Post the critical and box-office success of his independent debut directorial 'Queen' (2014), expectations from Vikas Bahl's latest venture, Shaandaar, were naturally high. Much hype was built around the Dussehra release and the four-day weekend was expected to be an added advantage.
However, movie buffs decided to stay off "Bollywood's first destination wedding drama", which took a nosedive after a good opening (Rs 13.10 crore). While critics had panned the Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer, negative word-of-mouth buzz dealt a big blow to its theatrical business.
Trade expert Amod Mehra says, "Releasing the film on Dusshera was a wise decision as the first-day collections were commendable. However, the second day onwards, the collections fell steadily. The audience has clearly rejected the film and that will lead to makers incurring heavy losses."
The film is said to have done well only in big cities. On its second day, the numbers dropped by almost 50 per cent and over the next two days, plummeted further. On the brighter side, though, it proved to be the biggest opener for Shahid, whose best so far was 'R... Rajkumar' (Rs 10.20 crore). Trade analyst Taran Adarsh labels 'Shaandaar' as a "fiasco" and says, "The business continued to dwindle; Saturday and Sunday offered no respite. The film has been rejected. 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2', which released the previous week, remained rock-solid at the box office."
'Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2' made a killing at the ticket counters (Rs 13.35 crore) over the four-day weekend. Irrfan-starrer 'Talvar', based on the 2008 Noida double murder, found a few takers while Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's comeback vehicle, 'Jazbaa', received lukewarm response and is on its way out.
BO stats
Rs 33.51crore
'Shaandaar' (four-day weekend)
Rs 25.20crore
'Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2' (week two; total: Rs 47.95 crore)
Rs 2.25crore
'Jazbaa' (week three; total: Rs 26 crore)
Rs 1.65crore
'Talvar' (week four; total: Rs 29.85 crore)
