New Delhi, May 18

The film, made on a budget of Rs.25 crore has managed good business in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and East Punjab territory, said a statement.

“Aurangzeb”, a film from Yash Raj Film’s stable, tells the story about the land mafia.

Directed by Atul Sabharwal, it also features Jackie Shroff, Rishi Kapoor, southern actor Prithviraj Sukumaran and Amrita Singh.

ians

Mumbai, May 8

Made at a budget of Rs.6 crore, “Bombay Talkies” was released in about 480 screens all over India, while big budget “Shootout At Wadala” hit approximately 1,700 screens in the country.

Both films hit the screens May 3, the day which marked 100 years of Indian cinema. Keeping their budget and scale of release in mind, they seem to be on the right track.

According to distributor Ramesh Sippy of BRS Enterprises, “Both the films have done average business while ‘Bombay Talkies’ has approximately collected around Rs.4.5 crore till Monday, ‘Shootout At Wadala’ has collected around Rs.33 crore till Monday all over India.”

Rajesh Thadani from Multimedia Combines told IANS: “‘Shooutout At Wadala’ is doing pretty well. The film has collected around Rs.33 to Rs.35 crore till Tuesday. ‘Bombay Talkies’ was a little disappointing, it’s not up to the mark. The film has collected around Rs.5.5 crore till Tuesday.”

While “Shootout At Wadala” brought the story of Mumbai police’s first official encounter when they gunned down gangster Manya Surve, played by John Abraham in the movie, “Bombay Talkies” strung an amalgamation of four short stories by four directors.

Delhi-based distributor Sanjay Ghai said: “In Delhi, ‘Shootout…’ collected around Rs.6.5 crore till Tuesday. It was released in around 50 to 60 screens in Delhi.”

Sunil Bansal from Yash Raj Jai Pictures Pvt. Ltd. said: “In Rajasthan both the films have done average business. There was a lot of expectation from both the films, but ‘Bombay Talkies’ managed to collect around 15 to 20 percent, while ‘SOW’ collected around 40 percent in Rajasthan.”

ians

New Delhi, April 28

Made on a budget of Rs.12 crore, the film’s first day collection was Rs.6.35 crore, and on the second day it grossed Rs.6.75 crore, said a statement.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh praised the film and tweeted: “’Aashiqui 2′ has had a fantastic start. Though numbers still being compiled, it’s one of the biggest starts for a film starring newcomers!”

The movie, a directorial venture of Mohit Suri, released Friday. It has been co-produced by Bhushan Kumar and Mukesh Bhatt under their respective banners – T Series Films and Vishesh Films.

“The occupancy for the movie is 40 to 50 percent on an average. More of youngsters and college-going crowds are coming for the movie,” Rajesh Thadani of Multimedia Combines told IANS.

He added: “The movie can do better in the coming weeks. The release of ‘Iron Man 3′ can be a reason for the low occupancy,” he added.

“Aashiqui 2″ grabbed the audience’s attention after the release of the song “Tum hi ho”, a romantic number with meaningful lyrics, which got over 1,852,947 hits on YouTube within 10 days of its launch.

ians

Mumbai, April 23

Sharing news of the film’s box office collection in the opening weekend, trade guru Taran Adarsh tweeted: “‘Ek Thi Daayan’ collected approximately Rs.18.07 crore in its opening weekend.”

Made at a total cost of Rs.24 crore, the film’s first day collection was Rs.6.24 crore net. It earned as much as Rs.20 crore from non-theatrical sources, said a source.

Emraan features alongside three actresses – Huma Qureshi, Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin – in Kannan Iyer’s directorial venture.

Released Friday, the film is a Vishal Bhardwaj and Ekta Kapoor co-production and is the story of a magician and a witch.

Girish Johar, head of acquisition and distribution, Balaji Motion Pictures, is hopeful that the film will receive “better” business in the days to come.

“In terms of economics, it has been profitable, but in terms of box-office, it has been only satisfactory. We were hoping it would get better, but it has done average,” Johar told IANS.

Theatre owners are also happy with the footfalls they have received for the supernatural thriller.

Anant Verma, director and business head, DT Cinemas, told IANS: “Right from Friday till Sunday, almost all the shows of DT Cinema Gurgaon and Delhi were full. The movie has done better than what we expected it to do and the overall occupancy of the movie was 75 to 80 percent. Evening shows were almost housefull.”

The film, before its release, garnered attention because of its theme.

ians

New Delhi, April 7

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted: “‘Chashme Baddoor’ is off to a super start in India. North India and Mumbai circuits leading. Even mass-dominated belt very good!”

Said to be made at a budget of Rs.17 crore, the funny drama has been produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. What worked in the favour of the movie is that the director revamped the script and set the story of “Chashme Baddoor” in Goa focusing on the current lot of youngsters and their life style.

The film collected Rs.5.18 crore on Friday and Rs.6.27 crore on Saturday, making the total to Rs.11.45 crore.

The original, produced by Gul Anand and directed by Sai Paranjpye, revolved around three students living in Delhi – Siddharth (Farooque Sheikh), Omi (Rakesh Bedi) and Jai (Ravi Baswani) – and what happens when they meet Neha (Deepti Naval).

Dhawan’s “Chashme Baddoor” features Ali Zafar, Taapsee Pannu, Siddharth, Divyendu Sharma, Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher and Lilette Dubey.

The Sai Parnajpye-directed “Chashme Buddoor” was recently restored and released with the new “Chashme Baddoor” on Friday.

ians

Mumbai, April 5

Directed by Kannan Iyer, the Emraan Hashmi, Huma Qureshi, Konkana Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin-starrer “Ek Thi Daayan” is slated to release April 19.

