The major release of the coming week is the political satire, JAI HO DEMOCRACY, featuring prestigious names such as Annu Kapoor, Om Puri, Satish Kaushik, Adil Hussain and Seema Biswas. The other listed releases are ISHQ KE PARINDEY and NATH-EK PRATHA. With the audience preferring to wait for the biggie, the Akshay Kumar starrer, GABBAR IS BACK (May 1), it will just be JAI HO DEMOCRACY which holds some promise at the box-office.
Meanwhile, just as we had stated in our previous box-office report, all the releases of last week namely, the Bhatts’ venture MR. X (3D), Kalki Koechlin starrer MARGARITA WITH A STRAW, as also the mythological NANAK SHAH FAKIR, saw dull to dismal openings. And it was just Emraan Hashmi’s MR. X which dominated the show with a 20-25 percent (on an average) start. The film did not show any major upsurge in collection during the remaining days of the weekend netting just around 14 crore, and that does not auger well for the box-office prospects of the Bhatt-Emraan venture. The remaining releases, which saw a paltry 5-10 percent starts can already be termed as box-office failures.
One can’t help but mention Naren Tamhane’s National Award winning venture, the brilliant, COURT. The film was off to a very positive feedback from the audience (wherever it released) and also some mind-blowing reviews from the discerning critics, and may just spring a surprise, fingers crossed!
Moving on, T-Series’ Sunny Leone starrer, EK PAHELI LEELA, could not quite capitalize on a decent (15 crore) opening weekend, during the weekdays, despite the single screens putting up a good show. During the first week, EK PAHELI LEELA collected 1.25 crore from Bombay (collections from other cinemas unreceived), 50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 11.20 lakhs from Surat, 8 lakhs from Baroda (collections from 6 cinemas unreceived), 12 lakhs from Rajkot, 30 lakhs from Pune, 6.50 lakhs from Nasik, 4.50 lakhs from Goa, 1.50 crore from Delhi city, 20 lakhs from Noida, 25 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 17.65 lakhs from Kanpur, 30 lakhs from Lucknow, 2.50 lakhs from Agra, 3.75 lakhs from Allahabad, 1.50 lakhs from Aligarh, 5.50 lakhs from Dehradun, 15.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 6.50 lakhs from Faridabad, 5 lakhs from Panipat, 7.65 lakhs from Chandigarh, 4 lakhs from Jalandhar, 5 lakhs from Amritsar, 4.25 lakhs from Ludhiana, 2.55 lakhs from Bhatinda, 1.75 lakhs from Jammu, 30 lakhs from Calcutta, 1 lakh from Darjeeling, 5 lakhs from Siliguri, 1.50 lakhs from Patna, 3 lakhs from Dhanbad, 2.15 lakhs from Ranchi, 3.50 lakhs from Bhubaneshwar, 1 lakh from Guwahati, 20 lakhs from Nagpur, 15.50 lakhs from Jabalpur, 15 lakhs from Raipur, 30 lakhs from Indore, 3.50 lakhs from Gwalior, 15 lakhs from Bhopal (collections from 2 cimeams unreceived), 30 lakhs from Jaipur(collections from 7 cinemas unreceived), 2 lakhs from Jodhpur, 7 lakhs from Ajmer, 1.75 lakhs from Bikaner, 7 lakhs from Kota, 9 lakhs from Udaipur, 50 lakhs from Hyderabad, 8.55 lakhs from Aurangabad, 20 lakhs from Bangalore, 2.65 lakhs from Mangalore, 2.50 lakhs from Visakhapatnam, 1.50 lakhs from Vijayawada, 3.15 lakhs from Madras and 2 lakhs from Kochi. Netting 22 crore during the opening week, EK PAHELI LEELA, is a profitable venture for the makers, given the reasonable investment (17.50 crore).
The CEO of the Central Board Of film Certification (CBFC) Dr. Shravan Kumar has categorically denied the media reports that mentioned CBFC was using the services of a Maulavi and a Pandit in the certification process for DHARAM SANKAT MAIN. The film has been recommended for UA certification after certain modifications.
The other release of the same week, Paresh Rawal’s DHARAM SANKAT MEIN, could not succeed commercially, despite its noble message collecting 1.25 crore from Bombay (collections from other cinemas unreceived), 50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 13.50 lakhs from Surat, 7 lakhs from Baroda (collections from 6 cinemas unreceived), 5.75 lakhs from Rajkot, 15 lakhs from Pune, 3 lakhs from Nasik, 4.50 lakhs from Goa, 80 lakhs from Delhi city, 15 lakhs from Noida, 10.50 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 10 lakhs from Lucknow, 1 lakh from Agra, 2.50 lakhs from Allahabad, 1.50 lakhs from Aligarh, 5 lakhs from Dehradun, 20 lakhs from Gurgaon, 4.50 lakhs from Faridabad, 2 lakhs from Panipat, 10 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3.50 lakhs from Jalandhar, 2.75 lakhs from Amritsar, 5.50 lakhs from Ludhiana, 2.50 lakhs from Bhatinda, 25 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.75 lakhs from Siliguri, 1.75 lakhs from Dhanbad, 1.50 lakhs from Bhubaneshwar, 10 lakhs from Nagpur, 2.75 lakhs from Jabalpur, 8 lakhs from Raipur, 10.25 lakhs from Indore, 2 lakhs from Gwalior, 5 lakhs from Bhopal (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 25 lakhs from Jaipur(collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 1 lakh from Jodhpur, 1.25 lakhs from Ajmer, 2 lakhs from Kota, 2.15 lakhs from Udaipur, 20 lakhs from Hyderabad, 2.50 lakhs from Aurangabad, 15 lakhs from Bangalore, 1.50 lakhs from Mangalore and 2 lakhs from Madras. Netting 8 crore during the opening week, DHARAM SANKAT MEIN, will struggle for survival.
Meanwhile the Hollywood venture, Vin Diesel’s FAST AND FURIOUS 7, has slowed down considerably in the second week, after an astounding and record breaking 70 crore (for Hollywood films in India) opening week. The film added another 20 crore, thus netting 90 crore (inclusive of all versions), and is most likely to end up as the first Hollywood 100 crore netter in India.
