Demonetisation affects 'Rock On 2' footfalls: Ritesh Sidhwani

Government's decision to demonetise Rs 500 and 1000 notes has adversely affected the box office collections of Friday, November 11's release "Rock On 2", says its producer Ritesh Sidhwani.

If Excel Entertainment had prior intimation about the decision it would have pushed the release date of the movie, he says.

"People are busy queueing up outside the banks and even if they are able to get the new Rs 2000 note they are not able to get the change for it which is affecting the overall collection of the film. If we had any clue about the decision we would have definitely pushed the release date," Ritesh told.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the announcement on November 8 night but by then it was too late for the makers to change the scheduled release date as the prints were already with the cinema owners both in India and abroad, he says.

"We have made a beautiful film and by the time announcement was made, it was Wednesday and the prints were already out. We couldn't afford to push the release date as the privacy laws in our country are not strong enough to protect the movie from getting leaked. Our two years of efforts would have been wasted.

"But if the decision had come over the weekend, we would have pushed the release by weeks but that was not possible."

The producer hopes that the movie will be able to do wellafter Sunday as word-of-mouth is good.

"The film has received mixed critical reviews, but public opinion by large is positive. It is a true sequel and the story starts eight years later from where the first film ended. People have a connection with the film. We hope the collections will pick from Monday."

Ritesh says it is not possible to guess the monetary loss at this point of time but the decision has certainly hit the collections.

Starring Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor, Purab Kohli and Shashank Arora, "Rock On 2" is a sequel to 2008 film.

Debutant Shujaat Saudagar has directed the project, majorly shot in Meghalaya.