Diwali releases 'Om Shanti Om' and 'Saawariya' rock box office : Bollywood News : ApunKaChoice.Com


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Shah Rukh Khan

Diwali releases 'Om Shanti Om' and 'Saawariya' rock box office
18th Nov 2007 10.01 IST
By Agencies

It was dubbed in film trade circles as the big clash between the 'charisma' and 'stardom' of the 'Baadshah of Bollywood' Shah Rukh Khan and the cinematic brilliance of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and the youthful freshness and fervour of star debutants Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor .

In the ultimate analysis, however, the battle for eyeballs between Farah Khan 's reincarnation drama Om Shanti Om and Bhansali's ''sweet and poignant'' love story Saawariya has set the box office registers for Bollywood jingling, drawing cinegoers by droves to the cinema halls to experience the charms of the King Khan as well as the assured, graceful and endearing screen presence of debutants Deepika Padukone , Sonam and Ranbir.

The ubiquitous charm of the King Khan may have given 'Om Shanti Om' an edge over Bhansali's 'Saawariya' but the latter too has swept audiences off their feet with it's sweet and endearing tale of poignant love.

Riding on the 'King Khan' magic and the beautific and graceful presence of model-turned actress Deepika, 'Om Shanti Om' has netted excellent collections during its first weekend.

Released on a whopping 1500 cinema screens across the Globe, 'Om Shanti Om', which also marks the film debut of Deepika, , grossed over Rs 80 crore worldwide in the first three days of its release alone, trade sources said.

'Saawariya', though not as big a hit as 'Om Shanti Om', has also provide to be a huge money earner at the box office.

'Saawariya', being co-produced by the US-based Sony Pictures' (its first Indian Co-Production) has earned over Rs 55 crores from nearly 950 cinema screens across the world during the Diwali weekend.

Trade sources said 'Om Shanti Om', a reincarnation tale with shades of 'Karz' and 'Madhumati', has proved to be a thorough entertainer, netting extra-ordinary collections over the first weekend in theatres all over the world.

What is remarkable about the film is that in India it is drawing crowds in single screen cinema hall as well as multiplexes across the country, something that no film has managed to do in recent years. What is commendable is the fact that the collections have taken only a slight drop from Monday onwards.

In the overseas market, 'Om Shanti Om' has taken a flying start in major markets like UK, US and Australia.

In the United Kingdom, the SRK-starrer earned a whopping 518,845 UK Pounds in its opening weekend (Rs 42 million) from just 52 screens, figuring at number seven on the UK top 15.

What was remarkable was that 'Om Shanti Om' had the best per screen average of 9977.79 UK Pounds among the UK top 15 over its opening weekend, thus leaving behind Hollywood biggies like 'Stardust', 'Ratatouille', 'The Golden Age' and the Tom Cruise-starrer 'Lions for Lambs' 'Om Shanti Om' thus surpassed the total UK collections of the last SRK starrer Chak De India , which has earned 416,917 UK pounds till date.

Trade sources say that with such excellent collections in the opening weekend itself and still going strong, 'Om Shanti Om' could well turn out to be the biggest grosser from Bollywood in UK this year, surpassing the Akshay Kumar starrer Namastey London , which till now is the highest grossing Bollywood film in the UK for 2007 with total collections of 830,851 UK pounds (Rs 67 million).

In the United States too, 'Om Shanti Om' has turned out to be a big hit. The film garnered 1.75 million dollars during its opening weekend from 114 cinema screens, the biggest ever opening for a Hindi film in the US.

'Saawariya', the other Diwali release, also opened to excellent collections during its opening weekend.

Sources in Sony pictures informed, 'Saawariya' grossed Rs 50 crores across 754 screens in India over the Diwali weekend, from November 9-11.

The film which marks the big screen debut of Anil Kapoor 's daughter Sonam and Rishi Kapoor 's son Ranbir, also had good collections in the 12 overseas markets- UK, US, UAE, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Kenya, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Singapore - where it was released across 230 screens.

In UK, the film figured at number 12 on the UK top 15 in its opening weekend with collections of 160,985 UK Pounds (Rs 13 million) from 46 cinema screens. In New Zealand, Bhansali's film figured at number 7 in the top ten charts with total collections of 44,431 Dollars during the opening weekend with a per screen average of 5,554 Dollars.

According to Sony pictures, the film's total earnings overseas in the opening weekend were 1.5 million US Dollars. The worldwide tally, for the same weekend is 14 million US Dollars (approximately Rs 60 crore), sources in Sony pictures said.

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