Bollywood Trade News Network

Eros International’s latest Bollywood star-studded extravaganza, SALAAM-E-ISHQ, which was released worldwide on January 25th on an impressive 1200 screens, has become a runaway box office success grossing over USD 11 million in just its opening weekend. In the UK, the box office grosses up to Sunday exceeded that of Adlabs’s KRRISH and GURU as well as UTV’s RANG DE BASANTI and DON for the same period.

With over 3.1 billion tickets being sold in India every year and the accelerated growth in multiplex cinemas which are driving ticket prices up, Bollywood is well and truly sustaining its 21% CAGR growth. As part of its strategy, Eros is taking a larger slice of the Indian box office and has set up its own distribution offices in Mumbai and Delhi.

In line with Eros’s strategy to broaden the audience for Bollywood films beyond the expatriate community, SALAAM-E-ISHQ was released with local language subtitles in markets like Germany, Belgium and Holland through mainstream multiplex chains.

Sunil Lulla, Director and President India, Eros International Plc said: “We are delighted with the audience response to SALAAM-E-ISHQ. Our strategy is a combination of leveraging our distribution network and marketing muscle globally and looking for opportunities to open new markets. We remain focused on this core thread of our business and are excited about our release pipeline”.

After the success of OMKARA and SALAAM-E-ISHQ, Eros’s global release pipeline up to March 2007 includes Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s EKLAVYA, Vipul Shah’s NAMASTEY LONDON, Amitabh starrer CHINNI KUM and Aishwarya Rai’s PROVOKED.