First weekend performance of latest release

It was as dull as it gets in the weekend gone by! Four films that were released tried to make their presence felt before the biggies start striking from the coming weekend and none of them made any impression whatsoever on the audiences. Incidentally each of the four flicks, 'Chand Ke Paar Chalo', 'Madhubaala', 'Ho Sakta Hai' and 'Naughty Boy' had a woman centric plot but that wasn't good enough for either females or males. Obituaries have been written long ago for sex-based films and the opening of 'Madhubala' and 'Naughty Boy' was no different.

Preeti Jhangiani's attempt at starring in an old fashioned drama cum love story 'Chand Ke Paar Chalo' too didn’t pay much dividends in spite of reasonably OK publicity while 'Ho Sakta Hai', the best product of all, came at the time when the craze of watching horror flicks has all but died down. If only it had come during the 'Bhoot' or the 'Darna Mana Hai' days, it may have fetched a positive opening. Net result? None of the movies show any promise of going beyond the first week with multiple biggies releasing one after another from coming weekend on!

Last week's movies

'Being Cyrus' kept itself in news throughout the week gone by and helped itself get an average, though not spectacular, opening. For an offbeat film in English starring mainstream actors, it was quite an accomplishment to reach the 2 crore mark, in spite of a selective release. A 'typical' multiplex film that should prove to be beneficial for its producers in an extended run, 'Being Cyrus' has successfully opened new avenues for independent film makers who want to try out something different within commercial boundaries. As expected, the film garnered the best collections from Mumbai with around one-third of its first week total being attributed to it. This Homi Adajania film should manage to break even but that's about it.

'Souten' is yet another flop for Mahima Chaudhary when she must have been pining her hopes from this movie centered on her character. She got good reviews from most of the places but audiences were wary about the movie's theme and believed 'Souten' to be one of those sex-laced films. A 70 lakhs first week total is hardly flattering and it seems impossible for the film to even break-even and cover the production cost. Karan Razdan gets another supreme box office failure after 'Umar' and now has his hopes lying on the third successive release 'Eight - Shani' that should come in a couple of weeks or so.

From the past

'Umar' is out of theatres in 2 week flat with a sub-20 lakhs total. Simply disastrous! Collections of 'Banana Brothers' have been so shocking that Anupam Kher may want to erase the film from his filmography. Ironically his once-upon-a-time contemporary Paresh Rawal, who started his career a little later than him and went on to play comic roles after a successful stint at playing a villain, has delivered second super hit of the year, Malamaal Weekly, solely on his presence. The fall in collections was minimal in the third week with more than 4 crores being added to its kitty. The film is now one of the fastest to have crossed 20 crores since 2005 and is the BIGGEST ever Bollywood success for Priyadarshan. The film has been enjoying a repeat run amongst the audiences who are simply freaking out on Paresh/Om Puri/Asrani/Riteish/Rajpal combo. One now eagerly awaits the DVD/VCD of the film to be out on stands as it should mean added revenue for this family film.

'Taxi No. 211' continues to hold on well even in the 5th week by netting in an additional crore to bring the total closer to 20 crore mark. The film now stands at 19 crore and it should be a matter of 2 more weeks when 'Taxi No. 9211' reaches the elite 20 crore club. 'Aksar' is now in its final leg as its total hardly moves after the 8th week. There were hopes that it may turn out to be 9 crore hit but the collections have fallen short by around 25 lakhs here. Nevertheless, the film is a decent success for everyone involved and has got Ananth Mahadevan number of other interesting projects to direct.

'Rang De Basanti' barely movies from its position as the collections remain amazingly steady even in the 9th week. A crore and a little more have been added on to make its collections stand at 49 crore. Nevertheless, it’s unlikely that the collections would continue to be steady in the coming weeks too with arrival of so many biggies one after another. It was a different scenario in the months of February and March when multiplexes had only RDB as an ace to be screened in multiple shows, but now with so many more options, there obviously is going to be a cut in shows for RDB. Having said that, RDB is still a comfortable 50 crore hit and firmly establishes Aamir Khan's position after a shaky 'Mangal Pandey'. With 'Fanaa' looking strong, SRK will need to have twin successes in the form of 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' and 'Don' to battle it out for the No. 1 slot!

In the future

The most important phase of Quarter 2 of 2006 starts with arrival of 'Shaadi Se Pehle', 'Saawan - The Love Season' and 'Banaras - A Mystic Love Story'. Each of the three films release a day earlier to benefit from the 'Ram Navami' holiday. Out of the three, 'Shaadi Se Pehle' is a comfortable success in sight due to refreshing theme, Akshaye Khanna's presence [he has never had it better with multiple comedy hits under his belt], Mallika Sherawat's oomph appeal and a reasonably popular music. Tremendous publicity of the film means that an excellent opening [80%-90%] is a given and it should only be consolidated if director Satish Kaushik indeed manages to tickle the funny bone. 'Saawan - The Love Season' is another film that appears to be a safe bet, especially in the single screen theatres due to Salman Khan's towering presence. Producer-director Saawan Kumar may just get a hit under his belt after years if audiences in the interiors catch fancy for their favorite star.

The third release 'Banaras - A Mystic Love Story' is the only film that doesn't really appear to be mass appealing in the true sense. Urmila's decision to act in unconventional films [Ek Haseena Thi, Pinjar, Naina, Tehzeeb to name a few] may be getting her lot of laurels but box office success continues to evade her barring a film or two that have just managed to break even. 'Banaras - A Mystic Love Story' too has an offbeat theme and though Pankaj Parashar's reputation as a director promises a polished product, the opening is not expected to be more than 50%. After that it depends upon the film's quality and overall impact it makes to result in word of mouth that may take it past the safety mark as the week follows.