Zubeen Garg has once again created history in Assam. After the runaway success of his earlier Assamese film, Mission China, his new film, Kanchanjangha, is also going great guns at the box-office in Assam. The film opened on 6th September to a rousing reception. Believe it or scale the Kanchanjunga mountain, the first day’s net collection in the territory of Assam was Rs. 40 lakh. Ditto for the second day. Although we speak about Assam circuit, what this means for an Assamese film is simply the state of Assam as the other components of Assam circuit viz. other parts of North East, like Meghalaya, Arunachcal Pradesh etc. do not screen Assamese films. As Assam (including the other North Eastern states) is considered to be 1% of India, what this means is that the film would have netted more than Rs. 40 crore on the first day (and another Rs. 40 crore on day 2) had it had an all-India market. In cinemas in Assam, where a good Hindi film collects Rs. 1 lakh in an entire week, Kanchanjangha collected that much on the opening day.
Like in Mission China, singer Zubeen is himself the hero in Kanchanjangha too. Again, this film is also produced and directed by Garg.
The film has been released by Siddharth Goenka not just in Assam but all over India, which effectively means that it opened in a few major cities of the country simultaneously. In a Cinepolis property of Delhi, an interesting incident took place on the first day. The cinema management was all set to refund the ticket money to its patrons in one show of Kanchanjangha due to the failure of the airconditioning plant, but the crowds were so hell-bent on watching the film that they requested the management to screen the film which they then saw without the airconditioners working. At Delight Gold cinema (controlled by Mukta A2) at Rangia, around 50 kms. from Guwahati in Assam, the craze for the film was to be seen to be believed. There was a virtual traffic jam in the vicinity of the cinema at the time of the night show on the film’s first day as families came from far and near to witness the film which now promises to surpass the business of Mission China. Incidentally, the lifetime net collections of Mission China were Rs. 3.60 crore!
