No Ishqk only RISK in Paris!

Dimpled-cheeked Preity Zinta’s debut home production finally saw the light of day, although with no bang. ‘Ishkq In Paris’ has bombed at the ‘Hum Hai Raahi CAR Ke’ too cut a sorry figure. Amidst them, one flick which kept the cash registers ringing was ‘Fast and Furious 6’. 

To begin with the duds, film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh informs, “‘Ishkq In Paris’ is lackluster. It collected approx Rs. 1.25 cr to Rs. 1.35 cr in its opening weekend. ‘Hum Hai Raahi CAR Ke’ had a disastrous opening weekend.”

To which trade expert and film critic Joginder Tuteja adds that it was always on the cards that both ‘Ishkq In Paris’ and ‘Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke’ would have to rely entirely on the word of mouth publicity since it was a given that opening of any sort was going to be a challenge. However, it was felt that given Preity’s credentials, ‘Ishkq In Paris’ would at least have some footfalls coming its way. Unfortunately, this didn’t quite happen as both films started with practically empty houses from Day One itself. Poor reviews further marred the show and absence of any word of mouth whatsoever (due to negligible footfalls) meant that there was no further respite either. Final nail in the coffin proved to be IPL Finals on Sunday which kept people home for an entire evening. Result? An out and out disastrous response for both the films which would be out from theatres sooner than one would have expected.

Calling Indian Premiere League as a lame excuse, trade expert Vinod Mirani begs to differ and says, “IPL is no reason as it was never been a hindrance in the way of movies. People spare time out for their favourite film industry. The fact that, Saturday turned out to be worst than Friday when there was no match on that day says it all.”

Shedding light on the rest of the releases, Joginder concludes that another release of the week, Veena Malik’s ‘Zindagi 50-50’, is a complete washout as it didn’t even see a proper release for itself. The film which ended up gaining good moolah though, was Hollywood action affair ‘Fast and Furious 6’. After ‘Iron Man 3’, this is yet another biggie from the West to make inroads into the Indian screens. With over Rs. 20 crores being collected over just the weekend, the film is a clean hit already.