Lootera Gets Mixed Response

For a big ticket film like Lootera,featuring Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha and produced by Anurag Kashyap,the film received a mixed response at the box office. The film directed by Vikramaditya Motwane picked up pace on Saturday after a mellow opening on Friday.

According to Girish Wankhede,General Manager,Marketing and Public Relations,Cinemax India Ltd.,the average occupancy for Lootera in its opening weekend was 55 per cent. “People have loved the film,but the problem is not many people went to see it,” says Wankhede. The film has done well in prime locations,says Prakhar Joshi,Head of Programming of PVR. “The occupancy on Friday would be in the range of 40 per cent,60-70 per cent on Saturday and on Sunday it was almost 80 per cent,” says Joshi. The film that was well received by the critics,however,failed to attract the audience,says trade analyst Amod Mehra.

According to the production house,Lootera,which was made on a budget of Rs 32 crore,collected an estimated Rs 19 crore in its opening weekend. Gross collections for this film in the overseas market are in excess of $700,000. Another film that released last week was Sanjay Dutt and Prachi Desai-starrer Policegiri. “Policegiri did well in centres such as UP,Surat and Maharashtra. Business in the cities though,was not very good,” says Joshi.

The Sonam Kapoor and Dhanush starrer Raanjhanaa,which is in its third weekend has cash registers ringing. There is a huge expectation from Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s biopic,Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,starring Farhan Akhtar and Sonam Kapoor,which releases this Friday. Two other films directed by debutants and starring newcomers,Sixteen and Boyss Toh Boyss Hain and American science fiction film Pacific Rim will also hit the theatres this week.