Though last few weeks had seen one or two films release every weekend, this Friday there are as many as four films hitting the screens – ‘Calendar Girls’, ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’, ‘Bhaag Johnny’ and ‘Timeout’. Out of these, the more prominent ones are ‘Calendar Girls’ and ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ which are seeing the widest release. ‘Bhaag Johnny’ has a restricted screen count while ‘Timeout’ is seen an almost token release.
‘Calendar Girls’ and ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ are special since they have experienced directors like Madhur Bhandarkar and Abbas-Mustan respectively at the helm of affairs. Interestingly, both films have multiple heroines in there, what with ‘Calendar Girls’ featuring Akanksha Puri, Avani Modi, Kyra Dutt, Ruhi Singh and Satarupa Pyne, while ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ boasting of Elli Avram, Manjari Fadnis, Simran Kaur Mundi, Sai Lokur. This isn’t all even ‘Bhaag Johnny’ has Zoa Morani, Mansi Scott and Mandana Karimi, which makes it a total of 12 females clashing with each other at the box office this week.
Let’s talk about ‘Calendar Girls’ first. The film has seen a good promotional campaign so far and despite five out and out newcomers in there, it has seen good visibility build around it, courtesy its director, who has a record for making such dramatic encounters, and the five leading ladies who are bringing on good glamour quotient. At Rs. 9 crore (Rs. 90 million) budget (with Rs. 4.5 crore – Rs. 45 million added on P&A), the controlled budget film is seeing a good release at about 1100 screens. The film should see a decent opening for itself and is basically expecting patronage from the youth segment.
On the other hand ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’ is a Ratan Jain production and has Abbas-Mustan trying out the comic genre for the first time ever in a career spanning 30 years. The film’s biggest attraction is Kapil Sharma and since he carries an inherent comic flair, there are expectations of a wonderful act all over again. The film has seen a decent buzz building around and should find family audience rooting for it. A lot would depend on how word of mouth helps its prospects over the weekend.
‘Bhaag Johnny’ is a delayed film starring Kunal Khemmu in the lead. It boasts of an interesting promo, though surprisingly the overall promotion has been low key. It is seeing a restricted release for itself. On the other hand ‘Timeout’ has not been promoted at all and it is pretty surprising to see its release out of the blue. These films would face challenge in the face of competition from ‘Calendar Girls’ and ‘Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon’.