The coming Friday (at places on 23rd) will witness one of the biggest release of 2009, the Rajkumar 'Munnabhai' Hirani directed 3 IDIOTS, featuring Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi and Kareena Kapoor.
The film which has been in the making for a while and shot in exotic locales like Leh-Ladakh and also at IIM campus, is sure to complete a Christmas hat trick of successes for Aamir Khan, after TAARE ZAMEEN PAR (2007) and GHAJINI (2008).
However, those Aamir fans who are expecting another GHAJINI like blockbuster run will be disappointed, because a GADAR and a GHAJINI come very rarely, and 3 IDIOTS belongs to a totally different genre.
Last week saw the release of S.R. Gems Pvt. Ltd.'s Ravi Kapoor directed WORLD CUPP 2011 and as expected, the film was steamrolled by James Cameron's AVATAR (which grossed $77 millions worldwide during the opening weekend). WORLD CUPP 2011 was released at 28 cinemas of Bombay-Thane by S.A. Gems Pvt. Ltd. and saw an extremely poor start. Outside of Mumbai the start was horrifyingly poor. Needless to add that WORLD CUPP 2011 is an unmitigated disaster.
Checking out Yash Raj's ROCKET SINGH-SALESMAN OF THE YEAR, the Shimit Amin directed film has had an ordinary run. In its first week the film collected 4.30 crores from Bombay (collections from 6 cinemas unreceived), 50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 7 lakhs each from Baroda and Rajkot, 1.75 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.20 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 30 lakhs from Pune, 1 lakh each from Solapur and Sangli, 7 lakhs each from Nasik and Goa, 2 lakhs from Belgaum, 2.25 crores from Delhi city, 35 lakhs from Noida, 15 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 11 lakhs from Kanpur, 17.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 5 lakhs from Agra, 1.65 lakhs from Allahabad, 3 lakhs from Meerut, 2 lakhs from Aligarh, 2.75 lakhs from Gorakhpur, 1 lakh each from Bareilly and Muzaffarnagar, 55 lakhs from Gurgaon, 15 lakhs from Faridabad, 7.50 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3 lakhs from Zirakpur, 2 lakhs from Bhatinda, 4 lakhs from Panipat, 1.25 lakhs from Pathankot, 80 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.25 lakhs each from Siliguri and Guwahati , 15.25 lakhs from Nagpur, 3.30 lakhs from Jabalpur, 7.15 lakhs from Raipur, 1.10 lakhs from Durg, 20 lakhs from Indore, 3 lakhs from Gwalior, 4 lakhs from Bhopal, 15 lakhs from Jaipur, 2 lakhs each from Ajmer and Kota, 1 lakh from Bikaner, 45 lakhs from Hyderabad, 1.50 lakhs each from Aurangabad and Gulbarga, 20 lakhs from Bangalore, 4.35 lakhs from Mangalore, 2 lakhs from Vijaywada and 3.15 lakhs from Madras. During its opening week, ROCKET SINGH-SALESMAN OF THE YEAR has netted around 15 crores from India. The Ranbir Kapoor and Shazahn Padamsee starrer is all set to be a loser for the producers Yash Raj Films, as it has also fared poorly in the Overseas grossing a pathetic ?67,389 from UK and a somewhat better $164,649 from the US, during the opening weekend (11-13 December). The producer (also the worldwide distributors) will now have to rely on non-theatrical revenues just for recovery.
Moving on to Balki's Amitabh, Abhishek and Vidya starrer, PAA, just like the first week, the film maintained well during the (second) weekend, but dropped after that. Checking out the numbers, PAA collected 2.25 crores from Bombay, 35 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 10.15 lakhs from Surat, 12 lakhs from Baroda, 1.75 lakhs from Bharuch, 2.35 lakhs from Anand, 2 lakhs from Vapi, 1 lakh from Valsad, 6 lakhs from Rajkot, 3 lakhs from Jamnagar, 2.15 lakhs from Gandhidham,50 lakhs from Pune, 2.50 lakhs from Kolhapur, 1.35 lakhs from Solapur, 2 lakhs from Sangli, 7 lakhs from Nasik, 5 lakhs from Goa, 2 lakhs from Belgaum, 80 lakhs from Delhi city, 11 lakhs from Noida, 5.50 lakhs each from Ghaziabad and Kanpur, 7.25 lakhs from Lucknow, 2.20 lakhs from Agra, 1.15 lakhs from Meerut, 17 lakhs from Gurgaon, 6 lakhs from Faridabad, 2.25 lakhs from Chandigarh, 2 lakhs from Panipat, 45 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.50 lakhs from Silliguri, 2 lakhs from Guwahati, 10.50 lakhs from Nagpur, 3.25 lakhs from Jabalpur, 1.15 lakhs from Amravati, 5.50 lakhs from Raipur, 1.25 lakhs from Akola, 15 lakhs from Indore, 2 lakhs from Gwalior, 12 lakhs from Jaipur, 1.50 lakhs from Ajmer, 1 lakh from Kota, 12 lakhs from Hyderabad (collections from 5 cinemas unreceived), 14.50 lakhs from Banglaore, 3 lakhs from Mangalore, 3.15 lakhs from Madras (collections from 4 cinemas unreceived) and 2 lakhs from Coimbatore.
With another 7.50 crores, PAA has netted a good 24.25 crores in two weeks from India. The two Bachchan starrer is now an above average fare. PAA though has been rejected in the Overseas grossing ?131,367 from UK up to the second weekend (11-13 December) and a so-so $199,228 from US at the end of its run.
Our last entry for this week is Priyadarshan's DE DANA DAN, which managed to add some more decent numbers, despite the competition and reduced prints. The film collected 40 lakhs from Bombay, 15 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 8 lakhs from Surat, 1 lakh from Nadiad, 1.50 lakhs each from Baroda and Anand, 2 lakhs from Navsari, 1 lakh each from Mehsana and Vapi, 1.20 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 4.50 lakhs from Rajkot, 1.75 lakhs from Jamnagar, 2.50 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 7 lakhs from Pune, 2.50 lakhs from Nasik, 1.50 lakhs each from Goa and Hubli, 1.25 lakhs from Belgaum, 12 lakhs from Delhi city, 2.50 lakhs from Noida, 2 lakhs each from Ghaziabad and Kanpur, 6.15 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.55 lakhs each from Agra and Allahabad, 3 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1 lakh from Faridabad, 2.50 lakhs from Calcutta, 3 lakhs each from Nagpur and Jabalpur, 2.50 lakhs each from Amravati and Raipur, 5 lakhs from Indore, 15 lakhs from Jaipur (collections from 5 cinemas unreceived), 2 lakhs from Ajmer, 1.50 lakhs from Bikaner, 8 lakhs from Hyderabad, 3 lakhs from Aurangabad and 1 lakh from Gulbarga. With another 3.75 crore during its latest outing, DE DANA DAN has so far netted a healthy 47.75 crore in three weeks from India. The Akshay, Paresh, Suniel and Katrina starrer is now an above average fare for its investors. The film has also done very well in the Overseas, grossing ?529,703 from UK and $944,979 from US up to the third weekend (11-13 December).
