Biggest box opening ever - Kambakth Ishq

It has been proved that out-and-out entertainer created with conviction has always generated an unparalleled euphoria amongst the masses.

The advance booking for Sajid Nadiadwala’s KAMBAKKHT ISHQ which opened in advance on a Sunday instead of the customary Wednesday saw serpentine queues at all multiplexes.

It was as if this movie had taken Bollywood back in time, where hordes of fanatical film buffs would excitedly crowd around the ticket window waiting for the counter to open.


And that’s exactly happened this Sunday when the box-office at all multiplexes witnessed history being recreated.

A trade analyst called up Sajid Nadiadwala within an hour of the opening of the advance booking and complained that he was unable to procure tickets for his family since all shows for the entire weekend were sold out at the PVR cinema, Juhu, Mumbai.

In retrospect this was expected, since Sajid Nadiadwala’s KAMBAKKHT ISHQ was one such film waiting to sweep the audiences off their feet from the day it was launched.

Be it the box office magic of Akshay Kumar or Hollywood participation by Sylvester Stallone, Brandon Raouth and Denise Richards, or the Akshay Kumar-Kareena Kapoor kiss-a, or Kareena’s supermodel avatar or the chartbuster title track, KI has been in the news and on the right track right from day one.

Taran Adarsh a trade analyst says, “Kambakkht Ishq got huge openings for yesterday’s paid preview. It was 100% across all places In Mumbai alone 62 screens paid previews garnered 100%. Today most of the place early morning shows i.e. 9:30/10 am shows are 90 – 95% full. Places like Rohtak in Punjab collected Rs 55,000 Net out of Rs 60,000 Houseful capacity. Place like Amritsar will be collecting Rs 1 lac which is overcapacity by 200-250 audience. Lucknow was around 90-95% morning shows. Audience’s report is very positive”

Sajid Nadiadwala’s brand of cinema has mastered the art of catering to popular palates. Blockbusters like Jeet, Judwaa, Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi and Heyy Babyy have statistical evidence of his almost 100% track record.

When asked how he always manages to induce the immense interest levels for his projects, amongst the audiences, Sajid Nadiadwala modestly maintains “Right from the onset, whilst identifying a project, the focus is always to go beyond ones past achievements. The audience expects this from us. Afterall they too are growing with time and technology. I feel if we respect our audience’s expectations to be entertained convincingly, only then can we connect with them completely in the cinema halls.”

Sajid’s philosophy seems to be working big time, once again with KAMBAKKHT ISHQ.
A total amount of 2030 screens worldwide will be showing the film from 3RD July 2009.

This is nearly a 15/20% increase from the screens that played Ghajini.

Heyy Babyy opened to 95 screens in Delhi whereas KAMBAKKHT ISHQ will open to 155 screens there.

So as the box-office number game is about to be flagged off, trade pundits are already calculating that even at an average of Rs 5 Lacs per cinema collections, KAMBAKKHT ISHQ has the potential to gross worldwide more than Rs 100 Crores in its very first week.

The countdown has commenced for KAMBAKKHT ISHQ to be transformed into KAMBAKKHT HIT.



Akshay Kumar has reasons to smile. His much hyped 'Kambakkth Ishq' has managed to build a good hype amongst the audiences, something which is reflecting from the favourable response that it has received via a healthy advance booking. Though quite a few multiplexes and single screens opened their advance booking only on Wednesday (which is the norm), some major chains (like PVR) opened it early as Sunday to gauge audience's interest in the film. Thankfully, it was all positive, something which would definitely have contributed to sudden plans for paid previews that were hosted on Thursday.

However, Sajid Nadiadwala and Co. took a guarded approach as instead of going ballistic with paid previews and playing multiple shows all through the evening and night, they kept it low profile with only a show each at select multiplexes in major cities. Moreover, the show timings were also quite late in the night with some of them beginning as late as 11 PM. Obviously, the makers and especially the leading man Akshay Kumar have learnt the lesson from 'Chandni Chowk To China' debacle where negative reviews had started flowing as early as 9 PM Thursday night once the first paid preview (at 6PM) had come to a close.

Though sources indicate that the makers of 'Kambakkth Ishq' are quite confident of their product, it made sense to have a restricted viewing of the film rather than it being a wholesome affair, lest it led to any negativity. In any case, record number of prints are being circulated across the country which means that opening weekend collections should be quite a bountiful.

There have been murmurs around the promos not being really strong for this Akshay and Kareena starrer. However, one just hopes that the team of 'Kambakkth Ishq' is hiding the real stuff in the background rather than revealing it all in the promos itself; a mistake that recent release 'Paying Guest' made and suffered badly. It would be better for a film with such a huge scale to let audiences warm up to the film and that's a path this Sabbir Khan directed film seems to be taking.

As are the indicators right now, the film should fetch good numbers in the opening weekend even if they aren't record breaking per se. While 'Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi' and 'Singh Is Kinng' hold the record of netting 40 crores or more in their first week (with 'Ghajini' going through the ceiling with a 60 crores + opening, it would be fair if 'Kambakkth Ishq' crosses 35 crores mark at the least. This is where the film seems to be headed as well and even though a few may complain that these collections would be less for an Akshay Kumar biggie, one has to keep in mind that he has suffered two recent flops in 'Chandni Chowk To China' and '8X10 Tasveer', something which is looming large on audience's mind. Moreover, 35 crores is not a bad number too as long as the film can sustain in weeks to come.

With 'Shortkut - The Con Is On' being the only major release in week to follow and 'Jashnn' arriving on 17th July, 'Kambakkth Ishq' now has to be just a decent enough film to keep showing steady collections before 'Luck' arrives on 24th July.