Box office collections of ‘Barfi!‘ pretty much followed the script, as was predicted in this column last week, what with the numbers showing an escalation as the weekend progressed, courtesy very good word of mouth. The film was expected to open with 60%-70% collections at an all-India level with multiplexes registering much higher numbers. This is exactly how this Anurag Basu film scored in theatres, what with a good first day (9.2 crores) followed by constant rise in footfalls over rest of the weekend. Result? The film had a very good weekend of 34.6 crores (as reported by UTV) with Saturday (11.5 crores) and Sunday in particular (13.9 crores) enabling the film to grow from strength to strength.
These are indeed fantastic collections for a film which was released on a restricted print count and wasn’t really one of those quintessential commercial films in the offering. This also proves once again that even for an offbeat film like this, Ranbir Kapoor has managed to score a good success and if he actually goes on to add a much more mass friendly film in near future, he could well be talking about records here. The collections so far are at par with ‘Rockstar‘ which again had enjoyed a 34 crores weekend. He has enjoyed a star power already and it is about time that he finds an entry into the superstar league.
Meanwhile Anurag Basu has many reasons to smile as he can leave the disappointment of ‘Kites‘ behind. He has made a film in the way he wanted to and the superb collections coupled with the fact that the film is expected to hold on well for rest of the week further goes on to prove that he would be coming entirely on his own from this point on. Priyanka Chopra too can ignore the fact that she faced a faux pas in the form of ‘Teri Meri Kahaani‘ not too long ago while Ileana D’Cruz too has made a worthy debut in Bollywood and is bound to be seen more.
‘Jeena Hai Toh Thok Daal‘, another release of the week, was neither promoted well nor released properly. As expected, a disaster.
