Bollywood wrap-up: Passing away of Kalpana Lajmi & poor collections from new releases

It has not been a happy week for Bollywood. While fresh pictures of Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas have again flooded the internet and jokes and memes about singer Anup Jalota have not stopped coming in, Bollywood had no real reason to be happy. Even if last week's poor box office collections are ignored, tinsel town began the week with a heavy heart as Kalpana Lajmi breathed her last in the wee hours of Sunday.

Lajmi, the daughter of painter Lalita Lajmi and niece of filmmaker Guru Dutt, debuted as assistant director under veteran film director Shyam Benegal and is best known for her 1993 release Rudaali. The 61-year-old was battling with kidney cancer for almost a year.

With Lajmi’s death Bollywood loses a talented artist who was a director, producer and screenwriter known for her women-oriented, realistic parallel cinema.

Besides Rudaali, Lajmi directed many other films like Ek Pal, Lohit Kinare, Kyon, Chingari and others.

The President of India’s official Twitter handle put out a message platform saying, “Sorry to hear of the passing of Kalpana Lajmi, a filmmaker of rare sensitivity. The repertoire of her work, from depicting strong and resilient women to cinematic renditions of Assamese life was remarkable. Condolences to her family and well-wishers.”

A lot of Bollywood celebrities like Raveena Tandon, Soni Razdan, Huma Qureshi also took to social media to pay their condolences.

Now to the not so happy news for the week. The two fresh releases Batti Gul Meter Chalu and Manto did a bad job at the box office.

Narayan Singh’s romantic comedy Batti Gul Meter Chalu, which had Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyendu Sharma and Yami Gautam in lead roles, managed to rake in about Rs 6.5 crore in spite of the long weekend release. Perhaps Kapoor has exhausted his luck in his last success Padmaavat.

Nandita Das’s Manto raked in about Rs 50 lakh at the box office on day 1. Though a low budget film, it is targeting a niche audience. Even here, it didn’t have much luck in connecting with this audience.

The box office is now looking forward to the concluding week of the second quarter of this fiscal for some good news which is expected from the release of Sharat Katariya’s Sui Dhaga.