Ra.One (
Hindi:
रा.वन), sometimes written as
RA One or
RA.One, is a
2011 Hindi science fiction superhero film written and directed by
Anubhav Sinha. The film features
Shahrukh Khan in dual roles, and also stars
Kareena Kapoor,
Armaan Verma and
Arjun Rampal in the lead.
Shahana Goswami,
Dalip Tahil and Chinese-American actor
Tom Wu appear in supporting roles, along with
Rajinikanth,
Sanjay Dutt and
Priyanka Chopra making cameo appearances. The film follows Shekhar (Khan), a game designer living and based in
London along with his wife (Kapoor) and son (Verma), who designs a
motion-sensor based game in which the villain is far more powerful than the hero. In the process, the villain escapes from the video game and begins to track down the only person ever to defeat him, Lucifer (Verma).
Ra.One was jointly produced by
Eros International and Khan's production company,
Red Chillies Entertainment.
[4] Initially expected to hit theatres on June 3, 2011, the release of the film was pushed back to the
Diwali weekend of October 26, 2011 due to extensive
post-production work involving special effects and
3D conversion.
Development of the project commenced in 2004 when Sinha wrote a three-page short story based on a commercial he had seen. Upon finalizing the story, pre-production work began after the release of Khan's
Om Shanti Om in 2007,
[5] with principal photography commencing in March 2009.
[6] In July 2011, it was announced that the entire film would be converted into 3D.
[7] The visual effects of the film were carried out by Red Chillies VFX, under the supervision of Hollywood effects technician Jeffrey Kleiser. With an estimated budget of
125 crore (US$23.75 million),
[1] Ra.One is the second-most expensive film ever produced in
Indian cinema, following
Enthiran (2010).
[8] In addition, an estimated
52 crore (US$9.88 million) was spent on marketing through various partnerships, which set the record for the largest marketing budget in India.
Red Chillies Entertainment spent up to
10 crore (US$1.9 million) while their partners like
McDonald's covered the remaining costs in order to be associated with the Ra.One brand.
[9] The film faced multiple problems prior to its release, including censorship, soundtrack "leaks" and copyrights, the latter of which cost the producers
1 crore (US$190,000). The film witnessed a level of publicity campaigning previously unseen in India films, with marketing taking place over a period of nine months and involving major brand tie-ups, merchandise, theme-based video games and extensive viral marketing. The film also faced uncertainty regarding the preparedness of the film for release, with several rumours and media stories that the film would not be completed on time.
Ra.One had
premieres in
Dubai,
London and
Toronto during the period of October 24–26.
[10] The film released across 3,100 screens in India and 904 prints overseas in both
2D and 3D,
[11] and was also
dubbed in
Tamil and
Telugu,
[12] making it the largest Indian cinematic release in the world. Upon release, while the Indian critics gave mixed reviews, the overseas film critics received it warmly. The film has been widely praised for its visual effects and action, though criticism has been generated regarding its script and direction. Subsequently, the success of the effects and the 3D version of the film prompted multiple other Bollywood filmmakers to consider technology as a part of film-making, especially in view of the success of
Ra.One and the inordinately higher returns generated from 3D ticket sales.
[13] The film went on to break multiple box-office records, including highest Diwali day
Jenny Nayar (
Goswami), an employee of
UK based Barron Industries, introduces a new technology in which objects from the digital world can be brought into the real world, using the wireless transmissions from multiple wireless devices. Shekhar Subramanium (
Khan), an employee of the company, faces his last chance to come up with a video game with a difference. In order to impress his son Prateek (
Verma), and upon the request of his wife Sonia (
Kapoor), he takes his son’s idea that the antagonist should be more powerful than the protagonist.
Akashi (
Wu) provides the moves, Jenny does the programming and Shekhar gives his face to the protagonist
G.One, whilst the antagonist
Ra.One is faceless with powers substantially higher than those granted to G.One. The game has three levels, and either of the players can only be killed in the third level with a special gun that has only one bullet. While designing the game, Akashi notices some malfunctions, but ignores them. When the game is finally launched, it receives a standing ovation and Prateek loves it so much that he insists on playing it instantly. He logs in under the alias 'Lucifer' and goes to the second level, but is interrupted by Akashi as it is time to go home. Ra.One, being unable to end his turn with Lucifer, says that Lucifer shall die.
