A case study needs to be done on a film like ‘Mohenjo Daro’ because a film that was arguably the most anticipated release of the year, has turned out to be the biggest disappointment.
During times when films like ‘Baahubali’ and ‘Bajirao Mastani’ are being made, a lot more was expected from a film like ‘Mohenjo Daro’ in every department, more so when it comes to scale, grandeur and visual effects. The film not only failed in its visual presentation, but the music and promos were underwhelming too.
Check out the graph that tracks Mohenjo Daro before the launch of the trailer, right until the release of the film on August 12.
The pre-release expectation was high, more so because films on a historical subject were working at the box office and the combo of Hrithik and Ashutosh were returning 8 years after a film like ‘Jodhaa Akbar’.
Mohenjo Daro LBO
As you can see from the graph above, the only period during the entire promotional campaign that Mohenjo Daro showed some sort of an upward trend was in the week between 6th July to 13th July. That’s when ’Tu Hai’ released. It was the only song that was received well, but other than that nothing tracked.
The last hope was content, but late on Thursday night (day before release), it was clear that Rustom would win the clash and Mohenjo Daro would be decimated.
After all this,It Will be wise decision for Roshan’s to Shift kaabil from republic day weekend
MD got what it deserved. It was BLACKMAILING in the name of Indian first civilization.
But people are 100 times more smarter than anyone thinks.
and
Now the Hrithikians will realise and feel apologetic for which film they were up against.
.
RUSTOM CRUSHED md Sounds PERFECT now.
This graph is similar to Global King’s career graph in 2000 to 2016
Superb indicine..!! Nice article.. Mohenjodaro is a debacle in every aspect..after the trailer launch its clear to most of the cinegoers that nothing is resemble to the indus valley civilization.. It is horribly miscast. A utter mishmash.. It’s right justice to the movie..
before release of mj n rustom everyone thought that d clash would be one sided with mj trashing rustom.even on today d clash is one sided with rustom completely overshadowing mj but d difference of margin in collections is unbelievably huge with rustom set to collect more than double of mj.akki has single handedly beaten d combo of hr ashutosh ar rehman.I just want to see d faces of hr fans like aman,neeraj,abhi hr,hrithikian from Nepal..they call hr as superstar and hr even could not give face saving opening inspite of coming after 22 months and akki gave 14plus opening even after he came just after 3 months.akhir baap baap hota hai.hr can give opening only in franchise movies and on national holiday n that’s an universal truth.
Don’t worry HR’s fan Kabil will definitely destroy Global King Raees
wowww Hats off indicine…….
your Fbo and Lbo are the best..I havnt seen these kind of predictions anywhere on internet except indicine, and your Fbo is unique I can say..
Wow
@indicine: Plz maaf kardo Mohenjo Daro Ko. Galati ho gayi. Ab kitni class loge??
KAABIL has more potentiality than RAEES. Many will feel reverse of this but the fact remains fact itself.
It was your foolishness to give 192cr to a movie releasing outside EDX
Indicine whts your currently Lbo predictions for Kabil..plz share us
@Indicine
I Love Your site.
This article will win many accolades.
Knowledgeable one…
@ Indicine:
If I remember correctly, last time you made a similar graph for Fan and now for MD. I guess you enjoy showing that downward slope for big movies/unexpected flops. Lol.
Anyways good work with that graph and analysis.
@ANK, we can only do graphs for big films that exceed expectation or fall way below. Sultan was expected to do 250 plus before release, it picked up after trailer, maintained level throughout campaign and finally did 300 plus.
PRDP too was always around 200-230 in LBO.
As for someone commenting about the ‘foolishness’ of 192 crore initial prediction, Mohenjo Daro had the potential to not only be a huge 225-250 crore grosser, but a outstanding trailer like the one Shivaay makers put out, would have even made Rustom move to a different date.
The blame is on Ashutosh Gowarikar for the failure of MJD.
Now it’s time 4 padmavati …….
these articles are not going to affect filmkrafts decision of whipping srk’s ass on 26th jan 2017
Boring history……
@Indicine
Biggest dissappointment movies of this year 2016 are
Fan for Srk
Mohenjo Daro for Hr
But No one can say there acting efforts or perform was worst in the same movies respectively.
Again Two lovely fellows Srk n Hr head to head next year
#Raees vs Kaabil @Republic Day 2017 !!!
If Hr again said Kaabil was his best movie in his career after the same movie trailer release then guess it maybe #Kaabil also Disaster
If Srk again postponed Raees from Republic Day then peoples will ignore the movie to watch the same at theaters whenever it will be releases.
At Last All are Confused
I mean Fans media trade analyse and Srk n Hr n makers of respective movies !!!
Better Raees to postpone to Christmas this year 2016 and Kaabil Republic Day next year 2017 !!!
I hope both movies need a completly and fair solo release at theaters to recover there stardom back !!!
Joker too Blackmailed Airlift then but got away. What we saw in Airlift is total contrast of its reality.
What do you mean by Shivaay would have forced Rustam to shift date? Hrithik has more star power than Ajay please accept it.
