Wake up Sid

New Delhi, Oct 5 (IANS) Debutant director Ayan Mukerji's unconventional romantic tale of a guy falling for an older woman in "Wake Up Sid" has not only wowed the critics, it has pulled the crowd too, completely sidelining its co-release "Do Knot Disturb".

The box office received a shock with Ahsutosh Gowariker's "What's Your Raashee" that released Sep 25 and went awry in terms of business, courtesy its length and 13 songs.

But the ticket windows have been buzzing again with the two movies that hit the screens Friday with the Ranbir starrer "Wake Up Sid" stealing the pie from Govinda starrer "Do Knot Disturb".

" 'Wake Up Sid' is doing extremely well. We've had an occupancy of more than 90 percent across 17 shows over the initial weekend and it is still going strong while 'Do Knot Disturb' had only a two-day run with close to 75 percent despite 16 shows," Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas at Noida, told IANS.

"We are expecting 'Wake Up Sid' to continue a good run at least until the Diwali weekend, which has major releases like 'Blue', 'Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna' and 'All The Best'. Though we have 'Acid Factory' on Oct 9, we are sincerely doubtful about its future in multiplexes," he added.

Made at a budget of around Rs.15 crore (Rs.150 million), "Wake Up Sid" has been produced by Dharma Productions Pvt Ltd and distributed by UTV Motion Pictures with around 700 prints worldwide. Directed by first-time director Ayan Mukerji, it also stars Konkona Sen Sharma in female lead.

" 'Wake Up Sid' has had a very good occupancy and opening over the first weekend. It is a different movie for different people and is totally a multiplex movie. It is going to have an extended play," said a source from PVR Cinemas.

"It has done what 'Rock On!!' did last year... it has evoked people's hidden past and is so associative. While 'Do Knot Disturb' despite having almost the equal number of shows as the former (around 6 each per property) did have a good opening, but it fell flat in no time," the source added.

"Do Knot Disturb" has been co-produced by Vashu Bhagnani and Big Pictures and directed by David Dhawan. Released across 1060 screens worldwide, it stars Govinda, Sushmita Sen, Lara Dutta and Riteish Deshmukh.

Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, however, thinks the business for both the movies is almost done.

"We kept around 10 shows each for both the movies across different properties and the result has been around 60 and 80 percent respectively for 'Do Knot...' and '...Sid'," said Raizada.

"The response for the latter has been very good and this one is in fact sustaining too but as far as the long run is concerned, nothing can be said as the business has mostly been done during the initial weekend," he added.

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