Ship of Theseus to release in 17 more cities this Friday

Ship Of Theseus, an independent film that opened with a limited release, will now be screened in seventeen additional cities following its impressive three-week run at the box office so far. The phenomenal but unexpected response to the film has spurred UTV Motion Pictures into including Surat, Goa, Rajkot, Mangalore, Mysore, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur, Raipur, Vizag, Coimbatore, Patna, Jaipur, Trivandrum and Calicut to the listings, effective this Friday, August 2.

Initially, the film was slated for a July 19 release in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, and Pune. A week earlier the distribution team initiated a unique Vote for the Film in Your City campaign, which empowered audiences to demand a release. A landslide response to the campaign soon saw Hyderabad added to the release list. By the second week, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Kochi had voted themselves into the fray with the resulting surge encouraging UTV to increase the number of shows and include more cities than earlier planned.

The film's Director, Anand Gandhi was buoyant about its success, "Indian audiences are not only ready for, but directly demanding insight, invention, beauty and meaning in their cinema. The need for a robust cultural environment has been vocalised at the box office. It's loud and clear, and has forced a valid response - an expansion of the film's release to more cities."

Presenter Kiran Rao said, "The audience response to the film has been overwhelming and unprecedented, and we couldn't have asked for a better reception. It is so exciting and heartening to see the appreciation for the film continue to grow, and to find audiences in all parts of the country."

Never before has a film placed such faith in the democratic power of its potential audience. That faith was soon repaid. The first Monday of its release saw a higher attendance than the Friday release date. Attendance and box office collections skyrocketed, with a consistent improvement in weekday figures as well. With a second weekend showing that outshone its opening weekend, Ship Of Theseus had successfully challenged and surpassed industry norms and expectations, establishing it as a force to reckon with. In the years to come, this film and its performance over these weeks could well be remembered as the defining moment that allowed for a change in India's cinematic landscape.

Ship Of Theseus is a film that explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through the stories of an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and an enterprising stockbroker; played by Aida El-Kashef, Neeraj Kabi and Sohum Shah. The film had earlier visited numerous international and local film festivals, garnering several accolades and much critical praise. The Critics' Circle, UK included Ship Of Theseus in its list of fifteen life-changing films alongside the likes of Annie Hall, Raging Bull and 400 Blows.