However, official sources claim that the first week collections amount to Rs 60 crore gross across domestic and international markets. For a film reported to be have been made at a cost of Rs 60 crore, the gross collection figures only indicate moderate performance. According to trade analysts as well as those closely associated with the film, the net figures don’t exceed more than 40 to 50 per cent of a film’s gross profit, Chandni Chowk To China being no exception. Taking this calculation into account, the film’s estimated net collections stand at nothing more than Rs 30 crore. This clearly indicates that there are little chances of the film making any profit, even if it manages to recover the remaining production cost in the days to come. With the film’s average performance, Warner Brothers are the ones to suffer losses as they released the film by themselves throughout India, except for Gujarat, according to trade officials. In spite of repeated phone calls and SMSes, Neeraj Goswami, Director - Sales (India), Warner Brothers, was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, in what can be termed as another setback, the movie has been banned in Nepal. This was after a dialogue in the film by Akshay Kumar stating that Lord Buddha was born in India (Lumbini in Nepal is the actual birthplace) led to an uproar in Nepal. Though the Nepali film censorship authorities had removed the controversial scene, many viewers reacted with angry protests after seeing the unedited version on illegal CDs/DVDs. Narayan Prasad Regmi, spokesman of the Information and Communications Ministry, Nepal, confirmed that the film’s screening has been banned across the country after taking popular sentiments into consideration.
-Bollywood HungamaNews Network and Reuters
