First weekend performance of latest release

'Ahista Ahista' coming a week after 'Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna' was always a big gamble. Lack of much buzz around the movie as a whole inspite of a chartbuster soundtrack made its journey even further difficult. The film's hopes lied with an overflow audience from KANK and subsequent word of mouth. Sadly none of that happened with the film opening to a disappointing response all over. Not many watched the flick hence resulting in limited word of mouth. Also, the reviews were average too with the film being called 'theek-thaak' from all corners. Result? A 'Socha Na Tha' kind of response where the film was termed too simple for a multiplex watch but something that would make for a good DVD/satellite viewing. One good aspect about the film has been Abhay Deol who has come out unscathed inspite of a 'thanda' box office response. His performance has been called out as the best in the enterprise which should help him look for a long innings going forward.

'Katputli' was the second release of the week but as expected didn't find any takers. Factors like near to negligible face value, unimpressive publicity, abrupt release planning and bad reviews all over killed the film before it could even dream of breathing!

Last week's movies

The verdict is out. For all the appreciation, criticism, good/bad word of mouth and some mixed bad of press support that Karan Johar's 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' was getting since its August 11 release, the facts and figures have indeed painted a brilliantly lit bright picture for the film. The film has gone on to net close to 28 crore in a matter of one week across cinemas in India. This clearly beats the 26.5 crore record created by 'Krrish' just 7 weeks back. Not just in India but even in overseas the film has already broken a number of records set over last few years by margin of crores.

The film has created records yet again at number of centers [it indeed has been a record breaking year with great figures popping up every 2 months!]. Mumbai was just excellent with collections tuning up to close to 5.75 crores [wow!], Delhi created a record with 2.7 crores, Ahmedabad's 1.5 crore + total was brilliant, Pune managed to cross the 1 crore landmark while Kolkata too was in the vicinity of 1.5 crore. Delhi NCR too boasted of great collections from Ghaziabad [~ 1 crore], Noida [~50 lakhs] and Gurgaon [~ 50 lakhs]. Even down south, the response was unprecedented with places like Hyderabad [~ 75 lakhs], Bangalore [~ 75 lakhs] and Chennai [~ 65 lakhs] throwing up never heard before numbers! Truly a great response for a film that was facing a scare of going downhill from Monday by some unscrupulous sources!

All eyes are now set on the second week collections of the film. Though a drop in the range of 50% is expected [owing to huge number of prints circulating in the country], that won't be a matter of shame for Dharma Productions and [distributors] Yashraj Films. The film should cross 40 crores in 2 weeks flat since there has been near to negligible competition from 'Ahista Ahista'. Even third week is expected to be good [if not great] since only one film, 'Aap Ki Khatir' releases this Friday.

From the past

'KANK sab ko kha gayi' - that was the common saying last week with every other film running in the country shown a door. Picture this - while KANK came close to 28 crore, the sum total of collections of all the other films in the running was less than 6 crores. In plain mathematical language, this translates into KANK capturing approximately 80% of the market in its first week. Mind boggling!

Let's talk about 'Anthony Kaun Hai', 'Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar' and 'Darwaza Bandh Rakho', the releases of a week prior to arrival of KANK. A disastrous second week for 'Anthony Kaun Hai' meant that Sanjay Dutt would have to suffer one of his least grossers in recent times. Though the film is predominantly an Arshad Warsi starrer, the world knows that it was sold as a Sanjay Dutt film and the investors thought of cashing on his popularity. A below average first week [6 crore] coupled with a nose-diving second week [~1.25 crore] meant that the film would wrap up below 8 crore in the final run. A week or two more and there are all chances of the film arriving on DVDs!

Both 'Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar' and 'Darwaza Bandh Rakho' didn't even have face saving collections in the second week, though it wasn't something expected from a disastrous first week. The formalities of a stay at the theatres too seem to be coming to an end. That's because no screening is expected from films that collect only around 25 lakhs [SKPGY] and 15 lakhs [DBR] respectively in their second week! At 1.75 crore, there are least chances of SKPGY meeting even the 2 crore milestone whereas for DBR it is even worse with expectations of 1.25 crore final total too looking remote.

Though first two weeks of 'Omkara' were reasonable, the film took a massive fall [60%+] in the third week with collections just managing to exceed 2 crores. Still a 20 crore total is not bad for a film that is offbeat in the true sense. Technically the film would be termed below average at the maximum because of heavy prices in which it was sold. Now that's sad for a film that was hyped since its launch and was kept in news for more than 6 months due to its unique starcast, intriguing characterizations, title squabbles and above all the Shakespearean angle!

'Golmaal' deserves applause for being a film that survived the challenge around it and only took an expected 50% fall in its 5th week. The comedy is still enjoying its loyal audience and its 1 crore plus total for the week made it reach closer to 27.5 crore. With its DVDs/VCDs out on stands and the trend in collections, it would still fall short of a golden 30 crore mark. 'Krrish' was the film that surprised most since it barely took a fall in the week that celebrated its 50 day run at the box office. It was yet another 1 crore week for the film, something which was clearly unexpected, and made its final total cross 63 crore. Will it make it to 65 crore? Yes, indeed it will, if not now then in a long run at the least! 'Corporate' has finally managed to touch 9 crores.

In the future

In a year that had seen distinct subjects with interesting themes working best at the box office comes Dharmesh Darshan's 'Aap Ki Khatir'. Though all efforts are on to project this Venus film as the one coming from Yashraj Films by means of publicity style etc., the fact is that the film hasn't really garnered great hype. That is surprising though because a starcast comprising of Akshaye Khanna and Priyanka Chopra in the lead should have resulted in a much better buzz if only the feeling of deja vu was not much prominent. The film should be taking an average/above average opening [unlike Darshan's last 'Bewafa' that enjoyed one of the best opening weeks last year] this Friday though being a single release of the week it should manage to be coverage at the least. Will it be a hit? A lot will depend upon word of mouth since AKK is not a kind of week that can guarantee a 20 crore opening week!