What went wrong with Kurbaan???

Very interesting read. I agree with the bolded points.

Public sab jaanti hai


The most-awaited film this year, Kurbaan has turned out to be a turkey. We speak to trade analysts and industry insiders to gauge what went wrong with the film

By Vickey Lalwani
Posted On Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 04:26:10 AM


2009 has been a very bad year for UTV. After three films — What's Your Rashee?, Main Aur Mrs Khanna and Kaminey — failed to set the cash registers ringing, they were heavily banking on Karan Johar's Kurbaan, directed by Rensil D'Silva.



But their hopes of having a hit were dashed with Kurbaan proving to be a turkey at the box-office.UTV had bought the film from Karan for about Rs 50 crore and released it across 1,700 screens.

One could understand if the audience gave it a thumbs down after watching it. However, the shocker is that the film didn't even get a good opening when it released on November 20. Despite being a solo release, it barely managed 35 per cent occupancy on the first day. The box-office collections thereafter have been far from encouraging, flattering reviews from film critics notwithstanding.

Endorsing the fact that the film did not register more than 40 per cent collections in its first three days, trade analyst Amod Mehra says, "Shockingly, the collections on Sunday were even less than that on Friday and Saturday. The film is a big blow to Dharma Productions and UTV. "

Mehra adds, "People are not interested in seeing terrorism any longer. New York did fairly well but that's because it wasn't publicised as a film based on terrorism. It looked like a very youthful film with fun elements by John and Katrina. The entire publicity of Kurbaan was wrong. If the heroine of Kurbaan doesn't want her mother to see her steamy scenes with her boyfriend, how can one go with family members to see such a film?"

Distributor Ramesh Sippy says cautiously, "I don't want to make any assessment. But yes, Kurbaan has not lived up to its expectations."

We also spoke to some of the theatre officials. Manoj Desai (of Maratha Mandir, Gaiety-Galaxy) says, "I registered 80 per cent collections on the first three days whereas it did not go beyond 40 per cent in other theatres. However, the collections have nosedived since yesterday. Koi picture dekhne ke liye tayyar hi nahin hai. The overall feeling is that it's a very serious and cruel film."

An official from Cinemax, Andheri, says, "We had expected that this film would rake in around 85-90 per cent collections. But from day one, we knew that it wouldn't be a hit. First day, we registered only 40-45 per cent collections. People have not related to the film, it has no repeat value. On Saturday and Sunday, we recorded only 50 per cent ticket sales."

Vikram Varma, Fun Republic, communications manager, says, "We recorded 35 per cent in the first three days. But today (Monday), we only have 15-20 per cent occupancy. I think that too many films were released in the past few weeks and this has adversely affected Kurbaan."

We then spoke to the public to find out why they haven't gone kurbaan over Kurbaan. 23-year old Eka Lakhani from Lokhandwala says, "I was dying to see Kurbaan as I had heard a lot about it. The film started very well, but soon I realised that there was neither any love story nor any terrorism track. Kareena and Saif got lost in the second half and I had to look for their scenes together. The terrorism part wasn't explained well either."

34-year-old Menka Chandiramani from Seven Bungalows says, "I was quite impressed by Kareena and Vivek's acting but the film hasn't stayed with me. It had nothing new to offer. Moreover, I wonder why there was so much brouhaha about Kareena and Saif's sex scenes. We have seen much more than this in Hindi films."

The director of Kurbaan, Rensil D'Silva, put up a brave front. He says that people are trying to bring down his film. "That happens with every new film. But you know, I am getting a lot of calls and text messages from people whom I don't even know saying that they have enjoyed my film. I am basically a creative guy. The best people to talk about this will be the distributors of Kurbaan (UTV)." However, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, CEO of UTV remained unavailable for comment.

Karan's first film with UTV, Wake Up Sid raked in average returns but failed to be a profit-making proposition. And the audience's thanda response to Kurbaan has only made things worse for Dharma and UTV.


http://www.mumbaimirror.com/article/30/20091124200911240426105465d934826/Public-sab-jaanti-hai.html

That's good you two. You still have AV, which is a much more commercial movie.
I'm still proud of kurbaan.

But I agree with all those highlighted points. Dharma had this coming wtih the way they promoted a perfectly good movie.

i like this line.''If the heroine of Kurbaan doesn't want her mother to see her steamy scenes with her boyfriend, how can one go with family members to see such a film?" 😆😆😉

To be really honest, I am surprised it didn't do well because to me it looked like a sure shot success with a dream cast, nice subject (director who wrote dialogues of one of my favorite movies--RDB), Dharma stamp which usually means entertaining.

Things I think went wrong:

1. Definately promotions--not only did they publicize the sex scenes too much and completely turn away family audiences, but also in the beginning with the first few promos, let's face it, it seemed like a total rip off of Fanaa, and New York--nobody want to watch copies when theres an original(well thats ironical, but thats not the point)

2. Release date: way too close to the first anniversary of 26/11. Also, please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Eid was over the weekend, or really close to the weekend as well (Sorry if I am wrong, I am not Muslim, so am not completely sure). So during this festive time, nobody wants to watch serious terrorism movies. Audiences will wait till next week for DDD.

3. Audiences are sick of terrorism movies--it is not novel anymore. Lately the story has been the same: Big Bad US did something to me and my family so I will now take revenge and wipe out their busiest city. BORING--seen it too many times. Also, these kinds of movies(don't know for sure about Kurbaan) in a way,indirectly, try to get us to sympathize with terrorists. How does why/how the people became terrorists make any difference--the outcome is still the same-they are terrorists! They just stooped down to the level or even lower than the very same people who are "responsible" for them becoming terrorists. Now a movie about that is something we're willing to see.