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As was pretty much predicted in this column last week, it has turned out to be a disastrous weekend at the box office. There were six films that hit the screens in a heap – ‘Main Aur Charles’, ‘Titli’, ‘Guddu Ki Gun’, ‘Once Upon A Time In Bihar’, ‘Love Exchange’ and ‘Prithipal Singh’. However, none could register any presence whatsoever.
‘Main Aur Charles’ got the widest release but the reviews were hardly favorable. Its haphazard treatment didn’t help either despite a top performance by Randeep Hooda. The film just about came near the Rs. 20 million mark, though official numbers were not made available. Ditto for ‘Titli’ which had names like Yash Raj Films and Dibakar Banerjee associated with it. Though it found the most favorable reviews coming its way with Ranveer Shorey fetching good acclaim too for his wonderful performance, audience in general stayed away, with the collections coming around Rs. 105 million.
‘Guddu Ki Gun’, a supposedly comic affair, wasn’t even reviewed by most despite Kunal Khemmu starring in. The film saw some audience in pockets but that’s about is, as indicated in the weekend collections that were in Rs. 20 million range. The risqué subject and current Censor board diktat meant that the core USP of the film (a man’s private organ turning gold) couldn’t be harnessed to the fullest. No pun intended!
Incidentally each of the aforementioned films got an ‘Adults Only’ certification which further impacted the footfalls.
As for the other three releases – ‘Once Upon A Time In Bihar’, ‘Love Exchange’ and ‘Prithipal Singh’, with no corporate backing they could only see a token release of one show in select theaters. Each of these has turned out to be a no-show in theaters.
‘Shaandaar’ couldn’t collect much as its second weekend brought in just around Rs. 15 million. Its total so far is around Rs. 415 million. Disaster.
The only film that was still seeing some audience was ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2’ which brought in around Rs. 435 million in its third weekend. The film currently stands at Rs. 578.5 million. Superhit!
All in all, a forgettable weekend and loss of some precious resources – both money and talent wise – at the box office.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
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