Box office collection: Sonam Kapoor’s Bewakoofiyaan has a dull start coz of Kangana Ranaut’s Queen

Last Friday Sonam and Ayushmann’s romcom Bewakoofiyaan hit the theatres. While Nupur Asthana’s directorial venture should have got a good opening weekend, the film failed to get cash registers ringing despite a long weekend coz of Holi

Director Nupur Asthana’s romantic comedy Bewakoofiyaan starring Sonam Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana and Rishi Kapoor in the lead has failed at the box office miserably. The film managed to rake in a little above Rs 2 crore on its first day. Ideally Bewakoofiyaan should have got a great start considering the weekend got extended till Monday due to Holi. However, Sonam-Ayushmann starrer kicked off on a slow note and things remained pretty much the same over the weekend as well. Film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted, “Bewakoofiyaan Fri 2.23 cr, Sat 2.51 cr. Total – 4.74 cr nett.India biz.” On the other hand, Kangana Ranaut’s Queen fared well even in its second weekend. Vikas Bahl’s chick flick has certainly created hungama the box office. “Queen [Wknd 2] Fri 2.15 cr, Sat 3.75 cr, Sun 4.75 cr. Grand total - 29.50 cr nett… Wknd 2 better than Wknd 1… India biz… SUPERB,” posted Adarsh.

According to Boxofficeindia, “Bewakoofiyaan had a poor weekend grossing around Rs 6.75 crore nett over its first weekend. The film started on a low note and the growth was limited over the weekend. The collections are better than Total Siyapaa but that film was almost a total washout.

As for Kangy’s film, “Queen continued its fantastic run on its second Monday as it collected around 2.75-3 crore nett due to a holiday for Holi on Monday. Queen has chances to hit the 50 crore nett mark and is likely to emerge the first outright hit of the year,” reported Boxofficeindia.

Going by the figures, it’s clear that Kangana’s Queen is way ahead of Sonam’s Bewakoofiyaan in the numbers game. If Vikas Bahl’s latest outing continues to do well at the ticket windows then we won’t be surprised if Queen soon enters the Rs 100 crore club. In fact, it should, hai na? But the box office collection of Queen could get affected as four films will hit the screens this week – Sunny Leone’s Ragini MMS 2, Mahie Gill-Sharman Joshi-Meera Chopra starrer Gang of Ghosts, Ankhon Dekhi and Lakshmi.

Or who knows it could be the other way round coz Kangana’s flick has indeed impressed everyone – from critics to audience to Bollywood bigwigs and is steadily climbing up the money ladder.

‘Queen’ still going strong, beats Sonam Kapoor’s ‘Bewakoofiyaan’

Kangana Ranaut's 'Queen' is still going strong at the box office beating this week's fresh release 'Bewakoofiyaan'.

Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Queen’ is still going strong at the box office beating this week’s fresh release – Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana’s ‘Bewakoofiyaan’. Queen has entered its third week.
‘Queen’ collected over Rs 11 crore on the second weekend, whereas last week’s fresh release ‘Bewakoofiyaan’ managed to collect a little above Rs 9 crore.
Read Review: Queen
Queen’s grand total however stands at Rs 32 crore. Taran adarsh gave the official figures. “#Bewakoofiyaan Fri 2.23 cr, Sat 2.51 cr, Sun 2.57 cr, Mon 2.06 cr. Total: ₹ 9.37 cr nett. India biz.” and “#Queen [Week 2] Fri 2.15 cr, Sat 3.75 cr, Sun 4.75 cr, Mon 2.50 cr. Grand total: ₹ 32 cr nett. India biz.”
‘Bewakoofiyaan’ boasted of a strong star cast – Rishi Kpaoor, Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana but because of a weak script the movie failed to cast its spell on the audience.
Read Review: Bewakoofiaan
Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Queen’ is rock steady, mainly due to the strong word-of -mouth and good reviews. Many Bollywood celebs including Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Sonakshi Sinha, Deepika Padukone among others has endorsed Kangana’s performance and the film itself.
In fact, Deepika Padukone even went on to say that she was jealous of Kangana Ranaut for bagging the role.
Big B said, “In recent times I have never experienced so much word of mouth of a film as I have for ‘Queen’ .. delighted for its makers !!”
Aamir Khan had tweeted, “What a film!!! Guys you have to watch QUEEN !!! Anyone who hasn’t seen it please go now and see it… Thank you to Vikas Bahl and his team which made the film. And Kangana… you rock!!!”

Movie Review: Bewakoofiyaan: Fun But Inspiring

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor

Director: Nupur Asthana

Rating: Three and a Half Stars

Sometimes, love just ain't enough. So there we have two people in love. The pampered but not spoilt bureaucrat's daughter Mayera and her lover beau Mohit whose upward mobility is frozen by an employment meltdown in his airline organization (spicy allusion to the Kingfisher crisis, yes?)

