It was always going to be word of mouth doing the trick for the new releases of the week – Ungli, Zid and Zed Plus. Since Ungli was delayed and the promotions were minimal, the star presence of Emraan Hashmi, Sanjay Dutt and Kangana Ranaut was negated. Zid had primarily new faces leading the show due to which the reach amongst the masses too was restricted. On the other hand, Zed Plus had a socio-political base with no star presence – as a result, it all boiled down to the reviews and instant recognition it could have fetched.
As it happened though, Ungli took the better opening amongst the three films and also received reasonably good reviews. However, for a Dharma production, the collections gained were on the lower side, with around 13 crore coming in over the weekend. Now this is lower than Emraan Hashmi’s last release, Raja Natwarlal, though one has to acknowledge that the appreciation for this Rensil D’Silva film is much better. However, since the film is a costly affair, it will have to perform exceedingly well over the week as Action Jackson arrives on Friday.
On the other hand, Zid has been made at a much lesser cost, which means even reasonably good collections can save the day for it. However, the opening was low for this Anubhav Sinha production as well, with the weekend collections around the 4 crore* mark. The bold content meant that single screens in the interiors were better. Again, one has to wait for the weekdays to see how it progresses.
The third release of the week, Zed Plus, saw a minimal release for itself and couldn’t make its presence felt within as well as outside the industry, hence resulting in the audience being oblivious to its arrival – which further translated into very low footfalls.
* Final numbers awaited.