Sanjay Suri: Opening weekend trend came from Hollywood

Mumbai March 5 dmanewsdesk: Actor Sanjay Suri says the trend of opening weekends is something we have aped from Hollywood and it has not worked in our favour. He also takes a critical stand on the fad of using number of views on social media as a parameter of success, saying trailers of Oscar-winning films often have far less views than Bollywood songs but end up a bigger success.

“The opening weekend business is all about how you can market with muscle and bring the audience in and, then, on Monday you can get a great collection and then it is over and done with.’It’s a dangerous trend and doesn’t allow for the film to grew,” he told IANS.

“This opening weekend business was not part of our industry. This came in from Hollywood. Earlier, all the films grew in 25 to 30 weeks and the second week was better than the first. So it gave time to a film to grow and the reviews would come on a Sunday, after the release. So the audience got a chance to see the film for themselves and it’wasn’t pre-decided. Now the reviews come on Wednesday. We followed the West aimlessly again and it became counterproductive,” he says.

The actor, who is part of the web series Dev DD2, adds that the number of views on social media don’t mean much.

“Often the trailers of Oscar-winning films, they have less views than Bollywood songs. So this one million-two million views really don’t mean anything. If you want shelf life, the content has to be good. Spike in numbers if good for a certain kind of content. But what won at the Emmys was Del”i Crime,” he says.

Source: IANS