It’s celebration time in Bollywood. After a lull that lasted months in the first half of 2009, the industry now has a lot to cheer about with the quick successes of films like New York, Kambakkht Ishq, Love Aaj Kal, and now Kaminey.
Despite a delayed release in Mumbai (due to the swine flu shutdown), the film is estimated to have done business of about Rs. 22 crores with the occupancy rate in multiplexes bordering on 75 to 80 percent, just a little less than Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Love Aaj Kal’.
Abroad, the film has done better in US than in UK.
In the US the film raked in a decent sum of $726,834 (Rs. 3.55 crores approximately) in the opening weekend on 82 screens. In comparison ‘Love Aaj Kal’ had made Rs. 5.91 crores on 102 screens in its opening weekend.
In the UK, ‘Kaminey’ is running on 28 screens and made £111,954 (Rs 89.40 lakhs apx). In comparison ‘Love Aaj Kal’ had opened on 52 screens and had collected about Rs. 3.37 crores.
Surprisingly, last week’s other release, Life Partner, has performed better than expected in the UK. The movie grossed £89,521 (about Rs. 71.52 lakhs) in its opening weekend.
So the box-office verdict is clear: Kaminey rocks, but it’s not as crowd pulling as some of the recent releases from Bollywood. Still the film has got the biggest opening than any Shahid Kapur, Priyanka Chopra or Vishal Bhardwaj film has taken so far.
