'Blue', 'All The Best' rule the roost on Diwali weekend

Oct 20, 2009 IANS

New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) The much-awaited and much-hyped movies "Blue" and "All The Best" that released Friday on Diwali eve have set the cash registers ringing while co-release "Main Aurr Mrs.Khanna" has proven to be a damp squib. The contents of all three films has, however, been panned in general by both audiences and critics.

"The content for all the three movies is not worth it. It's just because of the buzz that the three got a good initial with 'Blue' going strong at 80 percent followed by 'All The Best' and 'Main Aurr Mrs.Khanna' at 50 and 30 perecent respectively," Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas at Noida, told IANS.

"The housefulls though have been only for 'Blue'. The films will now see a major fall, as the advance booking is already over and it is only the current sale now," he added.

Yogesh Raizada, corporate head, Wave Cinemas, echoed the same, saying: "All three movies have seen an initial close to 95 percent. While 'Blue' is on top because of the stunts and glamour, 'All The Best' brought audiences for its comedy quotient. 'Main Aurr...' is just a simple love story. The hype is now almost over and audiences are not going to watch more than one movie a week."

Directorial debut of Anthony D'Souza, "Blue" was extensively promoted as the country's first underwater film and the most expensive too with an approximate budget of around Rs.80 crore. The film has managed to bag around Rs.51 crore gross in its opening weekend.

Produced by Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision Ltd, it stars Askhay Kumar, Sanjay Dutt, Lara Dutta and Zayed Khan. Katrina Kaif along with Australian pop princess Kylie Minogue appear in a cameo in the film.

"All The Best", on the other hand, is a comedy directed by Rohit Shetty and stars Ajay Devgn, Bipasha Basu, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, and Mugdha Godse. Made at a budget of around Rs.40 crore, the film is produced by Ajay and released with around 1250 prints worldwide. It has brought in close to Rs.10 crore net.

"Main Aurr Mrs.Khanna" is a co-production of Sohail Khan Productions and Ronnie Screwvala and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. Made at a budget of around Rs.40 crore, it released with around 1,200 prints worldwide but could make only Rs.4 crore net.

Helmed by debutant director Prem Soni, the romantic drama stars Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor in the lead with Sohail in a pivotal role.

PVR Cinemas that also distributed "Blue" in North India is still keeping fingers crossed for the movie.

"The reactions for all three have been very encouraging but the crowd for 'Blue' was terrific. People came in hordes for the movie and we are hoping it to still go strong," said a source from the multiplex chain.

An insider from Movietime cinemas, Pitampura, added: "All our shows are going jam packed for 'Blue' even today. 'All The Best' is also going strong but 'Main Aurr...' is not going down too well with senior citizens and middle aged group."

The three movies still have an extra week, as the following week is low on buzz with films like "Bal Ganesh 2" and "Fruit & Nut" before the succeeding week rolls out another of the two much-awaited projects "Aladin" and "London Dreams" Oct 30.

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