Chhattisgarhi film Hans Jhan Pagli Phas Jabe is creating magic at the box-office in Chhattisgarh. Now in its 8th week, it is going so strong that Hindi films are finding it difficult to get shows in cinemas in the state. It is heard that Saaho, due on 30th August, may have to forgo a few single-screen cinemas because the regional language film seems to be unstoppable. Mission Mangal and Batla House, too, will have to pay a price on this count as they will hit the screens before Saaho, on 15th August, by which time the Chhattisgarhi film will not have completed its meritorious run. Directed by Satish Jain, it is doing wonders in the multiplexes of Chhattisgarh just as it is creating magic in the single-screen cinemas.
Made at a modest budget of Rs. 45 lakh (Rs. 35 lakh cost of production plus Rs. 10 lakh spent towards its promotion and release), it has already collected Rs. 7 crore from 43 centres of Chhattisgarh in 8 weeks (the eighth week started on 2nd August). The film is yet to be released in three of the 46 centres of the state. In that sense, this film is a bigger blockbuster than the Marathi Sairaat and the most recent Punjabi Shadaa. At a single-screen cinema of Raipur, like Shyam alone, the film has collected Rs. 80 lakh and it is still running to full houses in its eighth week too. All the shows today (Sunday, August 4) are packed to capacity!
Satish Jain had made the first Chhattisgarhi film, Mor Chhaiyan Bhuiyan, in 2000. After it proved a super-hit, he made four more films in the same language, all of them hits. While three of them had celebrated silver jubilees, the fourth ran for 100 days. The current film, his sixth, is also a huge grosser and has turned out to be not only his but also Chhattisgarhi cinema’s biggest blockbuster so far. Hans Jhan Pagli Phas Jabe stars Mann Qureshi and Anikriti Chouhan. The lead pair’s last Chhattisgarhi film, I Love You, was also a hit. In fact, spurred on by the success of I Love You, its makers have made its sequel which is due for release next week (9th August). The other actors of Hans Jhan Pagli Phas Jabe are Ravi Sahu, Pushpendra Singh, Ashish Shendre (late), Vikram Raj and Kranti Dixit.