Indicine if it’s so,why haven’t Adhm shifted its date. Rustam trailer too came after MD trailer was out.
@ Indicine :
You know I was just kidding. There was no double meaning to it. Still better that you now explained as to when to expect those graphs.
Indicine rustom intentionally clashed wid mohenjodaro.and rustom would nt hav shifted at any case
Nice article. I like Pooja Hegde she is beautiful no doubt. But Rustom’s Jamna Bai (Usha Nandkarni ) did so much in 5 minutes appearance than what Chaani (Pooja) did in whole movie.
Mohenjo Daro 2nd Weekend – Fri 1.05 cr, Sat
1.28 cr, Sun 1.55 cr. Total ? 3.88 cr.
So, 2nd Weekend Collection is Total 3.88 Cr.!
Rustom 2nd Weekend – Fri 4.41 cr, Sat 5.77 cr,
Sun 6.94 cr. Total 17.12 cr.
Note : 2nd Weekend’s Total Collection of
Mohenjo Daro (3.88 cr) is even lesser than the
single lowest day (Fri 4.41 Cr.) collection of
Rustom… ROFL…
So, Mohendjo Daro 2nd Weekend < Rustom's Fri.
Collection (Lowest Day Of 2nd Weekend)…
And, Some Morons were continuously chanting
before the clash… Mohenjo Daro will thrash hard
Rustom… Rustom will not collect even 60 Crores
whereas Mohenjo Daro will collect 300 Crores,
Blah Blah Blah…
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, I THINK THEY HAVE GOT
THEIR REPLIES AND WHEN THEIR FACES GONE
DULL LIKE THIS, THE SCENE IS INCREDIBLE…
At least Mohanjo Daro collect more than salman satarer Veer, Mai & Mrs Khanna, London Dreams,Heros, and God Tussi Great Ho.
So best of Luck Hritik next time.
Hope Your Kaabil will be really watch ke Kaabil.
hahaha indicine phattu doing analysis
truth is that you are so hurt that rustom collected almost double than mj ….. rustom get bigger opening then mj …..bloody hypocrite where are your analysis at the time of BV debacle and Mr phattu let me tell you 1 thing
akki never backed out of clash like other actors Outimd moved because of jitendra and ekta kapoor and akki upset about that at time …….
in simple langauge you are a blind fan of srk and hr ……
Even I m a big fan of akki and srk and I like Rk too …….but I never denied the truth that sallu is above than both akki and srk … not like you …..
hr is bigger than akki ….a big LOL to you …..
Great Work Indicine…
Look at Srk fans they are more happy than Akki fans because they think that now Raees will get solo release but recently producer of kaabil reconfirm the 26th Jan date and there is no chance that they will shift their movie……LOL no one scared from Srk and his fans call him king of clash and global star……but actually he is Local Star, even Tushar won’t scare to clash with him….
Next year Hrithik will crush srk and his movie because this time Salman, Ajay, Akki fans are with him….
@Indicine : Very well written and the chart reveals how the MJD buzz and expectation came down. So the initial LBO was around 180 crs and it failed to did even half of it. That means it is one of the biggest disappointment in history of Bollywood. Ashu as a director has not progressed with time and has been left behind !!!!!!!!!!!
‘Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro does what many history books could not have done.’
‘He awakens interest in the ancient civilisation of Harapppa and Mohenjo Daro,’ says Asim Siddiqui.
IMAGE: Hrithik Roshan in Mohenjo Daro .
Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro tries too hard to blend prehistory with a popular story to appeal to an intellectual audience interested in serious subjects and the masses brought up on a regular diet of songs, dance, drama and action.
The result is that neither side appears too pleased which does appear a bit unfair simply for the kind of effort that must have gone into the making of this ambitious film.
There certainly are many cliched situations in the film. A rebel raising his voice against injustice and the machinations of power is a formula which has been repeated too often in our films.
The lost rightful heir has appeared in film after film in our cinema. The hero made to pass an impossible test, it may be a fight against a lion or an oversized brutal demon-like man, is also a formula that had been perfected by Dharmendra and sons, though this Lagaan moment in the film ‘ Pariksha sweekar hai ‘ does have its attraction.
IMAGE: Hrithik takes a boat ride down the Indus in Mohenjo Daro .
Ever since the film’s trailer was out, the film came under attack for playing with facts of history, especially in promoting the Hindutva view of history.
The trailer announced the setting of the film in 2016 BC, with a voiceover declaring the action of the narrative taking place before the British Raj, before Mughal rule, before Christ, and before the Buddha but avoided saying before the Vedic Age.
Then there were the rampaging horses in the trailer, the animal associated with the Aryans, which alerted critics.
The trailer was certainly not the complete picture. The film starts with the disclaimer that there are different views about Harappan civilisation and this gives Gowariker some freedom which he further mixes with his artistic licence.
Obviously Gowariker is not writing a history textbook but making a period film which should both appeal and entertain a big audience in 2016 and do good business.
In any case, as historian A L Basham says ‘Our knowledge of the Indus civilisation is inadequate in many respects, and it must be classed as prehistoric, for it has no history in the strict sense of the term.’
