‘Roohi’ gets a heartening 2.75 crore start

It’s time to dance for Janhvi Kapoor and her two co-stars Rajkummar Rao and Varun Sharma who have what looks like a hit on their hands. A year after Covid closed down theatres audiences have shown up in encouraging numbers at multiplex theatres across the country to see Roohi. The film has collected approximately 2.75 crore rupees on the day of its release which during these times of the pandemic is extraordinary.

Janhvi Kapoor is in a daze. “I can’t believe we actually got the audience to come.We had hoped it would happen. Now that it has happened I am grateful to the audience who braved the Covid to see our film.”

Maharashtra’s prominent movie exhibitor Akshaye Rathi feels the relative success of Roohi is an encouraging sign. “Roohi is a very important film for the Hindi film fraternity because it has kickstarted the process of building momentum of cinema consumption across the country. The footfalls at multiplexes as well as single screens have been very encouraging and the growing numbers will only encourage more film makers to release their films,” he says.

“I applaud the decision to release Roohi theatrically at a time when many exhibitors were starting to lose hope and giving them a reason to stick on till better times prevail.”

Adds trade analyst Girish Johar, “Its heartening to see that despite Covid-19 rising cases, and pandemic still rampant, and with cinema attendance curtailed by government guidelines, the audiences did come to give a decent start to ROOHI on a partial holiday Thursday release. This very clearly shows that the audiences are ready to come to the theatres provided they are offered exciting cinema. So Roohi has definitely added in firming up the cinema business to a decent start. Let’s hope that the trend continues now.”

“People are liking the mix of horror and comedy. If Roohi had been released during normal times without the crisis of contagion it would have been an even bigger hit than Stree which was from the same producers as Roohi,” says Roshan Singh a major exhibitor in Bihar.

“Collections of Roohi are definitely encouraging. Youngsters who are the target audience are coming out in good numbers. Now I am looking forward to Sanjay Gupta’s Mumbai Saga next week. That will give us a broader picture,” says Kishan Damani a prominent film distributor in Bihar.

While Roohi gives us reason to hope the other release this week, A Time To Dance, is a complete washout wiping off Isabelle Kaif’s career even before it started.