Box Office Komal Nahta

Dharmesh Darshan is in urgent need of reinventing himself. In solely commercial terms, his latest film Aap Ki Khatir was perhaps also his worst. Made on a budget of approximately Rs 10 crore, the film opened to such dismal houses that it was declared a disaster right on day one.

Frankly, it did not make sense to put in that kind of money in a project with this kind of a star cast. Akshaye Khanna, for all his brilliant acting, is not such a saleable name that a film worth Rs 10 crore can ride on it. Priyanka Chopra may be one of the hottest stars today but pray when did films start selling on the strength of their female leads?

Indian audiences and, therefore, distributors have a peculiar take on heroines. They definitely want a pretty face — but they won’t go to the cinema just to see that face. The heroine should be able to act too.

Let’s face it. How many times have we decided to go (or not to go) to a theatre because a film stars or does not star so-and-so. But male leads are a different kettle of fish. Our heroes still dictate our cinematic preferences. That’s, of course, as far as the initial business goes. After that, it is the merit of every film that comes into play and that includes the heroine’s performance.

Coming back to Aap Ki Khatir, it is difficult to digest the fact that it has been made by the same person who created the 1996 blockbuster Raja Hindustani. The film broke all records then and was almost as big a hit as Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. But Darshan has only gone downhill ever since. Be it Mela (partial success) or Haan… Maine Bhi Pyaar Kiya, Bewafaa or Aap Ki Khatir, the box office performances of his later releases have not matched the Aamir Khan-Karishma Kapoor starrer Raja Hindustani.

Last fortnight, Smita Thackeray also released a stale Sandwich. The Govinda comic caper got sandwiched between the fresh releases and remained unpalatable. Opening to barely 10 per cent houses, the film whetted the appetites of audiences. For Smita Thackeray, a distribution tie-up with the Sahara group was a godsend. Had she ventured to sell the film to individual distributors, she’d never have managed to collect the Rs 2.60 crore which Sahara paid her for a combined deal for all-India theatrical and satellite rights.

Sahara, on its part, will have to recover the entire amount from satellite TV transmission as the theatrical revenues won’t even cover the print and publicity cost of Rs 2 crore.

Meanwhile, Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’s revenues dropped quite badly in India in its second week even as the controversial movie continued to rake in the moolah overseas. The film is poised to become the second-biggest Bollywood grosser in the US and the UK, next only to Johar’s own Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…

Shailendra Singh, the head of Percept Picture Company, is all set to unleash the miracles of Jai Santoshi Maa on the public on September 22. The movie does not boast of any star names because Singh wanted it that way. Just as the producer donated his earnings from his earlier film Phir Milenge to AIDS victims, he has decided to donate all that he earns from the mythological film for use in propagating the message of the goddess. The press kit he prepared for the film comes in the shape of a huge rectangular box containing a small pooja thali, a diya, incense sticks, a bell for aarti and four small metal boxes, one each for rice, kumkum, turmeric powder and camphor.

Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh indeed has a sense of humour, something not many politicians can boast of. At the party to release the music of Anurradha Prasad and Tanuja Chandra’s Zindaggi Rocks, Ritesh Deshmukh’s dad concluded his speech with these words: “Yes, zindagi rocks but sometimes, politics also rocks!” Shah Rukh Khan, who formally released the audio, kept referring to the producer-director duo as Anu-Tanu.

Komal Nahta is editor of Film Information