page_title: Waqt: The Race Against Time
section_title: Marketing and release
hierarchical_section_title: Waqt: The Race Against Time / Marketing and release
caption_attribution_description: English: Shefali Shah and Vipul Amrutlal Shah at the Critics Choice Shorts &amp; Series Awards 2019
context_page_description: Waqt: The Race Against Time is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film that was directed and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Shefali Shah, Rajpal Yadav and Boman Irani in the principal roles. The film is based on a Gujarati play by Aatish Kapadia, is about a rich businessman and his spoilt son, and follows the journey of the father who unexpectedly becomes very strict to teach his son life lessons before it is too late.
  Shah wanted to make a film about a grounded father-son relationship that would be different from standard Bollywood father-son stories. After watching Kapadia's play, Shah was impressed and bought the rights for a film adaptation. Kapadia adapted the film for the screen. Principal photography was done on the fourteen sets at Filmistan Studio in Mumbai, and a song was filmed in Leh, Ladakh. The soundtrack was composed by Anu Malik and the lyrics were written by Sameer, with the exception of one song that was written by Kapadia. After the release of the album, the song "Do Me A Favor Lets Play Holi" became widely popular.
context_section_description: Marketing of Waqt: The Race Against Time started in November 2003 with the film's launch at Mumbai's Juhu Beach, which was held to attract public attention to the film. Shah said, "I strongly believe that Waqt ... has a universal appeal and a father-son bonding that is highly identifiable. So I wanted the common man to be aware of it." In late December 2004, the film's producers launched a line of greeting cards titled the "Waqt collection"  in collaboration with Archies. This strategy was intended to showcase the "quiet bond of fathers and sons"; the cards had sections titled "Dear Father" and "Dear Son", and the sections included Bachchan's autograph and Kumar's personalised message, respectively. The two teasers of the film—one trailer and one song promo—were released on 30 January 2005. This was the first time that two teasers for a single Bollywood film had been released on the same day. Taran Adarsh noted the trailers created a "stir" and that it was "creating a lot of buzz in the industry circles". In March 2004, the producers released a brochure that was written by Bachchan, who wrote a story describing the relationship between his character with his son.
  To promote the film, a contest titled "Waqt: Dad & I with Akshay" was held with collaboration with the Fame Cinemas chain, offering a bicycle ride with Kumar, movie tickets, merchandise, clothing, autographed music CDs and brochures of the film as prizes. In a collaboration with greeting-card retailer Archies, the film's producers launched a toy called Geri Giraffe, greeting cards, soft toys, stationery and posters that were sold through Archies outlets. Bachchan promoted the film internationally by participating in press interviews in New York. Kumar had bought the rights of the film to pay tribute to his father, and included a photograph of his father before the opening credits of the film, saying the film felt "autobiographical" to him because he shared a similar relationship with his own father. Kumar said:
  I'm dedicating this film to my father. I've bought the distribution rights, so that I can see my father's photograph there. It's personally a very close film to me. I've worked very honestly in this film. I haven't bought the rights to the film in order to make money, but to pay a respectful tribute to my father.
  Waqt: The Race Against Time was premiered at the Mumbai IMAX theatre on 21 April 2005; the event was attended by the whole cast and crew. The film was distributed by Eros International and was made on a production and marketing budget of ₹160 million, and was released on 22 April 2005 on 400 screens. The film had a good opening at the box office.  It collected over ₹19 million on its opening day and ₹57.8 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office, and collected  over ₹133.5 million on its international opening weekend. The film also had a "solid" opening in the overseas markets such as the United Kingdom and North America. In its first week, the film collected ₹93.7 million at the domestic box office and over ₹200 million worldwide. During its box-office run, the film grossed ₹292 million in India and over ₹132.5 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of over ₹424.8 million. The film was a box-office success, becoming the seventh highest-grossing Bollywood film of the year. Waqt: The Race Against Time was an even bigger success in the overseas market, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it was the highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2005.
  Waqt: The Race Against Time was released on DVD on 6 June 2005 across all regions on an NTSC-format disc that was issued by Eros Entertainment. The DVD includes bonus features such as the making of the film, press meet and interviews, and the film's  premiere. The Video CD version was released at the same time. The film had its television premiere on the Indian subscriber channel Sony Max on 8 January 2006.
caption: Vipul Amrutlal Shah (pictured with his wife Shefali) wanted the film to reach a wider audience and hence the marketing was planned accordingly
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