| NOT-SO-HEROIC PERFORMANCE OF ‘HEROINE’ AT THE BOX-OFFICE In just a week, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Heroine has more or less run out of steam. The film, which netted Rs. 22 crore in India in the first weekend, ended up collecting just Rs. 30-31 crore at the end of seven days. From this, the share accruing to UTV and its distributors is only roughly Rs. 15-16 crore. Given that the share in the rest of the film’s run in the cinemas would not be more than Rs. 1 to 2 crore, the total India theatrical business will be around Rs. 17-19 crore. In the Overseas, the film is expected to do a business of Rs. 3-4 crore. Its satellite rights may not fetch more than Rs. 8-9 crore as the film is certified for adults, has a lot of scenes showing Kareena Kapoor smoking, and has not fared too well at the ticket windows. Taking another couple of crores for audio and home video, the total revenues for Heroine would add up to Rs. 31-33 crore. The cost of production of the woman-centric film is approximately Rs. 28-29 crore. Add to this another Rs. 10-12 crore for promoting and releasing the film, and another at least Rs. 4 crore spent in the earlier Heroine with Aishwarya Rai, which had to be shelved after its first shooting schedule. Therefore, as against the total cost of Rs. 42-45 crore (as explained above), the revenues would be in the region of Rs. 31-33 crore. This explains why Heroine will go down in box-office history as a loss-making film. |