After the mainframe doesn't shut down, Akashi calls Shekhar who notices something wrong. Ra.One uses the initially introduced technology to come to life, kills Akashi, and goes to find Lucifer. Shekhar rushes home but is blocked by Ra.One on the way. In an attempt to save his son, Shekhar claims that he is Lucifer. However, Ra.One scans his
I.D., and kills him for faking it. Upon noticing the strange case of his father’s death, Prateek realizes that Ra.One has come to life. Along with Jenny, he goes to Shekhar's workspace and tries to bring G.One to life. Sonia arrives and asks Prateek to leave with her for India. Ra.One, having taken the form of Akashi, chases them, but G.One enters the real world through Jenny's computer and saves them by initiating a gas explosion which destroys Ra.One into constituent cubes levelled along the road, and takes his H.A.R.T. Finding it impossible to leave him, Sonia takes G.One to India with her through Shekhar’s passport. G.One promises her that he will protect them from any harm. Meanwhile, Ra.One returns to life and takes his humanized form of a model on a billboard (
Rampal) and goes after G.One.
During Prateek's birthday party, Ra.One hypnotizes Sonia, assumes her form and kidnaps Prateek. He instructs G.One to give him his H.A.R.T. back and sends the real Sonia in an uncontrollable
local train in
Mumbai. G.One saves Sonia just at the nick of the time, and then goes back to save Prateek. The game resumes with Prateek controlling G.One's moves. Following a lengthy fight, both of the characters finally reach the third level. With little powers left, the pair trick Ra.One into shooting G.One without his H.A.R.T. attached to him. Furious, Ra.One creates ten alternatives. Prateek, unable to differentiate the real one, asks G.One to quote one of Shekhar’s sayings stored in his folder: "बुराई संग जो मेल रचाया, फिर कभी न छूटे उसका साया" ("If you join the forces of evil, its shadows shall always follow you"). The pair then realize that only one of the ten Ra.Ones has a shadow. G.One shoots him and transports himself back to the digital world after absorbing Ra.One's remains. Several months later, Prateek and Sonia return back to the UK, where the former finally manages to restore G.One back to the real world.
Cast
Production
Origins and development
According to director
Anubhav Sinha, the idea of making
Ra.One originated while he was watching a commercial on television six years ago. According to him, "The commercial dealt with two kids controlling a human with a remote. It was fascinating, and the visual stayed with me for some time." Sinha wrote a three-page short story based on the commercial, which he felt was good enough to be made into a film.
[6] Upon finalizing the story, he approached
Shahrukh Khan, who instantly agreed to produce and star in it.
[6] Red Chillies Entertainment's Keitan Yadav revealed that during the release of
Main Hoon Na, Khan was keen on making a VFX-loaded film.
[17] His production company continued working on other projects and seeking for the right film until they finally decided on
Ra.One.
[17] Prior to starting the film, Khan approached several directors to helm the project but they all refused due to various concerns.
[18]
"
Ra.One is the modern, new age technology version of our mythological "Raavan", who was a mixture of ten different evil characters. I am essaying the role of
G.One or better say "Jeevan", a superhero who saves the mankind from Ra.One's torment. Through this film, I want to prove that Indian superheroes can also be as cool as the international ones."
[19]—Shahrukh Khan on Ra.One
work for the film began in November 2007 after the release of Khan's
Om Shanti Om. Sinha spent several months going through video clips, digital art portals and comic books; he later explained that this process helped him in creating a novel character.
[5] Khan stated that "When we started this film, the idea was can we make a simple film, about a husband, wife and child and then suddenly blow everyone's mind when they start fighting [...] So there were two films in one: the people who like the action...and those who like a family film."
[20] To prepare the film's premises and characterization, Sinha and Khan watched around 200 superhero films in multiple languages from all over the world, including
Spider-Man,
Batman and
Krrish.
