Vivek Oberoi`s film ‘Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story’ faces theatre crunch

Mumbai: After a not-so-great response to ‘Kismet Love Paisa Dilli’ (KLPD), actor Vivek Oberoi`s romantic comedy ‘Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story’ released Friday. The film`s initial reports are largely encouraging. However, it is facing an unforeseen crisis - a shortage of movie theatres! Vivek Oberoi plays a goofy gangster in the movie. The two releases Feb 8 - Neeraj Pandey`s "Special 26" and Remo D`Souza`s "ABCD: AnyBody Can Dance" have both become much stronger box-office bets than anticipated, thereby precipitating an unexpected bottleneck at the turnstiles. Film exhibitors all over the country, who anticipated a shortfall in the footfalls for both the films this week, have decided to continue with last week`s releases rather than replace them with the new releases Friday. Arvind Sharma, a prominent distributor-exhibitor from Bihar, said: "It is truly unexpected. We never expected both the films this week to do well. I can`t remember when was the last time this happened. Now that `Special 26` and `ABCD` both are doing well, we can`t pull them out." While exhibitors have accommodated Mukesh Bhatt`s son Vishesh`s directorial "Murder 3" into the schedules, they are reluctant to make adjustments for "Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story". "The `Murder` franchise has some face value. But Vivek Oberoi`s films have not been doing well. Convincing exhibitors to replace last week`s successful film with a Vivek Oberoi-starrer would be difficult," said Sharma. Kumar Taurani of Tips is remarkably forthright on the exhibition crisis faced by his film. Said Taurani: "Yes, we have a problem in getting shows, but I feel that could be an advantage as `Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story` is a mid-sized rom-com and whoever is interested, will go for those selected shows. I am hopeful we`ll get housefulls in the shows that we`ve got." IANS