MOVIE DUNIYA

Nov 24, 2008

Bollywood Movie ' Yuvvraaj ' at box office


Dismal opening for Yuvvraaj at box office

MUKTA Arts, Bollywood's first company to list its shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange, has shelled out another film that hasn't performed well at the box-office. The much-awaited Salman Khan-starrer Yuvvraaj, which is directed by Subhash Ghai, has seen a dismal opening at the box office. The films garnered advance bookings of 35% in major multiplexes despite no major competition from other films.

This puts Yuvvraaj in the league of big-budget flops with the film's budget being in the range of Rs 45 - 50 crore. The world-wide distribution rights for the film were sold by Mukta Arts to Eros International for over Rs 60 crore. Being a big-budget film, it saw a wide-release with about 1,000 prints.

"There were a lot of expectations from this film but it hasn't lived-up to them at all. The usual weekend audience has come to watch the film but it hasn't pulled any extra audiences to the theatres. Even though the film has big stars and was marketed well, it hasn't struck a chord with the audiences," said Inox Cinemas vice-president (distribution and programming) Utpal Acharya.
In contrast, last week's release Dostana, for which lesser number of prints were released, saw an impressive opening at the box office. The film is still doing well at the box-office and multiplex owners are expecting the film to have another good weekend.

According to multiplex owners, the poor performance of the film at the box-office is due to its subject. "Family dramas are for a selective audience and one reason for the low response is because the film doesn't appeal to the youth," said Cinemax vice-president (distribution and programming) Devang Sampat.

The bad response to Yuvvraaj also marks almost a decade of films that haven't performed at the boxoffice for the Showman. Ghai's earlier films have also bombed at the box-office with the recent one being Black & White which released in March this year. Kisna (2005) and Yaadein (2001) also flopped at the box-office. This means Subhash Ghai's last successful film was Taal which released in 1999.
Ghai has had back-to-to flops since for a while now. Right from Yaadein all his films have done badly and even Salman's films haven't performed at the box-office after Partner. But yet, there were expectations from the film due to other factors such as Rahman's music and the cast," said Mr Acharya.

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