First weekend performance of latest release

In the Friday gone by, three distinct films had released - PHOONK (horror), MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM (comedy) and MUMBAI MERI JAAN (social). As pointed out in this very column last week, PHOONK was always the front runner and credit must go to the makers for having designed the strategy for the film's promotion and it's release quite well. Deserving 10 out of 10 for the way they brought PHOONK to the public, it was pretty much on the cards that PHOONK would take a good opening.

However, there was a surprise in store since being true to it's title, PHOONK seemed to have spun black magic at theaters across the country. Otherwise how does one really describe the terrific opening which this film managed to take all over the country? A near 100% opening on Friday caught even the staunchest supporter of Ram Gopal Varma (and PHOONK) by surprise.

Released at limited shows (2-4 at all major multiplexes), the film took a very good opening (over 80%) when the day begun and soon word of mouth ensured that by the time evening and night shows commenced, there were house full signs all over. Made in a budget of just 3 crores, the film is on it's way to do a business of at least 10 crores which means that the Superhit tag is not really far away.

A surprise success of the year in spite of no leading stars glaring from the film's posters and promos, PHOONK has managed to erase the disappointment of the box office failure of Ramu's last month release CONTRACT.

On the other hand both MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM and MUMBAI MERI JAAN had a tepid opening at the box office. Though the latter at the least managed to fetch good reviews, in fact the best of the season, the former was thrashed by audience as well as critics all over. Result was that MUMBAI MERI JAAN is showing some signs of survival and fighting hard at theaters on the basis of good word of mouth. However, MAAN GAYE MUGHALL-E-AZAM has been a complete downer, hence turning out to be yet another dismal show for a comedy film this year. At the very onset, it had seemed to be a safe film but audience had zero inclination towards watching this film which means that the way MGMEA has performed, it may well short of the collections of Mallika's last UGLY AUR PAGLI.

Last week's movies

Siddharth Anand's BACHNA AE HASEENO has turned out to be a safe preposition for everyone involved. Showing a good performance at the box office with more than 21 crores coming in it's first week, the film has reached safe shores and should comfortably cross the 30 crores mark, hence ensuring at the least an above-average tag for itself. Well, if one asks Yash Raj Films, they may well love to call it as a hit, at least thematically, since it has been after ages that their film has managed to win hearts of the audience. In Mumbai the film did business in excess of 4.5 crores while Delhi was good too at just a little less than 2 crores. Delhi NCR brought in another 1 crore plus while Ahmedabad too topped the 1 crore mark. In fact the way BACHNA AE HASEENO has performed, it is all set to outscore the final box office collections of TASHAN.

For a film which was clearly dated and didn't have an impressive publicity to boast of, GOD TUSSI GREAT HO went on to do some decent business for itself with a 11 crore first week. However, the film hasn't been much appreciated and is bound to take a big fall in the second week. At maximum, the film would be able to earn a coverage tag for itself, something which neither the makers nor the actors would mind since at one point of time, even that looked impossible. The film was best in Mumbai (in fact quite good) with 3.5 crores though Delhi was quite low at 75 lakhs.

From the past

Till a few days back, especially after a blockbuster first week opening, one wondered whether SINGH IS KINNG would go on to break the 86 crores record of OM SHANTI OM. However, after a second week haul of 18 crores, that is now out of question as the two week total of the film stands at 62 crores. Covering up remaining 24 crores is clearly an impossible task and for SINGH IS KINNG, now the immediate milestone is to cross the 76 crores WELCOME barrier. In it's second week, SINGH IS KINNG fell by 60% in collections (expected since the film had opened huge) though it continued to do well in places like Mumbai (2 crores), Delhi (2.5 crores) and Delhi NCR (1.25 crores) which brought in maximum moolah.

UGLY AUR PAGLI could muster only 10 lakhs in it's third week after a 80% fall and is now ready for it's DVD release after a 7.5 crores haul. However, it would still be some time before Aamir Khan eventually decides to bring JAANE TU YA JAANE NAA on home video. In the week leading to 50 days at the box office, this Imran Khan starrer earned another 40 lakhs at the box office. The film should eventually close under 55 crores.

In the future

Four films release this Friday - ROCK ON, C KKOMPANY, CHAMKU, MUKHBIIR - and frankly none of them seem to have hype or buzz good enough to do a PHOONK at the box office. While MUKHBIIR is a no-show even before it's first show unleashes on screen, there aren't much hopes from CHAMKU either in either cities or the cow belt (especially up North where traditionally Deol films have done well). One clear cut reason for that? It's extremely weak title! This leaves ROCK ON and C KKOMPANY to fight it out amongst themselves. While ROCK ON should open well (over 50%) in its target market of Mumbai and Delhi, C KKOMPANY has a more pan-India audience as it's target audience. However, anything over 50% for this medium budgeted comedy should be good enough for it to sail through.

PHOONK has taken a huge opening at the box office. With near 100% collections all over and continuing to go strong show after show, the film has given Ram Gopal Varma yet another success this year after SARKAR RAJ. Ramu talks:

"Any filmmaker primarily wants to make a film which people will acclaim. The collections are more the Producers and Distributors concern. But the collections also indicate how many people actually saw the film. Does one feel that the film has served the purpose because a few individuals like the Print & Television critics say it is good or is how many tickets audience bought? Without batting an eyelid even the most award savvy Director would say that it is the audience buying tickets which is important because it will at the end of the day it will be his primary objective to see that as many people as possible watches his work.

In the year Satya released “Godmother” got the National Award and Satya was completely ignored. Godmother ran for 2 weeks and Satya ran for 25 weeks in the same theatre and 10 year later Satya is remembered as a cult-film and the jury members of the National Award committee would have forgotten both Godmother and its Director; and worse they would not have been even bothered to follow that Director’s career.

I always knew that it is the audiences not the critic’s reviews which made Satya work so tremendous. They gave as much or better reviews for Maqbool, Khamosh Pani, etc and we all know their box-office fate. A prominent critic mentioned in his review when Raat released that time, that it is an unintended comedy. Apart from him most reviews too trashed it. 15 years later many critics of present times term it as a cult-classic. That’s not because Raat was ahead of times but the critics of today were just audience at that time and hence unbiased.

Anyway to cut a long story short, not to undermine “Mumbai Meri Jaan” or its maker who received raving reviews compared to “Phoonk”, I just would like him to answer sincerely from his heart whether he himself would have preferred glowing reviews and opinions from critics or the collections of “Phoonk”?"