[21]
Since the start of principal photography,
Ra.One has faced multiple allegations of plagiarism and similarities with other film projects, including the 2010
Tamil science fiction film
Enthiran. When asked about this, Khan noted: "I got inspired from a lot of superhero movies but the movie is original. In fact,
Ra.One will be the first superhero-based movie in the world in which the superhero lives in a family."
[22] Commenting on
Enthiran, he remarked, "they [both] are different films. I will not like to talk about anyone else's film but
Rajni sir is respectable to all of us."
[23]
Casting and filming
Principal photography for the film began in March 2009, one-and-a-half years after the commencement of pre-production work.
[6] To make his character more believable, Khan decided that he would perform his own stunts in the film.
[24] Sinha approached
Arjun Rampal to take up the title role of a villain in the film, to which he readily agreed.
Kareena Kapoor was later signed on to play the female lead.
[6] Child actor
Armaan Verma was required to go through several audition processes until he was finally selected to play the role of Prateek.
[25] During an appearance on the
chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Khan stated that
Jackie Chan was approached for a role in the film. Khan had reportedly sent Chan the detailed script of the film, along with the action sequences and a brief synopsis of his character;
[26] it was later confirmed that Chan would not be part of the project.
[27] In July 2010, it was announced that
Chinese-American actor
Tom Wu would be play a role in the film.
[28]
Sanjay Dutt and
Priyanka Chopra were roped in to make guest appearances whilst actor
Rajinikanth was slated to perform in a special scene where he would be reprising his role of
Chitti from
Enthiran. The background score for the scene was scored by
A. R. Rahman.
[16][29] The actor shot for the film on 2 October 2011 at
Subhash Ghai's Whistling Woods Studios in Mumbai with his daughter
Soundarya despite some health problems. To minimize strain on the actor, the shoot was finished in a few hours and the scenes were digitally transferred into the backgrounds later.
[30] Several days later, it was announced that
Amitabh Bachchan would be doing a voice-over for an important scene in the film.
[16] Nicola Pecorini was roped in as the
director of photography, with
V. Manikandan providing extra assistance, and
Martin Walsh was responsible to edit the film.
[5]
Ra.One's shooting was originally supposed to begin in
Miami, USA, but due to budget concerns this was scrapped.
[31] The first phase of filming began in India in March 2010 and continued until May in
Film City and
Goa.
[32] While filming, Khan admitted to finding difficulties with the rubber-made costume that was specially designed for his character, later commenting: "The costume was designed in a way that I had to take the help of girls to get into it and vice-versa. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink much in between the shoots [...] By the time, the shooting of the film was wrapped up; I ended up losing ten kilos."
[19] Verma, who plays Khan's son in the film, had to learn the Brazilian martial arts dance
Capoeira for his role.
[25] A chase scene on a Mumbai suburban train, in which Khan jumped from one compartment to another while Kapoor operated the train, received objections from the city government as they feared that the scene would entice teenagers to emulate the stunts. Subsequently, a disclaimer was added to the movie warning youngsters to refrain from performing any dangerous stunts shown in the film.
[33]
Production of the film's second and third phase occurred with the entire cast in London, which included a song sequence being shot in a restaurant
[34] and a heavy duty action scene involving Khan and Kapoor.
[35] During this period, a picture of Kapoor's character was revealed to the media.
[36] The film's final phase commenced at Filmistan Studio in December 2010 and was shot over seven days.
[37] The remaining portions were shot in Mumbai and completed in July 2011. While shooting for the film in Mumbai,
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited
Yash Raj Studios, to watch Khan at work.
[38] In order to celebrate the film's completion, a wrap-up party was held at the end of the month in Mumbai.
[39] A music video for the song "Raftaarein", choreographed by
Feroz Khan, was shot one week before the release. Talking about the decision to make the last minute addition to the film, Sinha said: ""Raftaarein" was initially just a melody playing in a background sequence. But [the song] has got unanimously great reviews and has amazing energy. I thought why not shoot a music video and put it in the film."
[40]
Post-production
The film's crew consisted of more than 5,000 members from India, Italy and the US, and was pieced together by more than 1,000 people, working in shifts, in around 15 studios across the world.
[5] Sound designer
Resul Pookutty was assigned the duty of enhancing the sound effects with the use of the
Dolby Surround 7.1 system. In an interview, he explained, "
Ra.One is not just a movie experience [...] It requires a very unconventional sound and visual quality for which we are installing the required equipment."
