Abid, Bollywood Trade News Network

Both the releases of last Friday, HALLA BOL and MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES have taken dull openings. The weak start of especially Rajkumar Santoshi's Pankaj Kapur, Ajay Devgan and Vidya Balan starrer, HALLA BOL, has come as a shock to the trade, which had expected the film to open to far better houses. The movie has been sold at price that is quite high for an Ajay Devgan project and that compounds the matter further. In the UK, HALLA BOL fails to impress with a $71,162, during the first weekend. The other release, Sahara One Motion Pictures' E. Niwas directed MY NAME IS ANTHONY GONSALVES, is likely to have a poor fate at the box-office.

While SHOWBIZ is breathing its last, it gets the dubious distinction of being one of the biggest disasters from the Bhatt camp, its release partner, RETURN OF HANUMAN continues with weak collections and crashes further. The animated venture by Anurag Kashyap manages to collect 8.60 lakhs from Bombay, 1.80 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 4 lakhs from Delhi city, 1 lakh from Lucknow and 1.30 lakhs from Gurgaon. With another 35 lakhs in its second week, RETURN OF HANUMAN has netted around 1.70 crores in two weeks from India. Needless to add that the well made animated flick is a failure.

Meanwhile Aamir Khan's TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is still very strong in multiplexes of big cities. The film collects 1.37 crores from Bombay, 35 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 4 lakhs from Rajkot, 2.30 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.85 lakhs (gross) from Bhavnagar 1.20 lakhs from Solapur, 5.60 lakhs from Nasik, 1.40 crores from Delhi city, 15.50 lakhs from Noida, 14 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 13.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.75 lakhs from Agra, 2.60 lakhs from Meerut, 1.70 lakhs from Bareilly, 2 lakhs from Aligarh, 17.40 lakhs from Gurgaon, 7.10 lakhs from Faridabad, 1.05 lakhs from Panipat, 15.10 lakhs from Nagpur, 1 lakh from Jabalpur, 1.35 lakhs from Amravati, 1 lakh each from Akola and Chandrapur, 5 lakhs from Raipur, 1.10 lakhs from Bhilai, 10 lakhs Indore, 4.50 lakhs from Bhopal, 8.75 lakhs from Jaipur, 52.40 lakhs from Calcutta, 2.20 lakhs from Aurangabad and 33.75 lakhs from Hyderabad. During the week, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR added another 9 crores and has so far netted an impressive 39 crores in three weeks from India. The Darsheel, Aamir and Tisca starrer is now a super hit in India, based on its distribution price (inclusive of the cost of print and publicity). TAARE ZAMMEN PAR has done very well in the US, grossing $ 1,164,453 but has underperformed in the UK with a gross of only $563,332. But given the overall collections in the overseas circuit, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is a hit there.

Coming to Anees Bazmee's WELCOME, the movie takes a big fall, specially in Bombay city, but still managed substantial collections. Checking out the numbers, WELCOME collected 1.55 crores from Bombay, 45.20 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.50 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 9.15 lakhs from Rajkot, 4.10 lakhs from Jamnagar, 2.75 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 1.10 lakhs from Porbandar, 1.80 lakhs from Gandhidham, 2.60 lakhs from Solapur, 4.10 lakhs from Nasik, 90 lakhs from Delhi city, 11 lakhs from Noida, 13.35 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 15.40 lakhs from Lucknow, 2.55 lakhs from Agra, 4.80 lakhs from Meerut, 1.05 lakhs from Moradabad, 1.55 lakhs from Bareilly, 1.70 lakhs from Aligarh, 13.40 lakhs from Gurgaon, 7.50 lakhs from Faridabad, 1.10 lakhs from Panipat, 11.10 lakhs from Nagpur, 2 lakhs from Jabalpur, 2.80 lakhs from Amravati, 2 lakhs from Akola, 2.80 lakhs from Amravati, 6 lakhs from Raipur, 1.80 lakhs from Bhilai, 1.50 lakhs from Chandrapur, 8 lakhs from Indore, 1.50 lakhs from Bikaner, 20 lakhs from Jaipur, 24.25 lakhs from Calcutta, 3.10 lakhs from Aurangabad and 22 lakhs from Hyderabad. With another 9.25 crores during its latest run, WELCOME has netted an astonishing 64.25 crores in just three weeks from India. Firoz Nadiadwala's Feroze, Anil, Nana, Akshay and Katrina starrer has moved past the super hit status in India, given its distribution price (including cost of print and publicity). In the Overseas, WELCOME has already been declared a super hit, grossing $1,732,976 in the UK and over $ 1 million (as per Studio 18) though the US numbers are still to be audited / validated.

Finally, let us checkout Farah Khan's OM SHANTI OM, which added another 18 lakhs, mainly due to 2.50 lakhs from Delhi city, 3 lakhs from Hyderabad less than a lakh from places like Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Agra, etc. The Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Shreyas Talpade and Deepika Padukone starrer, an all time blockbuster, now stands tall, netting approximately 86 crores in nine weeks from India. OM SHANTI OM is already an overseas blockbuster, grossing Indian Rs. 36 crores from there.