Mumbai, Aug. 7: Omkara — the much-awaited film based on Shakespeare’s Othello — has not impressed at the box office in India, but is in the US top 20.

Analysts said the film was expected to get a 90 per cent-plus start but the opening day figures were dismal: between 25 and 65 per cent.

In the US, however, it collected $427,000 in three days and found a place in Variety’s Top 20 US Box Office charts.

“But this again is not comparable to figures of earlier films like Krrish and Fanaa. (See chart) Frankly, it hasn’t done too well,” says analyst Taran Adarsh.

“Word spreads faster than fire these days and the mouthful of expletives and cuss words proved a major deterrent, keeping the family audiences at bay. As for the masses, Omkara is not the kind of cinema they’d take to instantly. Agreed, the film appealed to the elite, but that’s definitely not enough for a film that carries an expensive price tag. You ought to have the active participation of the masses to qualify for the ‘hit’ status,” adds Adarsh.

But the director himself is happy with the box office results in the US. “This just goes to show you don’t require family audiences to make a film hit. Audiences have really moved on. Omkara has set a precedent. It has proved that a film of this genre can earn and recover money,” says Vishal Bharadwaj, who had won acclaim with Maqbool, based on another Shakespeare play, Macbeth.

Adarsh says: “Ideally, with a cast like the one in Omkara and the tremendous hype surrounding the film, the film should’ve fetched £150,000-plus in its opening weekend in the UK and 60,000-plus Australian dollars in its opening weekend in Australia.”

Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Viveik Oberoi are part of the film’s star line-up.

In the UK, it managed a box office collection of £91,294 in the opening weekend. Gross collections in Australia for the same weekend were 34,571 Australian dollars.

“See, a film like Mann that hasn’t done too well in India, did well in the UK. Ditto for Dil Se. So I can’t tell you why and how the film did well in the US as compared to India,” says Adarsh.

But Bharadwaj has an answer. “Shakespeare’s work is beyond time. It will always be contemporary. That’s why it has clicked. It will take some time to catch on, but this is a different kind of cinema and it will be appreciated.”