Finally, it is that time of the year, which has rarely let down the filmmakers at the ticket window! Names like DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE, RAJA HINDUSTANI, KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI, BADE MIYA CHOTE MIYA…. to the recent most, GOLMAAL RETURNS, have all scored at the box-office during the bountiful Diwali week.
This year too there are three films- ALL THE BEST…FUN BEGINS, BLUE and MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA which are ready to take a slice of the pie! If one has to choose, the Dutt, Akshay and Lara starrer, BLUE, will lead the pack chased hotly by Ajay Devgan's ALL THE BEST, with the Salman, Kareena and Sohail venture, MAIN AURR MRS. KHANNA trying to aim for the family audience. Here's hoping that Lakshmi's blessings are in equal measures for all the three projects and it is a triple win-win situation for the beleaguered film industry that only has about half a dozen successes to show, during the current year.
Last week saw the release of White Feather Films and Mumbai Mantra's ACID FACTORY and Trio Cafe's 3 NIGHTS 4 DAYS, but unfortunately the dull pre-Diwali phase struck a fatal double blow! Released at 800 prints in India, ACID FACTORY saw a dull start in Bombay city and suburbs (with 112 prints) and the opening was by and large weak across India. The other release, 3 NIGHTS 4 DAYS, released with a limited number of prints, saw a shockingly low start across India. Trade paints a bleak picture for both the new releases, though Suparn Verma's well crafted ACID FACTORY may manage to salvage some pride at select multiplexes.
Checking out David Dhawan's Govinda, Sushmita, Lara, Ritesh and Sohail starrer, DO KNOT DISTURB, the film has been rejected. During its first week DO KNOT DISTURB collected 2.25 crores from Bombay, 50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 17.50 lakhs from Surat, 2 lakhs from Nadiad, 18 lakhs from Baroda, 5 lakhs from Anand, 1.65 lakhs from Navsari, 3.35 lakhs from Bharuch, 1.50 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 2.15 lakhs from Mehsana, 1.10 lakhs from Palanpur, 3.65 lakhs from Vapi, 2 lakhs from Valsad, 9.35 lakhs from Rajkot, 3.25 lakhs from Jamnagar, 3.65 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 1.10 lakhs from Porbandar, 1 lakh from Bhuj, 2.75 lakhs from Gandhidham, 1.25 lakhs from Adipur, 50 lakhs from Pune, 2 lakhs from Kolhapur, 2.25 lakhs from Solapur, 1.50 lakhs from Sangli, 8 lakhs from Nasik, 1 lakh from Malegaon, 1.50 lakhs from Ahmednagar, 11 lakhs from Goa, 2.10 lakhs from Hubli, 3 lakhs from Belgaum, 1.85 crores from Delhi city, 24 lakhs from Noida, 15.75 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 11 lakhs from Kanpur, 20 lakhs from Lucknow, 9 lakhs from Agra, 3 lakhs from Allahabad, 3.50 lakhs from Meerut, 2.20 lakhs from Bareilly, 1.20 lakhs from Aligarh, 5.50 lakhs from Gorakhpur, 1.55 lakhs from Muzzafarnagar, 31 lakhs from Gurgaon, 13.25 lakhs from Faridabad, 10 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3.10 lakhs from Zirakpur, 3.25 lakhs from Ambala, 4 lakhs from Bhatinda, 5 lakhs from Panipat, 1.50 lakhs from Pathankot, 9 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.75 lakhs from Guwahati, 12.25 lakhs from Nagpur, 3 lakhs from Raipur, 1.75 lakhs from Durg, 21 lakhs from Indore, 3.65 lakhs from Gwalior, 30 lakhs from Jaipur, 2.25 lakhs from Jodhpur, 3.35 lakhs from Ajmer, 2.75 lakhs from Bikaner, 8 lakhs from Hyderabad, 2 lakhs from Nanded, 3 lakhs from Gulbarga, 5 lakhs from Bangalore, 4 lakhs from Mangalore, and 1.50 lakhs from Coimbatore. In its opening week, DO KNOT DISTURB has netted a very ordinary 14.50 crores from India. The film has also been rejected in the Overseas, grossing an ordinary ?149,101 from the UK and a disappointing $213,525 from the US, up to the second weekend (9-11 October).
