Aamir Khan's Ghajini is Bollywood's biggest box office hit of 2008

The Bollywood remake of A.R. Murugadoss' Tamil film Ghajini (which itself is an adaptation of Christopher Nolan's Memento) has blown away competition, reportedly mopping up Rs.30-32 crore on Christmas Day, when it opened nationwide, and is certain to rake in at least Rs.95-100 crore within the first week itself.

"Ghajini has shattered all box office records by gigantic margins. This type of craze for a film hasn't been seen since Gadar. We are expecting gross box office collections to be Rs.70 crore-plus from Thursday to Sunday night including paid previews," said Aman Gill, director (domestic threatrical distribution), Studio 18.

Ghajini, the industry pundits claim, has left Shah Rukh Khan's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Akshay Kumar's Singh is Kinng far behind in the race of becoming the biggest grosser of 2008.

Agrees Jawahar Sharma, COO (international distribution), BIG Pictures. "The response has been unprecedented and the film is getting good word of mouth publicity. We are very happy with the film's response," he said.

"As numbers come in from various territories, it looks like Ghajini's going to be the biggest hit for the industry this year. It's doing much better than Singh is Kinng, Golmaal Returns and one can't even compare Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with Ghajini's numbers," said trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

"I think it is the highest ever [figure] as far as box-office returns are concerned," Adarsh said. "For the first time, every show is [completely] booked for the next week. If you compare the collections with Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, I would say Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is no patch."

Agrees trade analyst V. Verma. "The hype created around it (Ghajini) has worked wonders and there is little doubt that the movie will turn out to be a superhit," Verma said.

Singh is Kinng and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi reportedly earned Rs.13-14 crore and Rs.10-11 crore on their opening days.

The pundits say the long weekend and lack of competition (the closest competition for Ghajini was Hindi animation film Jumbo in which Akshay Kumar lent his voice) have helped Ghajini bring in the moolah. With Christmas falling on Thursday, the movie-goers were all in a holiday mood and till Sunday, all the multiplexes reported 'House Full' for all the show timings.

This phenomenon is being witnessed not only in cities but also in smaller towns, said Priti Sahani, senior vice president of movie distribution firm, Indian Film Company.

In view of the unprecedented audience expectation for the film, the multiplexes are asking the distributors to increase the number of prints, Sahani said, adding that Ghajini has become a rage overseas too and could topple Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G) as the highest grosser among Hindi films in the international market.

"This is the highest print count for a Hindi film," said movie distributor Sandeep Bhargava, noting that till date, distributors Geetha Arts, Studio 18 and Big Cinemas have released Ghajini with about 1500 prints worldwide (including merging markets like Norway, Germany, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore, besides the traditional NRI-rich US, UK and the UAE), the highest in Indian cinema history.

This shows, Bhargava said, that Aamir Khan is currently Bollywood's most bankable actor.

"The film (Ghajini) has got block bookings...it has no competition until Chandni Chowk To China hits screens January 16," said Joginder Mahajan, a Delhi-based movie distributor.

According to another movie distributor (who wished to remain anonymous), Ghajini has created a record by becoming the first Bollywood movie in recent times for which the tickets had been sold in advance for all five days of the opening week across the country. And, the distributor said, Ghajini has the potential of being the first ever movie in the history of Indian cinema to earn over Rs.100 crore during the first week itself.

"The film is going to rewrite box office history as far as the openings are concerned. It's also helping the film to achieve the record number of prints it is releasing with. Ghajini is an action thriller, a genre which generally attracts the masses more than the families but with the hype that Aamir has managed to create and of course the promos, both families as well as the masses desperately want to watch it as soon as they can," said Complete Cinema's Atul Mohan.

And, it's not only Aamir Khan fans and multiplex owners who are smiling. Critics too say that Ghajini is Aamir Khan's best movie yet.

But all the praise and accolade has not stopped Aamir Khan from creating more buzz about his latest movie. 'Mr. Perfectionist' is reportedly still actively promoting the movie by meeting his fans and appearing for Ghajini promos on the television and the radio.

"We were hoping for a good response, but what is happening is unprecedented and amazing. I am very with happy the response...very happy that people love good action films," Aamir Khan said.

"I guess most of the response has been because of a ripple effect. It's worked like a tidal wave. I think word of mouth is always the best publicity," he said, thanking his fans for making the movie a success.

ABOUT GHAJINI

The plot of Ghajini revolves around the lives of Aamir Khan, a shy business tycoon (Sanjay Singhania), bored of bureaucratic nonsense and running a business empire, and Kalpana (played by Asin who was in the original Tamil movie too), who is the girl every man would like to take home to meet his mother. For she not only has a great sense of humor, but also has a heart of gold helping everybody out of the way.

Love is beginning to bloom between the two but fate has other plans and tragedy strikes as Asin is brutally murdered by bloodthirsty villains led by one Ghajini (portrayed by Pradeep Rawat & Co).

Gripped by extreme shock and sorrow, Aamir transforms from a lovestruck guy to a wounded beast (with a six-pack), thirsty for revenge. But revenge is not easy for not only the bad guys wipe out almost every clue that could lead the murder to them, but also Aamir begins to suffer from a short-term memory loss (his memory is wiped clean every 15 minutes) due to a head injury sustained while he was trying to save his girlfriend from the villains.

So how does Aamir exact his revenge? A la Michael Scofield style in US hit television series Prison Break, Aamir has to depend on the sparse tattoos on his (eight pack) body, the scrawls on his walls, his unfinished diaries, his Polaroid snapshots, a friendly medical student Sunita (Jiah Khan) and of course, his fading memory to track down the killers and avenge the death of his loved one.

Directed by A. R. Murugadoss (who directed the original Tamil movie) and filled with melodious songs by A.R. Rahman (watch out for 'Guzarish,' 'Behka' and 'Kaise Mujhe'), Ghajini is a violent, tragic love story about how a lovestruck man can become transformed into a killing machine.