Jay’s print BO col : Akki’s Tasveer gets cut to size!

Not a rosy ‘Picture’

Akshay Kumar’s Tasveer 8 X 10 takes a week opening with very little hope of sustaining in the coming weeks
With all the recent gloom at the Indian box office thanks to a number of flops and multiplex revenue shares row, the industry was pinning its hopes on Nagesh Kukunoor’s psychological thriller Tasveer 8×10 starring Akshay Kumar and Ayesha Takia. With a limited release in multiplexes, the film opened poorly across the country and hopes of progress have all but vanished after the weak response from audiences and critics. The film looks likely to add to the long line of boxoffice flops in 2009.

Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu action thriller starrer Aa Dekhen Zara had a poor response from audiences in its first week. Of course the fact that the film had a limited release at multiplexes was a severe disadvantage but even despite this the collections are disappointing with only Rs 3.5-3.8 crore coming from India. The peppy soundtrack and slick promos failed to entice audiences and there are little signs of improvement in the second week.
Released alongside was Bobby Deol and Nana Patekar’s Ek – The Power Of One which performed marginally better. Mumbai collected around 76 lakhs but overall the total collections of around Rs 3.7-4.0 crore are disappointing. Like Aa Dekhen Zara, the second week has started on a low note and the film looks destined to be a flop.
Aloo Chaat starring Aftab Shivdasani fell significantly in its second week by 65% across India. The small family entertainer failed to hold the attention of audiences and collected Rs 1.0-1.2 crore in week two to take its total collections to Rs 4.0-4.7 crore.
Little Zizou, a fast paced poignant comedy continues to do decently albeit with a limited print release. The film collected around 15 lakhs in its third week to push its collections to Rs 1.1-1.2 crore from India. Overall, bearing in mind the niche audience the film is playing to, it is an average performer overall.
Dev D continues to have a great run even in its eighth week. The Abhay Deol starrer netted around 20 lakhs to take its impressive total past Rs 17 crore.

JAY SHAH