'Ra. One' - An 'above average' success

Biggest hype ever for an Indian film, a superstar at the helm of affairs, a director who is a master when it comes to technology, a budget that allowed dreams to take shape of reality, widest ever release and hit soundtrack - Still, at the end of it all, it boiled down to the moolah earned at the box office and frankly, it isn't close to what one would have envisaged before the film hit the screens.

Nothing less than 120 crores was on the cards for 'Ra. One' which also came with an advantage of 9 day long weekend. However after a healthy first five days, the film started sliding as the weekdays progressed. Call it an advent of a negative campaign or genuinely mixed word of mouth amongst the audience but the collections were hit for sure. Resultantly, the film (the Hindi version) couldn't touch the elusive 100 crore mark (which has been managed only once before - by 'Bodyguard') in its first week.

At close to 99 crores, the film enjoyed a relatively open week though numbers of shows were reduced by 30%-40%. A fall in collections is inevitable though given the trend so far and while the relatively low collections on the opening day pretty much killed the dream for this film to cross 200 crores total set by '3 Idiots', at least 'Bodyguard' collections of 140 crores were in sight. However as things stand today, it may just be touch and go for 'Ra. One' to even cross the 120 crores final net of 'Ready'.

Still, keeping all these factors aside, 'Ra. One' boils down to be a decent success at the least and is an above average affair at the box office. Of course one did expect it to be tagged as a hit but given the economics involved and the rapid decline it has taken, it would have to be content with a relatively lower status.

Out of the two other two releases of the week, 'Damadamm' too has managed to be a successful venture eventually. As per the makers, this low budget film has collected 3.7 crores in its extended week which has allowed it to be a recovery affair. Given the fact that expectations were extremely low from this Himesh Reshammiya starrer to be a commercial success, these collections have been face worthy. On the other hand 'Tell Me O Kkhuda' is a box office disaster as it couldn't garner even 2 crores at the end of its premature run.