Airlift is an entertaining film which will be liked by the classes and family audiences. That it tackles a subject not many are aware of is a major plus point because that keeps the audience’s interest alive from the start till the end. It has emotional and patriotic value and will, therefore, prove to be a plus fare for its producers and a safe bet/earning proposal for its various distributors.

Dilwale is a masala entertainer from the start till the end. It will do good business at the box-office, mainly on the strength of the support of the youth and the masses. Distributors, many of who have acquired the film at unbelievably high prices, will scrape through. As for the producers, this one is a lottery – sorry, windfall! Yes, the producers may make a net profit of Rs. 80-100 crore in this film!!

Bajirao Mastani is a visually delightful entertainer and a cinematic masterpiece. Unfortunately, it holds more appeal for the classes and multiplex audiences and less for the masses. This will reflect adversely in its commercial report card because a film with an investment of the kind made in this project needed to be universally appealing, nothing less than that. Its collections are bound to pick up due to positive mouth publicity. In commercial terms, however, its very high cost on the one hand and an ordinary initial on the other, coupled with the fact that it has released in direct opposition of Dilwale, will not see it making profits. Rather, this masterpiece could, quite unfortunately and tragically, even entail losses to the persons concerned.

On the whole, Angry Indian Goddesses is a well-made film with fantastic performances by all the actors. It will win a lot of critical acclaim. But its commercial prospects are poor because of several reasons – its class-appealing subject, its odd English title (due to which many in the public will wrongly assume that the film is in English), too many muted dialogues and lack of awareness about the film’s release among members of the public.

On the whole, Hate Story 3 is a very ordinary and routine fare but it definitely has skin show and intimate scenes to lure the masses and youngsters to the cinemas in the first weekend. Given its lovely start, it will prove to be above-average.

Tamasha is a disapp­ointing fare for a large chunk of the audience. It will find favour with a section of the city youth and class audiences but that will be grossly insufficient to recover the investment in the film. It will, therefore, entail heavy losses to all concerned.

…will be loved by one section of the audience and will not find favour with youngsters initially, but it will, in the final tally, emerge as a comfortable box-office winner for all concerned. It will do huge business at the ticket windows. Despite its high cost (investment of Fox is to the tune of Rs. 235 crore), profits are assured. In fact, the film may go on to earn very well if the ladies audi­ence patronises it in a big way – which is a very big possibility.

Shaandaar is an entertaining film and will be loved by the youth, especially in the cities. It will emerge amply victorious at the box-office on the strength of youth patronage. Business in the good multiplexes will be excellent but that in the lesser multiplexes and less-maintained single-screen cinemas will be below the mark.

…will not find many takers because it is too routine, too predictable and too plastic. Flop.

…is a small film which will prove to be big at the box-office. Its comedy will keep the youngsters and young at heart in splits and, therefore, its distributors smiling from ear to ear. A sure­ fire hit!