CINEMAS BRACE FOR A POOR WEEK BEFORE THE BIG FESTIVE RELEASES
Last week, An Action Hero was released in cinemas. It starred Ayushmann Khurrana and despite great response, the collections were quite low. There was hope that it’ll have a strong Monday but that didn’t happen. This Friday will see the release of multiple films and their collections are expected to be worse. My analysis:
SALAAM VENKY: It stars Kajol and Mardaani 2 actor Vishal Jethwa and is a story of a mother and her terminally ill son. It is directed by Revathy and also stars some interesting names in supporting roles like Rahul Bose, Prakash Raj, Priya Mani and Rajeev Khandelwal. In fact, Aamir Khan also features in a cameo. Despite the presence of such actors and Kajol in the lead, the excitement is minimal due to the subject and trailer.
MAARRICH: It stars Tusshar Kapoor in a leading role and he’s also one of the producers. The film is a murder mystery cum investigative drama. Such films usually find takers but because of the star cast and not-so-exciting trailer, the film is all set for a very bad opening.
VADH: It stars Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav and though it rests on an interesting concept, there’s near-zero awareness around it.
LIFE IS GOOD: Directed by Ananth Mahadevan, it stars Jackie Shroff. Due to the subject and very limited promotions, its chances to succeed at the box office are not there.
KHATRA DANGEROUS: It is directed by Ram Gopal Varma and is a lesbian love story. Due to the steamy scenes, it may find acceptance in B and C Centres.
VIJAYANAND: It’s a Kannada film which has been dubbed in Hindi. It is the biopic of Dr Vijay Sankeshwar, the owner of the largest fleet of commercial vehicles in the country. However, the Hindi belt is not aware of this gentleman and hence, collections will be negligible.
Fortunately, collections will improve from next week thanks to the release of Avatar: The Way Of Water on December 16 followed by Cirkus on December 23.