Will Jalaibee’s box office get stumped?

KARACHI:

“The cinema team may be a little stronger than the cricket team,” joked Jalaibee cast member Ali Safina, while discussing the prospects of a packed movie theatre during the ongoing cricket world cup. Releasing on March 20 — the same day as the semi-final cricket match between the Aussies and Pakistan, Jalaibee’s box office collection might in fact be affected.

Safina’s comment seemed to be more fact than fiction considering Pakistan’s lackluster performances in the initial stages of the mega event. But over the past few weeks, the team has gone from mercurial outsiders to fan-favourites and is now gearing up for a quarter-final encounter.

In spite of the clash of dates, almost all of the stakeholders of the movie are unperturbed by the Pakistan match and share the unified belief that the box office collections of the film will not suffer as the quarter-final will take place in the morning.

Eman Bente Syed, the producer of Jalaibee, reasoned that the distributors had created enough of a cushion for the movie by releasing it during the March 23-weekend.



Syed is sentient of the nation’s love interest with cricket and it’s no concealed fact that a victory and loss in the match may set the mood of the nation for the rest of the day. “I’m aware that the loss of the Pakistani team would change the mood of the nation and fewer people would want to go watch a movie, but we have covered for that through advance bookings,” reveals Syed.

“We are a very resilient nation and, God forbid, even if we lose, we will somehow overcome that sentiment by the end of the day,” she adds.

Hashim Raza, the CEO of Cinepax Cinemas even disclosed that a total of 1,500 to 2,000 tickets have already been reserved by cinema-goers across six different cinemas operating under the Cinepax chain.

Despite the high advance booking, cinema owners have mixed feelings regarding Jalaibee’s prospects, “Personally I don’t think people in Pakistan will be that receptive to an action-thriller like Jalaibee,” predicts Raza.

These doubts will only be accentuated if Pakistan manages to progress further into the tournament as a victory in the quarter-final, which will set up a potential semi-final clash with India, a match strong enough to halt daily routines in neighbouring countries.

When discussing this possibility, Syed replied excitedly-yet-nervously, ‘Na karo yaar!’ —  silently acknowledging the odds and repercussions of an Indo-Pak match on Jalaibee’s opening week.

“The first weekend is very critical. Obviously, the distributors must have planned for the repercussions beforehand.” states Syed.

Sheikh Adeel Imtiaz, the managing director of the single-screen Bambino Cinema shares a similar sentiment as Syed. Taking precedent from the recent Pakistan-Ireland pre-quarter-final match on Sunday, he says, “Although the match was not a major one, it still turned out to be a slow Sunday for us in terms of business.” Imtiaz further explains, “This can be attributed to people having a fixed quota for entertainment — they wouldn’t like to sit in front of a screen all day long.”

Such is the trumpet-blast of cricket that Imtiaz even mused on the possibility of screening the Pakistan-India match instead of the movie, should it happen.

Regardless of the match, Jalaibee has already managed to capture the attention of cinema-goers, particularly, since the Pakistani cinema is coming off a period of drought, where no major film, both local or international has been released in the country since PK in December.

“The excitement behind Jalaibee could be because the past few weeks, especially the month of March in particular has been a dead month in terms of film releases. No major Pakistani or international film has released during this period,” notes Raza.

It’s the desperation of the audiences coupled with factors like lack of competition that the producers of the film are hoping to exploit.

“We’re expecting a grand opening and are hopeful about crossing Na Maloom Afraad in the process, as we’re not competing with any major Pakistani or Bollywood films,” states Syed.

Whether Pakistan manages to outdo Australia and secure a semi-final berth against India or not, one thing’s for sure — they have already set up a match-up with Jalaibee in the minds of audiences and spectators alike.

Published in The Express Tribune, March  17^th,  2015.

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