“We are expecting U/A-certificate because children have played a big role in the film. Kids are the hero in the film. The child-artist, who has played the role of younger Emraan, has a very big role,” said the 47-year-old here in an interview.

“And children will enjoy the film a lot as this story has been taken from our folklore and it’s not at all gory,” he added.

Meanwhile, Bhardwaj who has also written the screenplay for “Ek Thi Daayan”, based on actress Konkona’s father Mukul Sharma’s story, would love to welcome good writers in the industry.

“I feel there is a dearth of good writers in our industry and when a few of them come, they turn directors. And again there are no directors. So I feel it would be good to have more and more directors in the industry,” he said.

“And we don’t respect our writers, so I feel it would be very good to have more writers so that we have better films,” said the filmmaker, who is known for his writing skills as well.

Known for directing films like “Maqbool” and “Omakar”, loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” and “Othello” respectively, Bhardwaj had co-wrote the screenplay of both the critically acclaimed movies.

He also penned the screenplay for 2009 release “Kaminey” and 2010 movie “Ishqiya”.

Recently, he penned the script for his directorial venture “Matru Ki Bijli Ka Mandola” and upcoming movie “Dedh Ishqiya”.

ians

New Delhi, April 1

Before the release of the film, he had said: “I don’t read reviews. I do not want any stars. Whenever critics pan my film, it does well at the box office.”

His previous box-office hits like “Heyy Babby”, “Housefull” and “Housefull 2″ didn’t appeal to the critics, but they did roaring business at the ticket window.

The film collected Rs.12.14 crore on Friday, Rs.8.5 crore on Saturday and Rs.10.5 crore on Sunday making the total collection Rs.31.14 crore, said a statement.

The film is a modern version of the 1983 release “Himmatwala” with Ajay Devgn and Tamannaah in the lead roles.

The drama, stunts and masala in the movie seemed to have clicked with the audience.

Anant Verma, director and business head, DT Cinemas, said the film is doing well for itself.

“The film is doing okay and has got decent occupancy. It is for the kind of audience, who want to go for the light fun movies. It has been marketed well,” Verma told IANS and added that they are expecting good collection in the first week, “but expecting a dip in the second week.”

Sajid says he makes movies to entertain people — and it seems once again that he has achieved success in doing so with “Himmatwala” .

It is good news for producers Ronnie Screwvala and Vashu Bhagnani also.

ians

New Delhi, March 12

The opening day figure of “Saheb Biwi Aur…” stood at Rs.3.5 crore, which jumped to Rs.4.25 crore on Saturday and on Sunday the collection reached Rs.5 crore mark, said a statement.

Said to be made on a budget of Rs.7 crore, “Saheb Biwi…” is co-produced by Dhulia and Rahul Mittra. The movie is a sequel to 2011 film “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster”, which was appreciated for its intense script, narration and performances.

The sequel stars actors Jimmy Sheirgill and Mahie Gill, who are reprising their roles from the previous film. They are joined by Irrfan and Soha Ali Khan in the cast.

The film grew from strength to strength over the weekend as it was supported by strong word of mouth and extremely positive reviews from critics.

With its strong direction, dialogues and acting, the movie also created quite a buzz on social media and was trending for three days on Twitter.

With a small release in India as well as limited screenings in overseas market, “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns” has got one of the best openings for a small film.

This is also highest ever for a Dhulia film.

ians

Mumbai, March 4

“Yes, we have signed Akshay Kumar for our next two films. The first will go on the floors in July first week and will be shot in Cape Town. The film will be co-directed by Sajid-Farhad, who were the dialogue writers for ‘Bol Bachchan’, ‘Golmaal Returns’, and ‘Housefull 2′. It will be a comedy film,” Ramesh Taurani of Tips told IANS.

“The second film will go on the floors in 2014. The director of the second film has not been decided yet,” he added.

When asked about the Rs.80 crore remuneration that Akshay is reportedly getting for the two-film deal, Taurani remained tight-lipped.

“I am not allowed to talk about it. I don’t want to comment on it,” said the filmmaker, who has teamed up with Akshay for the first time.

“I always wanted to work with him. He is one of the most disciplined actors in the industry and a superb performer. This will be my first film with him,” he added.

ians

Mumbai, Feb 23

The big screen adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel “The 3 Mistakes of My Life”, the movie, featuring Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh and Raj Kumar Yadav, released Friday in 1,000 screens across the country.

Production banner UTV Motion Pictures is upbeat about the movie, made at a budget of Rs.12 crore.

“It’s a fantastic start for ‘Kai Po Che!’ and it will only keep on growing over the weekend. We are looking at a big weekend. Also, the film will also have a sound week one and will have a long run at the theatre because of the appreciation that it is getting to sustain this super box office run,” Gaurav Verma, director – India theatrical distribution, Studios, Disney UTV, said in a statement.

In the overseas market, the film was released in a total of 250 screens, including 109 in US, 54 in Britain, 35 in Gulf and 12 in Australia.

“Kai Po Che!” released in Gulf Thursday, and it has managed to collect $170,000 in the region within two days.

The business from the movie is only poised to grow over the weekend, said Amrita Pandey, Executive Director – Syndication, International Distribution and Disney Media Distribution, Studios, Disney UTV.

“The weekend is key for us – and there is incredible positive word of mouth in all overseas markets. We are thrilled at the response, and feel that this should carry over to the box office.”

ians