"The response was awful; people threw bottles at the screen and even harassed the management for wasting their money,” Adeel Siddiqi, the owner of Bambino cinema, told The Express Tribune.
“The crowd was going out of control but I am glad that no damage was done to our property ... we controlled the situation in time,” he added.
As a result, the owners of Bambino have removed all shows of Operation 021 and are playing Hrithik Roshan’s Bang Bang and Na Maloom Afraad instead.
“We have to think of our interests first and our interest is the audience’s interest. If they don’t want to see the movie, then we don’t want to play it," said Siddiqi.
It only gets worse for Operation 021 as the movie faced a similar fate in Capri cinema where the film was taken off after an hour into its first running. Sources told The Express Tribune that the staff at Capri was also harassed by the audience. Many heard saying: Hamaray paisay wapas karo (Refund our money).
Capri has also chosen to switch to Na Maloom Afraad and Bang Bang instead. Operation 021 was released on the first day of Eid with Capri and Bambino among the very few single screens playing the film in Karachi and Sindh.
COMMENTS (104)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
PEOPLE WENT to Bambino and Capri, to watch SHAN for more than 2 hours, for me it is the most surprising news, I love Pakistani movies, BOL was the greatest, best thing about it Shan was not in the cast.
It is terrible to watch Shan anymore, look at him , what he has become after doing so many KACHRA movies, Leading man of most number of flops
@Ayesha: I agree with you
Indians films are totally waste of time and money.
Especially after the intermission the story lacked any coherence or intelligence. Brainless garbage.
Usman K your spot on. While I have a lot of respect for Rafay Mahmood as a journalist and he is allowed to have his opinion, he does not have the right to give out false information on the movie. A correction is in order not just for our audiences but Rafay should take it upon himself to contact Gulf News and Indian Express who carried the same news and correct the information he gave out. As a journalist accept your mistakes. Isn't it a shame to let your wrong words affect a worthy project. Remember the Peace Committee or the Na Maloom Afraad may have a bone to pick with the owners of Bambino and Capri. It may have nothing to do with Operation 021. Remember both cinemas have been vandalised several times previously and Operation 021 wasn't around at the time. This merely reflects on the criminality and hooliganism that exists in our society, this does not reflefct poorly on Operation 021. After this comment I would hope Rafay will put out a clarification. If not then we could start a campaign against Rafay ' s bad taste and force him to watch movies like the all time classic bad movies Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Rocky Horror Show and Dabbang. ;)
Enough ET!! Although my previous comment was censored, I would like to reiterate that it is this headline that needs to be booed off the website itself!! Not only does your website's news contradict the tremendous box office response received by the film, but also I have hardly found a negative review about the film elsewhere. I strongly recommend that you consider changing your "expert" reviewers of the local box office. Discouraging news even as insignificant as this one has the potential to hurt the film at box office, which would be highly unfortunate considering that it is a labour of love of people determined to reestablish the film industry against all odds. The theme of the movie was different, but that is okay because it belongs to a genre different from your run of the mill bollywood and lollywood films... a genre called "non stupid"! The direction was meticulous and the story mature, not to mention the slick visual and sound effects. It comes with flaws too, but that must not keep people from going to cinemas and enjoying a movie that is 100% plot oriented, unadulterated with obscenity or insanity and provides some food for thought. In fact both Pakistani productions released this Eid are easily better than the Bollywood release. Even some of our Indian friends would agree, should they get to see them. Instead of undermining local talent, devote more space for their recognition and positive criticism. I repeat, take this news item down and save your newspapers face!
Haven't watched O21 but i think it must be better than no-brainer "Chennai Express", "Dabanng" etc
@jami: Excellent Stuff! Dont let yourself down by these negative elements. Our cinema is evolving so are these immature critics. Keep up the great work. Looking forward to Moor.
we all know what type of audience visit Bambinoo cinema. most of the time you would see punjabi film posters with some fat aunty showing her cleavage at bambinoo cinema in the busy area of Saddar. people who threw bottles surely didnt get the story and wanted to see dance numbers Just like Na maloom afrad & bang bang. by the way bang bang is a terrible copy of tom cruise's Knight & Day.
