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It's raining flops in Bollywood

The first six months have been quite disasterous at the box office. The two-month strike did not help matters.

"Only four films have done well in the first half of 2006," Vinod Mirani, a trade analyst. "Raaz 2 and New York are the biggest hits whereas Dev D was a plus film. Slumdog Millionaire was an average hit in India."

We take a look at the films that did not make the cut in this half-yearly box office report.

Delhi-6

It was one of the most promising films of the year. After all, it was director Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra's first release after the cult hit Rang De Basanti, and there were a lot of expectations from it.

Unfortunately, Abhishek Bachchan and rising star Sonam Kapoor could not save the film. Even A R Rahman's brilliant music could not make the film a hit.

Luck by Chance

After a superb debut in Rock On!!, Farhan Akhtar acted superbly in Luck By Chance. It was his sister Zoya's directorial debut.

The film was well-reviewed, and had some great music. Unfortunately, it could not light up the box office.

Billu

When Billu flopped, it came as quite a shock because it starred Shah Rukh Khan in a prominent role. But then again, the audience was probably shocked as well, when they saw the film and realised that it was Irrfan Khan -- not SRK -- who was the film's main lead.

Irrfan's huge talent was well-showcased but it could not save the film.

13 B

Madhavan's 13 B had a novel concept but seemed to scare the audiences out of theatres.

The small budget horror film just could not rake in any interest.

Videsh

Preity Zinta's experiment with art cinema got her good reviews but got the film bad collections at the box office.

Deepa Mehta's film carried a lot of expectations but none of them could be fulfilled. It could have had something to do with the tried and tested subject of a Punjabi girl, married to an NRI husband, who gets violently abused.

Tasveer 8 x 10

Tasveer had hit-maker Akshay Kumar team up with talented director Nagesh Kukunoor. Yet, they could not make this horror film work.

Apparently, the two had too many differences in opinion, and that not only delayed the film's shoot but also affected it quite a bit. Even a beautiful song like Haafiz Khuda could not save the film.

 

 

 

Aa Dekhen Zara

Neil Nitin Mukesh and Bipasha Basu could have made the film work. But it released at the wrong time -- just during the time when films producers decided to go on a strike against multiplexes. Due to this, the film did not open at many places.

The reviews were bad too, and the film flopped.

Gulaal

Anurag Kashyap's much delayed Gulal was a brilliant film. Unfortunately, viewers could not relate to a film about college politics in Rajasthan.

Paying Guest

Subhash Ghai's Paying Guest -- starring a host of actors like Shreyas Talpade, Jaaved Jaffrey, Celina Jaitly, Neha Dhupia, Johnny Lever and more -- could not make audiences laugh enough. The film disappeared without a trace.

99

99 had all the reasons to become a hit film -- not only was it a laugh-riot but it released in the midst of the multiplex strike. That made the film one of the only Indian releases in two months.

Unfortunately, it just could not cash in.