Akshay Kumar Pulls in the Masses
By: Abid
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This Friday (June 11, 2004):

Releasing this Friday is Govind Nihalani´s Amitabh, Om Puri, Fardeen & Kareena starrer ´Dev´. The movie tackles the sensitive topic of riots and state connivance. Also releasing this week will be another addition to ´Hawas´ brand of movies ´Girlfriend´.

Of the two ´Dev´ being a low budget project for such a big star cast may just pull through, if the subject is handled sensitively.


Aan - Men At Work

Bad reviews, which started even before the movie released, had no impact and the star power of Akshay Kumar coupled with his on-screen chemistry with Sunil Shetty and Paresh proved once again that he can now open a movie by his mere presence. The movie had good opening in Mumbai and an impressive opening almost everywhere, except Delhi-multiplexes, which only patronise a certain brand of cinema with jokes having Punjabi flavour or hyped movies.

Verdict - On the whole ´Aan - Men At Work´ has content that can satisfy masses or action fans in ´B´ and ´C´ centres and will not find mutch favour among the class and family audience, especially the kind that like to have weekend picnic at the multiplexes. The movie will fare best in the North, Central India and Mysore circuit and maybe Mumbai city. The collections from Delhi multiplexes will be the weakest.


Hum Tum

The movie did phenomenally well at the multiplexes and proves class ´A´ in Bombay, South and UK and achieved very good collections in the multiplexes in and around Delhi.

Ist week collections :
Bombay - 1,03,20,329 from 21 cinemas
Thane district - 13,20,329 from 5 cinemas ( 4 on F.H.)
Ahmedabad - 32,10,329 from 6 cinemas ( 2 unrecd.)
Delhi - 1,29,62,084 from 14 cinemas
Kaushambi - 8,16,796
Ghaziabad - 14,07,959 from 3 cinemas
Kanpur - 5,37,557 from 2 cinemas
Lucknow - 15,25,774 from 2 cinemas
Gurgaon - 24,38,556 from 2 cinemas
Calcutta - 29,53,207 from 8 cinemas
Ajmer (29 shows) - 4,39,425 (gross)
Jaipur - 1,86 ,542
Hyderabad - 20,44,054 (gross)
Madras - 14,26,701 from 3 cinemas


Ist week collections: 4,76,33,036 from 98 cinemas (reported)

Ist week total (calculated) All India : 5.85 cr - 5.90 cr


Verdict - The movie becomes Saif´s first solo success and proves very good for the producer, who himself is the distributor almost all over the world and can compensate the loosing sub-distributors from from ´ B´ and ´C´ centres. Kiron Kher´s local flavoured Punjabi jokes added to Delhi´s patronisation, as Delhi goes for such kind of movies along with the likes of ´Jism´ ,
´Murder´ , ´Oops´ etc.

Apart from UK, the movie also had good opening in Dubai, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.


Police -Force An Inside Story

After a fair opening specially in UP and interiors the movie ended at about 50 % collections for the week.

Ist week collections :
Bombay - 16,76,638 from 7 cinemas (1 undisclosed)
Delhi - 8,08,419 from 7 cinemas ( 3 on F.H.)
Ghaziabad - 1,35,984 from 2 cinemas
Kanpur - 1,93,975 from 2 cinemas
Lucknow - 1,35,657
Agra - 1,25,550
Aligarh - 1,26,000
Jaipur (29 shows) - 1,60,781
Hyderabad (gross) - 7,60,005 from 4 cinemas (1 unrecd.)

Ist week collections : 48,18,743 from 36 cinemas (reported)


Ist week all India total(calculated) : 85lakhs - 90 lakhs

Verdict - The movie had a limited release because it was unsold for many territories as it is a 6-7 year old movie. It must be said to the credit of Akshay Kumar that he still managed to get decent collections specially in the small centres and in UP and Bihar. Given the extremely low selling price the movie may end up with little or managebable losses at many massy/small centres.


Yuva

The collections of ´Yuva´ crashed in the second week as it fell by almost 60%. However, it will fetch commissionfor the Bombay distributors Ramesh Sippy as he was shrewd enough to hedge his risk by selling the rights of Gujarat and Saurashtra.

IInd week collections :
Bombay - 53,90,546 from 20 cinemas .
Thane district - 5,75,466 from 3 cinemas
Ahmedabad - 10,39,719 from 9 cinemas (1 unrecd.)
Jamnagar - 1,77,115
Solapaur - 1,04,809 from 2 cinemas
Delhi - 32,30,989 from 13 cinemas ( 1 on F.H.)
Noida - 6,70,785
Kaushambi - 9,19,887
Ghaziabad - 2,45,712 from 3 cinemas
Kanpur - 4,61,695 from 4 cinemas
Lucknow - 3,82,038 from 2 cinema
Agra - 1,65,000
Meerut - 1,43,080
Moradabad - 50,070
Bareilly - 48,130
Gurgaon - 5,98,764 from 2 cinemas
Calcutta - 3,45,854
Nagpur - 1,50,801 from 2 cinemas
Jabalpur - 56,001
Amravati - 52,531
Raipur - 1,04,280
Yavatmal - 22,592
Indore - 2,59,651 from 3 cinemas
Jaipur - 6,13,603
Bikaner - 74,760
Hyderabad - 9,62,155 (gross) from 3 cinemas
Madras - 5,42,407

Second week collections: 1,78,79,848 from 87 cinemas


Two weeks All India total(calculated) : 10.50 cr

Verdict - ´Yuva´ with a reported budget of 15 crore and a selling price of between 2cr - 2.25 crores is a loser in 75% - 80 % of India.


Main Hoon Na

Shah Rukh Khan´s ´Main Hoon Na´ dream run though the collections in Delhi´s multiplexes has dropped due to ´Hum Tum´. However, in the rest of India its quite steady.

5th week collections :
Bombay - 27,38,914 from 20 cinemas total for 5 weeks 4,39,48,000
Thane district - 3,44,438 from 2 cinemas ( 7 on F.H.)
Ahmedabad - 7,71,296 from 9 cinemas ( 2 unrecd.)
Jamnagar - 1,89,570
Solapur - 51,896 from 2 cinemas , 1 week
Nasik ( 6 days) - 65,691 ; 5th week
Delhi - 13,92,530 from 7 cinemas
Noida - 3,78,526
Kaushambi - 1,61,543
Kanpur - 3,68,514 from 2 cinemas
Lucknow - 6,05,239 from 2 cinemas
Agra - 1,90,514
Allahabad - 1,09,517
Meerut - 1,50,318
Mordabad - 39,501
Gurgaon - 1,57,500 from 2 cinemas
Amravati - 66,336
Akola - 73,073
Raipur - 70,442
Bhilai - 32,441
Indore - 63,431
Jabalpur - 47,967
Nagpur - 1,95,310
Jaipur - 2,13,090
Calcutta - 7,53,552 from 3 cinemas
Hyderabad - 8,30,056 (gross) from 2 cinemas ( 1 unrecd.)
Madras - 1,95,096 from 2 cinemas

5th week collections : 1,04,42,116 from 75 cinemas (reported)

Five weeks All India total (calculated) : 32.15 cr - 32.25 cr

Verdict - ´Main Hoon Na´ is an unquestionable all India hit and is now Shah Rukh Khan´s biggest solo hit in East Punjab and Bihar. For overseas we need not bother just the name Shah Rukh Khan is enough for success there.