Trade Espresso: On the down curve

Both the films - Hari Puttar and Rafoo Chakkar were promoted as comedies. But the result? Tears for everyone involved. Both of them opened to dismal collections, writes Vajir Singh.

Since it’s the last week of the holy Ramzan month, producers of biggies kept their films back, waiting to take advantage of the festive season.

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So, it was a week of small fries — Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors directed by Lucky Kohli-Rajesh Bajaj and B H Tharun Kumar’s Rafoo Chakkar: Fun on the Run.

Comedy or tragedy
Both the films were promoted as comedies. But the result? Tears for everyone involved. Both of them opened to dismal collections.

The gloomy openings didn’t come as a surprise but no one expected the films to open to neart empty houses. They aren’t expected to run beyond a week and that’s being optimistic.

Meanwhile, the response to Welcome to Sajjanpur has been surprisingly upbeat. His comedy has been accepted, especially with a positive word-of-mouth buzz. It didn’t open too well. As it happened, the ticket sales picked up slowly but surely over the first week.

Never mind
A section of the trade criticised it for its north-Indian lingo. Yet its first week run was auspicious in multiplexes as well as the singleplexes. An earning proposal for sure.