But surely enough Gowariker succeeds in drawing attention to India’s many continuous cultural traditions the appeal of which can still be felt.
IMAGE: Hrithik fights the croc in Mohenjo Daro .
T he very first scene of the film shows Sarman (Hrithik Roshan) rowing his boat which is attacked by a flying crocodile. The remarkable thing about this scene is that it establishes a sense of distance between 2016 BC and AD 2016.
If the presence of the crocodile evokes an exotic image of distance, the primitive man’s smelling the danger even before it has appeared does it even more intelligently.
Even when he is not all the time faithful to whatever is known about this history, Gowariker does manage to give some useful glimpses of the most ancient civilisation of the subcontinent.
The camera focuses many times on Mohenjo Daro seals and inscriptions the language of which has not been deciphered yet. In the same way the scenes showing planned architecture of Mohenjo Daro with its two-story houses of baked brick is a treat to watch as are the scenes of the marketplace which present the nature of trade in the city.
That the city invested in trade and it had trade relations with other contemporary civilisations like the Sumerian is also aptly communicated by the film. Mohenjo Daro’s famed public bath about which a lot has been written, shown in a song, may be mistaken for a swimming pool.
The excavations at the site revealed that Mohenjo Daro had a citadel on a platform and a town proper. This lends an opportunity to our filmmaker to take up the subject of class division as all films explore some kind of conflict for dramatic effect, most importantly between the poor and the rich.
IMAGE: Kabir Bedi who plays the villain in
Mohenjo Daro .
T he film highlights the difference between the upper and lower city and consequently between the poor and the rich, pitting the hero against the villain.
Gowariker’s film uses many uncertainties about historical facts very intelligently. It is a point of debate whether there was a centralised rule in this civilisation or democracy flourished from different institutions.
Gowariker shows both. The democratic institutions in Mohenjo Daro are represented in the meeting where heads of different professional groups voice their opinion freely and voting is the means to arrive at a decision.
When Sarman finally achieves his final victory over the villain, he refuses the control of Mohenjo Daro in favour of the common people. But there was no mistaking a centralised rule in Mohejo Daro as is shown by various arbitrary announcements from the ruler.
IMAGE: Pooja Hegde in Mohenjo Daro .
D ay to day life is also captured by the camera. The headgear associated with Mohenjo Daro women sits beautifully on the heads of dancers in the film, particularly on Chani (Pooja Hegde) who cannot be recognised by ordinary folk when it is not on her head.
As for the food, from one brief pan shot of the spread one is left a bit uncertain about the food choices of the people of Mohenjo Daro, though there does appear, apart from other eatables, what looks like grilled fowls.
Though it was not part of their life, the presence of the horse in Harappan civilisation has not been ruled out; in the film the horse is brought from the Central Asian city Bukhara (Uzbekistan) and it is a display item for the rich and a curiosity item for ordinary folk who are not familiar with this animal.
Of course, the filmic device of the hero taming an uncontrollable horse, that too when the horse threatens his beloved, proved too attractive to resist for Gowarikar.
The issue of the use of Sanskritised Hindi in the film has been criticised on ideological grounds. It was certainly needed because a slightly unfamiliar vocabulary at some places can convey the sense of distance better than a very familiar dialect.
IMAGE: Hrithik in Mohenjo Daro .
In the climax Gowarikar tries to introduce the contemporary issue of the displacement of population because of the building of dams. However, by moving the population of Mohenjo Daro to a different location because of heavy floods, Gowariker flirts with many historical opinions about the decline of Harappan civilisation.
He stays clear of the view that it met its end because of Aryan invasions. He rather focuses on natural causes and man-made cause of changing the course of the Indus river to appeal to a contemporary audience.
In between these scenes he stresses the use of boats and bullock carts in Mohenjo Daro to give a feel of the correct iconography of the city.
IMAGE: Hrithik in Mohenjo Daro .
H owever, Gowariker’s many choices to please the contemporary audience in 2016 appear of ideological nature. Of all the arms available to his hero he must choose a trishul to fight two deadly man-eaters from the hill.
But then which Bollywood hero did not use a
trishul ? The dead bodies in Mohenjo Daro, it is hinted, could be buried or cremated and the film highlights cremation. It can be questioned because Cemetry H culture dates from approximately 1900 BC to 1300 BC and the film is talking about 2016 BC.
In this phase of the Indus Valley civilisation, as many historians have noted, the dead in Mohenjo Daro were buried. Bringing in the discussion of Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s pioneering work on Harappa and referring to the discovery of a cemetery and 57 graves, A L Basham writes in The Wonder that was India : ‘It is clear that the dead were buried in an extended posture with pottery vessels and personal ornaments.’
Gowariker also uses his artistic licence in showing the unambiguous continuity between Mohenjo Daro and the Gangetic region. The last scene of the film has Sarman tasting the pure and clean water of the Ganga and asking his people to make their new home on its bank.
On balance Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro does what many history books could not have done. He awakens interest in the ancient civilisation of Harapppa and Mohenjo Daro.