MUMBAI: Last weekend two big films – Don and Jaan-E-Mann, opened with Amitabh Bachchan’s first Bhojpuri film Ganga. The latter is doing well at the box office in India.

“Ganga has set new records for a Bhojpuri film. The movie was made on a budget of Rs 17.5 million (Rs 1.75 crore) and I have recovered more than the entire amount. I got an overflow of Rs 2.5 million from the first week itself. Ganga is the first Bhojpuri film to be released in multiplexes. For the first time in history an advance bookings opened for a Bhojpuri film. Usually a Bhojpuri film releases with a maximum number of 25 prints but this film broke the records and was released in 100 prints,” says Ganga producer Deepak Sawant.

“Usually a Bhojpuri film first releases in Bihar and then the prints are shifted to Delhi, UP and then to Mumbai. But Ganga was released simultaneously in Mumbai, Bihar, Jharkandh, Delhi, UP, Calcutta, CP, CI, Malegoan, Ichalkaranjee, Pune, Kolhapur, Vapi and Panvel. At a multiplex – Moviestar – the first week collections were 100 per cent. For the first time in history for a Bhojpuri film, a record number of 15 prints were released in Mumbai. In the second week, I increased the prints by five and it’s all because of Amitji,” he adds.