a new perspective is offered, then who is stopping a good film to perform at the box office? No one.”