Bollywood weekly wrap: Three films hit theatres, but audiences stay away

"Terrible terrible terrible Friday... New Hindi films open to shockingly low numbers," tweeted film trade analyst Taran Adarsh. And rightly so. Bollywood had nothing to celebrate this week other than the fact that older films continued to perform well, and rumours surrounding Priyanka Chopra’s engagement to American singer Nick Jonas.

The three releases of the week Karwaan, Mulk and Fanney Khan, failed to bring cheer to Bollywoood. The trailers and star cast of all the three films had generated excitement and showed promise, but couldn’t pack a punch with their theatrical release.

Karwaan, starring Irrfan Khan, Malayalam heartthrob Dulquer Salmaan and YouTube sensation Mithila Palkar generated only about Rs 1.4 crore at the Box Office. Critics had pointed out that audiences would go watch the film as they would be missing ailing hero Khan.

On the other hand, Fanney Khan that features Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao, couldn’t do much to draw crowds too. The film managed to rake in about Rs1.85 crore. Lastly, there was Mulk that was released amid some controversy, but the whole hullabaloo didn’t generate eyeballs as most people seemed to have rejected the Rishi Kapoor and Tapsee Pannu film. Mulk made only about Rs 1.55 crore on opening day.

Nonetheless, Tom Cruise has been doing his bit in terms of collections at the BO. Mission Impossible 6 - Fallout sustained well on its eighth day and collected Rs 2.75 crore. The film has so far grossed Rs 53.75 crore and now looks to be heading for the Rs 75-crore mark.

Bollywood wrapped the week on a sad note, with film buffs now pinning their hopes on the Independence Day release of Akshay Kumar’s Gold.

If anyone has been waiting for Student of the Year 2, the film that stars Tiger Shroff, Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria, has got a new release date and has been pushed to May 10, 2019.