Baar Baar Dekho, Freaky Ali box office collections: Opening weekend below par

Friday, 9 September, saw two Hindi films release — Baar Baar Dekho and Freaky Ali (well there was Ek Kahani Julie Ki as well, but we’re going to skip it, seeing as how no one seems to have watched it). Neither, however, seems to have done much to lift the Bollywood box office from its slump of the past few weekends. [caption id=“attachment_3001200” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Freaky Ali (L); Baar Baar Dekho both saw a drop in their collections over Sunday, 11 September[/caption] Baar Baar Dekho, with its pedigree (Dharma Productions) and photogenic lead pair (Sidharth Malhotra and Katrina Kaif) was expected to bring in around Rs 28-30 crores on its opening weekend. But the film has performed a little below expectations. According to the figures released by trade expert Taran Adarsh, the film’s box office collection stood at Rs 6.81 cr on Friday, rose to Rs 7.65 cr on Saturday — and then dropped to Rs 6.70 cr on Sunday. Both Taran Adarsh and trade portal KoiMoi.com have now pegged Baar Baar Dekho’s three-day earnings at Rs 21.16 crore. Baar Baar Dekho has been made at a cost of Rs 50 crore, as per this International Business Times report, of which it has already made up around Rs 26 crore through the sale of satellite and music rights. With its opening weekend box office collection, it should make up its budget at the very least. Meanwhile, Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Freaky Ali managed to earn around Rs 8.60 crore, as per KoiMoi.com. Made on a budget of Rs 19 crore, this Sohail Khan film needs to be able to go the distance to make up its costs. Like Baar Baar Dekho, Freaky Ali too registered lower collections on Sunday, than Saturday. (Generally, the trend is for collections to be higher on Sundays.) While trade experts have seen the drop in collections on Sunday for both Baar Baar Dekho and Freaky Ali as a sign of the audience’s disappointment in these films, one may have to allow for the seventh-day Ganesh visarjan in centres like Mumbai, where people may have stayed away from the theatres to avoid the massive traffic snarls that are an inevitable part of the festivities. With a public holiday for Eid coming up on Tuesday, 13 September, both films have a chance to make up some of their business — with the 11th-day visarjan coming up on Thursday, and then Amitabh Bachchan’s Pink and Emraan Hashmi’s Raaz Reboot coming to the theatres on Friday (16 September), this could be the last opportunity for Baar Baar Dekho and Freaky Ali to add in any meaningful way to their collections.