‘I, Me Aur Main’ And ‘The Attacks Of 26/11’ Fail To Work At The Box Office

As mentioned in this column last week, there were always doubts around how the box office would behave for the two new releases I Me Aur Main and The Attacks of 26/11. No one expected a bumper beginning of either of the two films. In fact even a good opening was not really on the cards. However one did hope (if not anticipate) that at least a face saving opening would help the films to some extent. Alas, but even that didn’t happen as the footfalls stayed below the 20% mark on the day of the release, hence pretty much paving way for trend over the weekend.

Yes, before the release of The Attacks of 26/11, it was expected that good reviews would help the film find some escalation in audience count. After all, a docudrama like this couldn’t have seen a crowd gathering from the opening show itself. However Ram Gopal Varma suffered on this count as the reviews were largely mixed. Some loved it, some found it decent while some dismissed it. While this was the response of the critics, audience were not even taken into consideration as the footfalls were way too low to generate much of the word of mouth. As a result, the film’s collections were a mere 5.50 crores.

Fate of I Me Aur Main wasn’t any better as the collections again hovered around the 5.40 crore mark. This film too couldn’t stand on its feet at all as audience just weren’t in mood to give it a dekko. Unlike The Attacks of 26/11 which was reasonably well promoted, this John Abraham starrer at least saved some costs on that front. Critically though the film wasn’t slammed but since there were no glowing reviews either, a barely average response has brought it into the category of those flicks that are given a lazy watch in the comfort of home. At the box office though, the film has turned out to be a non-starter.

What does the non-performance of these films mean to the ones associated with them? Well, Ram Gopal Varma has already moved on to Satya 2 while John Abraham has his entire concentration on Shootout At Wadala, his flagship project this year. Chitrangada Singh is through with her backlog films and one waits to see what she picks from here. As for Prachi Desai, she would gain brownie points for a change in image.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder