GUWAHATI: Fans could not hold back their tears, both inside and outside theatre halls, after watching Roi Roi Binale, the last film featuring music icon Zubeen Garg, who died under mysterious circumstances while swimming in the sea in Singapore on September 19.
The movie, directed by Rajesh Bhuyan and released on Friday, ran to packed houses across Assam and broke all opening day records, with most theatre halls scheduling up to five shows a day.
The screening started as early as 4.25 am at several theatres. Tickets for all shows for the first week were sold out, and fans had booked the first three days’ tickets within an hour last week.
The state is still grieving Garg’s untimely demise, and there was an outpouring of emotion as fans thronged single-screen and multiplex theatres. In viral videos, some were seen seated long after shows were over, sobbing.
As a mark of silent tribute, several theatre halls kept one seat reserved for Garg, 52. Roi Roi Binale was his dream project.
“For the first time in the history of Assamese films, a movie is being released in different parts of the country. It was screened in Patna, Ranchi, Dhanbad, Darjeeling, Gangtok, Mysore, Vellore, Visakhapatnam, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Lucknow, Jaipur, Vapi (Gujarat), Indore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Raniganj, Maldah, Siliguri, Agartala, Dharmanagar, Cooch Behar, Raipur and Nagpur,” said Siddharth Goenka, the film’s distributor.
In cities like Bengaluru, Assamese films were earlier screened in only one or two theatres, but this time, it premiered in 17 theatres simultaneously.
“There will be 600 shows daily in Assam and the rest of the Northeast alone, which is unprecedented. Outside the Northeast, 96 halls would screen the movie with 170 shows daily,” Goenka added.
The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a constituent of Assam’s ruling coalition, booked all 218 seats for a show at a multiplex in Guwahati. AGP ministers Atul Bora and Keshab Mahanta watched the film along with party leaders and workers.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he would watch it privately. “If I go to a cinema hall, it will cause inconvenience to people as I will be accompanied by my security personnel,” he said.
Garg plays the lead role of a blind musician in Roi Roi Binale, a musical love story that recounts the life and struggle of a visually impaired artist who experiences the world through sound, imagination and love. The film features 11 songs, all composed by Garg himself.