B.A. Pass stands out among the new releases

“We survived on Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. It is a quality film and therefore,even though in its fourth weekend,we had given all the four shows to this Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra-directorial,” says Rakesh Sippy,proprietor of Raksha Exhibitors,on behalf of Chitra. The Farhan Akhtar starrer crossed the Rs 100 crore mark as it collected approximately Rs 104 crore in the last weekend. The single screen refrained from playing any of the new releases. At Chitra,the Milkha Singh biopic received 60 per cent plus average occupancy in its fourth weekend.

The story was the same at G7,Mumbai. Talking about the performances of fresh releases,Manoj Desai,executive director,G7,says,“From the newer lot,we are only playing Rabba Main Kya Karoon,which is not doing well.” And what about B.A. Pass? “We are not screening B.A. Pass. Instead we continued to play the Poonam Pandey-starrer Nasha,so while one ‘semi-nude’ film is being screened,we thought of not releasing another sleaze fest,” he says. G7 also continued to play Shruti Hassan-starrer Ramaiya Vastavaiyan,which did satisfactorily in its third weekend.

Small Wonder

In multiplexes too,B.A. Pass scored over its contemporaries. Says Girish Wankhede,Exhibitor for Cinemax and PVR,“The Shilpa Shukla-starrer has got good reviews,plus the word-of-mouth publicity contributed a lot to the film’s positive response. The average occupancy was 35 per cent.”

According to Ajay Bahl,the director of B.A. Pass,the movie which was made on a budget of Rs 1.75 crore collected Rs 4.5 crore approximately on its first weekend. The film was released at 720 theatres with 1,700 shows.

Meanwhile,just like the single screen,Bhaag… continued to run well in multiplex too in its fourth week. “People are still coming to watch the film,the tax exemption is working for the audiences,Bhaag… received 35 per cent all India occupancy at Cinemax,” says Wankhede.

International Big Runners

Last week,two Hollywood movies released at the box-office. One,is a horror,The Conjuring,and the other an animated,The Smurfs 2 in 3D. “The Conjuring received 45 per cent average occupancy,whereas The Smurfs 2 received only 25 per cent occupancy at Cinemax India,” says Wankhede.

G7 continued to play White House Down,which released on July 19. But it was The Wolverine that released the previous week,which received good response at both the theatres.