– In North America the film opened with weekend collections of USD 1.4 million the second highest in 2008.
– In Middle East the opening weekend collection stood at USD $0.92 million, highest opening for a Hindi film.
Following its Christmas day debut across 22 countries, the Aamir Khan starrer ‘Ghajini’, has grossed USD 4 million, outside of India, over the Christmas weekend. Distributed by BIG Pictures, the motion pictures brand of Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd, the film opened with USD 0.92 million in the Middle East, highest opening weekend for a Hindi film. Followed by North America with USD 1.4 million the second highest opening weekend for a Hindi film in 2008 and Australia raking in Australian Dollar $254,000 AD.
The film will open in 4 additional countries that include Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia & Morocco in the coming weeks. In an unprecedented manner for a Bollywood title, the film opened in the Middle East & North America setting new records, while in the UK it the had the biggest opening for a 15 rated film. ‘Ghajini’ also opened simultaneously in Ireland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Holland, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia where it’s broken all previous Bollywood and records including any previous Aamir Khan starrer.
Ghajini’s performance demonstrates that the overseas audiences are equally accepting, of quality action films, which are still a rarity, coming out of India. We are extremely pleased with the films opening, which has created bench marks in various international markets like North America, Australia, The Middle East says Jawahar Sharma, COO – International Film Business, BIG Pictures.
A Geetha Arts production, ‘Ghajini’ is a remake of the critically acclaimed South Indian (Tamil language) film with the same title, also directed by A.R. Murugadoss and garnering the Best Actress Award for Asin Thottumkal at the South India Filmfare Awards, who also stars in the remake. The film stars Aamir Khan, Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan, Mohit Ahlawat, Pradeep Rawat and Riyaz Khan. Cinematography is by Ravi K. Chandran. Madhu Mantena and Tagore Madhu produced the film.
‘Ghajini’ features amazing new music from Golden Globe® nominee (Best Original Score ‘Slumdog Millionaire’) and Andrew Lloyd Webber collaborator A.R. Rahman, with lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.
For more information on the film log on to www.rememberghajini.com
Boiler Plate:
Reliance Big Entertainment Ltd. (RBEL) (www.rbe.co.in ) is the flagship media and entertainment arm of Indian conglomerate, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RADAG), (www.relianceada.com) with significant presence in film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition), broadcasting and new media ventures.
With investments over USD 1 billion in its Filmed Entertainment business RBEL’s motion picture brand BIG Pictures has built a formidable film production slate in Hindi, English & other Indian languages, which it markets & distributes worldwide. The slate has projects with leading production houses and marquee Indian directors like Vidhu Vinod Chopra, David Dhawan, Indra Kumar, Ravi Chopra, Farhan Akhtar, Sudhir Mishra. Shaji N. Karun, Shyam Benegal, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta, M.S Sathyu & Amol Palekar,
On the Hollywood slate, BIG Pictures has development silos with Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hank’s Playstone Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment and Jay Roache’s Everyman Pictures.