Bhool Bhulaiyaa rocks the screens

By: Joginder Tuteja, IndiaFM
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

First week collections of Bhool Bhulaiyaa are out and the film has established it's status as a box office success. While the film is a definite hit, it has to be seen if it achieves the superhit status before Om Shanti Om and Saawariya strike on 9th November.

Film has accumulated huge moolah from all major centers while doing good business across the A, B and C centers of the country. Mumbai has been terrific for this Akshay Kumar starrer with collections crossing the 4.5 crores mark. Even in Delhi, the film has broken the 2.5 crores barrier with NCR further contributing more than 1 crore. Even in Ahmedabad, another major center for Bollywood biggies, the film did very good business by netting more than 1 crore.

With such tremendous collections to boast, this Priyadarshan directed flick has grossed 12 crores as per reported centres, just from the domestic market in it's opening week. Even overseas have great collections to show, hence re-establishing Akshay Kumar's hold at the box office.

While Bhool Bhulaiyaa is strong even as it entered it's second week, what happened to all the competition in the running when the film arrived? As expected, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag suffered most as the collections were reduced to half at most of the centers. Mumbai was relatively better with close to 2.5 crores coming in though Delhi was only average with 1.5 crores as the net figure. While Delhi NCR held on reasonably well with collections reading approx 70 lakhs, Ahmedabad was clearly a lot behind with 42 lakhs.

In nutshell, the film's first total is estimated only to be close to 6 crores as per reported centres. Also, there doesn't seem to be much respite ahead since Bhool Bhulaiyaa has continued to do strong even in it's second week though same cannot be said about Laaga Chunari Mein Daag.

In the battle between Bhool Bhulaiyaa and Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, all the other films in the running suffered in a big way. Such was the combined impact of both the films at the box office that other films completely fell at the box office.

Chak De India, which so far was holding on exceedingly well for last nine weeks, saw a sharp decline in it's collections to fall by more than 70%. In Mumbai, it barely crossed 5 lakhs mark while Delhi read a measly 1.5 lakhs. Whatever hopes that Johnny Gaddaar may have had for survival after terrific word of mouth were shattered as the film was discontinued from most centers. Expectedly the collections fell by more than 80% as the film marched towards the exit doors.

Dil Dosti Etc., after enjoying it's stay in the sun for the first two weeks of it's release, saw an unceremonious exit too as the collections showed more than 80% decline. Dhol was almost finished in it's fourth week with a 90% drop while Dhamaal and Heyy Babyy too didn't create any 'dhamaal', as visible in 80% fall in collections.

Concludes an industry insider and an avid box office follower, "It had been a long wait for audience to see a film that was high quality, boasted of being a family entertainer and came with a universal appeal. Bhool Bhulaiyaa fitted in the bill perfectly fine, especially so with last few films like Go, Choddon Naa Yaar, It's Breaking News and 50 Lakh being hardly the kind that would entice an audience. Each of these were well deserving disasters.

No wonder that audiences lapped up to Bhool Bhulaiyaa the moment it arrived. Hit music and overall good product only helped the prospects further. Now it's just a matter of how far does the film go from here."

He further adds, "Each of Akshay's upcoming films come from established film makers. Firoz Nadiadwala is a master in promoting his films and Welcome would be no different, especially with Anees Bazmee at the helm of direction and cast reading an impressive Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Katrina Kaif and Mallika Sherawat. In addition, it belongs to comedy genre where Akshay has no competition today. Same holds good for Singh Is Kinng which again has him pairing up with Anees. Tashan would be special too due to Yash Raj factor. Akshay is on a roll and these films should only consolidate his superstar status further."