Hindi
Films’ miscalculated releases & no face or value
Four films releasing in one week, all lacking in face value with no star who can pull the audience and worst of all, the wrong period to release, bang on the day the Ganesh Festival started.
Ganesh festival has never been the right time to release a film and expect people to flock to cinema halls. This festival which was celebrated as a public event in Maharashtra mainly with some influence till Surat in Gujarat, and Baroda and Indore both having considerable Maharashtrian population being erstwhile Maratha states and, a part of Karnataka.
Now, the festivities are almost pan India and catching up. Entire Maharashtra celebrates this festival and, now, the celebrations have spread equally across entire Gujarat, MP, Karnataka and heading towards other parts of India.
To add to the miscalculated release, the Ram Rahim court ruling made matters worse as it just about ruled out people in the two states of Haryana and Punjab as well as the parts of Delhi venturing out to watch a movie.
Considering the quantum of punishment to the accused baba, there is little hope of moviegoers stepping out in the affected areas. Then, there are flood situations in parts of East to contend with.
Here is the gory picture:
*A Gentleman, an unlikely title which failed to convey anything what the film was about, backfired. If you don’t have enough imagination to name your film, why go ahead and make one at all? Don’t know who uses this word gentleman anymore!
The film opened badly and remained almost stagnant on day two, Saturday. The film showed a marginal increase on Sunday to end its opening weekend with Rs 113 million.
*Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, an odd title for an all-India audience, again shows lack of imagination. The film goes haywire within minutes after its start. It starts with the Vividh Bharati signature tune playing and Kishore Kumar songs on the air but, soon, shifts to the mobile phone era! Nobody ages in this film and you don’t know where it is all happening.
A total bankruptcy of ideas, the film managed to cross the Rs 10 million on the opening day, nothing changed on day two and day three as the film collected Rs 35 million for its opening weekend.
*The fact that the company with a sound background and pedigree, Yash Raj Films should release its all new star cast, Qaidi Band, during the Ganpati Festival, showed a lack of acumen. The film had nothing going for it anyways so why this hasty release? The fact that the film carried the dreams of many newcomers, it deserved a better exploitation.
The film hovered around Rs 3-million figure over its first weekend and can be called the worst failure from Yash Raj Films who, when they make such economical films, are known to cash in from various sources while also creating a library.
*Sniff is poor as collections remained poor at about Rs 4 million for the first weekend.
*Bareilly Ki Barfi falls short of its target as the poor opening took its toll and the film showed only a marginal improvement over its first weekend even as the collections started diminishing as the new week began. The film ended its first week with Rs 165 million.
*Partition: 1947 (Hindi-Dubbed) meets with a disastrous outcome managing to collect just about Rs 7 million in its opening week.
*Toilet Ek Prem Katha adds a handsome Rs 266 million in its second week taking its two-week tally to Rs 1.2 billion.
*Mubarakan collected Rs 11 million in its fourth week taking its four-week total to Rs 564 million.
Hindi
Jio Studios, Sanjay Dutt team up to revive Khal Nayak
Rights acquired for new version, format under wraps as remake plans take shape.
MUMBAI: The villain is back and this time, he’s rewriting his own script. Jio Studios has partnered with Three Dimension Motion Pictures and Aspect Entertainment to revive the 1993 cult classic Khal Nayak, marking a fresh chapter for one of Bollywood’s most iconic anti-hero stories. The original film, directed by Subhash Ghai under Mukta Arts, was a commercial and cultural milestone, with Sanjay Dutt’s portrayal of Ballu becoming one of Hindi cinema’s most memorable performances.
Dutt, along with Aksha Kamboj, has now acquired the rights from the original creators, bringing on board Jio Studios and its President Jyoti Deshpande to steer the project creatively.
While the exact format whether remake, sequel, prequel, or a completely new narrative remains undisclosed, the collaboration aims to reinterpret the story for contemporary audiences while retaining the essence that made the original a defining film of the 1990s.
The move taps into a broader industry trend of reviving legacy intellectual property, particularly characters with strong recall value. “Khal Nayak” was notable for pushing mainstream Hindi cinema into morally grey territory at a time when heroes were largely one-dimensional, making Ballu’s character a standout.
The project also marks the film production debut of Aspect Entertainment, signalling a push towards more technology-led storytelling frameworks. Meanwhile, Jio Studios continues to expand its slate, having built a library of over 200 films and series, with more than 60 titles collectively winning 500-plus awards.
For Dutt, the revival is as much personal as it is strategic, a return to a role that reshaped his career. For the industry, it is another sign that nostalgia, when paired with scale, remains a powerful box-office proposition.
Because in Bollywood, some villains never fade, they just wait for the perfect comeback.
