Abid, Bollywood Trade News Network

This Friday will see the release of Anubhav Sinha's CASH. The 20-21 crore movie, featuring the likes of Ajay Devgan, Zayed Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Esha Deol, Shamita Shetty and Diya Mirza, is expected to have a good start at the ticket window, more so in the big cities. The reasonably popular music, specially the title track and the brilliantly picturised action sequences, are expected to further boost the prospects of the movie.

The expected and predictable bumper initial of David Dhawan's Salman, Govinda, Lara and Katrina starrer, PARTNER, both in India and Overseas, has spread joy in the film fraternity. The movie embarked on an extraordinary opening in Bombay and by and large the opening was bumper almost everywhere. Even in the Overseas, PARTNER has performed wonderfully, grossing $584,245 in the US and $584,245 in UK, during the first weekend. PARTNER has commenced the second half of 2007 on a bright note and let us hope that for the sake of the Hindi film industry, this good luck rubs off on the forthcoming releases also.

Let us now talk about the first week performance of the Abbas-Mustan directed, Bobby, Akshaye and Urvashi starrer, NAQAAB. The film managed to get decent collections at a few places, but has not found much appreciation beyond a few Metros. Looking at the numbers, NAQAAB collected 2.17 crores from Bombay, 62 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 7.40 lakhs from Rajkot, 4.40 lakhs from Jamnagar, 3.70 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 2 lakhs from Gandhidham, 1 lakh from Adipur, 2.36 lakhs from Solapur, 4.45 lakhs from Nasik, 1 crore from Delhi city, 16 lakhs from Gurgaon, 9 lakhs from Faridabad, 12.60 lakhs from Noida, 8.75 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.90 lakhs from Kanpur, 17.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 2.66 lakhs from Agra, 4.10 lakhs from Varanasi, 1.56 lakhs from Guwahati, 9.50 lakhs from Nagpur, 1 lakh from Jabalpur, 1.65 lakhs from Amravati, 1.20 lakhs from Akola, 1.70 lakhs from Raipur, 1.35 lakhs each from Bhilai and Jalgaon, 1.20 lakhs from Durg, 1.40 lakhs from Bilaspur, 10 lakhs from Indore, 1 lakh from Sehore, 2.35 lakhs from Bhopal, 28 lakhs from Jaipur, 45 lakhs from Calcutta, 41 lakhs from Hyderabad and 2.85 lakhs from Aurangabad. In its first week NAQAAB collects a total of around 12 crores from India, which is a very ordinary effort. Given the cost incurred by the distributors in releasing NAQAAB, the only circuit where there is some hope of a recovery is Bombay. The movie has already been rejected in UK, having collected $294,978 so far.

JOURNEY BOMBAY TO GOA, managed to hold on decently and collected nearly 60 lakhs in its second week. The all-India total now stands at around 3 crores and given the costs involved, the movie is now a below average fare.

MY FRIEND GANESHA failed to improve its status. The animated movie added another 35 lakhs during the week, taking the all-India total past the 1 crore mark. However, MY FRIEND GANESHA remains a box-office failure.

Coming to AAP KAA SURROOR, the Himesh starrer is on its way out from the theaters. Checking out the latest collections, the movie obtained 12 lakhs from Bombay, 4.50 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1 lakh from Rajkot, 1.30 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1 lakh from Solapur, 4 lakhs from Delhi city, 1 lakh from Kanpur, 3.70 lakhs from Lucknow, 1.20 lakhs from Agra, 2 lakhs from Varanasi, 2.10 lakhs from Nagpur, 3.65 lakhs from Jaipur, 1.65 lakhs from Ajmer and 10 lakhs from Hyderabad. AAP KAA SURROOR added another 1.50 crores during the week and the three week all-India total now stands at around 18.25 crores. The Himesh starrer has consolidated its position and given the costs, it now a good hit in India. AAP KAA SURROOR has also performed decently in the Overseas, specially in UK and Mauritius.

Checking out APNE, the movie is quite stable in many parts of India, though Bombay has finally seen a sharp fall. Still, given the fact that it released with two other highly anticipated movies and with new films releasing around it, APNE has another impressive week to show. Checking out the reported numbers, the movie collected 27 lakhs from Bombay, 17.30 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.84 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 2.18 lakhs from Jamnagar, 1.16 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 40.45 lakhs from Delhi, 6.57 lakhs from Gurgaon, 4.92 lakhs from Faridabad, 4.30 lakhs from Noida, 3.72 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 2.80 lakhs from Kanpur, 5.58 lakhs from Lucknow, 2.60 lakhs from Agra, 1.84 lakhs from Varanasi, 1.89 lakhs from Meerut, 2 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.28 lakhs from Raipur, 8.73 lakhs from Jaipur and 6.20 lakhs from Hyderabad. The third week yields another 4 crores, taking the all-India total to nearly 25 crores. APNE is now a semi-hit in India and a good hit in the North and Rajasthan. APNE has already been declared a hit in UK where it has already collected $1,134,006.

Let us now move on to the most ambitious project from the Bhatts' camp in recent years. Yes, we are talking about AWARAPAN, which ironically is also the biggest disappointment for them in recent times! Coming to the collections, AWARAPAN collected 9.3 lakhs from Bombay, 2.68 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 6 lakhs from Delhi, 1.15 lakhs from Kanpur, 1.93 lakhs from Lucknow and 5.71 lakhs from Hyderabad. In the third week, the Emraan starrer managed to get another 75 lakhs and as a result the all-India total now adds up to 8.25 crores. However, the current week earning means nothing as AWARAPAN has already been declared a flop and that is irreversible, both in India and Overseas.