[5] In October 2011,
post-production work on
Ra.One faced a minor setback when Pookutty's studio-space in
Andheri, Mumbai got flooded, and eventually damaged some of the film's footage.
[41]
Due to the revived interest in
3D technology in India, the makers of the film decided to turn some portions of the movie into 3D. Khan revealed that parts of the film may be converted to 3D, provided the tests and screen-shots of some scenes of the film were deemed satisfactory by the technical crew. However, there was a good deal of skepticism regarding such conversions, especially since 3D shooting required completely different types of cameras.
[7] In July 2011, it was announced that the entire film would be converted into 3D, a process that required the collaboration of around 1,000 individuals.
[42] Prime Focus, which had gained considerable experience from performing 3D conversions of major Hollywood productions like
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and
Transformers: Dark of the Moon, were tasked with the job.
[7] A separate conversion facility was created solely for the purpose of converting the film into 3D.
[7]
Khan had to postpone his knee surgery which was initially planned on 25th July,
[43] due to extensive post-production work.
[44] Initially, the prints of
Ra.One were expected to be ready a month prior to its release.
[45] However, the post-production work took up a considerably longer time to complete than was initially expected, triggering fears that the film may not be able to reach its
Diwali deadline. Three studios worked around-the-clock to get the film ready before its scheduled release date. Pookutty stated in a report: "[The crew] working on the post-production of
Ra.One are in a high-energy zone. We are racing against time [and over] the next two weeks there are going to be number of sleepless nights to make sure [the film] gets into theatres on time."
[41] Ten days before the film's release, the process of digital inter-mediation in the film faced severe delays. The film was monitored in
Croma by the team, during that period. Sinha commented that "there are a lot of things happening in the post-production activities. We all are working hard towards it. But everything is fine."
[46] As the film approached its release, Khan personally verified the progress on a day-to-day basis, following complete reports regarding the status of completion. Increased workload was also attributed to multiplied work due to the various versions (3D, Tamil, Telugu, etc.) of the film.
[45] On October 20, Sinha
tweeted that the film had been completed.
[47]
Visual effects
March 2010 saw the inclusion of several
visual effects techniques being incorporated in the production of
Ra.One.
[48] In an interview, Harry Hingorani (production director of
Red Chillies VFX) stated that "[the company] was set up in 2006 [...] Khan wanted to make something big involving VFX and that was the intension behind starting [it]."
[48] Extensive research was carried out by the crew, and no other films were accepted by the studio post
My Name Is Khan (2010), with special focus on setting up proper software and creating "the right team" during pre-production itself.
[48] To minimize the risk of future delays, the task of adding special effects was outsourced to multiple specialty studios around the globe, including in the United States,
London,
Paris and
Bangkok.
[49] In addition, Prime Focus also provided digital and visual effects services to Red Chillies VFX for the film.
[7]
Ra.One, the titular antagonist of the film
Impressed by the work he had seen in
Stargate (1994), Jeff Kleiser was hired by Khan as the supervisor of visual effects in May 2010.
[50] A team of 750 technicians under Kleiser carried out the addition of special effects into the film.
[51] Special effects creator
Robert Kurtzman was assigned to design the suits of Khan and Rampal's characters. The suits were made by a team of specialists based in
Los Angeles,
California.
[52] While both the actors shot the film wearing a simple suit, a good deal of sparkle and polishing was later added to enhance its look.
[17]
The film is reported to have close to 3,500 VFX shots (occupying about 135 minutes of footage), with 800 of them being solely dedicated to G.One's suit alone, thus exceeding the total amount of shots that was used in
Avatar (2009).
[17] Khan later singled out one process, explaining that it took nearly six days (137 hours) to create a single frame shot of glass flying on his character.
[53] Keitan Yadav notes: "There is no software or technique in the industry that we have not used for this film. For 3D, we have used software like
Maya,
Houdini and Macs. For composites, we have used
Nuke and
Shake. We have even written our own programmes. We programmed certain things rather than doing them manually."
