With no major releases scheduled, the coming Friday will see some medium to small releases. Of course the line-up will be led by the most promising project of the lot, Madhavan’s chiller flick 13B (hoping to emulate the success of PHOONK), followed by the comic flick DHOONDTE REH JAOGE and Manish Gupta’s delayed venture, the Sushmita Sen and Randeep Hooda starrer KARMA AUR HOLI. While none of the three are expected to take a thumping start, thanks to some innovative promos and decent music, 13B may give the industry something to cheer about. A few feel that DHOONDTE REH JAOGE being a light hearted comedy may just surprise, but we will be surprised if it does! The third release, KARMA AUR HOLI, is likely to go unnoticed.
CHECK OUT: 13B Movie PreviewLast Friday saw KISSE PYAAR KAROON? and the film released at 50 cinemas of Bombay -Thane (thru Tilak Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.) saw a poor opening across the board. The second release of the same week, SIDDHARTH- THE PRISONER, released at 19 cinemas of Bombay-Thane (thru PVR Pictures Ltd.) saw a horrifyingly poor start, wherever it released. Needless to add that the collections went from bad to worse as the week progressed and both KISSE PYAAR KAROON? and SIDDHARTH-THE PRISONER met their inevitable fate-flop!
The bad patch for the industry continues, as Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Abhishek-Sonam starrer DELHI 6 dropped markedly after a fairly good weekend (especially in Delhi-NCR). During the week the film collected 2.40 crores from Bombay, 80 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.20 lakhs each from Palanpur and Himmatnagar, 8.30 lakhs from Rajkot, 5.50 lakhs from Jamnagar, 3.25 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 4 lakhs from Gandhidham, 1.15 lakhs from Adipur, 18.40 lakhs from Pune, 3.35 lakhs from Solapur, 2.10 lakhs from Sangli, 9.35 lakhs from Nasik, 3.45 lakhs from Belgaum, 2.60 crores from Delhi city, 50.25 lakhs from Noida, 22.60 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 10.05 lakhs from Kanpur, 26.60 lakhs from Lucknow, 7.15 lakhs from Agra, 1.75 lakhs from Allahabad, 4.05 lakhs from Meerut, 3.50 lakhs from Aligarh, 3.75 lakhs from Gorakhpur, 6.10 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3 lakhs from Zirkapur, 60.40 lakhs from 16.55 lakhs from Faridabad, 8.75 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.35 lakhs from Guwahati, 28.75 lakhs from Nagpur, 2.05 lakhs from Jabalpur, 2.05 lakhs from Amravati, 1.25 lakhs from Akola, 5 lakhs from Raipur, 1.65 lakhs from Wardha, 1.10 lakhs from Chandrapur, 26 lakhs from Indore, 1.10 lakhs from Sehore, 4.50 lakhs from Bhopal, 22 lakhs from Jaipur, 2 lakhs from Bikaner, 1.60 lakhs from Kota, 75 lakhs from Hyderabad, 1.75 lakhs from Warangal, 5 lakhs from Aurangabad, 1.15 lakhs from Parbhani, 2 lakhs from Nanded and 8 lakhs from Mangalore. In its opening week, DELHI 6 has netted a decent 23 crores from India. Given the high costs, trade predicts that the UTV venture will entail substantial losses to its makers, who are also the worldwide distributors. In the Overseas, DELHI 6 has grossed a poor $274,410 from UK but is quite decent in the US with a gross $809,035. By and large the performance in the Overseas has been below par.
CHECK OUT: DELHI 6 all set to join ’30 Crore Flop Club’ Meanwhile, Priyadarshan’s Irrfan Khan, Lara Dutta and Shah Rukh Khan (extended special appearance) starrer BILLU has crashed in the second week. During its latest outing the film collected 72 lakhs from Bombay, 20 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1 lakh from Himmatnagar, 3.35 lakhs from Rajkot, 2 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.35 lakhs (gross) from Bhavnagar, 3 lakhs from Pune, 1 lakh from Solapur, 1.35 lakhs from Nasik, 27.65 lakhs from Delhi city, 5.25 lakhs from Noida, 3 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.60 lakhs from Kanpur, 7.20 lakhs from Lucknow, 2 lakhs from Agra, 1 lakh from Allahabad, 7.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 2 lakhs from Faridabad, 1.15 lakhs from Calcutta, 120 lakhs from Guwahati, 5 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.15 lakhs from Amravati, 1.60 lakhs from Bhopal, 3.65 lakhs from Jaipur, 10.75 lakhs from Hyderabad, 2 lakhs from Aurangabad and 1 lakh from Mangalore. Netting another 4.25 crores, BILLU has netted an ordinary 23.50 crores in two weeks from India. The film has failed at the ticket window. BILLU has fared comparatively better in the Overseas, grossing $720,671 from the UK and $740,698 from the US
Moving on to Anurag Kashyap’s Abhay Deol starrer DEV D, the low cost film has managed to hold quite well at some centres. During the week, the film collected 17 lakhs from Bombay, 2.65 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.35 lakhs from Pune, 30 lakhs from Delhi city, 4.65 lakhs from Noida, 2.25 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.10 lakhs from Lucknow, 6.25 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1.15 lakhs from Nagpur and 8.40 lakhs from Hyderabad Adding another 1.60 crores, DEV D has netted a creditable 13.60 crores in three weeks from India. The film though, remains in the above average bracket.
CHECK OUT: DEV D – Abhay and Anurag’s first success!
In addition to the above mentioned films, the January releases like RAAZ- THE MYSTERY CONTINUES… and LUCK BY CHANCE are still running with a noticable number of prints. The reason being the absence of any suitable alternatives. The collections though can only be termed as trickles, compared to the total grosses and will not help the cause of the concerned films any further!
