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Fiza: some home truths

Komal Nahta

You heard the hype.

Now here are some facts about Fiza:

As expected, the film is holding on excellently in Bombay. It's steady in Delhi, but in UP, collections began to drop from day four: not an alraming one, but a sign of things to come. And after a bumper start in East Punjab, Monday, September 11 saw it dipping steadily.

The Maharashtra part of the C P Berar circuit is faring better than the MP belt. But some stations of Maharashtra like Jalgaon and Wardha, too, collections have dropped from Monday.

The C I territory reported the lowest start on Friday. Luckily, the C I distributor bought the film at the lowest price in India.

In Jaipur, the first day's collection totalled Rs 2,58,716 against a capacity of Rs 2,77,943 (a historic 93.08 per cent).

The fourth day's collection tumbled down to a fairly low Rs 1,03,000 against a capacity of Rs 2,22,354 (46.32 per cent). And the first three days in the Nizam circuit were bumper -- almost 100 per cent.

The decline commenced on day four -- though it's not an alarming drop.

What is of interest is that for a first-time venture of firsts, Fiza has been very lucky. Consider: It is the first production venture of Pradeep Guha's The Culture Co (I) Pvt Ltd, in association with UTV Motion Pictures.

It is also the debut directorial attempt of film critic Khalid Mohamed.

And irrespective of how the film holds at the ticket windows in the days and weeks to come, the producers have made a table profit of over Rs 7 to 8 crore!

Time was when there was no buyer for Fiza at a ratio (price) of even Rs 65 lakh.

But thanks to the overnight success of Hrithik Roshan and KN…PH and Anu Malik's music score, Fiza was a pre-release hot property. Distributors lapped up the film at Rs 1.75 to Rs 2 crore -- a windfall!

Related stories:

The Fiza review
For a few notes more!
'Fiza and Mission Kashmir will prove I am not a one-movie star!'
Fiza and the art of publicity
Fiza: Sister Act!
'Fiza will shock a lot of people!':Hrithik Roshan
'Fiza is an extension of my personality': Khalid Mohamed
'It is not a launchpad like Mission Kashmir or Refugee': Bikram Saluja
Santosh Sivan on Fiza
The Fiza trailer
Haywire over Hrithik!
Hrithik, right about turn
'I don't differentiate between films': Karisma Kapoor