Kurbaan disappoints, High hopes on De Dana Dan

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It’s difficult to predict what will click with the audiences every time. Case in point is Rensil D’Silva’s Kurbaan which had everything in its favour from its prestigious banner (Dharma Productions), starry cast (Saif-Kareena-Vivek) and immense hype (backless Kareena, political attacks). Despite that the film did not manage to take a decent opening.
Made at a reported budget of Rs 38 crores, Karan Johar sold the distribution of Kurbaan to UTV at Rs 50 crores who released the film across 1,700 screens worldwide. Collections on opening day were as low as 35-40% and, surprisingly, despite the good reviews showed no considerable rise over the weekend. Trade analyst Amod Mehra says, “Shockingly, the collections on Sunday were even less than that on Friday and Saturday. The film is a big blow to Dharma Productions and UTV.”
Most multiplexes had expected an opening of around 85-90% for a film of this stature. One could say the business was slightly better at single screens, though Kurbaan wasn’t supposed to be a single-screen film. Manoj Desai (of Maratha Mandir, Gaiety-Galaxy) says, “We registered 80 per cent collections on the first three days whereas it did not go beyond 40 per cent in other theatres. However, the collections have nosedived since yesterday. Koi picture dekhne ke liye tayyar hi nahin hai . The overall feeling is that it’s a very serious and cruel film.”
Kurbaan brings bad news both for Dharma Productions and UTV. Trade circles insist that even for Karan Johar’s Wake Up Sid , UTV only made a meager profit of Rs 50 lakhs. UTV already has a spate of flops this year including Delhi 6, What’s Your Raashee, Kaminey and many others.

All eyes now are on De Dana Dan releasing this week which brings back the Hera Pheri team of Akshay Kumar, Sunil Shetty and Paresh Rawal with director Priyadarshini. Co-produced by Akshay Kumar, let’s wait and watch if the team if able to recreate the success of Hera Pheri .