‘Won’t rest till The Legend of Maula Jatt is screened in all Pakistani cinemas’

Distributor Nadeem Mandviwalla explained why certain cinemas are not playing the much-talked-about film

KARACHI:

While Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt is still wowing the audience with its impressive storytelling and stellar performances, the film still faces a challenge like no other.

The massive box office numbers from all over the world speak for themselves. Therefore, the screening woes that film faces in Pakistan make for an important discussion as to why major cinema chains are still not showing Pakistan's arguably most successful film.

Nadeem Mandviwalla, the distributor of the film, addressed a press conference on Thursday to shed light on the ongoing controversy after Nueplex cinema owners accused him of setting screening terms that were 'out of the industry norms'.

"When I met the producers of The Legend of Maula Jatt, they expressed concerns about maximising returns of their big-budgeted film," Mandviwalla said at the press conference. "So, we sat down with the major cinema owners of the country and presented a strategy that would work for all parties involved. What we offered was that the producers should get 10% more in the first 11 days of release. We compensated this by raising ticket prices for the said period and pleaded with the cinema owners to share the extra amount with the producers."

The strategy

The distributor shared that the strategy included the exhibitors sharing 60% of the film earnings with the producers for the first eight days. Ninth day onwards, exhibitors would share the usual 50% of the total earnings with the producers. Another imperative point was to increase ticket prices by Rs200 in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi for the first 11 days after the release.

Mandviwalla added that they made it clear to the exhibitors that they didn't want to disrupt the flow of the cinema's revenues and were only requesting help for a smoother box-office run for the film. "The most any film has made over the first week in Pakistan was Rs18 crore. The film was Ranbir Kapoor's Sanju in 2018," he said.

He further explained that their idea of releasing the film in October was to provide maximum screens for the film. "If all the exhibitors had agreed and this film would have been screened in all cinemas, we would have surpassed Rs20-22 crore in the first week, breaking Sanju's records," he shared. "Even with the inflation, we had calculated this to be the most successful Pakistan film in terms of revenue. But our plan was to make sure this film at least earns Rs100 crore. And for that, it was imperative that the film should earn at least Rs40-50 crore in the first eight days," the distributor further divulged.

"There are usually two ways of maximising returns for any big-budgeted film. One: you increase the number of screens. In the US, when a big-budgeted film is released, it's usually screened at 4000 cinemas. We only had 144 screens altogether. We didn't have the choice to increase the number of screens," Mandviwalla shared. "If I had that, we wouldn't need a special strategy since the film would have worked anyway and the film recovery would have been easier. Hence, we increased the ticket prices; our plan was to not put any burden on any cinema owners, so their share would still stay fair. The exhibitors continued with the complaints. I kept explaining that I had watched the film, but you haven't."

He added, "I told the exhibitors that when you do watch the film, all these issues will look so paltry because the film speaks for itself. The six big players in the cinema industry agreed to the films and three didn't. And refusing or agreeing to the terms was their own right. We didn't pressure anyone, we only explained the strategy. There are 38 cinema owners in Pakistan. We had 34 onboard. The other four wanted us to bend the terms and we couldn't do that. There were a lot of speculations about the ongoing screening row."

Mandviwalla went on to elaborate that The Legend of Maula Jatt isn't the first film for which the ticket prices were hiked. "It's a norm in the world for ticket prices to be screened. This isn't new. The hoo-ha surrounding the same in Pakistan is troublesome. We had increased ticket prices when Avengers and The Dark Knight were released as well. The audience came in and watched the films. We had done that before as well. This isn't news. But since The Legend of Maula Jatt isn't screening in all cinemas, we have to sustain it somehow," he said. "We also shared that if the audience feels that the price hike is unjust, they can come on the 12th day and watch the film."

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Mandviwalla revealed that the negotiations with the other four cinema owners are still underway. "We aren't done yet," he shared. "I won't rest until this film is screened in every cinema in Pakistan. We're trying to find a middle ground here. The Arena has started screening the film as of October 20, I'm hopeful that the rest of the cinemas will come onboard soon as well."

Roaring success

The Legend Of Maula Jatt opened to a roaring success, both in domestic and overseas markets. According to a press release, in its opening weekend, the largest-mounted Pakistan-made, Punjabi language film to date has shown collections of Pakistani Rs50.91 crores – US$2.3mn.

According to a press release, The Legend Of Maula Jatt was released worldwide on 500+ screens across 25 countries, making it the highest and widest-ever release for any Pakistani or Punjabi film yet. The film grossed Pakistani Rs11.27 crores (US$ 526,902) in the domestic, Pakistan market. It grossed £315,000 in the UK in its first weekend (four days) from 79 locations. This marks the highest opening weekend collection for any Pakistan-made or Punjabi language film in the UK to date, entering the UK Box Office Top 10 at position 9.

In Canada, The Legend Of Maula Jatt grossed CA$324,000 ranking number 6 at the Canadian Box Office. Total collections for North America exceed US$600,000. In UAE too, The Legend Of Maula Jatt grossed US$515,000+ in four days and reached Number 1 at the UAE Box Office, indicating the enormous support audiences have shown for the film. Other performing territories are Australia (AU$255,000), Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and South East Asia.

The Express Tribune could not independently verify the box office figures. 

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