"Great Grand Masti" ("Masti 3") is one of the five Hindi films that earned huge revenues for Balaji Telefilms in broadcasting and music deals, hence it will be interesting to see the Riteish Deshmukh-Urvashi Rautela starrer's box office collection when it releases this Friday (July 15).
This is so because the film was leaked online and High Definition (HD) prints were available for download, much to the detriment of the producer Balaji Telefilms, the film and television content company listed on Indian stock exchanges.
"Great Grand Masti", "Udta Punjab", "Azhar", "Flying Jat", "Half Girlfriend" and "XXX" were listed as films by the company that had contributed substantially to its revenues.
"Successfully closed revenue deals on 5 movies with key broadcasters, overseas and music deals for upcoming movies at Rs. 682.5 million," the company said in its presentation posted on BSE website on May 18. It had listed "Azhar" as a co-produced movie, so it is presumed that the Rs. 682 million deal excludes the biopic.
The makers of the adult comedy "Great Grand Masti" were forced to advance the release date by a week to July 15 after the print of the film â€" starring Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani and Urvashi Rautela in key roles â€" were leaked online. The leaked print had the water mark "censor copy" and could hit big box office collection prospects on release.
The leak evoked outrage on Twitter, with several Bollywood celebs expressing annoyance at repeated instances of films being leaked online before their official release. The police have taken cognizance of the offence, with the crime branch of Mumbai police arresting nine persons under the Copyright Act.
However, some people, after watching the leaked version are not impressed; while one had tweeted that the film is "disasppointing with its plot", another comment described it as "pathetic & worthless".
#GreatGrandMasti to now release on 15th July.
â€" taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) July 6, 2016
Shares of Balaji Telefims closed at Rs. 100.75 apiece on the BSE on Tuesday, almost flat from their Monday close.
Hindi films are big money spinners, as is evident from two recent blockbusters â€" "Sultan" featuring Salman Khan and the multi-starrer "Housefull 3".