Karan Johar's Ayan Mukerji directed WAKE UP SID scored at the multiplexes of big cities, though it was dull at other places. The film did manage a fair distributors share. During the opening week, WAKE UP SID collected 3.75 crores from Bombay, 60 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 14 lakhs from Surat, 1.05 lakhs from Nadiad, 21 lakhs from Baroda, 2 lakhs from Bharuch, 8 lakhs from Rajkot, 2.65 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1 crore from Pune, 3.25 lakhs from Kolhapur, 6.50 lakhs from Nasik, 14 lakhs from Goa, 1.55 lakhs from Hubli, 3.20 lakhs from Belgaum, 2.40 crores from Delhi city, 36 lakhs from Noida, 25 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 7.50 lakhs from Kanpur, 15.65 lakhs from Lucknow, 5 lakhs from Agra, 4.15 lakhs from Varanasi, 2.75 lakhs from Dehradun, 4.50 lakhs from Meerut, 1.35 lakhs from Moradabad, 2 lakhs from Aligarh, 1.75 lakhs from Gorakhpur, 55 lakhs from Gurgaon, 17 lakhs from Faridabad, 25 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3.05 lakhs from Zirakpur, 7.15 lakhs from Jalandhar, 4.35 lakhs from Panchkula, 11 lakhs from Ludhiana, 3.50 lakhs from Ambala, 2.15 lakhs from Karnal, 3.75 lakhs from Bhatinda, 3.15 lakhs from Panipat, 1.60 lakhs from Shimla, 3 lakhs from Jammu, 1 crore from Calcutta, 1.50 lakhs from Darjeeling, 6 lakhs from Guwahati, 18 lakhs from Nagpur, 8.10 lakhs from Raipur, 20 lakhs from Indore, 4.10 lakhs from Gwalior, 28 lakhs from Jaipur, 2.25 lakhs from Ajmer, 1.25 lakhs from Bikaner, 4.25 lakhs from Kota, 4.25 lakhs from Udaipur, 57 lakhs from Hyderabad, 1.50 lakhs from Warangal, 8.35 lakhs from Aurangabad, 2 lakhs from Latur, 1.35 crores from Bangalore, 10 lakhs from Mangalore, 3 lakhs from Mysore, 5.25 lakhs from Vishakhapatnam, 15 lakhs from Madras, 2.50 lakhs from Vijaywada, 4 lakhs from Ernakulam, 1.50 lakhs from Calicut and 2 lakhs from Thiruvananthapuram. In its first week the Ranbir-Konkona starrer WAKE UP SID has netted a good (for the limited release) 15.60 crores. The film is rock steady in the Overseas, grossing ?212,922 from UK and $611,574 from the US, up to the second weekend (9-11 October). WAKE UP SID is definitely going to be a profitable venture for the worldwide distributors UTV.
Moving on to Ashutosh Gowariker's Harman-Priyanka starrer, WHAT'S YOUR RAASHEE?, the film crashed badly in the second week. It collected 25 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 20 cinemas un-received), 5.15 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.10 lakhs from Rajkot, 1.50 lakhs from Pune, 15 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.25 lakhs from Noida, 1.05 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.75 lakhs from Lucknow, 1 lakh from Faridabad, 3.50 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1.35 lakhs from Chandigarh, 1.15 lakhs from Indore, 10 lakhs from Hyderabad and 1.20 lakhs from Davangere. During its second outing, WHAT'S YOUR RAASHEE has added another 1.25 crores and has netted a poor 12.50 crores in two weeks from India. The film has also failed in the Overseas with poor grosses of ?107,281 from UK and $254,114 from the US up to the third weekend (9-11 October) and it is a total loss for UTV.
For the first time since its release, Boney Kapoor's WANTED saw a big fall, though it is still doing quite well at the single screens. The film collected 40 lakhs from Bombay, 20 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.35 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 7 lakhs from Rajkot, 2.05 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.35 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 1 lakh from Gandhidham, 1.65 lakhs from Pune, 2.50 lakhs from Solapur, 1.50 lakhs from Nasik, 25 lakhs from Delhi city, 5 lakhs from Noida, 3.50 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 8 lakhs from Kanpur, 20 lakhs from Lucknow, 3.15 lakhs from Agra, 1.35 lakhs from Allahabad, 2 lakhs each from Bareilly and Gorakhpur, 4 lakhs from Gurgaon, 3.25 lakhs from Faridabad, 2.15 lakhs from Chandigarh, 1.10 lakhs from Panipat, 5.25 lakhs from Calcutta, 6 lakhs from Patna, 2 lakhs from Ranchi, 1.55 lakhs from Tata, 5 lakhs from Nagpur, 3 lakhs each from Jabalpur and Raipur, 1.50 lakhs from Akola, 1.05 lakhs from Wardha, 1.35 lakhs from Chandrapur, 4 lakhs from Indore, 6 lakhs from Bhopal, 1 lakh from Ujjain, 5 lakhs from Jaipur, 1.20 lakhs from Ajmer, 21 lakhs from Hyderabad, 4 lakhs from Aurangabad, 1.10 lakhs from Parbhani and 1.25 lakhs from Mangalore. With another 6 crores, WANTED has netted around 57 crores in three weeks from India and the Salman, Ayesha and Prakash Raj film is now a clean hit. The film though has been rejected in the Overseas, grossing a poor ?208,891 from UK up to the fourth weekend (9-11 October) and a so-so $349,637 from the US (till October 1).
Our last entry of the week is once again Yash Raj Films' DIL BOLE HADIPPA, which had more or less ended its run, after a big crash in the second week. During the third week the Anurag Singh directed film collected 8 lakhs from Bombay, 1 lakh from Ahmedabad, 7.25 lakhs from Delhi city, 1.15 lakhs from Noida, 1.25 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.05 lakhs from Agra, 1 lakh from Gorakhpur, 2.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1.35 lakh from Chandigarh, 4.35 lakhs from Calcutta and 4 lakhs from Hyderabad. Adding another 60 lakhs, DIL BOLE HADIPPA has netted around 23.60 crores in three weeks from India. The film has grossed a decent ?517,504 from the UK up to the fourth weekend (9-11 October), while the US collections have not been disclosed. The Shahid-Rani starrer is just an average fare for the makers, Yash Raj Films, and that too due to the fact that they are the global distributors and also hold all the non-theatrical rights.
