'Raanjhanaa' rakes in Rs 20 crore in its opening weekend

It seems to be the season of love. Close on the heels of the most recent romantic films, Aashiqui 2 and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani garnering impressive moolah at the box office, the Sonam Kapoor-Dhanush starrer Raanjhanaa too seems to have joined the bandwagon.

Pic/Santa Banta

Aanand L Rai's film, that had a slow start, picked up over the weekend and brought in approximately Rs 20 crore.

Last week's release Fukrey collected another Rs 7 crore, bringing its total collection to Rs 25 crore.

Swara Bhaskar also stars in 'Raanjhanaa'

Exhibitor Akshay Rathi says, "Raanjhanaa proves that the conventional hero-looks, fluency in language, six pack-abs, star power, etc don't matter as much as conviction in filmmaking and performance. The film rests on the able shoulders of Aanand and Dhanush, who seem to have impressed the audience in India and overseas, at multiplexes and single screens, men and women, classes and the masses, youngsters as well as the elders fall in love with their film. With the collections growing by the day, through the weekend and sustaining well on Monday, the film is well on its way to becoming another big underdog victory."

According to Rathi, Ameesha Patel's Shortcut Romeo has failed to create any impact at the ticket windows across the country. "Despite having decent music and a lot of action, the film had not been able to create the buzz," he adds.

Distributor Sunny Khanna states, "Shortcut Romeo had a dull opening and is a huge disaster at the box office with collections below Rs 1 crore net. Fukrey saw just a 30 per cent drop from the first weekend collections. The film is already a hit with superb second weekend performance."

According to Khanna, the Sonam-Dhanush film had a tepid response on Friday morning but the film grew with good word-of-mouth publicity from every show there on. "The film had a fantastic first weekend. It proves once again that great content and a good director can draw in the crowds."

Trade analyst Amod Mehra says, "The general reaction to the first half is amazing but second half seems not so great. The makers have released the film in Hindi as well as Tamil, so they will benefit from both the markets. The film is doing very well in the North circuit. Shortcut Romeo and Enemmy have been a disastrous."

The Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer YJHD could be inching closer to a double century figure, in terms of its total collections. The film has raked in Rs 4.25 crore in its fourth weekend, taking the total to Rs 175 crore.u00a0