Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit Nene starrer "Devdas" has been released at the Pakistani box office.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's romance-drama is considered to be one of the classic Bollywood films of all time. The film was released in India on 12 July, 2002, and had won Filmfare Award for Best Film. And after 13 years, the film has hit screens again, but in the neighbouring country.
"We wanted to screen Devdas as it is considered one of the greatest Bollywood films of all time. On the other hand, the cricket world cup going on currently has had an impact on the box office so we have decided to show old classics like these," Sabeena Islam, Marketing Manager of the Distribution Club, told The Express Tribune.
Nadeem Mandviwalla, Managing Director of Mandviwalla Entertainment, said that "Devdas" is an iconic film and lots of people have never seen it.
Mandviwalla also revealed that they are planning to import Shah Rukh's "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" (DDLJ) film for Pakistani audience.
"It is an iconic film and it has a lot of fanfare attached to it; plus, a lot of the people have not seen movie in cinemas as well," he told the daily.
"You need to look at these films differently. It would be wrong to have very high expectations from a film that is being re-released in Pakistan. You should not expect back-to-back full-houses and at the same time, you cannot market it like a regular film," stated Mandviwalla.
"Devdas", released in 2002, is the third version of the cult classic film. The film won five National Awards and nine Filmfare Awards.
It was also nominated BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was India's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Aishwarya Rai, Shah Rukh and director Sanjay Bhansali walked the red carpet during the screening of the film in 2002.
