Patiala House Starts Very Slow, Panic In Trade

The film trade is in shock. Today’s Patiala House has taken such a lukewarm opening that even the hardcore pessimists have been left speechless. The initial response to the Akshay Kumar starrer has been so poor that the trade people can’t believe their eyes as box-office figures are flowing in.

On an average, the first show’s collections have not been more than 20%. Point to be noted is that a lot of multiplexes keep their ticket rates lower in the morning shows to attract the student community. Even the low admission rates have not pulled the youth to the cinemas. Whether it was Delhi or U.P., Gujarat or Rajasthan, C.I. or C.P. Berar, Punjab or Bengal circuit, the story in the shows till 2 p.m. was the same: the film had not taken a decent start. Many cinemas reported just 10-15% opening show collections.

As compared to this initial, the start of Akshay Kumar’s last film, Tees Maar Khan, was historic. Said a trade person, “‘Tees Maar Khan’ was a very well-hyped film as compared to ‘Patiala House’. Plus, it had a Sheela ki jawani which this film doesn’t have.”

In recent times, this is the worst opening of an Akshay starrer. The initial of not just ‘Tees Maar Khan’ but also that of Khatta Meetha, Action Replayy and De Dana Dan was far better than that of Patiala House. The film’s leading lady, Anushka Sharma, was considered to be a lucky girl as all her three films before this – Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Badmaash Company and Band Baaja Baaraat – have done well at the box-office. In fact, when a television channel had asked Akshay soon after ‘Tees Maar Khan’ had not gone down too well with the audience, if Anushka’s luck would rub off on him in ‘Patiala House’, the star had pompously replied, “Maybe, my good luck rubs off on her.” Seems, his bad luck has indeed rubbed off on the lucky girl! It must be mentioned here that Anushka’s ‘Band Baaja Baaraat’ had also started very slow but it picked up later.