The prominent new release of the week, EROS International’s Arjun Rampal, Farhan Akhtar and Shraddha Kapoor starrer, ROCK ON 2, the follow up to the quite successful ROCK ON (2008), failed to impress the audience, with a very ordinary start.
While one can blame the demonetization to an extent but the 20 percent start cannot be justified. Given the huge budget and the not so positive word-of-mouth, the film faces an uphill task at the box-office.
From the remaining releases (which were even worse) it was just DONGRI KA RAJA that saw some audience at single screens of Mumbai-Maharashtra belt, but it can unfortunately be termed as negligible.
One can’t help but mention the Punjabi animated film CHAAR SAHIBZAADE- RISE OF BANDA BAHADUR which has taken a good (40-45 percent) start in the East Punjab circuit.
Meanwhile, the Diwali releases saw a noticeable fall during the second week, which cannot be termed normal, as it on the higher side, given that the first week did not see huge totals!
Coming to Ajay Devgan’s SHIVAAY, the film added another 20 crore, thus netting 85 crore in two weeks from India, and given the huge involved costs and the ordinary overseas run, the best case scenario from here on is an average status.
The second Diwali release, Aishwarya, Ranbir and Anushka venture, AE DIL HAI MUSHKIL, too has seen a big reduction in collections as it could muster just around 25 crore, thus netting 105 crore in two weeks from India.
The advantage that ADHM has is the big non-theatrical rights (70 percent cost already recovered), and the superb overseas run, which all means a hit status, not to forget Karan Johar’s first 100 crore plus directorial venture.