[17]
The film's visual effects have generated massive curiosity among moviegoers, film distributors and critics, and have been labelled as "the best India has ever seen [and] on par with
Hollywood".
[8][54] Hingorani stated that "60% of the film is visual effects. There are 37 sequences in all, and they were considerably difficult and time-consuming."
[48] Jeff Kleiser commented that the most challenging part of
Ra.One was creating the cubic transformations for the lead characters.
[48] It was later found out that the incorporation of visual effects was the main reason behind the increased time for post-production.
[41] The final batch of visual effects were delivered a week before the scheduled release. As a result, the crew had only two days to complete the film and send it for printing, further increasing anxiety regarding the film's release.
[55]
Soundtrack
The
soundtrack of
Ra.One, released by
T-Series on 12 September 2011, was composed by
Vishal-Shekhar with lyrics penned by Atahar Panchi, Vishal Dadlani and Kumaar.
[56] Director Anubhav Sinha announced that
R&B singer
Akon would be recording two songs for the film whilst the
Prague Philharmonic Orchestra would also be making a contribution.
[56] The makers of the film have complied with international copyright laws and have obtained the license to use
Ben E. King's "
Stand By Me", on which they have based the song "
Dildaara".
[56] The album features fifteen tracks, including seven original songs, four remixes, three instrumentals and an international version of "
Chammak Challo".
[56] Subsequently, the Tamil and Telugu versions of the film's soundtrack were released on 10 October 2011 featuring six tracks each.
[57]
Marketing
Pre-release revenue
In March 2011, Star India bought the television broadcasting rights for
Ra.One for a then-record sum of
35 crore (US$6.65 million) reportedly, surpassing 3 Idiots (2009) previous
33 crore (US$6.27 million) record.
[58] The film's music rights were bought by
T-Series for
15 crore (US$2.85 million) whilst the distribution rights were acquired by
Eros Entertainment for
77 crore (US$14.63 million).
[5] The distribution rights for the film in
Tamil Nadu and
Kerala were bagged by
Abirami Ramanathan for a reportedly record, but undisclosed price.
[59] Ra.One set a new record for total pre-release revenue earned, netting
132 crore (US$25.08 million), and surpassed the previous record held by
3 Idiots, which had netted
85 crore (US$16.15 million).
[60]
Promotions
The producers of
Ra.One set a record marketing budget of around
52 crore (US$9.88 million), of which
15 crore (US$2.85 million) was used for online promotion, making it the highest ever for a Bollywood film.
[61][62] Often described as the "longest promotion in Bollywood history", as well as "the most comprehensive and all-pervasive among people's lives",
[54] the term "promotional blitzkrieg" has often been used in connotation with the project's extensive marketing campaign.
[63]
Promotion of the film officially began as early as December 2010 when the first poster was published in all leading news papers across the country.
[20] The film's first look was later unveiled by Khan on his
Twitter page on January 1, 2011.
[54] Several months later, director Anubhav Sinha announced that he would be launching two teaser trailers of the film during the
2011 Cricket World Cup, a prior nine months before the film's actual release date.
[64] Asked about why he was launching the film's trailer so early, Sinha commented, "
Ra.One is not a Bollywood film that [the audiences] have seen before. The kind of size and magnitude that the film has requires it to be slowly introduced to the audience and that is the very purpose why we are starting the whole communication so early."
[64] The film's first theatrical trailer was released three months later to the public. As a way to promote the theatrical trailer, Khan was accompanied by the director on a five city tour, which included such places like
Delhi,
Chandigarh,
Indore and
Ahmedabad.
[54] During the same event, a 3600 ft long fan mail collecting audience wishes and messages for the film was also launched.
[54]
On 3 June 2011, the official website of the film was hacked by suspected Pakistani cyber criminals who stated that the act was a form of revenge to a similar attack on a
Karachi press club website, three days after the launch of the page. They also left a note threatening the Indian Press Club, defacing the homepage.
[65] In early September, Red Chillies Entertainment (RCE) launched a sizeable
viral marketing campaign for promoting the film more effectively in the online arena.
[66] The company launched the official customized
Ra.One channel of the film on
YouTube (a first for an Indian film) where several song and theatrical promos were released to the public, along with videos of the film's making, events and uncut footage.
