MUMBAI: *The Diwali week saw two releases, both from major production houses.
'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' had Karan Johar directing a home production after Bombay Talkies in 2013. Ajay Devgn, on the other hand, directs his second film, Shivaay, after his directorial debut in 2008 with 'U Me Aur Hum.' Starved of footfalls and collections, the exhibition trade held high expectations from both.
Since the period till the Diwali day is considered dull at the box office, both the films rest their best hopes on Monday and Tuesday (in parts) being holidays.
*Ae Dil Hai Mushkil met with highly mixed reports. Though a youth-oriented film, it lacked consistency even as Ranbir Kapoor continued to essay the role of a perpetual loser. While the first half was a time pass, the film dipped post interval.
With an average opening response, with no good word of mouth, the film went on dropping through the weekend to end its opening weekend with figures of Rs 35.25 crore. However, the film emerged with its best figures on Monday, a holiday and added about Rs 16 crore for day four.
*Shivaay had an indifferent opening response as, somehow, the film could not generate enough curiosity and, hence, draw the audience expected for its opening shows or over its day one. The film failed to generate positive word of mouth and the collections only dipped over next two days making it a very poor opening weekend performance for high budget film.
With the first weekend of Rs 27.8 crore, however, the film derived some benefit from the Monday holiday adding another over 15 crore. Following reports of the film’s length/duration of 172 minutes affecting the collections, Ajay Devgn has carried out deletion of 10 minutes of running time from the film
*31st October (tax exempt in Punjab), My Father Iqbal, Ek Tera Saath had a disastrous outcome as they could not collect beyond a few lakh during their first week.
*Beiiman Love, a Sunny Leone film, collected Rs 5 lakh in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 1.95 crore.
*Saat Uchakkey collected Rs 35 lakh in its second week to take its two-week tally to Rs 1.95 crore.
*Motu Patlu: King Of Kings (3-D: animation) sustained reasonably well during the dull pre-Diwali period to add Rs 1.25 crore in its second week taking its two week total to Rs 4.15 crore.
