Wanted believed to have raked in Rs 29 crore

While it may be too early to write a postmortem of the year that was; it is still not too late as the year has moved into its last quarter. 2009 year will go down in the annals of Hindi film history not for the highs that the year has touched but for the manner in which the recession and the multiplex owners producers had a standoff. That had a massive impact on the fate of many movies, big and small.

Actually, this has not really been a year for the small film, largely due to the strike. Unlike last year which saw movies like Neeraj Pandey’s ’A Wednesday’ and Rajat Kapoor’s ’Mithya’ doing exceeding well for themselves, this year has not been very kind to the smaller movies. 2009 did not even begin very well as it’s big releases in the early part of the year, like ’Chandni Chowk To China’, ’Delhi 6’, ’Billu’ all failed at the box office. Of course, matters were slightly in control with ’Raaz’ becoming a hit. Even ’Dev D’ did fairly well for itself and is believed to have made a revenue of Rs 13 crore. But all of this was before April and the famous standoff, which lasted all of three months. Once the embargo was lifted, Yash Raj’s ’New York’ seemed to become a harbinger of hope for the hit starved industry.

It was followed by Saif Ali Khan’s ’Love Aaj Kal’. But all of these releases, including Vishal Bhaardwaj’s ’Kaminey’ have been nothing compared to the kind of money that Boney Kapoor’s ’Wanted’ has managed to rake in. The film seems to have electrified the box office and sent Salman Khan;’s stocks soaring. The film is believed to have raked in Rs 29 crore in its first week alone. Last Friday’s release, debutant director Ayan Mukherjee’s ’Wake Up Sid’ also seems to be have set a great trend as the film has made a reported Rs 10 crore in the first weekend itself. With two back to back hits at the box office, things seem to be looking up for the industry as Diwali draws near. There are many other big films which are all set to release in the last quarter like ’Blue’, ’Aladin’, ’Kurbaan’, ’London Dreams’, ’All The Best’ and ’3 Idiots’. The hope riding on these films is quite high.

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