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 2 crore 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, the audience, in general, stayed away, with the collections coming around 1.05 crore.
Guddu Ki Gun, a supposedly comic affair, wasn’t even reviewed by most despite Kunal Kemmu starring in. The film saw some audience in pockets, but that’s about it, as indicated in the weekend collections that were in 2 crore 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 1.5 crore. Its total so far is around 41.5 crore. Disaster.
The only film that was still seeing some audience was Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 which brought in around 4.35 crore in its third weekend. The film currently stands at 57.85 crore. 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.