According to the three cinema managers that I spoke to this morning, Bhool Chuk Maaf is all set to be the winner of this season.
Kumar Abhishek, cinema manager of Connplex Patna, says, “Sir, the film is so funny and entertaining. Why did the producer (Dinesh Vijan) withdraw it from the theatres and decide to release it directly on OTT? If powerful producers don’t have faith in their good products, how will the theatre business survive? I am glad they reversed their decision. Yeh picture khoob chalegi. WOM (word of mouth) is strong. Morning shows got a fairly good response. We are expecting rising collections during the day.”
As expected, the response to the other two releases, Kapkapiii and Veer Kesari, is almost zero. The two non-starters got sporadic shows in multiplexes. Those, too, have opened to near-empty shows.
A cinema manager from a multiplex in Delhi who wants to remain unnamed sadly dubs the two films as non-staters. “Sir, they are DOA (dead on arrival). Kapkapiii gives that horror-comedy mix which is supposed to work. But, Sir, there is a difference between Stree and this. The gags are not even amusing. As for Veera Kesari, simply demonizing one community won’t work. The acting is uniformly bad. And for a war film, the special effects are incredibly tacky.Aaj kal ke audience Marvel universe mein jeete hain.”
So it seems like a clear window for Bhool Chuk Maaf, one more hit notched up for Rajkumar Rao.
