*~khoobsurat beginning for FAK*~Reviews/IVS/UPDATES~thread 10

Khoobsurat expected to beat Yash Raj Films' Daawate-Ishq by a considerable margin because of the Khan factor. PHOTO COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR AND EVENTS

KARACHI: In what has been deemed as an unexpected turn of events, Khoobsurat, starring Fawad Khan, has comprehensively beaten Aditya Roy Kapoor's Daawat-e-Ishq at the Pakistani box office in terms of advance bookings.

According to figures issued by Atrium Cinemas for both the films, the difference in advance bookings is tremendous.

In comparison to Daawat-e-Ishq's 442 seats, reserved in advance for the weekend, the Sonam Kapoor-Fawad Khan romantic comedy managed to reserve around 1,737 seats.

Other exhibitors around the country have also observed a similar pattern of ticket sales.

Prior to its release, the romantic comedy, which marks the Bollywood debut of Pakistani television star Fawad Khan had already created a lot of hype in the country.

"In my opinion, the film has exceeded everyone's expectations as no one was expecting the film to do so well, given that it was being released against a film produced by India's largest production house, Yash Raj Films," said Nadeem Mandviwalla of Mandviwalla Entertainment.

According to Mandviwalla, the prime reason for the film's initial success in Pakistan is Fawad Khan's large fan base.

"A major reason for the success of Khoobsurat in Pakistan is Fawad Khan. It happens with Ali Zafar's movies as well as they tend to perform well in Pakistan regardless of how they fare in India or abroad. Similarly, Fawad seems to have taken the audience demand factor that Ali Zafar previously had," he added.

Khoobsurat has also managed to outnumber Daawat-e-Ishq on the first three opening days with 1,449 out of 1,737 reservations made for Friday and Saturday.

"The film had a very strong opening yesterday, and we expect this trend to continue in the coming few days," said Abid Zaidi, the assistant marketing manager of Cinepax Cinemas.