It's Delhi's noveau riche Gurgaon world bathed in cosmetic conceit. Sonam Kapoor and Ayushmann Khurrana blend into this gleaming kingdom's excesses effortlessly. The two of them are so good as a couple, imagining them apart for even a portion of the bitterness that bites into the narrative during the second-half becomes unbearable.

Debutant director Nupur Asthana's film is a bright scrambled world of wealth, luxury and the yuppy club's unstated desperation to move up the corporate ladder. It is also, by its very definition, a ridiculously self-important delusional world.

Miraculously this film with its gleaming polished surfaces neither gasps nor laughs at the ignobility of upward mobility. There is an interestingly crafted fight scene between the film's lead pair where Mayera reminds Mohit that she has not bought a new pair of shoes during the last two months because of his job loss. That she doesn’t realize how ridiculous she sounds to Mohit is a measure of the underlining irony that the narrative scrapes out of these characters while portraying the exacerbated materialism of the go-getting generation.

Habib Faisal's writing is smart and amiable, crowded with quaint colloquialisms culled from the capital youngster's language. The writing also surprises itself by becoming inwardly-drawn and introspective at the most unexpected moments. That the screenplay has got Ayushmann to play the cool guy whose perfectly laid-out plans fall apart, is a stroke of luck for this likeable film.

Ayushmann looks like the guy next-door who wouldn’t mind pulling a few strings to float higher than the level allotted to him by fate. He brings a suave arrogance to his role and creates a cohesive graph for his character. He is an actor to watch.

Of course it helps Ayushmann that he has Rishi Kapoor to play his girlfriend's hawk-like father. Rishi’s character of the IAS officer on the verge of retirement (with a companion from his work place who typically, offers his "humble" advice on every matter) is brilliantly written.

Rishi's Sehgal is a pompous name-thrower with an inflated sense of self-worth, over-possessive about his only daughter's life and preferences. V.K. Sehgal is a striking image of a man on the verge of erupting into a self-deprecatory laughter, if he only he knew how funny his quirks look from the outside.

Rishi brings to the characters a cornocupia of "cool". Seldom in his any other recent film except Do Dooni Chaar has this brilliant actor expressed such pleasure in putting forward his character’s point of view. It’s no coincidence that film too was written by Faisal.

So many of Rishi Kapoor’s scenes with Ayushmann stand tall because of the way the two characters meet as adversaries who fortunately love the same girl in different ways. Sonam as the girl torn between an autocratic dad and unreasonable lover is so in-character you wonder whether the role and its fetish for designer labels were written specially for her.

Bewakoofiyan has nothing new to say. And that is its greatest virtue. It is Meet The Parents where the father and the prospective son-in-law's roles are better played than the original. Yes, Rishi and Ayushmann are better than Robert de Niro and Ben Stiller were in the Hollywood film about the father of the bride.

The narrative sparkles with a mischievous elegance. The winking homage to the go-getting glam-set of Delhi works mainly because the three protagonists are so immersed in the goings-on they make us forget that we've seen most of these conflicts over and over again in the past. In terms of the fluency with which the cliche about the love birds and the girl's disapproving dad is tackled, Bewakoofiyaan is a marked improvement on Yashraj Productions' last two pretentious hammy films Shuddh Desi Romance and Gunday.

Ayushmann's performance is oh not so hammy. A pure delight to behold after Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor's over-energized bravado in Gunday.

The tongue-in-cheek ‘Bewakoofiyaan’ review

Bewakoofiyaan review

Bewakoofiyaan offers its viewers to become a part of the movie experience: if you watch the film expecting a Queen or a Hasee Toh Phasee, you are pretty much doing what the title says. Though the lead pair does a decent job, they are burdened with a tired script and a cliched concept.
As usual, our reporter interviewed celeb watchers of the film to figure out what they thought of Bewakoofiyan. In keeping with the mood of the season, his first three interviewees were the three top political figures in India today.

bewakoofiyaan Overview

Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Sonam Kapoor

Director: Nupur Asthana

Plot: The story is about Mohit, a marketing whiz kid vying for a step up the career ladder and Mayera, a financial brain with a penchant for shoes. A young middle-class corporate couple that’s ambitious and likes the good life too. They work hard and party hard! The couple is passionately in love with each other and believe that they can live on love and fresh air! Too filmy isn’t it?

But, well as every other filmy couple, Mohit and Mayera too have a obstacle in their love life! It’s Mayera’s willful bureaucratic father V.K Sehgal. The obstinate old man believes that only a rich man can bring Mayera happiness and a mid-level executive like Mohit simply isn’t good enough!

Exactly how fragile are relationships in these times where consumer lifestyles dictate their very nature and intensity? Who gets the last laugh when recession strikes and the lack of money tests love… credit-card-junkies private-sector Mohit-Mayera; or safe-playing sarkari, V.K. Sehgal?

Actors: Ayushmann Khurrana, Rishi Kapoor
Actress: Sonam Kapoor