Eros International Media Limited (Eros International), has announced a strong opening weekend for Jai Ho at the box office with an impressive Rs. 101.26 crore gross worldwide, despite a non holiday weekend. Produced by Eros International and Sohail Khan Productionz, the Salman Khan starrer released across approximately 5000 screens worldwide on January 24^th, 2014.  

Salman mania once again drove audiences to the ticket counters during the opening weekend and amassed a significant Rs. 78.90 crores gross (Rs. 60.68 crore nett) in India and 22.36 crore (US$ 3.55 million) overseas.  At the domestic box office, the film opened Rs. 17.75 crore on Friday followed by Rs. 16.68 crore on Saturday. With fantastic word of mouth, the film’s collections showed a massive jump of 64% on Sunday garnering an attractive Rs. 26.25 crore at the domestic BO office. 

Speaking on the film opening, Nandu Ahuja, Sr. VP, India Theatrical, Eros International Media Limited said, “Salman fans have given a huge thumbs up to Jai Ho. The film is packed with Salman style action along with the emotion and message of the human chain of goodness and it has touched the right chord with his fans. This is an outstanding opening and his highest where we didn’t have the added advantage of a long weekend”.

Pranab Kapadia, President, Marketing & Distribution, Eros International plc added, “With January usually being a slow start in the overseas markets, the overseas weekend for Jai Ho was excellent .This also being a non holiday period reflects very well on the film’s opening. It is trending at a similar or better level compared to recent Salman blockbusters”.

Jai Ho earned rave reviews from leading critics including Times of India calling it, “The film has the heart and the haath in the right place” (*** ½ stars) and Taran Adarsh on bollywoodhungama.com declaring it as a, “A sure shot winner, it easily ranks amongst Salman's better films. This one has the potential to emerge a Blockbuster at the box office.” (**** ½ stars) 

Directed and produced by Sohail Khan, the movie is a remake of Telugu film Stalin, and stars Salman Khan, Tabu, and newcomer Daisy Shah.

Prime Focus has also been a part of Salman Khan’s much awaited latest action-drama feature film, ‘Jai Ho’.

Merzin Tavaria, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Director, Prime Focus said, “These days film projects require us to adapt to a continuously evolving cut that allows the director to push the story-telling as far as possible. Specifically for this project, where the action sequences involved multiple safety hazards, VFX was used for most of the shots in the action scenes.”

Prime Focus’ main goal was to use Visual Effects (VFX) and Digital Intermediate (DI) to accentuate the dramatic impact without compromising on the film’s storyline.

Reupal Rawal, the Sr. VFX Supervisor, Prime Focus who worked very closely with Sohail to deliver the amazing VFX shots, speaking about the work said, “The biggest challenge of this project was to try and marry elements from footage that were often shot against chroma. Considering the safety hazards, this was done for most of the action sequences. For example, the action sequence at the climax contains plates of footage shot of the background and stunt rolling footages with Salman against chroma. At post, the team used the footage which was originally shot for each character in chroma, rotoscoping each character and then composited the footage to the background plates. This called for a great deal of compositing in massaging the elements together.”

With 150 VFX artists from Mumbai and Hyderabad contributing to numerous lengthy and complex sequences from the flawless CG amputated legs for Genelia’s character to powerful action sequences of multiple chroma and clean work was carried out impeccably. The team also worked on the matte painting backgrounds, set extensions were added, multi layered compositing for impactful sequences and monitor inserts were designed to blend seamlessly with the story line.

Prime Focus’ VP, DI and VFX (India), Paresh Acharya concludes, “The collaboration with Sohail Khan Productions worked well for us and gave us the opportunity to demonstrate the outstanding abilities of our team in India. The team worked round the clock to achieve desired look and feel for the movie that was envisioned by DoP, Santosh Thundiyil”