Chalo Dilli takes the lead at BO

Amita Naidu,spokesperson for Eros International,said that Chalo Dilli had collected Rs 4.25 in its first three days at the box-office. However,most trade analysts refused to comment on trade figures because collections were uniformly poor. “It did not make sense to track movies for a few lakh rupees,” one of them said.

Most films did “horrendous” business on Friday with collections hovering in the 5-15 per cent mark. “The films picked up pace on Saturday and Sunday,” Prakhar Joshi,Head – Programming,PVR Cinemas said. Girish Wankhede,Deputy General Manager,Cinemax India said although people have liked most of the releases,it has not translated into footfalls. “We premiered Shor In The City at our multiplex in suburban Mumbai and I have been tracking the feedback of all the releases. Everybody who has come to watch the films that released on Friday have been saying good things for Chalo Dilli,Shor.. and I AM,but occupancies have been quite poor,” he said. The average weekend collection for Chalo Dilli was the highest at 45 per cent,followed by Shor In The City at 42 per cent and I AM at 36 per cent,Wankhede added.

Amongst English releases Jake Gyllenhaal’s Source Code was a surprise winner at the box-office because of favourable reviews,scoring over the much talked-about Marvel Comics’ superhero movie Thor. Wankhede said that Thor matched Chalo Dilli’s weekend occupancy rate of 45 per cent. “People have seen the trailer and are intrigued by the Inception-like theme of the film. Youngsters are flocking to watch the film,” he said.

Commenting on the fate of last week’s releases,Nahta said that the Hindi film industry is not concentrating on marketing small movies,which is turning these films into a losing proposition. “Unless you build perception and market small movies,their collections are not going to be geat. Chalo Dilli,for example,could have done much better if it was promoted more vigorously. The other movies,except Shor In The City,had no face value because their promotion was quite low-key,” he said.

Wankhede,however,said that last week there was an overkill of movies at the box-office. “A family cannot watch more than two or three films in a week. With nine releases last week,all the films have cut into each other’s business.”