Trade Espresso: No hope, no glory

Though all seemed to augur well for the comeback of Madhuri Dixit with Aaja Nachle, the film opened to poor collections across all theatres.

Not much has been happening since the Diwali week.. but the trade atmosphere may perk up with some of the year-end releases.
Meanwhile, all seemed to augur well for the comeback of Madhuri Dixit with Aaja Nachle, after a five-year hiatus. The promos had not exactly rocked.. and were in fact, being described as tacky.

Low turn-out
Yet tradewallas had expected 60 to 70 per cent opening weekend collections. But at the multiplexes, Aaja.. fetched only 30 to 40 per cent.

At the single-screen cinemas, the collections were as low as 20 to 30 per cent. The controversy over one of its songs didn't help either. Uttar Pradesh has now lifted the ban on the movie but the damage has been done.

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After a break of six years, R Mohan (who produced Chandni Bar) returned with the horror flick Gauri The Unborn. With zero promotion, it had a disastrous opening. There's no hope for improvement in the collections.

Although UTV insists that it has recovered its money on Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal with in-film advertising and other tie-ups, its collections have been below average. It failed to pull in audiences, except in Mumbai where the film did reasonably well at multiplexes in its first week.

Om.. the saviour
Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om, this year's blockbuster hit, continues to do steady business. The numbers have dropped a little, but its fourth-week collections are still better than the openings of most of the new films. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya is on its last leg.