Bollywood box-office report of the week : 1 april 2009

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It is now absolutely clear that the coming Friday will see the release of Nagesh Kukunoor’s Sharmila Tagore, Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia starrer, 8 X 10 TASVEER. The impediments in the way of the film’s release have now been removed and it will release unhindered across the single screens as well as the multiplexes. One feels that although the opening will not be spectacular, it will pick up by word of mouth as the days progress. The reason is obvious, with the board exams over in most parts of the country; the audience has been waiting for a big star cast film to release for a while now!

All the three releases of last Friday, AA DEKHEN ZARA, EK-THE POWER OF ONE and VIDESH, could not provide any elixir to the ailing and suffering box-office! While the Neil-Bipasha starrer AA DEKHEN ZARA, released at 52 cinemas of Bombay-Thane (by EROS International Media Pvt. Ltd.), saw a fair opening in India, the Nana-Bobby starrer EK-THE POWER OF ONE, which released at 84 cinemas of Bombay-Thane (thru Vivek movies), had a dull start, but was average at single-screen cinemas of Maharashtra, U.P. and Bihar. Trade predicts a drastic fall after the decent weekend for AA DEKHEN ZARA but says that EK-THE POWER OF ONE will appeal to the audiences in the small centres, especially in Maharashtra, U.P. and Bihar. The last release of the week, Deepa Mehta’s Preity Zinta starrer VIDESH had a very weak to poor opening wherever it released, and the film is likely to be rejected everywhere.

CHECK OUT: AA DEKHEN ZARA Movie Review

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Checking out the performance of ALOO CHAAT, it was not found too tasty by the public. The Aftab Shivdasani starrer collected 35 lakhs from Bombay, 15.25 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2.50 lakhs from Rajkot, 1.05 lakhs from Nasik, 45 lakhs from Delhi city, 6.50 lakhs from Noida, 7.15 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 5.10 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.15 lakhs from Agra, 1.50 lakhs from Chandigarh, 11 lakhs from Gurgaon, 5.10 lakhs from Faridabad, 1.05 lakhs from Calcutta, 6 lakhs from Nagpur, 4.25 lakhs from Indore, 4 lakhs from Jaipur and 5 lakhs from Hyderabad. Netting around 3.25 crores in its first week from India, ALOO CHAAT has failed at the box-office.

Naseeruddin Shah’s BARAH AANA has poor collections to show. The film collected 24 lakhs from Bombay, 5 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 6.05 lakhs from Delhi city, 1 lakh from Noida and 2 lakhs each from Gurgaon and Hyderabad. BARAH AANA manages a paltry 75 lakhs from India and is a trade disaster.

Moving on to Nandita Das’s FIRAAQ, the film has found no takers and it has some poor numbers to show. The film collected 20 lakhs from Bombay, 5.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 7.50 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1 lakh from Nagpur and 5.10 lakhs from Hyderabad. FIRAAQ has only 90 lakhs to show in its opening week and has been out rightly rejected.

CHECK OUT: A unique ‘bribe’ from makers of BARAH AANA

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The English film that is partly in Hindi, Vinay Pathak’s STRAIGHT, manages low level collections with 27 lakhs from Bombay, 3 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 14 lakhs from Delhi city, 4.20 lakhs from Noida, 2.05 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.20 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.25 lakhs from Chandigarh, 5.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1 lakh from Faridabad, 1.50 lakhs from Nagpur and 2 lakhs from Hyderabad. During its opening week STRAIGHT has netted 85 lakhs in its opening week from India and is more or less a failure.

Coming to the last release of the same week, the Abhijeet Sawant starrer, LOTTERY, the collections are too insignificant to put up. Needless to add that LOTTERY is an unmitigated disaster.

Meanwhile Anurag Kashyap’s GULAAL drops badly in its second week. The film collected 10 lakhs from Bombay, 4.15 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 8 lakhs from Delhi city, 3.05 lakhs from Noida, 2.50 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.35 lakhs from Lucknow, 3 lakhs from Gurgaon and 2 lakhs from Hyderabad. Adding another 75 lakhs, GULAAL has netted a poor 4.25 crores in two weeks from India. The film has flopped at the ticket window.

CHECK OUT: GULAAL doesn’t spray color at the box office

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LITTLE ZIZOU continues its big surprises (as we had indicated last week) and has very steady collections to show. Adding another 35 lakhs, LITTLE ZIZOU has netted 90 lakhs in two weeks from India. Given its 2 crore budget and a very limited release, this is a praiseworthy performance.

Our last entry of the week is Madhavan’s 13B and the film is noticeably steady (on the lower side). The film collected 7 lakhs from Bombay, 2.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 6.15 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.25 lakhs from Noida, 2 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.50 lakhs from Lucknow and 1.50 lakhs from Gurgaon. Adding a further 50 lakhs, 13B has netted a fair 8 crores in three weeks from India and is now a below average fare!