May 11, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): 52 crores at the end of first week (as confirmed by the co-producers of the film – EROS) means that Akshay Kumar as well as Deepika Padukone have now enjoyed the biggest starts ever of their career, with ‘Housefull‘ surpassing the first week collections of ‘Kambakkth Ishq‘ and ‘Om Shanti Om‘ respectively. While it is quite clear that the film will surpass the collections of Akshay Kumar’s biggest money spinners till date – ‘Welcome‘ and ‘Singh is Kinng‘ – both of which crossed the 70 crores milestone, chances are bleak that Deepika Padukone’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ record of 88 crores would be beaten.
Release of ‘Badmaash Company‘ means that ‘Housefull’ did have good competition after all. Though it was expected by many that the Shahid Kapoor starrer won’t be able to make much of an impact, the fact remains that it has done so indeed due to which ‘Housefull’ has taken an initial hit. However, next week being pretty open with only ‘Bumm Bumm Bole’, ‘Admissions Open’ and ‘Kushti’ for competition, the ground is open for both ‘Badmaash Company’ and ‘Housefull’ to make a sustained impact. That would decide the journey of ‘Housefull’ from being a mere hit to a super hit.
.JPG "Deepika Padukone, Sajid Khan, Jiah Khan at Housefull cricket match in Goregaon on 1st May 2010 (4)")
As has been forgotten by the entire industry, the media too completely ignored the other release of the week – ‘Chase’. With just a few lakhs coming in its kitty which won’t be good enough to recover even the print and publicity cost, ‘Chase’ is an out and out disaster and doesn’t have much in it to make any impact on home video or satellite circuits as well. Have we seen the last of such inconsequential and insignificant films? Not yet, as one can pretty much see in the current week.
— Rudhir Burman / Sampurn Wire