[54] The channel also hosts games, including the first social game from India, and contests where participants can create promos from clips, music and dialogues of the film.
[67]
"My last strategy was that I do not want any one to know what the bad guy looks like. You see it in the film. The film is called
Ra.One but no one knows what [he] looks like. Last week before the film releases, we will let everyone know what he looks like. It is not going to shake the earth, but all the facets are being revealed as a picture puzzle being peeled off."
[20]—Khan talking about the promotional strategy regarding the look of the villain, "Ra.One"
In addition to YouTube, Khan announced that the film would also subsidize through major brand ties-up worth over
52 crore (US$9.88 million),
[54][62] some of which included the
Formula One races,
Nokia,
Godrej Consumer Products,
Coca-Cola,
HCL,
[68] Horlicks,
HomeShop18[69] and multiple live chats conducted on
Google Plus for which Khan became the first Indian film personality to utilize.
[70] Three weeks before the film's release, a mass media campaign was launched by
Western Union for international promotions. Encompassing platforms such as the radio, television, print media and outdoor advertising, it was launched in the
U.S.,
Canada, the
Middle East,
Africa and
Asia-Pacific as a way to connect with the millions of
non-resident Indians across the world.
[54] Co-producers and distributors of the film, Eros International, released an official statement stating that along with RCE, they have recovered a major portion of their investments through in-film branding, media endorsements, and other music and satellite rights.
[62]
The look of the film's titular character,
Ra.One, portrayed by Rampal, was heavily guarded and kept under strict wraps, with the entire filming unit required to keep mobile phones away from shooting locations, and signing non-disclosure agreements.
[71] The first look of the character was initially scheduled to be revealed on the eve of
Dussehra. According to the producers, the time was chosen to show the symbolism between Ra.One and the mythological villain
Ravana (of the
Ramayana), both of whom are supposedly "equally bad".
[72] Due to certain technical glitches, it was later revealed in the film's final theatrical trailer to a positive response.
[73] Commenting on the response to his look in the film, Rampal noted: "The response has been phenomenal. People have liked my look. I am glad I have not disappointed anyone as there was so much anticipation for the film. I was petrified initially, wondering if my look would be appreciated and accepted. But it has been worth the wait."
[74]
Video games
Shahrukh Khan launches 'G.One' - Nvidia GEFORCE GTX 560Ti graphic card.
In July,
Red Chillies Entertainment declared a tie-up with
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) to build a full cycle game of the film on
PlayStation.
[75] Released on October 5 at an event in Mumbai, "Ra.One - The Game" offers more than 20 game environments, features original voice-overs from the actors and is available on
PlayStation 2 and
PlayStation 3; the former being available for the Indian market and the latter for the international market. Khan volunteered to write the game script, dub for the game, and even oversaw the entire technical development. The project boasts of a series of firsts: a first full cycle PlayStation 3
blu-ray disc game developed with an Indian developer; first console game to be dubbed by a leading Bollywood actor and also the first Bollywood title to appear in a full cycle video game.
[76]
SCEE has invested around
4.5 crore (US$0.86 million) to license the Ra.One IP and an additional
3 crore (US$570,000) in the marketing and promotions of the game, which includes offline promotions and television advertisements of nearly 250 ad spots.
[77] At the time of its launch, 21,000 game consoles were sold and 100,000 units are expected to be sold across India alone.
[77] On October 14, a gaming tournament titled "The
Ra.One Nvidia GeForce lan" was held in Mumbai. The event, which hosted over 1000 gamers competing against each other, featured several popular games such as
FIFA,
Counter-Strike and
Call of Duty, and was telecast live on YouTube, showcasing digital innovation by means of live interactive contests, puzzles etc.
[78]
In addition to launching the video game, Red Chillies also collaborated with
UTV Indiagames to design a social game based on the film named the
Ra.One Genesis.
[79] The game reached the No. 1 position on the iTunes store within 24 hours of its launch, becoming the first ever Bollywood movie app to be top-featured on
iPhone and
iPad.
[80] It also became the most downloaded game in
India,
Sri Lanka,
Pakistan and
Malaysia within 24 hours of being launched.
