This week's three awaited releases are expected to be Yash Raj's BADMAASH COMPANY, the Priyan directed Darsheel starrer BUMM BUMM BOLE and last but not the least Gurinder Chadha's IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE (as HAI MAR JAWAAN! in Hindi). It is easy to predict that the front runner is going to be Shahid Kapoor's BADMAASH COMPANY which is likely to open decently at the multiplexes while IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE may find some patronage at select multiplexes. BUMM BUMM BOLE has very little to no hype and may just go unnoticed. What must also be kept in mind is that last Friday's HOUSEFULL is still being patronized by the audience and may just prove a handful for the three new releases.
By now everyone and anyone who is interested in Bollywood must be aware of the fact that last Friday saw the release of Sajid Khan's Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta, Ritesh Deshmukh , Boman Irani and Jiah Khan starrer HOUSEFULL, the biggest film post the IPL. It was expected that the film would embark on a good opening, but it was much bigger than expected, especially in view of the over saturated release and high number of shows at the multiplexes. The opening was super across India barring Bihar and parts of central India, leading to one of the biggest weekends ever. The performance is all the more creditable given the high number of negative reviews. HOUSEFULL also performed very well in the Overseas grossing ?262,752 from UK and $6,42,156 from US, during the opening weekend (30th April – 2nd May), though it must be mentioned here that trade had expected a better performance. While it is obvious that HOUSEFULL is going to be a profitable venture for all concerned, if it can sustain, even till the second weekend, the scale of success may well translate into an outright hit. The other release of the same week, the Anuuj Saxena and Udita Goswami starrer CHASE had a pathetic start and sank without a trace.
Moving on, Jagmohan Mundhra's APARTMENT failed to end with even with half decent numbers. The film collected 25 lakhs from Bombay, 5 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.35 lakhs from Pune, 20 lakhs from Delhi city, 2 lakhs from Noida, 2.50 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.20 lakhs from Kanpur, 3 lakhs from Lucknow, 2 lakhs from Gurgaon, 4.50 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.60 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.10 lakhs from Raipur, 1.55 lakhs from Indore, 1 lakh from Jaipur and 1.50 lakhs from Bangalore. With barely 1.25 crore in its first week, APARTMENT has failed miserably.
While CITY OF GOLD-MUMBAI 1982-EK ANKAHI KAHANI got praise for its treatment, as far as the collections are concerned it was just 16 lakhs from Bombay, 4.60 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1 lakh from Pune, 6.50 lakhs from Delhi city, 1.50 lakhs from Noida, 1.60 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.30 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.75 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1.35 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.10 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.50 lakhs from Indore, 1 lakh from Hyderabad and 2.50 lakhs from Bangalore. Needless to add that with just about 75 lakhs in its opening week CITY OF GOLD-MUMBAI 1982-EK ANKAHI KAHANI is a trade disaster.
MUSKURAKE DEKH ZARA had dismal collections of 5 lakhs from Bombay, 1 lakh each from Ahmedabad and Delhi city. With a total of less than 25 lakhs from India, MUSKURAKE DEKH ZARA is a washout.
Meanwhile Milind Ukey's PAATHSHAALA was the only movie that was somewhat stable at the multiplexes. The film collected 35 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 29 cinemas unreceived), 15.10 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 3.10 lakhs from Baroda, 1 lakh from Bharuch, 3 lakhs from Rajkot, 1.05 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.35 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 5 lakhs from Pune, 2.20 lakhs from Nasik, 2 lakhs from Goa, 37 lakhs from Delhi city, 5 lakhs from Noida, 3.10 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.55 lakhs from Kanpur, 5 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.15 lakhs from Allahabad, 7 lakhs from Gurgaon, 3.25 lakhs from Faridabad, 3.50 lakhs from Chandigarh, 1 lakh from Ambala, 15 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.15 lakhs from Siliguri, 4 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.20 lakhs from Jabalpur, 3.15 lakhs from Raipur, 5.50 lakhs from Indore, 1.25 lakhs from Gwalior, 2.10 lakhs from Bhopal, 4.50 lakhs from Jaipur, 1.05 lakhs from Ajmer, 2 lakhs from Kota, 10.50 lakhs from Hyderabad, 1.10 lakhs from Aurangabad, 1 lakh from Latur, 10 lakhs from Bangalore, 1.30 lakhs from Mangalore and 1.15 lakhs from Visakhapatnam. Adding a further 3.50 crores, PAATHSHAALA has netted around 11.50 crores in two weeks from India. The Nana, Shahid and Ayesha starrer will be lucky to obtain a recovery status. PAATHSHAALA has also been rejected in the Overseas with barely ?50,000 from UK, till the third weekend (30th April – 2nd May).
Concluding this week's report with Milind Gadagkar's PHOONK 2, the film managed a face saving show and collected 15 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 10 cinemas unreceived), 3.15 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.50 lakhs from Pune, 1.25 lakhs each from Hubli and Dharwad, 12 lakhs from Delhi city, 2 lakhs from Noida, 1.05 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.50 lakhs from Kanpur, 2 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.50 lakhs from Agra, 1.65 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1 lakh from Faridabad, 2.25 lakhs from Chandigarh, 3 lakhs from Calcutta, 2 lakhs from Nagpur, 1 lakh from Raipur, 2 lakhs from Indore, 1.65 lakhs from Bhopal, 1.50 lakhs from Jaipur, 8.50 lakhs from Hyderabad, 1 .20 lakhs from Gulbarga, 5.75 lakhs from Bangalore, 1.15 lakhs from Mangalore and 1.25 lakhs from Madras. With another 1.60 crores, PHOONK 2 has netted around 6.85 crores in two weeks from India. The film may not have repeated the success of PHOONK but is definitely a safe venture for all concerned!