@Ayesha: You are joking right? What a lame theory!
@Abbas Bilgrami: thanx Abbas...only if they knew what they all saying...in 2 days it has reached 2 carore almost...all cinemas are full...IMDB ratings 9/10...dawn review gives 4 stars out 5...BBC says Unexpected and gripping...all I'm seeing is this massive energy to bring O21 down....i don't get it...Rafay i really don't get it man...why? why Gujranwala faisalabad sahiwaal gujrat playing this same film full houses and capri puts Bang bang back...no one is ready to connect the dots...
I'm ashamed to see educated people come here and rip O21 apart but they don't realize interior punjab ppl are watching this geo political drama about Afghanistan and pakistan's future due to impending DOOM cuz of Minerals discovery worth trillions right across our Border..
Im amazed by this newspaper who jumped the Gun on our first day they tried to pull us down when they know it was a self financed film...we all sold everything for this film...we were hanging by our nails to make this true story come to life which directly connects to pakistan's future in this region.
My thanx to all those ppl who saw the film with open heart and mind, only they could see the soul...this is No Bang Bang as this film took Bang Bang over the first day it came (Tribune story on that was also a Lie) this film is No Na maloom, as its about a very serious topic...our future...
u all can discuss here everything...only few got it right like Abbas Bilgrami said..."Operation 021 has done better than Bang Bang and Na Maloom Afraad over the Eid holiday weekend. It has netted higher revenues in the first day then both above mentioned movies." and it has again proven the 3rd day that its holding as #1 at Box office...with out any indecent item numbers, no songs, nothing...
So I say U stole our Thunder Rafay! If u could review it and killed us in ur review i would ve taken it...but half baked story putting it on Headlines on our First day...man...what a grand show i swear!!
takecare man
jami
@Complete News: yes entire scenes were in English! totally agree. Scenes where US agents talking in english were in english actually. There were entire scenes in Pushto/Darri also...cuz afghani national was talking...Paki burger family were talking in English cuz...we burgers talk in english...its a realistic film...Paki normal humans were talking in Urdu...:)
@Sam: almost all shows r house full...its ahead of all films...whats ur point?
@not impressed: did i say that? i said journey...open ur mind first plz
Operation 021 has done better than Bang Bang and Na Maloom Afraad over the Eid holiday weekend. It has netted higher revenues in the first day then both above mentioned movies. The one screen cinemas in Karachi were targeted by some hoodlums. Other cinemas in smaller towns such as Sargodha, Faisalabad, Multan where there are only one screen cinemas have been showing Operation 021 to packed houses. Operation 021 is a ground breaking movie in Pakistan and I would recommend you read this review http://www.dawn.com/news/1136566 for a fair assessment. Remember Operation 021 is an intelligent spy thriller not a brainless formulaic movie like Bang Bang or a hyper nationalist movie like Waar.
This is a movie for the intelligent who can understand the situations in this part of the world. It does not contain dances, pretty faces, steamy scenes, vulgar dances, etc. so masses are unable to equate with it. The people sitting next to us were constantly on the phone or talking among themselves & at the end they asked me "what was the movie about? We got so bored...". I briefed them on the content but told them they should get a ticket for "Bang Bang" for the next show.... I enjoyed it overall but didn't like the cinematography & the sound mixing that much... Not bad for a Paki production. Well done & keep it up!
The cinema's u mentioed are those where lower middle class ( majority urdu speaking audience) go to watch a movie .
Film received poor response because movie was dubbed in english .
it should have released in both variants .
@jami If you made this movie with the reaso s you mentioned above, i will surely now go and watch it. This sounds lovely. Pls keep up the good work.
Rabita Committee is involved, for sure.
@Striver: "There must be some other reason and ET has the resources and man-power to track down the audience and get the real reasons whatever they may be" There you go. "Everyone" knows that this is the handiwork of Hamid Karzai and Narendra Modi.
@Dr.Ramzan: " not for the dull and narrow minded audience"
Now you are discounting most of the population in Pakistan.
