Trade Espresso: Up and down

After 10 downers in a row — Footpath, Inteha, Aetbaar, Elaan, Jurm, Deewane Huye Paagal, Ankahee, Red, Life Mein Kabhi Kabhi and Speed — here’s sufficient reason for director Vikram Bhatt to do a Mona Lisa.

After 10 downers in a row —

HT Image

Footpath, Inteha, Aetbaar, Elaan, Jurm, Deewane Huye Paagal, Ankahee, Red, Life Mein Kabhi Kabhi

and

Speed

— here’s sufficient reason for director Vikram Bhatt to do a Mona Lisa.

Smile some..

He can smile a bit because his horror movie

1920

— preceded by strong publicity and marketing — did arouse curiosity in a product featuring newcomers. The collections have been picking up in almost every part of the country. Tradewallas believes that the success of Bhatt’s

Raaz

also helped the film to get an encouraging opening.

Initially, the collections at the multiplexes ranged between 50 and 60 per cent. The scenario was almost the same at the singleplexes. The film is attracting sizeable audiences even in small cities. It’s believed that the film will be an average earner. Rituparno Ghosh’s

The Last Lear

was in the news because of Jaya Bachchan’s faux pas remark. However, the controversy didn’t help the film. The opening was far below the satisfactory mark. The collections ranged between 20 and 30 per cent at the multiplexes. The scenario was dismal at the singleplexes.

Arjun Bali’s

Ru-ba-Ru

started off on mere 15 per cent collections.

Word of mouth

A couple of weeks ago Nishikant Kamat’s

Mumbai Meri Jaan

benefited by positive reviews and word-of-mouth buzz. Last week it was Neeraj Pandey’s

A Wednesday

which registered an upper curve in the ticket sales. Some more shows were added for the film at the multiplexes. The second week collections have been satisfactory. Kunal Shivdasani’s Hijack and Santosh Sivan’s

Tahaan

have not made an impact at the ticket counters. But

Tahaan

is expected to make big waves, globally, on the film festival circuit.