[81] An investment of around
4.5 crore (US$0.86 million), the storyline of the game is not borrowed from or similar to that of the movie though it is based on the character of
G.One. The game was launched across platforms like mobiles,
tablet PCs, the
direct-to-home platform and
social networking sites like
Facebook.
[79] According to the company's digital and new media head Shailja Gupta, the idea behind the digital marketing is to create a franchisee for
Ra.One. She explained, "
Social gaming is just one part of the digit marketing strategy. The unique part of the social game is the integration of merchandise and gaming."
[79]
Merchandise and comics
As a way to promote the film and increase its franchising business, Shahrukh Khan tied up with
Seventymm to market a variety of merchandises related to the film.
[82] Products included original
G.One tee shirts, coffee mugs, wrist bands, watches, mobile pouches, video cameras, as well as many other things. Similar products were also available for purchase on the official G.One online store, which was launched alongside the film's official website.
[83] 90% of the 400,000 stationery items and toys were sold in 15 days and an additional 100,000 were ordered. The makers spent
1.5 crore (US$285,000) on the mold for the G.One action figure.
[81] In addition to this, a jewellery line inspired by the symbol of "Ra.One",
[61] as well as a series of HCL laptops with customized integrated Ra.One skin
[68] were also made available to the public. Moreover, Red Chillies Entertainment collaborated with
UTV Indiagames to develop digital comics based on the film's characters. Written by Khan, the comic featured weekly episodes and served as a prequel to the events happening in the movie.
[8]
Release
During the period of October 24–26,
Ra.One had its international premieres in three cities:
Dubai,
London and
Toronto, all of which were chosen keeping in mind their large international significance, as well as the presence of large
South Asian populations.
[84]
Khan, Kapoor and Rampal (l-r) during the film's premiere in
LondonThe film's first international premiere was held in Dubai on 24 October 2011 at the Grand Cinemas,
Wafi, along with co-stars
Kareena Kapoor and
Arjun Rampal, followed by a high-profile dinner and charity auction, where Khan had raised
K.D 30,000 for building a workshop for children with special needs.
[10][85] The premiere is notably first Indian film to sell tickets for its shows, as well as to have three simultaneous screenings for the event. The London premiere of the film took place at the
O2 Cineworld the following day, while the
Toronto premiere took place at the
TIFF Bell Lightbox on 26 October.
[86] Due to a conflict with Kapoor's scheduled appearance at
Madame Tussauds, it was later announced that the actress would not be attending the film's premiere in Toronto.
[87]
Following up to its release,
Ra.One surpassed several records among Indian films for the volume of theatrical release in India and worldwide. Nationally, the film released in 3,100 screens, breaking the record of
Bodyguard (2011), which released in 2,700 screens.
[88] Overseas, it is currently expected to release in around 1,500 screens in 904 prints, with 600 screens in
Germany, 250 screens in
South Korea, 25 prints in
Taiwan and
New Zealand, 75 prints in
Russia,
[88][89] 79 prints in the
Middle East,
[10] 344 prints in USA, 51 prints in
Australia, 202 prints in the
UK and 49 prints in
Canada.
[90] A reported partnership deal is being finalised by the distributors, which will allow the film to release in
China with 1,000 prints.
[91] Moreover,
Ra.One 3D version released in 550 selected screens around the world.
[88] The Tamil and Telugu versions released with 275 and 125 prints respectively.
[92] The film's release has also been noted for its wide use of digital prints, as an effort to bring down distribution costs, release the film to a wider audience and also reduce piracy.
[91] A week prior to its release,
multiplex owners across India decided to allot the project with 95% of the total available screen space.
[93] The film also faced some uncertainty concerning the release of 3D version on time. However, Khan clarified that 3D version will be released on the set date, in the
microblogging site
Twitter.
collections, highest single-day collections, highest three-day collections. Within a week of its theatrical run, Box Office India declared the film a hit in India,
[14] and a week later, a super hit overseas. However, the film's box office performance was termed "average" by trade pundits (analysts).
[15] According to its distributors,
Ra.One is the second highest-grossing Bollywood film worldwide. It earned
240 crore (US$45.6 million) from all its versions.
[2]
