Kurbaan could be Karan Johar's first FLOP - Page 6

Audiences are just unpredictable! They say they want good films but when they do get them they complain that it's not their cup of tea. And I don't expect a movie to be everyone's cup of tea, but still! It's weird!

Kareena Kapoor, the sizzling hot babe of bollywood who featured in a hot love making scene with Saif in just released Karan Johar's flick 'Kurbaan', failed to attract viewers at the box office and ended at making collections worth 40 percent on the weekend.



The trade analysts are disappointed at the poor opening response to Karan Johar's flick which ranged from a meager thirty percent on Friday at Fun chain of cinemas to around forty percent at Cinemax chain from across the country. Even, Saturday was not better and could enhance only up to five percentage point at these big chain of multiplexes.



The industry watchers are especially surprised at the response of multiplexes as Karan Johar's flicks have traditionally been patronized at these places in big metros. The movie was produced by Karan Johar's Dharma Productions and directed by Resnsil D' Silva of 'Rang De Basanti' fame.

The dismal performance of 'Kurbaan' has been more shocking for the bollywood as the flick featured the hottest couple of tinsel town –Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Their on screen love- making sequences had already become a rage with the junta and so this abysmally low response at the box office in the first weekend has shocked the industry.

However, there is another school of thought who claims to have foreseen the failure of 'Kurbaan' at the box office. The advocates of this view say that 'Kurbaan' lacked all masala elements, which attract the audiences towards theatres, and till now have so closely been associated with a Karan Johar's flick.

They point out that on the contrary, 'Kurbaan' was a very serious film made on a very serious topic. The audiences, who primarily go to theatres to get entertained, especially at single screen theatres and small towns, preferred to stay away from the flick and that resulted in its dismal performance.

The bombing of 'Kurbaan' also proves that only big publicity of a film is no guarantee at the box office and it must entertain the audiences. The makers of 'Kurbaan' had bombarded the audience with its trivia etc but nothing seems to have worked in its favor as it lacked the ingredient to entertain like 'Wake Up Sid' and 'Ajab Prem Ki Ghajab Kahani' had done and succeeded at the box office.

Another theory blames the bombing of 'Kurbaan' at the box office to 'Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor' jodi. They point out that (for some superstitious reasons, of couse) this jodi may be hit in personal life, but never on celluloid (remember the fate of Yashraj Films' 'Tashan').

Whatever, but the bombing of 'Kurbaan' at the box office must have forced Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor to reconsider their pairing in Saif Ali's upcoming home production 'Agent Vinod,' for which Saif has been trying to build a six pack to enact the role realistically.

As the sizzling chemistry between lead pair Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor failed to send the cash boxes ringing and Kurbaan collections nosedived, it was the same old story playing out. The latest from Karan Johar's Dharma Productions had a poor 40-50 % opening this weekend, say analysts.

"Kurbaan managed a modest 30% opening on Friday across all our properties," informs Vishal Kapur, COO of Fun Cinemas. On Saturday, says Kapur, the film garnered only an additional 5%. In Cinemax theatres across India, the film opened to a slightly better 45% on Friday, but didn't go up by a great margin on Saturday.

2009 has already been a woeful year for producers. Barring a couple of stray successes, it has been a bloodbath at the box office. Almost 90% of financiers have lost money.

Experts attribute this to threereasons. First, the second quarter saw no movies releasing due to the stand-off between the producers and multiplex owners. This meant no box office revenue was generated for around three months.

Second, the ripple effect of the strike saw people borrow more money at higher bank interest rates.The rate is as high as 14-15% for public banks and 18-24% for private financiers compared to 3% in Hollywood. And there is no relaxation allowed for interest payment if movies don't release on time.

Finally, pricing of movies took a beating with recession setting in as producers had sold their products at overwhelming rates with stars too charging astronomical amounts. Such movies did not give the same returns, forget profits. Like rights for London Dreams, Blue and others were apparently sold Rs120 crore and more. But trade analysts say such movies, especially London Dreams, tanked at the box office leaving a hole in the pockets of the makers.

After All the Best (starring Ajay Devgn and Bipasha Basu) and Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif) became hits and others like Wake Up Sid and Kaminey did relatively well, analysts felt things were on the upswing. They were banking on the last two months of the year to see a cut in losses. But with Kurbaan not living up to the hype, the hopes of the industry have taken a hit.

Now a lot rests on four back-to-back big star cast movies -- De Dana Dan (Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in the lead), Paa (with Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan in a unique father-son role), Rocket Singh Salesman (starring Ranbir Kapoor) and the Christmas release, Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots.

"Kurbaan not doing well is a body blow. The losses are set to rise for sure. Box office collections account for around 50% of revenue. The industry is bleeding with hardly any hits and the losses are way over the Rs300 crore mark,'' said veteran trade analyst Taran Adarsh.

He added: "In 2007, Taare Zameen Par and Welcome; and in 2008, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Ghajini managed to cut losses. This year needs the next four films to be blockbusters to revive the box office."

- With inputs from Annirudha Guha

http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_biggies-flop-bollywood-bleeds_1315210

With the frenetic buzz and hype surrounding the movie along with the hip and happening 'Saifeena' appearing in every other television channel and also literally undertaking a 'Bharat Darshan', exhorting fans to go watch their latest big screen offering, a big box office opening for 'Kurbaan' was a given.

However, if the commercial harvest from the movie so far is any evidence, it appears as though the popular off screen pair's chemistry is yet to ring with the audience. Even fulsome praises from the critics seem to have failed to set the cash registers ringing.

The trade pundits have conceded that post release, the collections from the latest Saifeena flick, have been mediocre at best and with the word of mouth buzz surrounding the movie slowly petering out, the footfalls at the theatres are only expected to slacken further in the coming days and weeks.

With enticing promos, snappy trailers and a 'riot' of a theme number to boot, the movie at least on the face of it, had all the spices which go towards making your next big time Bollywood spread. So what could have gone wrong? What failed to draw the audience to the theatres?
However, all's not lost yet as the movie has still to travel some distance in its box office run and with no big releases on the anvil, the experts are hoping for a leg up in the collections in the subsequent weeks.

Well, for 'Saifeena's' sake we hope so too!

http://www.entertainmentandshowbiz.com/kareena-and-saif-%E2%80%98kurbaan%E2%80%99s-bo-harvest-a-shocker-2009112323513