It is being called the biggest disaster of 2007. The much-touted Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag took a major hit at the box office with collections as low as 10-15%. The film is expected to take a huge toll on distributors, who told EC the losses would be worth Rs 16 crore. The movie has flopped across all territories in India. The only relief is Uttar Pradesh, where the film has performed marginally better with occupancy levels of 20-25%.

“The movie has proved to be a very big loss for us. We had bet on the movie, on the back of RGV’s brand name and the kind of publicity the movie had garnered in recent times. This will definitely affect Ramu’s credibility as we will think twice before we agree to buy his movies again,” said a frustrated distributor.

For Adlabs Films, the co-producers of the movie as well as the overseas distributors, the impact has not been so big as they pre-sold the movie to distributors in the domestic market. However, Adlabs will lose Rs 5-7 crore in the overseas market, said an Adlabs source, who said the overseas collections have been dismal as well.

“Since we pre-sold the movie, Adlabs will not suffer a loss,” said Adlabs Films CMD Manmohan Shetty. The company sold the domestic distribution rights to Bharat Bhai Shah, one of the country’s biggest distributors, for Rs 15 crore, which excluded the southern territory. The southern territory was sold for Rs 2.5 crore.

“Distributors will lose about 70% of their investment. This is one of the biggest disasters of recent times, and collections of the film have been the lowest this year,” said trade analyst Komal Nahta.

“It is a debacle… The other reason for the failure of the movie is the publicity campaign, which was not in tune with modern times, but looked like posters and promos of a Bhojpuri or a regional film,” film expert Taran Adarsh said.

(source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com)