This is a great conspiracy against the most patriotic Pakistani in the whole planet, Shaan!
On Imbd around 250 people gave ratings, an overall of 8.9/10 and by reading their reviews on how Lollywood movies are superior to Bollywood and how Indian audience is stupid, it was clear they were from Pakistan. I just didn't like was instead of reviewing the movie, they tried to explain how stupid Indian movies are.
m.imdb.com/title/tt3395608/reviews?ref=mtt_urv
Guys we know you make better movies than bollywood, its just that your budget is low. But think about people who work daily and eagerly wait for new movies to watch them with friends and have fun on weekends in India.
Really cannot understand the hype around this movie, Its yet another Shaan movie, dont expect to use your brain and get ready to see some mindless dialogues, action and obscene scenes.
It's earned 6 M on day 1. That's a solid day 1 performance! getting booed from two cinemas isn't news. It's fairly common in pakistan
I want to know what is the agenda of this guy Rafay. It doses not matter if it is a movie, music show or a drama, if it is Pakistani, he will try to pull it down. His glee is palpable in the the tone of this article.
I would say these harassment's seem targeted. The crowd got animated just because they didnt like this particular film and threatened to vandalize the cinemas?. I doubt that the crowd in karachi does that to every film they dislike. Although I havent heard any favorable reviews about the movie in lahore but nobody booed or wanted the their money back for it to get taken down.
People! the Pakistani cinema is slowly getting back on its feet and film makers are making genuine efforts to revive it on good taste I presume or else why would they take on such a task "it aint easy" as they say.
Be patient have a heart and allow them to tell a story the way they want to, you might just get a pleasant surprise.
I went to the cinema to watch this movie and i could not get a ticket and its booked for another two days. Even if its a crap movie i would still want to spend money instead watching an Indian movie
The complete news is that there were entire scenes in English without a word of Urdu in an Urdu feature film. This prompted the audience to protest as they did not understand alot of dialogue and protested that they had come to watch an Urdu movie and not an English one.
So the Pakistani Film industry have started a new trend ?? Only for intelligent? People below masters are not allowed to watch 021 !!
@jami: did you just compare yourself to Kurosawa and Kubrick?!! Cmon man, tone it down a bit!
There have been good movies made in Pakistan; Khuda Ki Leya, Bol and Tamanna for instance. These are dramas, and this is what we are good at, the action type movies do not have good realistic characters for some reason, but unfortunately people hype the action movies more.
Why even make these kind of movies when mostly of the audience can't understand the movie.
@jami: A 3 min item number couldn't have saved it. Anyhow, this movie wasn't capri/bambino material in the first place.
These cinema's mentioned by ET have a different kind of audiences, crowd in such cinema's can never understand "intelligent" movies! I remember watching waar in DHA cine Lahore & there were few men who just couldn't understand english dialogue and left early lol 021 is better than waar, so I'm baffled with this headline where people just come to watch masla movies only! Bad journalism.
Bad movie deserves a bad reception.
That's now surprising. This film is not for everyone. Just because it didn't do well in two cinemas doesn't mean that it's a bad film. O21 won't entertain you, but it's going to make you think.
If you take an average of the comments what are we saying the educated like the film the uneducated don't? So our MISSION in Pakistan should be is too raise the level to get our uneducated to the educated level. Forget about the real reason why we like or dislike this film & yes there are marketing plans to derail films engineered by opposing film distributors a common practice in the West. Please remember there is NO bad publicity the marketing folks at 021 to make more people to view this film!
I would like to boo this so called headline news off your website! No need to be so discouraging of an excellently executed film. Sure it comes with flaws, but is an intelligent film overall and belongs to a separate genre from your typical films; a genre called "not stupid". I have seen audiences booing at films like Krrish 3, RaOne, Chennai Express in our cinema halls as well. No big deal.
