It’s not everyday that a horror movie makes big, Phoonk has belied the tradition. Phoonk has reported over 90% collection in the very first week, as per the initial verdict by trade pundits, this movie is a hit. Industry estimates suggest the film, made at a reasonable budget of INR 6 crores has cropped up close to double the amount through nationwide box office despite being allotted only two shows in single screens, going up to three shows per day in multiplexes.

Phoonk is a concept movie as per the director of the film Ram Gopal Varma; a film with a non-existent star-cast and ‘black magic’ as its central theme has managed to surprise both the audience and the trade industry with its stupendous collections. After making a dud like RGV’s Aag, Ram Gopal Varma has struck with a vengeance. According to PTI, Ram Gopal Varma says that he has derived the idea for his latest film ‘Phoonk’ from a Hindi news channel which telecasts stories on black magic. Quoting RGV “I was amazed to know such programmes got heavy current of interest and decided to make a film on black magic“. OK Mr. Varma, now that the movie has worked, we believe you.

Apart from the content, it’s slick marketing which helped collections at box office rise. Before the movie was released, the producers of Phoonk ran a simple SMS contest, the winners of which would be given the task of sitting through the film alone in an auditorium. If they managed to do that, they would win a sum of INR 5 lakh, it’s a marketing and crowd pulling strategy already seen in Hollywood for similar horror films. This did the trick for Phoonk, as it received enough media attention to send people to the theatres; this also triggered the multiplexes to introduce more shows.

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