Komal Nahta on Himmatwala

Box Office Update of Himmatwala from leading trade analyst Komal Nahta’s Film Information.

If the initial of Himmatwala last week sent shock waves in the industry, the opening of Chashme Baddoor this week has brought solace in the industry. Chashme Baddoor took a fair start in spite of no ‘A’-level stars in it. However, collections either dropped or failed to up dramatically in the evening and night show in several circuits. All the same, it collected a decent figure by the end of the first day.

Himmatwala faced total rejection from the classes and the youngsters while being just about liked by the masses and front-benchers. Bihar is the only circuit in which the action comedy performed well. In spite of the Good Friday holiday on its first day, the remake of the super-hit Himmatwala of the 1980s managed to net Rs 10.5 crore only. As if that was not shocking enough, collections dropped by almost 30% on the second day so that the all-India total was just Rs 7.5 crore. Even the normal jumps in collections one notices on Sundays in the cast of star-cast and big-canvas films was missing for Himmatwala. Sajid Khan’s labour of love netted only Rs 8.5 crore on the third day, taking it’s weekend total to Rs 26.5 crore.

The fall in collections on and from Monday was huge because of which the film could add only Rs 11.5 crore to its kitty in the remaining four days of the first week. The first week’s total of Rs 38 crore was way below the mark as the trade had expected the film to net atleast Rs 60 crore in the first week. The film, which cost UTV Motion Pictures around Rs 75 crore, will entail a loss of Rs 20-25 crore to the corporate house. In the coming weeks, it is not expected to add more than Rs 12-15 crore to its all-India total of Rs 38 crore. In other words, its total net collections would not be more than Rs 50-53 crore

Komal Nahta