BO Report: Kamal Haasan's Dashavatar tanks

The last few weeks have been quite depressing at the box office windows. And this Friday too, things weren't too different.

Kamal Haasan's dubbed Hindi version of Dasavathaaram (Tamil), titled Dashavatar had for company a B-grade film called Meri Padosan and Anjan Dutt's Chowrasta, Crossroads of Love.

Not surprisingly all these films have tanked at the box office. Meanwhile it is the Marathi film Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy that is breaking all records.

Box Office Report

The much-hyped Dashavatar with Kamal Haasan in 10 roles has been a huge let down. With little or no publicity, the film opened on Friday to 5-10 per cent occupancy. The weekend collections across the country stood at an average 10 to 15 per cent.

Meri Padosan released mostly in single screens, opened to 10 per cent collections on Friday and saw a rise of 10 percent in the weekend collections. Anjan Dutt's Chowrasta also found no takers. Its collections ranged between zero to 10 per cent. Dutt was last in the news for his film Bow Barracks Forever.

Effectively, the film that made the most of this situation was the Marathi film, Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy. It ended its two-week run with nett collections of a whopping Rs 5 crore!

In cinema halls for three weeks so far the film saw 80 to 90 per cent occupancy rate across all the cinema screens in Maharashtra this weekend.

Shivajiraje has also released with limited prints in the USA (New York and New Jersey). With the growing demand for the film across overseas, the film is touted to do an overall business of at least Rs 12-13 crore which will make it the highest grossing Marathi film ever.

Trade Talk

Veteran analyst Amar Solanki is not surprised with the debacle of Dashavatar. "Kamal Haasan tends to make films for a fixed set of his fans and for himself," he says. "If Kamal had only marketed the film better or released the Hind version along with the Tamil one, it might have received a better opening."

Solanki also points out that the failure of Meri Padosan shows that the tastes of audiences in B and C centers are changing. "Earlier such films would find heavy patronage in such places. But now no one wants to watch a cheap product," he says.

Speaking about Chowrasta, Solanki says, "No one knew about the film. How did you expect it to get an opening, let alone do well?"