Bell Bottom Gets Encouraging Footfalls On Sunday, Trade Rejoices

After a  slow start  on  Thursday, the Akshay Kumar thriller Bell Bottom showed a marked improvement on Sunday,  specially in  Gujarat and Bihar.The  film collected approximately  Rs 4.5 crore  rupees  on Sunday , of which    Gujarat  accounted  for Rs 1  crore.

The trade sees this  as  a good sign and are  hopeful that the footfalls will get even better  this week  when  producer Anand Pandit’s Amitabh Bachchan  thriller Chehre will open.

Says Maharashtra’s leading film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi, “This definitely  augurs well for Chehre.The engines of the exhibition sector are just warming up and the collections and footfalls will see growth with every passing week as awareness around the reopening and new releases spreads among the people. Bell Bottom may not have collected what was expected from it, but it has done a great service to the industry by reopening hundreds of cinema halls and paving the way for more fresh content to be released.”

 Says  Girish Johar, Producer & Film Business Expert, “The Sunday jump at the  box office  elicited  a sigh of relief from  all…Bell Bottom team and fans alike. The Raksha Bandhan  holiday coupled with Sunday did the trick. Really hope that during the coming weekdays the momentum continues. It’s a good sign for CHEHRE too as clearly the audiences are keen to come back to experience bigscreen entertainment.”

 Trade  expert Atul  Mohan adds, “Sunday was expected to be good due to the  holiday and Raksha Bandhan… and it turned out to be as anticipated. The numbers would have been even more, had the cinemas been open in Maharashtra. This should encourage the makers of Chehre, the next big release after Bell Bottom.”

  Atul feels things can only get better  for the  film business. “The business will gradually get better and we need big films with big Chehres(faces)  to release regularly to attract audience towards big screens. I hope the cinemas in Maharashtra open up soon which will contribute to big numbers for the forthcoming releases.”

Anand Pandit, the  enterprising  producer  of Chehre is  very hopeful about the footfalls. “I am very happy  about Bell Bottom doing well, and not just because it will impact my film positively,  but also because  the whole cinema fraternity which is struggling for survival. I congratulate  Vashu Bhagnani(producer Bell Bottom) and Akshay Kumar  for  waiting it out and releasing Bell Bottom in  theatres, even at the risk  of  loss, to help the cinema industry survive. We the Chehre team  had also decided that we will release our  film in movie theatres only. This is  our humble effort to bring audiences  back into theatres.”