As the season of festivities announces its onset, the Friday fever had an upsurge this 13^th August, mainly due to the awesome PEEPLI [LIVE]. It would be impolite not to mention the horror movie released alongside, the Bobby Deol –Mugdha Godse starrer HELP. The general feeling after the first day exploits of both these movies is that PEEPLI LIVE will take the cake, and it deserves the accolades too, courtesy the immaculate and intriguing portrayal of India’s remote villages. On the other hand, HELP is nothing much to talk about. The usual horror stuff, without any conspicuous fresh flavor. However, there is this film called THE EXPENDABLES, featuring Hollywood legends like Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis, that has the potential to give PEEPLI LIVE a good run for its money.

And speaking of money, let us look at the collection report card of the other movies that have been released this month and those released in the latter part of the previous month. Abhay Deol and Sonam Kapoor starrer AISHA was released on the first Friday, the 6^th of August. There were many factors which augered well for the movie, most noticeably the whole charm about the promos. The audiences always favor such a FEEL GOOD kind of movie. Also, the fact that it did not have any competition heightened the probabilities of it being a success even more. And the mathematics did add up for AISHA. The Jane Austen novel Emma based flick recovered its production costs in merely 3 days of its release. As expected, the urbane population of the metros was hooked by the swanky aura of the movie. AISHA blazed 475 screens in India and 135 overseas, and has amassed around 26 crores worldwide. Though the critics have their qualms about the movie, the distributors are not complaining at all!

Balaji Telefilms’ LOVE SEX AUR DHOKHA won hearts and received critical acclaim, but ultimately, the producers want to see the cash flowing in. Their hopes were pinned on the Ajay Devgan and Emraan Hashmi starrer ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI, and to some extent, the movie has delivered. The good old Bombay feel of the 70’s, power packed performance by Ajay Devgan, well written dialogs and lack of pressing competition have ensured steady rise in the box office collections of ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI. After what can be safely declared as a pretty lukewarm opening across the country, the movie has made considerable collections going into its third weekend. The official monetary figures for the third weekend are yet to be confirmed, but the producers can breathe pretty easy already.  An estimated 34 crores worth business had been done by the movie till its second weekend, with the major cash chunk coming from Mumbai, followed by Ahmedabad and Baroda. And to add to the elation of the makers, there are rumors that the satellite rights of the film have added a massive amount of over 10 crores to the bank accounts. The stable overseas revenues have also handed over a strong foothold to ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI.

The coming week will suffice in predicting the monetary exploits of the two recent releases (Peepli Live and Help). Don’t forget to check out the movie report for the coming week!