Kol halls look for Poila Baisakh succour after tepid Eid weekend
Times of India | 4 April 2025
12 Kolkata: Eid, which traditionally generates substantial revenue at Bengal's box office, has presented a dismally low commercial performance without any Bengali movie releases this time. The solitary Hindi film, too, failed to garner the anticipated enthusiasm amongst viewers. Exhibitors are now waiting for the Poila Baisakh week to salvage the situation.
Navin Choukhani of Navina cinema said this is the first occasion in recent history that no Bengali movie released on Eid. "Though I am not screening ‘Sikandar', reports and collections are at an all-time low for a Salman Khan movie according to trade experts. The general footfall for other films running on Eid at my theatre was also not good," Choukhani said.
Debjiban Basu of Basusree cinema said, "Typically, exams end by Feb or March, and Eid marks the start of increased footfall, continuing through Poila Baisakh. This year, however, we saw an unusually poor turnout during Eid. Despite a new Salman Khan film release, the low audience turnout at Basusree made us wonder if the IPL craze might have been a factor too."
There was no houseful board outside Prachi on Eid either.
"Traditionally, we get houseful shows in the evening and night on Eid. This year, we didn't get that figure. The collections were good, however," said Vidisha Basu of Prachi cinema.
The scene at multiplexes on Eid was not flattering either. "There was only one big movie release and it did not do well. The footfall was bad," said a multiplex chain official in the city.
In 2024, three films were released on Eid: Ajay Devgn's ‘Maidaan', Tiger Shroff and Akshay Kumar's ‘Bade Miyan Chote Miyan', and Ankush Hazra and Oindrila Sen's ‘Mirza'. "The Bengali film, ‘Mirza', performed reasonably well at the box office. In 2023, Jeet's ‘Chengiz' and Salman Khan's ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan' were released. This year's audience turnout didn't come close to matching the performance of the Eid releases in 2023 and 2024," Choukhani added.
The industry wants to wait it out before this lukewarm response is taken as a sign that viewers are no longer interested in watching movies at theatres, or the absence of entertaining content on the big screen. All eyes are fixed on next Friday when two Bengali movies — Suman Ghosh's ‘Puratawn' and Srijit Mukherji's ‘Killbill Society' — will hit theatres, days ahead of Poila Baisakh. There is Sunny Deol's ‘Jaat', too.