After media tussle I think its cinema and distributers tussle now. Mandiwalla entertainment is the distributer of this film who owns atrium cinema I think. Bambino and capri don't want to show it because of jealousy and express tribune has been part of the plot as it has published there version of the story.
i don't know about BANG BANG but i have seen HAIDER its a classy movie and very well narated too just like all vishal bhardwaj film I have seen the trailer of O21 and was a bit suprised to read this anyway i would love to watch O21 because i have seen KHUDA KAY LIYE and shaan is a brilliant actor.
@Ch. Allah Daad: It's. Not about returning to cinema its about booing a movie
This is a plot and conspiracy by bollywood people! They are manipulating Pakistan into making bad movies
@Haider: Barfi did not make less money. It crossed 100 crore. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara was also a hit. Yes masala movies like Dabangg fare well but then so does a nice movie like 3 Idiots. Movies with strong women oriented themes like Enlish Vingglish, Queen, Mary Kom have also performed well as well as Oh My God where the main protagonist is shown as an atheist. There are a wide variety of stories being told and audience have a lot of choice these days.
Oh...it's Rafay Mahmood...
@Ayesha: No this is a conspiracy by Bradd Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jenifer Aniston since the Pakistan audience is soooo important to them that they are resorting to such tactics.
Seriously, you think bollywood cares about our market given its size? Just a bad movie. Like Shaan's other stuff but he does not really compare with an Aamir Khan (or even Salman Khan)
What is it how it should not be a top headlines in any sense.
@Dr.Ramzan: outstanding film for the intelligent audience not for the dull and narrow minded audience
Wrong tactics by the producer; where would anyone find intelligent and broad-minded audience in Pakistan. Basic mistake.
@salman: So how many intelligent people in Pakistan ??? I wud appreciate if PUN was intended
@Ayesha: Are you nuts? It is Pakistani cinegoers that rejected the film and Pakistani cinema owners that took it off. Stop bringing India into everything.
@Ayesha: I really hope that was sarcasm lolll
Pakistanis love to watch romantic/drama/action/masala movies like bollywood ones.
@salman: but for intelligent audience
Impossible to find any signs of intelligence in Pakistan.
Is this a normal thing in Pakistan? Has it ever happened in recent times? Could the unprecedented nature of this event point towards a manufactured sabotage of the film by the competitors?
This film is for urbane, sophisticated audiences.
Hadn't Bambino been set on fire 5 times before? Ex-owner is Asif Ali Zardari's dad.
I cannot believe that Karachi audience would do such a thing. They are educated enough to understand the plot. There must be some other reason and ET has the resources and man-power to track down the audience and get the real reasons whatever they may be.
Meanwhile, Bang Bang's box office collection has already crossed ₹200 crore.
Waar would have had the suffered the same fate but the enemy India story line saved the day. Otherwise it is a film to be made and watched by amateurs.
@ Ayesha... lame excuse :). No use of hiding our weaknesses behind conspiracies.
Anyone who thinks this was a good film has very low standards. It was supposed to be a serious, mature thriller but instead was a poorly shot, pathetically acted and overall disjointed quasi-art film that failed to have any impact.
Quite surprise as dawn gave it 4/5
@Ayesha: could be using the D company of Pak. What an irony it would be !
This is the problem when you make movies with complicated storylines. The masses in the subcontinent want "paisa wasool" movies with thadka.
ET please stop media war. We no this is not your production. But appreciate our movies. In imdb the movie is ranked with 8.4/10. So talk with facts not with your own figures.
@Ayesha: Hahahahahahahaha...
@salman: I agree!
What more can you expect from the jahil awaam?
Just because people here think of films as Masala stuff. The topic was for some literate people who are so less here.
I personally liked it!
Well if audience doesn't want to see the movie....they could've left. Why throw bottles....when will we grow as a nation.
@Ayesha: Ya khuda kabhi to baaz aye. Ye conspiracy theory to ek bahut sakht bemari ho gai hai. Motarma iska jald elaj kara le. Are you aware A channel "ZINDAGI" on Indian TV is a huge hit and its popularity is beyond your imagination. This channel 24x7 telcasts only Pakistani tv serials. We are truly impressed by the stories so close to reality and life, transcript, direction, down to earth stage settings and above all quality of acting. Through this 'Express Tribune' board we convey our appreciations to directors, producers and all actors of serials like 'kash mai teri beti na hoti' 'mere quatil mere dildar' 'Ye shadi nahi ho sakti' 'mera naseeb' ' kitni girahe abhi baki hai' and so on.
