Its is said that the devil is in the details, however in the case of Hello, the devil was in the critics, who rushed to bring down a film that they perceived was bad, while the theater going audience thought otherwise!

Not only has the film seen advance bookings of 90 to 95% across India, it has also been appreciated by the classes as well as the masses. How else can one explain the theatres going full in the plush PVR Juhu as well as the aam janta Chandan? Having 30 shows within a periphery of 1 kilometer radius and all going full is no mean feat and it speaks for itself!

"People perceive Hello as a Khan family film. I was expecting the critics to go ballistic because unlike some other supposed superstars Salman doesn't give a damn about critics and that bothers these poor guys, who wait to write off anything connected to Salman Bahi."

Atul Agnihotri, who was supposed to be an underdog director, has gone and shown the industry what the anatomy of a real hit is. And by constantly ignoring the full houses and the advance bookings all across, our critics are showing their vicious side – of not letting a genuine man get his due.

"I am having the last laugh, really! My film made 2 crores in the very first day in India. Dubai saw 1,20,000 dihramns collections on Thursday and this figure has  moved upto 1,80,000 dihramns on Friday. So critics may pan my film as much as they like, the fact is that HELLO is already a hit; and with each passing day it only gets bigger!"

Some of the best known people in the industry vouch for the fact that Hello has opened to full houses, taking Atul Agnihotri to the top bracket in one single day.

Mr Balkrishna Shroff, one of the most respected names in the industry and Managing Director of Shirngar / Fame cinemas has described Hello as "One of the biggest openings or recent times" .

Terry Joseph, GM - PVR Theatres provides the advance booking numbers for shows on 10th October that speak for themselves:

10:45 am – 96%

11:15 am – 123%

3:45 pm – 110%

6:16 pm – 108%

Bhoomika Tiwari, Associate VP of Programming - Fun Cinemas describes Hello as having "a very decent opening" and believes that word of mouth will make this an even bigger hit at the box office.

"Hello has had a mind blowing opening – with an average of 95% across multiplexes in India and an 85% average in single screens. After the last couple of months of dry spell in the industry that saw a lot of movies fail at the box office, Hello has been a boon for us all in the industry" says Head of Distribution for Percept Pictures, Mr Ashok Ahuja. -(SAMPURN)