It was pretty much a sense of deja vu that one felt at the box office last week, what with Kai Po Che! turning out to be yet another sweet success for the makers UTV after ABCD – Any Body Can Dance which is still running in theatres. Both films had almost identical budgets though one must admit that KPC was a much more aggressively marketed and promoted film. The results were positive this time around as well and this was evident in consistent collections that this Abhishek Kapoor film enjoyed over the weekdays. Result? Over 29 crores came in for this star-less affair with expectations of more being added to the eventual total.
Still from Kai Po Che! Movie
In the process the film has also surpassed the lifetime collections of Abhishek’s own Rock On (27 crores). All eyes are on how much more does this Rajkumar-Amit-Sushant film gather from this point on. While it is a given that 42-43 crores are pretty much in the pipeline, anything more than 45 crores would be a good enough win. It could well have managed to gain 50 crores but continuous competition week after week means that such a benchmark would indeed be a challenge. Still, all said and done, audience, industry as well as trade has reasons to rejoice as the film has added further green to the Bollywood report card.
Still from Zila Ghaziabad Movie
There was some moolah taken off from the Bollywood coffers as well, what with Zila Ghaziabad not really turning out to be a big earner. However it also has to be mentioned that it isn’t the kind of disaster that has been made out of it. As a matter of fact, the film has done well at single screen theatres in target cities up North which means there was regular inflow of moolah from certain territories right through the week. As a result, this Anand Kumar starrer did manage to bring home over 16 crores at the box office.
Not that this total would wipe away the fact that there are losses that have been incurred as well. However given the kind of circumstances in which it was released, negativity surrounding it for the reasons that were not related to the content and some strong competition from Kai Po Che! as well as releases from the past (Special Chabbis (26), ABCD), it has managed to save some face at least. Its lifetime collections should cross the 20 crores mark which is better than other much hyped action film Chakravyuh.
