Rocky is not quite rocking. Zayed Khan had pinned his hopes on the film, but it was quite clear soon after its release that the film would have to traverse some rocky terrain.

It appears that Suresh Krsna — who made such films as Love with Revathi years ago — is now completely out of sync with current trends. Rocky, in fact, seemed like a rehash of old films starring AmitabhBachchan — from those days when the superstar was called an angry young man. Not surprisingly, the start was extremely poor and the crowds dwindled as the week progressed.

The producer’s men, in fact, had to beat a hasty retreat from a couple of multiplexes in Mumbai where they had gone to gauge public reaction for there wasn’t much of a public around. Clearly, the distributors of this insipid film will not be taking home as much lolly as they’d expected. Producer Shyam Bajaj made a profit of a couple of crore rupees from his previous film, Aksar, but has lost about the same amount in this one. The bad will of the distributors will have more than erased the goodwill he won after Aksar. Some years ago, Bajaj had the biggest hit of his career in Bandhan, in which another Khan, Salman, starred.

If this was the fate of a commercial film such as Rocky, you can well imagine what’s been happening to middle-of-the-road movies like Dor and Khosla Ka Ghosla. Nagesh Kukunoor couldn’t reap the benefit of all the critical acclaim his last film Iqbal won. And this, despite the fact that, as in the earlier film, Dor starred Shreyas Talpade. Frankly, Talpade is not a star as yet; nor is Ayesha Takia.

Percept Picture Company spent around Rs 4.5 crore on behalf of Sahara to make the film. Recovering the investment may not be a problem for Sahara, considering the film’s satellite and other rights. But the film has left distributors cold — box office collections dropped drastically after a slight pick-up over the weekend. The film is doing reasonably well in the Mumbai and Mysore circuits — but only just.

Like Dor, UTV’s Khosla Ka Ghosla is being praised by a small section of viewers — but collections certainly don’t match the reports. The reason for the lukewarm response to the two films is the same: lack of face value. Both these films are made for multiplex viewers but audiences are not willing to buy the prohibitively expensive tickets at ’plexes for films with such non-starcast fares. Anupam Kher and Boman Irani are good as supporting actors but one wouldn’t normally spend Rs 150 or Rs 200 to catch a film with these two in lead roles.

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Pritish Nandy may have claimed each time that his film was a success, but he got his first real success in Pyaar Ke Side Effects. The film, made on a budget of Rs 4 crore, is doing well in the big cities and multiplexes, but that’s enough for it to bring profits to all concerned. Films with such investments may not work in single-screen cinemas and yet be profitable ventures on the strength of their business in cineplexes and cities only.

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It was a week of happy tidings for UTV’s boss Ronnie Screwvala. He was elected president of The Film & Television Producers’ Guild of India and days later, his Rang De Basanti was announced as India’s entry to the Oscars in the best foreign language feature film category. Whether Rang ultimately bags the award or even makes it to the nominations is to be seen but with our colonial hangover, even the fact that it will be going to Hollywood is reason to celebrate.

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Ramgopal Varma wanted to cast Shreyas Talpade in his version of Sholay. In which role? The one essayed by Sachin in Ramesh Sippy’s original. When Shreyas, unhappy with the length of the role, asked Varma for a narration of his scenes, the filmmaker is said to have taken offence and told the actor, “We’ll work together some other time.” Shreyas must be thrilled — because now he will not be working in Sholay in that itsy bitsy role!

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Sanjay Dutt has thrown all his shooting schedules out of gear because he has not been facing the cameras for more than a month as he awaits the verdict in the bomb blasts case. But at least one producer can’t thank him enough. Munnabhai Dutt has made the most of his forced holiday by completing his dubbing for Nahle Pe Dehla, now titled Jimmy Aur Johny. Saif Ali Khan is the other hero of the film and the producer is now keeping his fingers crossed that Saif completes his dubbing too.

Komal Nahta is editor of Film Information