Women show the way: Raazi in ` 100 crore club
The espionage drama Raazi has been unanimously praised by both critics and audiences. The film, directed by Meghna Gulzar, has now entered the elite ` 100 crore club — its total box-office collection after three weeks stands at ` 102.50 crore. And there is no stopping Raazi, as the word of mouth is still going strong.
Meghna, who has become the first female director to cross the ` 100 crore mark in a non-festival period, calls the success “overwhelming” and gratifying not only for her, but for the entire team, too. “The overwhelming acceptance that the film has got is because it carries a very universal emotion of loyalty and patriotism, but it doesn’t do it in a way that everybody is used to, so far,” says the director. “So, presenting something, a familiar emotion, in an unfamiliar way was something we’ve done with this film. We didn’t want any controversy, we didn’t want to stir any negative emotion, and the audience got that,” adds Meghna.
Raazi, which is the first collaboration of Junglee Pictures and Dharma Productions and is produced by Vineet Jain, Karan Johar, Hiroo Johar, and Apoorva Mehta, is also the first femaleoriented, non-franchise film to cross ` 100 crore.
Lead actor Alia Bhatt’s highly nuanced performance as Sehmat has resonated with the audiences. “The success breaks the myth in the industry that female-oriented films can’t do great business. Women-centric films do have an audience and a lot of credit goes to Alia. The film was riding on her shoulders and she did a great job. The business is going strong even now,” says Bollywood trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
Other cast members — Vicky Kaushal, Rajit Kapur, Shishir Sharma, Jaideep Ahlawat, and Ashwath Bhatt — have also been receiving lavish praise for their work. Meghna says, “The film has been appreciated in its entirety — actors, technicians, costumes, production design.”
Explaining the runaway success of Raazi, film trade analyst Amod Mehra says, “This is a clear victory of good cinema over [merely] commercial movies. And major studios promoting such films will encourage more filmmakers to make such movies.”