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Hits Hard to Find after American Desi

Arthur J. Pais

Yet another week has gone by without a major desi hit.

Jodi No. 1, released last week on 25 screens, could not even grab $100,000 during its first weekend. It made just about $82,000, and could end its run with about $150,000.

The movie was released by Eros which has gone without a hit for nearly six months -- except for American Desi which is winding up with about $950,000 so far.

Last weekend, Desi, which is on 15 screens, danced to about $25,000. It could have done much better business but for video piracy, says director Piyush Dinker Pandya.

Before Desi opened, Ken Naz, the head honcho at Eros, had declared that he expected the film to break the $1.6 million record of Taal.

But even though the movie grossed little more than half of what Taal did, it is indeed a very profitable venture. Besides, Taal was quite an expensive and far more lavish production.

Desi cost just about $250,000. Some insiders say that it cost even less -- perhaps $200,000. And with openings in England and India pending, Pandya and his brother, Gitesh, are expecting a windfall.

The last rhona-dhona hits in North America were Mission Kashmir and Mohabattein.

Because of the lack of big hits, many also-ran films are still being shown, many of them just once a day.

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