Deepika's 'Piku' overshadows Ranbir's 'Bombay Velvet'

NEW DELHI:
Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Bombay Velvet has failed to displace Deepika Padukone's simple, subtle and meaningful act as a dutiful daughter in Piku, box office figures suggest.

Ranbir Kapoor's film is his biggest career disaster so far. “A colossal flop”, “a debacle”, “a disaster” are some of the verdicts by film trade analysts on Anurag Kashyap’s high-budget drama Bombay Velvet.  Set in the Bombay of the 1960s, the film is about a man who wants to make it big in life at any cost.



The film has earned a little over Rs16 crore in its opening weekend.

Released on May 15, the film, which also stars Anushka Sharma and has marked the acting debut of Karan Johar, only managed to mint Rs5.20 crore on its opening day and Rs5.10 crore and Rs5.80 crore on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Its weekend total amounts to Rs.1610 crore, according to trade expert Taran Adarsh, who called the film a “debacle”.

"It's very bad. Bombay Velvet earned just Rs16.25 crore. That should have been the day one collection instead of the weekend collection," said trade analyst Komal Nahta.

"But you can't compare Bombay Velvet to other films because of its budget of Rs108 crore. With that amount, it should have collected Rs15 crore on day one. The film is a colossal flop," he added.

Another film expert, Vinod Mirani said "Bombay Velvet is a disaster".

The film received mixed reviews from fans and cinema-goers who took to Twitter to express their sentiments

On the other hand, B-Town was full of praise for Anurag and his production:

However, Anurag has no regrets that the audience is not finding a connect with his film, which has been his dream project since nine years.

"A lot of people do not connect with it and a small number of people did... Maybe our experimenting with the narrative didn't work for most but I firmly believe in the film,” he posted on his Facebook page.

On the other hand, the one film which has continued its success story is Shoojit Sircar's slice-of-life entertainer Piku, which has Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan Khan and Deepika telling an endearing family tale through their lovable characters.



Piku is running successfully at the cinemas and has minted Rs14.60 crore in its second weekend, which takes its total collection to Rs56.02 crore. In its opening weekend, it minted over Rs25 crore.

Also, the film is being tagged as a hit overseas as it has earned Rs27.34 crore.

In fact, Adarsh has called Piku the “BIGGEST HIT of 2015 in Overseas”.

According to India Today, Akshay Kumar's Gabbar is Back was the highest-grossing film this weekend this year thus far, raking in Rs40 crore in three days. His other film released earlier this year Baby is at number two, collecting Rs35.9 crore on the weekend. Ranbir's Roy, bags the third spot with Rs28 crore. Piku (Rs25.22 crore), Badlapur (Rs24 crore) and Tevar (Rs22.05) are films released this year so far that have had a better first-weekend collection than Bombay Velvet.



PHOTO: HOLLYWOOD3

As far as the future of Bombay Velvet and Piku on the box office is concerned, it will be decided by Kangana Ranaut and R. Madhavan-starrer Tanu Weds Manu Returns, which has quite a positive buzz about it. Directed by Anand L Rai, the film, which stars the same cast from 2011 film Tanu Weds Manu, will release on Friday.

Till the release of Zoya Akhtar's Dil Dhakadne Do in June, Anurag's Bombay Velvet still has a chance to recover at the box office since there are no major films lined up over the next three weeks.