Ranbir does what Rajni ‘kant’ in north India

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Superstar Rajnikanth rocked the box office down south with “Endhiran”, but the Hindi version of the mega budget sci-fi outing “Robot” lost out to Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor’s mushy antics in “Anjaana Anjaani” in the northern region, where audiences are opting for the young romance saga.

The Ranbir-Priyanka Chopra starrer earned around Rs.260 million in the initial weekend, while “Robot”, which also stars Aishwarya Rai, raked in close to Rs.70 million. But in the southern region, “Endhiran” has broken all records by earning a staggering Rs.1 billion in the opening weekend and scalpers were even selling tickets for a whopping Rs.5,000.

Another release of the week, family comedy “Khichdi – The Movie” failed to invite much footfalls and lost to the two biggies. It could collect only Rs.55 million.

“The weekend was rocking. ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ was very good with over 80 percent occupancy while ‘Robot’ was in the second spot with close to 70 percent footfalls. ‘Khichdi’, however didn’t go as per expectations and managed only about 50 percent occupany,” Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (Cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, said.

While “Anjaana Anjaani” was made on a budget of Rs.25 crore, “Robot” is Indian cinema’s most expensive movie with an investment of approximately Rs.1.75 billion.

Rajnikanth, 61, defied gravity and took artificial intelligence to the next level in his role as a “Robot”, again proving there is nothing that he can’t do.

“In North and West Delhi, ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ has done better vis-a-vis ‘Robot’ and ‘Khichdi’ with 80-85 percent occupancy while the others got only 50-60 percent and 20-30 percent occupancies respectively,” said Deepak Taluja, senior vice president (Business and Operations) of Fun Cinemas.

“While in the rest of the city, ‘Robot’ took over with above 85 percent occupancy, ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ and ‘Khichdi’ got only 70-75 percent and 10-15 percent respectively,” he added.

Jayendra Banerji, vice president (Operations) of Satyam Cineplexes, said: “The weekend was quite special and we had a very good occupancy with all ‘Anjaana Anjaani’, ‘Robot’, ‘Enthiran’, ‘Khichdi’ doing well. Even ‘Dabangg’ is still going strong on limited screens.”

“Most of the shows for ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ went houseful with over 90 percent occupancy while both ‘Robot’ and ‘Enthiran’ did well with close to 80 percent occupancy. ‘Khichdi’ was comparitively less with 40 percent,” he added.

Amit Shah, chief manager (Programming) of DLF DT cinemas, however, said : “The weekend was good. All three movies did good business. ‘Anjaana Anjaani’ was on top with 60-65 percent occupancy while ‘Robot’ on second with 50 percent. ‘Khichdi’ managed 35-40 percent.

“All three films had a mixed reaction as they are from different genres. These will extend because there is not much content in the second week,” he added.