MUMBAI: The week saw as many as six new releases, all faceless except Aashayein (John Abraham) and resultantly finding no takers. The films are: Aashayein, Hello Darling, Antardwand, Madholal Keep Walking, Soch Lo and Gumshuda, each having either sectional appeal or none at all.
While Aashayein and Hello Darling managed to run through the week, the rest were either discontinued or had ‘no shows’ due to lack of audience. While Ashayein‘s collection for the week ranged from 6 per cent to 10 per cent of total capacity, the figures of Hello Darling ranged between 8 per cent to 20 per cent.
While the much sought after 15 August weekend release date saw only one film release in Peepli Live, the week that followed also had just one, Lafangey Parindey. It is, hence, surprising to see six films cluttering the week. Trade veterans call it poor and suicidal release strategy.
3 September saw one major release, Karan Johar’s We Are Family, an adaptation of the Hollywood film, Step Mom. Adaptation notwithstanding, the story is old-fashioned Indian and treated routinely. The film had not been able to generate much heat within the trade during its pre-release stage and it failed to lure the moviegoers despite Kajol appearing in a movie after a long time.
The opening day collections ranged between 5-15 per cent, peaking on Sunday and falling the same day. The weekend is reported to have fetched less than Rs 100 million.
