Ishkq In Paris fails miserably at the box office

The past weekend proved lacklustre for the Hindi film industry. While most big banner films shied away from a release during the final weekend of the IPL season, the sixth edition of the Fast & Furious franchise revved up and made the most of the vacuum. In fact, it not only left behind other Hollywood releases but also Bollywood films by a huge margin.

Preity Zinta's Ishkq in Paris failed miserably. Jyotin Goel's Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke faced a similar fate as well. On the other hand, films from the past weeks such as Aurangzeb, Go Goa Gone and Shootout At Wadala are gradually fizzling out -- if not completely.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says, Ishkq In Paris collected approximately Rs 1.25 crore to Rs 1.35 crore in its opening weekend while Aurangzeb's second weekend collection reached Rs 2.55 crore dragging its grand total to Rs 22.24 crore. Fast & Furious 6 raked in Rs 21.55 crore across 1200 screens in the country."

However, not every single Hollywood release made hay under the Indian sun. Baz Luhrmann's extravagant The Great Gatsby, with a budget of $125 million, could not meet up to the expectations while Mira Nair's The Reluctant Fundamentalist had few screens to begin with.

According to Box Office India, Ishkq in Paris had a net collection of Rs 1.06 crore whereas The Reluctant Fundamentalist's first week hovered around Rs 1.15 crore. Fast & Furious 6 made Rs 21.5 crore in its first weekend itself.

As far as the action film is concerned, the numbers speak for themselves. "It's amongst the best figures for a Hollywood film that have ever released in India. According to my estimate, it made around Rs 21.5 crore over the past weekend. If it weren't for the IPL final on Sunday, I'm sure it would have been a crore to Rs 1.5 crore higher! Unfortunately, none of the Hindi releases of the week came close to what it managed," adds film exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi.

Speaking of Bollywood releases, Ishkq in Paris had a limited release while other films from the Hindi bunch slowed down. Akshaye points out, "It released primarily at the multiplexes and not in single screens. Besides, the micro limited showcasing (with an average of two-three shows) at the multiplexes automatically put a ceiling on the kind of numbers it could have achieved even if it were to be lapped up by the audience."

Distributor Rajesh Thadani adds, Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke couldn't even make one crore as the amount reads Rs 75 lakh as of now."

Now all eyeballs are on the upcoming Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and Manoj N Shyamalan's After Earth that release next Friday.