This week witnesses an interesting clash between Sujoy Ghosh's Vidya Balan starrer, KAHAANI, and the Sameer Karnik directed Tusshar and Kulraj starrer, CHAAR DIN KI CHANDNI. As things stand, KAHAANI is likely to score with the elite metro audience, more so in Mumbai, Delhi, Madras and Kolkata while CHAAR DIN KI CHANDNI with its colourful and sparkling promos may well be preferred by the younger audience. If one has to choose the front runner it is going to be KAHAANI due to multiplex patronage, thanks to Vidya's recent National Award and the great reviews that the film will get, taking nothing away from the merits of the film and Vidya's stunning performance.
Last Friday's three new releases –LONDON PARIS NEW YORK, PAAN SINGH TOMAR and WILL YOU MARRY ME? saw a dull to poor opening day. However, as we had predicted the extremely positive word of mouth for the Irrfan Khan starrer, PAAN SINGH TOMAR, saw a miraculous turn around in its fortunes and the very next day witnessed an astonishing 80 percent pick up (over Friday) leading to a healthy first week of nearly 8 crores (to be validated). The other release of the week, Ali Zafar's LONDON PARIS NEW YORK saw only a marginal pick up during the weekend and the film saw an ordinary first week. The third release of the week, WILL YOU MARRY ME ?, faced rejection from the first show itself. In the overseas expectedly Zafar's popularity saw LPNY grossing ?32,538 from UK and $52,602 from US, while PST could only gross ?7,500 from UK and $20,600 from the US, during the opening weekend (2-4 March).
Moving on, after a so-so start the Madhavan-Bipasha starrer, JODI BREAKERS, saw a poor run during the weekdays as it collected 1.40 crore from Bombay, 28 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 7.20 lakhs from Surat, 9.35 lakhs from Baroda (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 4.55 lakhs from Rajkot, 12.35 lakhs from Pune, 5 lakhs from Nasik, 3.20 lakhs from Goa, 1.25 lakhs from Belgaum, 1 crore from Delhi city, 15 lakhs from Noida, 9.35 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 7.55 lakhs from Kanpur, 11.50 lakhs from Lucknow , 2.75 lakhs from Agra, 3.50 lakhs from Allahabad, 18.35 lakhs from Gurgaon, 2.75 lakhs from Faridabad, 2.20 lakhs from Panipat, 8 lakhs from Chandigarh, 2.20 lakhs from Amritsar, 2 lakhs from Ludhiana, 2.25 lakhs from Bhatinda, 28 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.65 lakhs from Siliguri, 2.25 lakhs from Guwahati, 9 lakhs from Nagpur, 3 lakhs from Jabalpur, 6.65 lakhs from Raipur, 13 lakhs from Indore, 1.65 lakhs from Gwalior (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 5 lakhs from Bhopal (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 15.65 lakhs from Jaipur (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 1 lakh from Jodhpur (collections from 5 cinemas unreceived), 2.15 lakhs from Ajmer, 1.75 lakhs from Bikaner, 3.65 lakhs from Kota, 2.35 lakhs from Udaipur, 26.35 lakhs from Hyderabad, 2.30 lakhs from Aurangabad (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 25 lakhs from Bangalore, 2.15 lakhs from Mangalore, 1 lakh from Vijayawada, 2 lakhs from Visakhapatnam, 1 .55 lakhs from Madras and 1.10 lakhs from Kochi. Netting an ordinary 8.25 crore during the first week, JODI BREAKERS (with reportedly a publicity cost of 8-9 crores!) will struggle to cover its cost. JODI BREAKERS has also been rejected in the overseas grossing ?23,175 from UK till the second weekend (2-4 February) and $53,000 from US.
