Low-budget satire Tere Bin Laden that released on July 16 (last Friday), grossed over Rs 500 million in its opening weekend and gave tough competition to the Sanjay Dutt-Bipasha Basu starrer ‘Lamhaa’ and first time director Vikramaditya Motwane's ‘Udaan’ that also released on the same day.
Debutant director Abhishek Sharma's Tere Bin Laden grossed the collections all over India in the first three days from 344 screens.
Encouraged by the strong response, Boney Kapoor's BSK Network and Entertainment, distributors of the film, are now planning to widen the release by an additional 40-50 prints in the second week.
Internationally too, the film is enjoying a strong run and has already grossed $150,000 from Britain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Australia while a US release for the same is still in the pipeline.
"After all the hard work, it is truly rewarding to know that audiences are responding positively. We are also very grateful that our colleagues from the industry supported us after watching the film and helped spread the word," Pooja Shetty Deora and Aarti Shetty, producers of the movie, said in a statement.
Tere Bin Laden is a humorous take on the 911 mastermind. It is the launch vehicle of Pakistani singer-turned-actor Ali Zafar and newcomer Pradhuman Singh, who portrays Osama in the movie.
The multiplexes too are counting on the Osama satire.
"Tere Bin Laden is better of all three movies that released last Friday. Though Lamhaa got more shows, Tere Bin Laden has performed exceptionally well," said Amit Shah, chief manager (programming) of DLF DT cinemas.
"The reviews for the movie are good and there is a good word of mouth publicity for the same. It has had an average of 70 percent occupancy over the weekend compared to 60 and 40 percent acquired by Lamhaa and Udaan respectively. The collections are also matching in parallel for both Tere Bin Laden and Lamhaa," he added.
Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, said: "Both Lamhaa and Tere Bin Laden did a neck-to-neck business. Tere Bin Laden is a masses movie with full comedy and thoroughly enjoyed by both family and friends."
"Both Lamhaa and Tere Bin Laden have had over 70 percent occupancy each, while Udaan is a more serious and youth-centric movie with over 60 percent occupancy over the weekend," he added.
Lamhaa is based on the turmoil in the Kashmir valley. Produced by GS Entertainment and distributed by PVR Pictures, it also stars Kunal Kapoor and Anupam Kher.
Udaan is about a father-son relationship. It has been co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, Sanjay Singh and UTV Motion Pictures and features 17-year-old Rajat Barmecha along with popular TV stars Ronit Roy and Ram Kapoor.
"All three movies have been good. While Lamhaa is a masses movie, Tere Bin Laden and Udaan are films for multiplexes. While we had 11, four and four shows respectively for the movies, these had an average occupancy of 65, 72 and 75 percent respectively," said Amit Awasthi, senior manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas.
"Tere Bin Laden is a very well made film and very enjoyable while Udaan is doing good too," he added.
A source from PVR cinemas said: "Lamhaa has been good but Tere Bin Laden has been exceptionally good. Udaan too hasn't stayed behind. All three movies have had an occupancy of around 50, 50 and 30 per cent respectively on an average of five, three and three per property but considering the comic factor, Tere Bin Laden has a great week ahead too."