Film makers, distributors and exhibitors continue to be wary about bringing their films in the first Friday of the New Year. This is the reason why there is not a single notable film which has it's plans of arriving on 2nd January 2009.

In fact the first big release of the New Year is going to be CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA which arrives on 16th January. In between, KAASHH...MERE HOTE is arriving on 2nd January with KHALLBALLI - FUN UNLIMITED and HORN OK PLEASSSS finally closing 9th January as the D day after being ready for release on at least a couple of occasions earlier.

So what is it that is keeping first Friday of 2009 as a relatively open slot? Well, history comes into play here. If one looks past the memory lane, precisely the current decade, not a single film releasing on this day has worked at the box office at all. In fact majority of them have been complete disasters and washouts.

In 2008, the films which were released on 4th January, HUMNE JEENA SEEKH LIYA, PHIR TAUBA TAUBA, MANTHAN EK KASHMAKASH and HYDERABADI BAKRA, were the kinds that you wouldn't have even heard of ever. 2007 wasn't any better with Rekha's KUDIYON KA HAI ZAMANA coming along with Sherlyn Chopra's GAME on the first Friday of the year. Did anyone care? Well, we know the answer.

Let's go back to 2006 now. Emraan Hashmi and Celina Jaitley were the star attractions of JAWANI DIWANI - A YOUTHFUL RIDE.

Well, the ride was so bumpy that Emraan swore off doing comedy films belonging to this genre for life. 15 PARK AVENUE too disappeared without a trace as it released on the same date i.e. 6th January, DEVAKI went completely unannounced, RETAKE - PHIR EK BAAR wasn't seen even once while the fate of ANKUSH - THE COMMAND and EK PYAAR AISA BHI were left to anyone's imagination.

YEHI HAI ZINDAGI which came on 7th January 2005 didn't prove to be a 'lifeline' that it's makers would have expected, ROG was a disaster by Pooja Bhatt and ever reliable Irrfan Khan while VAADA added to Zayed Khan's long list of flops.

With the cent percent record of unquestionable flops being the trend for years at stretch, let's go back to 2nd January 2004 when Bipasha Basu and Dino Morea couldn't create a RAAZ moment with their ISHQ HAI TUMSE.

In fact in last 6 years, the biggest film to have been released on the first Friday of the year has been TALAASH - THE HUNT BEGINS. Even though the film starred Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor in lead roles, that didn't help in it's early exit from the theaters.

In fact TUJHE MERI KASAM still did reasonably better in some pockets while introducing Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza to Bollywood. On the other hand BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD didn't really turn out to be a crossover affair that Rahul Khanna and Lisa Ray would have hoped for.

All this mayhem took place on the first Friday of 2003.

Talking about big films, PITAAH brought Sanjay Dutt and Mahesh Manjrekar together again after VAASTAV and KURUKSHETRA. Still, it failed, and failed big time when it released on 2002. 2001 didn't have any action whatsoever since no notable film arrived on 5th January 2001.

As for year 2001, BULANDI that featured Rajnikanth, Rekha, Anil Kapoor and Raveena Tandon didn't create any ripples on 7th January while MELA nosedived for Aamir Khan and Dharmesh Darshan who were riding high on RAJA HINDUSTANI till then.

So, as can be pretty much seen in the list of movies above, in the current decade there hasn't been a single film which has been able to make a mark when released in the first weekend of the year.

Except for a movie or two, majority of them have been B or C grade cinema but the fact remains that Friday jinx has continued to be prevalent all these years. No wonder, film makers are shying away from releasing their films on 2nd January 2009 as well.