All those people who were boo-ing the film were paid CIA, RAW , Mossad agents
Thanks ET for making this headline news. Indeed a very important piece of information
Why has ET made this headline news? Operation 021 has had great reviews all over. The film is not for everyone especially for some sections of the masses. They are so used to see the bollywood trash like kick and bang bang.
Everyone talks about quality Pakistani cinema then this.
Well they can all go and watch Na Maloom Aftaad which is hard core entertainer.
@Ayesha. Oh really, now that's a conspiracy too? There is something called nature's play, some people like such stuff, some don't. The viewer that goes to these cinemas has a particular mindset. you can't blame it on external forces for God's sake. It's sad, as I liked the film personally, and I think it is a great product to have come out of Pakistani cinema. But this is reality too. O21 is not really for masses.
So the Indian film producers somehow got their people smuggled to Pakistan and then to Bambino cinema to boo the movie? I salute your intellect!
hello ET i am from across the border, but i am some one who really admires your news website...i always find you balanced and i always find you better then then the website of the times of india ( the newspaper i read). but i have to ask myself and also ask you..."Operation 021 booed off the screens in Bambino and Capri", does this deserve to be a headline?
@Ayesha: Ayeshaji , aap bhi na .......!!
Thing is that pakistani media is n0t supporting #021 . They are fully supporting international films like indian m0vies without story, and dhum jhamk..., n0w pakistani cenima is going very well
Dear Rafay, you are doing really good job for neighbors.
I think people are busy in celebrating Eid-ul-Adha which has different atmosphere than Eid-ul-Fitr. People mostly stay home or spend time in Qurbani, eat gosht, again and again and finally collapse on their beds. The Eid-ul-Fitre is celebrated out of homes, in parks, restaurants and cinemas. If movie is good, people will return to cinemas after Eid.
The film has its cons but it isn't a bad movie. I dont know if its appropriate to say but it is for more educated audiences who can get intellectual plots. That's the reason the movie did relatively well at cineplexes and multiplexes. Its certainly not the Capri Bambino type movie and I am not surprised that the masses responded that way, sorry but that's the fact.
This movie is too intelligent for uneducated masses. They should give free education first then think of reviving the industry if they want to make such films ... Duhhh...
@Ayesha: Bang bang will only benefit Roshan family. India and indians don't care whether they add millions to their pockets or not. What benifit is to us? Will that give me free ticket,money? And nobody liked the movie even here be the critics or scores of people. So please nobody is forcing you to like something which even we didn't like... But it's got A-list Star power so it will crossing 200mark in india. Haider is a class movie though just like all other vishal Bharadwaj films. And btw even if your accusations were right why was na Malloom afraad targeted? These are your own mobs lady. Control intolerance in your society. Come out of Lal tropism and conspiracy theories. Shining bad activities blaming other countries won't help. You are stunting your own country progress this way.
Intelligent people didn't like this movie either. This is a movie for diehard Shaan fans.
The only "bad review" I found on the internet.
Now you can easily understand quality of great Pakistan cinema.
This film is a masterpiece spy action thriller but for intelligent audience. This film is not for common people as they cannot understand these kind of movies. They need full time entertainment just like bollywood masala movies, paisa wasool type.
This is a conspiracy by Indian film producers to kill the Pakistani film industry completely. They were afraid that Bang Bang would not be able to compete with superstar Shaan's movie. So they are adopting other ways now. So sad.
Thats horrid to hear .I kinda like that Shaan chap. He reminds me of our own Anil Kapoor for some reason.
Saw it in Atrium yesterday. I think it is a good film. Not for masses, but it is good.
Haaaa ha ha ha ha
Haaaaa hahahaha....
Go 021 Go.
neither this is a breaking news as ET is portraying, nor you should be doing it like this. Peace.