After a good pick up during the opening weekend, the Ritesh-Genelia starrer TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA, maintained quite well during the weekdays collecting 1.50 crore from Bombay, 52.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 11.65 lakhs from Surat, 23 lakhs from Baroda, 14.20 lakhs from Rajkot, 60 lakhs from Pune, 9 lakhs from Nasik 10 lakhs from Goa, 2.70 lakhs from Belgaum, 90 lakhs from Delhi city, 13.50 lakhs from Noida, 9.65 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 8.20 lakhas from Kanpur, 15.25 lakhs from Lucknow, 5.50 lakhs from Agra, 4.35 lakhs from Allahabad, 15.65 lakhs from Gurgaon, 3 lakhs from Faridabad, 3 lakhs from Panipat, 9.50 lakhs from Chandigarh, 4 lakhs from Amritsar, 3.20 lakhs from Ludhiana, 2.75 lakhs from Bhatinda, 2.25 lakhs from Ambala, 22.50 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.50 lakhs from Siliguri, 2 lakhs from Guwahati, 17 lakhs from Nagpur, 5.35 lakhs from Jabalpur, 12 lakhs from Raipur, 20 lakhs from Indore (collections from 2 cinemas unreceived), 2.50 lakhs from Gwalior (collections from 4 cinemas unreceived), 12 lakhs from Bhopal, 37 lakhs from Jaipur, 2 lakhs from Jodhpur (collections from 5 cinemas unreceived), 3 lakhs from Ajmer, 1.75 lakhs from Bikaner, 6.65 lakhs from Kota, 5.35 lakhs from Udaipur, 10.20 lakhs from Hyderabad, 14.65 lakhs from Aurangabad (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 23.75 lakhs from Bangalore, 3.35 lakhs from Mangalore, 1.50 lakhs from Visakhapatnam, 2 lakhs from Madras and 1 lakh from Kochi. Netting close to 12.50 crores during the first week, the moderate budget venture, TERE NAAL LOVE HO GAYA, is an average fare and is all set to improve it's rating. TNLHG has also done well in the overseas (given the cost and cast) grossing ?155,000 from UK and $155,250 from the US till the second weekend (2-4 March).
Meanwhile EKK DEEWANA THA went from bad (first week) to worse (second week) as it collected 5 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 4 cinemas unreceived), 1.35 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.35 lakhs from Delhi city, 1.20 lakhs from Noida, 1.10 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.20 lakhs from Nagpur, 1 lakh from Indore and 2 lakhs from Bangalore. Adding another 50 lakhs EKK DEEWANA THA has netted 5.75 crores in two weeks from India. The Prateik-Amy starrer is a trade disaster. EDT is also a washout in the overseas grossing ?38,300 from UK and $21,000 from the US
Meanwhile Karan Johar's Shakun Batra directed EK MAIN AUR EKK TU is ending its run as it collected 25 lakhs from Bombay (collections from 9 cinemas unreceived), 6.20 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2 lakhs from Baroda, 15.50 lakhs from Delhi city, 3.35 lakhs from Noida, 1.25 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 4.50 lakhs from Gurgaon, 1 lakh from Chandigarh, 6.20 lakhs from Calcutta, 2 lakhs from Jaipur and 13.65 lakhs from Bangalore. With 1.50 crore more EK MAIN AUR EKK TU has netted 39 crores in three weeks from India. The Kareena-Imran starrer remains in the above average category. The film has done very well in the overseas (Imran's best) grossing ?585,900 from UK and $ 1,150,130 from the US till the fourth weekend (2-4 March).
Concluding yet again with AGNEEPATH, the film adds more to its kitty as it collected 10 lakhs from Bombay, 3.20 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.50 lakhs from Baroda (collections from 3 cinemas unreceived), 5.25 lakhs from Delhi city, 1 lakh from Ghaziabad, 1.25 lakhs from Noida, 1.35 lakhs from Lucknow , 2 lakhs from Calcutta, 1.65 lakhs from Nagpur, 1 lakh from Indore, 2 lakhs from Jaipur and 2 lakhs Bangalore. With another 75 lakhs during the latest outing AGNEEPATH has netted 123.50 crores in five weeks from India. The superhit Hrithik-Priyanka starrer has also done superbly in the overseas (especially US) grossing ?740,250 from UK till the sixth weekend (2-4 March) and $1,986,748 from the US.
