Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black and Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3 made the turnstiles pirouette and waltz. With the onslaught of the traditional shraddh (mourning) period the small film seems to be back in business. But how profitable are these Rs 2.5-5 crore films?

UTV who have so far released biggies like Lakshya and Swades are now looking at a nominal 40-print release of Main Meri Patni Aur Woh a romantic comedy featuring the scene-stealing character actor Rajpal Yadav in the lead.

"Even if they break even with the film UTV will be happy," says the happy leading man Rajpal yadav.

But even breaking even has become a major issue, thanks to the ongoing spate of films big and small, that are being rejected outright.

While the last big film, Yashraj Films' Salaam Namaste has already garnered an accumulated boxoffice collections of 1.10 million dollars in the UK, 1.14 million dollars on USA and Canada and 517,000 dollars in Australia (the highest ever collection in the country) in 3 weeks of release, the films that followed have been incredibly disastrous.

In the past few weeks Ram Gopal Varma's James and Romesh Sharma's Dil Jo Bhi Kahey introducing Mohit Ahlawat and Karan Sharma, respectively have been greeted half-heartedly by the audience .

The avalanche of small films by first-time directors Sanjay Daima' Ramji Londonwale, Aditya Datt's Aashiq Banaya Aapne, Kannika Varma's Dansh, Bappaditya Roy's Sau Jhooth Ek Sach , Ruchia Narain's Kal, P Jitendra's Meri Aashiqui(a boringly belated attempt to resurrect the long-forgotten Aashiqui star Rahul Roy's career) are some of the films that sank without a trace in the last two weeks.

Last week there were as many as 7 releases. Rain and Kasak, the latter bringing back the loud-mouthed Pakistani bore of an actress Meera, got the lowest boxoffice collections ever.

Assamese director Jahnu Baruah's elegiac and elegant Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara garnered decent collections, thanks to the distributors Yashraj Films's astute marketing and the Gandhian theme, and Urmila Matondkar who's perceived as a saleabale star-actress. But sank thereafter.

The overall picture at the boxoffice has been pretty gloomy in the post-monsoon season.

Says the Patna exhibitor Roshan Singh, "Nothing seems to be working. Even Salaam Namaste which, I believe, is a smash success overseas isn't as hot as Yashraj Films' Bunty Aur Babli or Hum Tum in India. As for the rest of the films released in the last few weeks, the less said the better. Most of them including Dil Jo Bhi Kahey which starred the mega-star Amitabh Bcahchan, didn't even get an opening."

One small film which has pulled through the gloomy season of duds is debutant director Vivek Agnihotri's Chocolate. In spite of a dense plot and undecipherable characterizations the film has done decently well in some centres. It won't be a loser.

As for the other so-called multiplex films the collections have been so low as to make the marketing experts re-think the whole concept of niche marketing.

How much more niche can a film get than Deepak Balraj Vij's Mumbai Godfather or Jairaj Padmanabhan's U Bomsi 'N' Me? These blink-and-vamoose released flickered flickered so feebly , audiences didn't even know when they came and went!