‘Kambakkth Ishq’ all set to take a good start

Akshay Kumar has reasons to smile. His much hyped ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ has managed to build a good hype amongst the audiences, something which is reflecting from the favourable response that it has received via a healthy advance booking. Though quite a few multiplexes and single screens opened their advance booking only on Wednesday (which is the norm), some major chains (like PVR) opened it early as Sunday to gauge audience’s interest in the film. Thankfully, it was all positive, something which would definitely have contributed to sudden plans for paid previews that were hosted on Thursday.

However, Sajid Nadiadwala and Co. took a guarded approach as instead of going ballistic with paid previews and playing multiple shows all through the evening and night, they kept it low profile with only a show each at select multiplexes in major cities. Moreover, the show timings were also quite late in the night with some of them beginning as late as 11 PM. Obviously, the makers and especially the leading man Akshay Kumar have learnt the lesson from ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ debacle where negative reviews had started flowing as early as 9 PM Thursday night once the first paid preview (at 6PM) had come to a close.

Though sources indicate that the makers of ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ are quite confident of their product, it made sense to have a restricted viewing of the film rather than it being a wholesome affair, lest it led to any negativity. In any case, record number of prints are being circulated across the country which means that opening weekend collections should be quite a bountiful.

There have been murmurs around the promos not being really strong for this Akshay and Kareena starrer. However, one just hopes that the team of ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ is hiding the real stuff in the background rather than revealing it all in the promos itself; a mistake that recent release ‘Paying Guest’ made and suffered badly. It would be better for a film with such a huge scale to let audiences warm up to the film and that’s a path this Sabbir Khan directed film seems to be taking.

As are the indicators right now, the film should fetch good numbers in the opening weekend even if they aren’t record breaking per se. While ‘Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’ and ‘Singh Is Kinng’ hold the record of netting 40 crores or more in their first week (with ‘Ghajini’ going through the ceiling with a 60 crores + opening, it would be fair if ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ crosses 35 crores mark at the least. This is where the film seems to be headed as well and even though a few may complain that these collections would be less for an Akshay Kumar biggie, one has to keep in mind that he has suffered two recent flops in ‘Chandni Chowk To China’ and ‘8X10 Tasveer’, something which is looming large on audience’s mind. Moreover, 35 crores is not a bad number too as long as the film can sustain in weeks to come.

With ‘Shortkut - The Con Is On’ being the only major release in week to follow and ‘Jashnn’ arriving on 17th July, ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ now has to be just a decent enough film to keep showing steady collections before ‘Luck’ arrives on 24th July.

Akshay and Kareena promotes Kabhakht Ishq

Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor starrer film Kambakht Ishq is one of the most awaited flicks of the year. And both Aki and Bebo is leaving no stones unturned to promote the film. Yesterday, the cast and crew along with Hungama digital media held a press conference where the duo spoke at length about their respective characters.

“My character in the film I believe is the most stylish character Indian audiences have ever witnessed,” explains Kareena. She goes on to add, “She is vivacious, smart, arrogant and sexy girl who does not believe in the concept of love as the story of the film goes.” When questions were poured on Akshay, he replied with the most stylish way he could with the martial arts act. Shedding some light on the story and his character in the film, he says, “Kambakht Ishq is a story of “Battle of sexes’ and I play someone who is proud of bachelorhood and would not give up anything to give it up.”

Also at the press conference were present the debutant director Sabbir Khan and CEO of Hungama group Neeraj Roy. As far as the promotional strategies are concerned, Kambakht Ishq crew has teamed up with Hungama digital media to bring a unique game where after winning all the levels the fans get the opportunity to win the heart of Kareena. Also, while login on to Hungama.com one can get beauty and stunt tips straight from Kareena and Akshay’s mouth respectively. On which Akshay says, “I hope my fans especially enjoy the stunt tips, but they must all be very careful while doing them.” Kareena further excitedly adds, “I loved sharing my style tips with my fans. I hope all the ladies love all my style tips.”