'Ramayana', 'Aakrosh' 'Knock(ed) Out' at box office

New Delhi (IANS) - Sanjay Dutt-Irrfan Khan starrer "Knock Out" and Ajay Devgn-Akshaye Khanna starrer "Aakrosh" that released Friday have failed to sizzle at the box office this Dusshera. Even "Ramayana - The Epic" fizzled out without any fireworks with no divine intervention.

"The weekend was very bad with an overall occupancy of less than 40 percent. The movies didn't pick up even over the weekend. 'Knock Out', 'Aakrosh' and 'Ramayana' could barely cross 40 percent, 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively. The public did not accept the movies," Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas at Noida, told IANS.

Delhi-based distributor Joginder Mahajan said: "All three movies have been major duds. 'Knockout' that has been made at a production cost of up to Rs.24 crore could make only Rs.50 lakh in Delhi-Uttar Pradesh-Punjab. 'Aakrosh' that has been made at Rs.40 crore could make only Rs.60 lakh in this belt.

"'Ramayana' on the other hand won't even recover its publicity costs. These were all dry subjects with no entertainment quotient and people wouldn't want to shell out money for no entertainment," he added.

Directed by Mani Shankar and produced by Sohail Maklai, "Knock Out" is an adaptation of Hollywood venture "Phone Booth". It also features Kangana Ranaut, Sushant Singh and Gulshan Grover.

"Aakrosh", on the other hand, has been directed by Priyadarshan and also stars Paresh Rawal and Bipasha Basu.

"Ramayana" is a 3-D animated film produced by filmmaker Ketan Mehta under his banner Maya Digital Media. It has been directed by Chetan Desai.

"The weekend was a complete washout. None of the movies picked up any momentum, had no word of mouth or content value. The stories were dry and found no takers. There was no business. While 'Aakrosh' and 'Knock Out' managed an occupancy below 20 percent, 'Ramayana' couldn't get anything more than maximum 10 percent," a source from PVR cinemas said.

Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas, however, had a different story to tell.

"Friday was both rocking and shocking. We expected a 80-90 percent occupancy as these were big projects but none of the movies could exceed more than 60-70 percent. Contentwise there was a mixed reaction from the audience," said Raizada.

"'Ramayana', however, did decent business around 30-35 percent because of Dusshera and kids making a beeline for the same," he added.