With all the three Hindi releases last week — Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, Prasthanam and The Zoya Factor — turning out to be disasters, the film trade is in a panic for this week.
A major distributor in Bihar says, “It was a triple disaster last week at the box office. The three releases competed for the lowest collections, and The Zoya Factor emerged as the winner.”
Multiplex chains across the country have fallen back on the two big September hits, Nitesh Tiwary’s Chhichhore and debutant Raj Shandilya’s Dream Girl, to sustain collections at the ticket counters until the release of Yash Raj Films’ War and the Telugu-Hindi Chiranjeevi historical Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy on October 2.
Says a representative of a prominent multiplex chain, “The collections of the three releases on September 20 were beyond disastrous. We are looking for emergency sustenance until the big October 2 releases.” PVR Pictures decided to rush-release their big-ticket Hollywood blockbuster Hustlers to make the best of the lacuna at the ticket counters this Friday.
Trade analyst Girish Johar says: “Last Friday was one of the poorest at the box office so far this year. Not one, but all three new releases faltered badly at the B.O. and it was the earlier releases, Chhichhore and Dream Girl which took over. The failure of all three September 20 releases were all the more surprising, as all the films had big names attached to it. The Zoya Factor had Sonam (Kapoor) and with Dulqer (Salmaan), was directed by Paramanu fame Abhishek Sharma, and presented by Disney Fox. Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas was backed by Zee, and the debutant couple Karan Deol and Sahher Bambba got a solid platform from Dharmendra and Sunny Deol. However, audiences were simply not interested. Finally, Prasthanam had a good multi-cast but failed to evoke audiences’ response.”
Johar is waiting for the turn-around. “I am very sure that October 2 release War is going to wreak havoc at the box office. Hrithik and Tiger are a dream to watch together, and with Siddharth Anand at the helm of the YRF film, I am sure fireworks at B.O. at the start is a given. Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy too has raised sufficient interest, and will be good in the South,” he concludes.
