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Akshay Kumar re-writes box office
12/ 8/2008
BOLLYWOOD superstar, Akshay Kumar, has re-written Box Office history with his much-hyped film release, ‘Singh Is Kinng’, which raked in Rs 18 Crore across India in its first two days of release.
The smash hit film opened on Friday 8 August with net collections of Rs 8 Crore on the first day and Rs 10 crore on the second day of its screening, breaking previous records set in the past 10 years. It was expected to close the opening weekend at Rs 28 crore, smashing all past Box Office records.
‘Singh Is Kinng’ also managed the biggest-ever opening in North America, the UK and the Middle East.
Till date, ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ were the top grossers in the North American circuit. ‘Singh is Kinng’, however, beat both the films’ opening on Friday with a record haul of $232,000 as opposed to $227,000 (‘Om Shaanti Om’) and $209,000 (‘Jodhaa Akbar’). In the UK, the film pocketed £337,000, while in UAE, it brought in 1.4 million United Arab Emirates dirham (AED).
All across India, ‘Singh is Kinng’ managed to garner approximately 30% more than the previous highest, rendering it the biggest Bollywood blockbuster of 2008 and breaking all previous Box Office records.
Filmed on Australia’s Gold Coast, ‘Singh is Kinng’ sees the leading star of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar, championing the role of ‘Happy Singh’ in a high-octane action comedy which also heralds the first ever collaboration of its kind, whereby Akshay came together with international hip hop superstar, Snoop Dogg, to create the title track and music video for the film.
The project marked the first time a big international music artist joined forces with the Bollywood film industry. An extremely important synergy, the video and track are being showcased and available on mainstream music platforms across the globe.
A bash to celebrate the enormous success of the moview was held at a five-star hotel in Mumbai yesterday evening......the do was attended by the producer, director and cast of the film including worldwide distributors, Studio 18.
Also in attendance were guests inlcuding Dino Morea, Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Prakash Jha, Mukesh Bhatt, Kunal Kohli, Aadesh Shrivastava and others.
A champagne toast was raised by Vipul Shah and Akshay Kumar to another kinng, Abhinav Bindra, who brought India honour by clinching a Gold Medal for Rifle Shooting at the Beijing Olympics.
Pictures by Viral Bhayani
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