SUCCESS | Indian crime flick storms Western box offices
Nov. 5, 2006. 01:00 AM
BRUCE DEMARA

Imagine Scarface through an Indian cinematic lens.

Add strong production values, a modernist score and sensibility and you've got an idea of what to expect with Don, the latest Bollywood blockbuster to come to a GTA theatre near you.

Don, starring Indian heartthrob Shahrukh Khan, is a remake of a 1978 classic and is the latest in a series of Indian films to have rocked the North American box office in 2006. Where Bollywood films once played on one or two screens around Toronto, Don opened on eight — including theatres in the giant chains Cineplex and AMC — a larger rollout than Helen Mirren's successful and much-discussed The Queen.

In its first weekend, Oct. 20-22, Don scored 17th place in North America movie theatre sales, premiering on 113 screens and bringing in $800,000 (U.S.). That figure has since doubled and the film is still going strong, said Lokesh Dhar, head of UTV Communications in New York, the film's North American distributor.

"We are very pleased with the numbers. It is one of the biggest movies of all time for Indian cinema in (North) America," Dhar said.

Read the rest at Toronto Star.