MUMBAI: Last week saw the release of two much hyped movies of the year – Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya.
One was director Farah Khan’s second film starring Shah Rukh Khan and model turned actress Deepika Padukone and the other was Bhansali’s fifth film with debutants Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor.
Now the wait is over and the results are out! On Friday, both movies started on a slightly low note at select places (like North India), considering that it was Diwali. On Saturday both movies ran houseful but word of mouth publicity worked in Om Shanti Om‘s favour. Eventually, Om Shanti Om proved its power at the box office. Saawariya on the other hand has not succeeded in putting up a great show.
On Monday, Om Shanti Om ran with 80 per cent occupancy at a few multiplexes and as high as 95 – 100 per cent in others. On the other hand, Saawariya saw a drastic drop with as little as 20 per cent occupancy in some multiplexes and 40 per cent at some others.
“Saawariya was houseful on Saturday but dropped by 10 -15 per cent on Sunday itself, which was highly unexpected considering that Sunday is a movie day and any movie manages to do well on that day,” says a programming head of a multiplex chain on condition of anonymity.
At most multiplexes both movies are running with equal shows. But at some, Saawariya has more shows than Om Shanti Om and vice versa. Further, since Om Shanti Om was carrying better reviews than Saawariya, some multiplexes opted to increase the number of shows for Om Shanti Om at few properties. For instance, Fame Inorbit has as many as 15 shows of Om Shanti Om and 12 of Saawariya. “We added a few early morning shows because there was a lot of demand for Om Shanti Om from the audiences and people do not mind coming in early and paying lesser money for tickets,” says Fame Cinemas programming head Aditya Shroff.
Similarly Cinemax (Versova) too is running an 8.30 am show. However this coming weekend may see a further decline in the number of Saawariya‘s shows and also prints at multiplexes.
