Guru collections pick up
Syed Firdaus Ashraf
Last Updated: January 16, 2007 15:39 IST
The news of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai's engagement has done well for
Guru. After a
slow opening, it has started picking up at the box office.
Guru saw a 50-60% opening on January 12, the first day of its release, but did
increasingly
better after the news broke on Sunday.
Guru is a crucial film for Abhishek Bachchan as it is being counted as his
first solo success,
both critically and commercially.
"Guru is on its way to become a hit," said Taran Adarsh, well known film trade
analyst.
Interestingly, only 3 months ago Abhiwarya faced a disastrous flop with J P
Dutta's Umrao Jaan.
The difference is in the reviews. While Dutta's film was savaged by critics,
Mani Ratnam's film
is garnering praise. "Guru so far has been appreciated well, and is a good film
too," added
Adarsh. Critics have unanimously praised Abhishek and Aishwarya's histrionics,
and the word of
mouth publicity is making a huge difference to the film.
A still from Guru"The film so far has done well in cities and multiplexes,"
declared trade
analyst Komal Nahta, "and has done reasonably okay business."
Nahta feels the engagement news hasn't had an impact on the box office
collections. "Not at
all. Everybody knew that they were seeing each other. So, how would that help
the film? It is
like the story of boy crying about the wolf. Everyone knew that this news would
come true. and
finally when it has come true nobody is surprised about it. So it has no effect
at the box
office."
He further said the film's collections have started dropping again.
Unlike other Hindi films, an integral part of Guru's success comes from South
India, largely
because of Mani Ratnam's great fan following beyond the Vindhyas.
"The film has done well in South India," concluded Vinod Mirani. "Abhishek's
performance has
been appreciated and he is maturing as an actor day by day."
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