'Veer' fails to attract masses

Salman Khan's much ambitious period drama "Veer" has fallen flat at the box office despite having an extended weekend for business, thanks to Republic Day. The movie has not gone beyond an average 45 percent occupancy over the initial weekend.

Released on Jan 22, the film was a solo release, but has failed to attract masses.

"'Veer' is an average movie. While the constant on Friday and Saturday was only 44 percent occupancy, it dropped to 39 percent on Sunday and has been on an average only 43 percent over the initial weekend," Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas at Noida, told IANS.

"It is now expected to fall around 30-35 percent. We were running 19 shows per day and in the new week, we will change it to eight shows per day," he added.

Written by Salman 20 years ago, the film was co-produced by Eros International Media Ltd presentation and Vijay Galani's Moviez production.

Made at a budget of around Rs.44 crore, (Rs.440 million) 'Veer' has been directed by Anil Sharma and marks the big screen debut of Zarine Khan.

Set in colonial India, the film encapsulates a period when the British enslaved India with their divide and rule policy and kings and nawabs fell for it, except for the Pindaris who preferred death to dishonour and fought till their last breath. Salman plays one of the bravest and strongest Pindari soldiers named Veer.

"There has been a major drop in the movie. 'Veer' is a period movie and audiences have not been able to relate to it. The movie got only around 40 percent of opening because there was no competition considering it was a solo release," said Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas.

"Now that we have an extended weekend due to Republic Day, may be it gets some footfalls as people don't have any other movie to watch," he added.

Piyush Raizada, director of Delite Cinema that upgraded itself into a two-screener, however, claims that movie is doing a good business.

"'Veer' is doing very well and the collections are fantastic considering it's a long weekend," said Raizada.

Indo Asian News Service