Four films released this Friday - Helicopter Eela, FryDay, Tumbbad and Jalebi. Though none was expected to take a bumper opening, at least decent numbers were on the cards for at least a couple of films. The collections turned out to be pretty low for all new films, though Helicopter Eela was relatively better.
Directed by Pradeep Sarkar, the film didn’t really take any sort of a start though and as is the case with films belonging to this genre, footfalls did increase in the evening and night shows at major multiplexes. The film collected around Rs. 60 lakhs on Day 1 though numbers closer to the Rs. 3 crore mark would have made the situation much more comfortable.
FryDay was the comedy release of the week and actually had fair footfalls in certain single screens. It also got decent to good reviews coming its way and has actually turned out to be the underdog film of the week. Govinda is in vintage form which has been appreciated well and his jodi with Varun Sharma has been liked too. However the start was not really, really there since the awareness was very low. That said, with Rs. 30 lakhs coming in, the makers can hope for some sort of a turnaround.
Tumbbad too would be looking at its collections growing manifold during rest of the weekend for the sheer reason that it has got the best reviews of the weekend. The film has been unanimously appreciated by the critics and those select few amongst the aam junta who have watched it have given it a thumbs up too. The numbers are expected low with just around Rs. 65 lakhs coming in.
As for Jalebi, it has scored a (poor) record of sorts for the Bhatts, what with the film turning out to be one of their lowest openers ever. There was no buzz or hype around the film and the title wasn’t enticing either. No one really bothered to even check out what the film was all about, leave aside stepping in theatres, and that reflected in the abysmally low numbers which were just around Rs. 50 lakhs more.
One just hoped that there is some turnaround of sorts for at least a couple of films as that would give something to cheer about for the industry which has been largely seeing good times at the Box Office this year.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
