Bollywood box-office report of the week : 6 may 2009

	view 99 movie stills

The dry spell at the box-office gets accentuated by the lack of big films in cinemas. The good news is that some progress has been made and the first step towards a settlement of the ongoing dispute between multiplexes and producers/distributors was taken last month end.

Although the talks between the two disputing sides remained inconclusive at the end of the meeting, the trade heaved a sigh of relief because a beginning had at least been made. For, this was the first time in 25 days that the two warring sides had come on the negotiation table. The multiplex owners agreed to henceforth settle the accounts in reasonable time and also not to arm-twist producers/distributors to supply prints for their weaker cinemas. Though some sort of a solution was expected during the Tuesday meeting (May 5), but unfortunately the stubborn attitude of multiplex owners turned out to be a big setback. However one can still hope for some headway in the next meeting, around the middle of this month.

CHECK OUT: 99 Movie Preview

	view DASHAVATARAM movie stills

With the producers (Anupam Mittal and Aditya Shastri ) of the new film, the Kunal Khemu, Soha Ali Khan and Boman Irani starrer, 99, having decided to postpone their release plans by a week, once again it is a barren week at the ticket window, as far as the new releases are concerned.

Meanwhile the Kamal Haasan and Asin starrer, DASHAVTAR (dubbed), is just pulling around due to lack of opposition. The film collected 7 lakhs from Bombay, 4.65 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2.25 lakhs from Rajkot, 2 lakhs from Nagpur and 1.25 lakhs from Indore. Adding another 30 lakhs, DASHAVTAR has netted around 1.50 crores in two weeks from India, and is still a trade disaster.

As we had said last week also, the film that is making most out of lack of release (but to no avail!) is Nagesh Kukunoor’s Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia starrer, 8X10 TASVEER. With still a reasonable number of prints in circulation, the film collected 5 lakhs from Bombay, 6.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.15 lakhs from Rajkot, 5.75 lakhs from Delhi city, 2 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 3.60 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.15 lakhs from Gurgaon, 6 lakhs from Jaipur and 1.75 lakhs from Hyderabad. Adding another 55 lakhs, 8X10 TASVEER has so far netted 14.80 crores in 4 weeks from India but is a trade disaster. The film has also been totally rejected in the Overseas with a poor $152,163 from UK.

CHECK OUT: 8×10 TASVEER-Who is to be blamed?

	download AA DEKHEN ZARA wallpapers

Moving on to Santosh Sivan’s Nana Patekar and Bobby Deol starrer, EK-THE POWER OF ONE, the film is still being screened (especially in the Hindi belt) due to no other options! The film adds 10 lakhs and has so far netted around 6.25 crores in five weeks from India. There is no change in its flop status.

Checking out Jehangir Surti’s Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu starrer, AA DEKHEN ZARA, the film once again gets the benefit of ‘no new release’, collecting 1.10 lakhs from Bombay, 1.75 lakhs from Ahmedabad and 5 lakhs from Delhi city. AA DEKHEN ZARA has another 15 lakhs to show and has so far netted close to 5.60 lakhs in five weeks from India. Given its budget and selling price, the film is a trade disaster.

Just like the last week, the English film, FAST AND FURIOUS, and its dubbed Hindi version, RAFTAAR KA JUNOON, continue to make hay while the sun shines. The English version, FAST AND FURIOUS, collected 9 lakhs from Bombay, 1.25 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 6.75 lakhs from Delhi city, 1.25 lakhs from Noida and 1.75 lakhs from Gurgaon. The Hindi version, RAFTAAR KA JUNOON, has managed to collect, 1.75 lakhs from Bombay, 4 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2.15 lakhs from Rajkot, 1.20 lakhs from Jamnagar, 3.60 lakhs from Delhi city, 1.15 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.35 lakhs from Lucknow and 1.05 lakhs from Nagpur. Adding another 50 lakhs, the combined run of the original and dubbed version of FAST AND FURIOUS has netted a very creditable 6 crores in four weeks from India. The film is no doubt a reasonable success for all concerned.