Trade Espresso: At braking point

Although Vikram Bhatt's Speed was the solo release, its tyres had no hawa. The much-delayed project is Bhatt's 10th back-to-back flop, writes Vajir Singh.

Although Vikram Bhatt's Speed was the solo release, its tyres had no hawa. Not surprisingly, its collections were just 20 to 30 per cent. The much-delayed project, a rehash of the Hollywood film Cellular, is Bhatt's 10th back-to-back flop.

BhoolBhulaiyaa encashed on the lukewarm response to Speed. Priyadarshan's comedy thriller managed decent ticket sales in its first week. But there was a drop once the initial curiosity abated. Yet the film garnered more than satisfactory collections in its second weekend.

HT Image

Yash Raj banner's Laaga Chunari Mein Daag was no-go even after Rani Mukherji came out of hiding and gave interviews. Rumours of her alleged marriage to producer Aditya Chopra, too, didn't boost the low collections. The project is expected to entail losses. At most, it is doing good business overseas.

Inquisitiveness
Tradewallas are now eager to know the results of upcoming movies – Anurag Kashyap's No Smoking and Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met. Ali's film is in the news but more because of the Kareena Kapoor-Shahid Kapur break-up. Oh well.

This week will also see another Vikram Bhatt movie -- Mumbai Salsa – but in the capacity of producer.

Some amount of interest will be generated next week by A Mighty Heart, the Angelina Jolie movie which was partly shot in Mumbai and stars Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan in a key role. The reviews in the foreign press have been mixed.