Ok, so Bollywood is still not smiling even though the producers have called off the strike. Last week's two releases, KAL KISSNE DEKHA as well as ZOR LAGAA KE HAIYA have failed at the box office, hence breaking hearts of quite a few out there who believed that Bollywood draught will finally be over, what with at least the Jackky Bhagnani starrer expected to take a good start at the box office.

However, that didn't quite happen and as is the adage - Bollywood never sleeps, it only moves on to the next Friday. So here we are, staring at yet another Friday, and curiously looking forward to what it has to offer this time around. Four movies release today - PAYING GUESTS, LET'S DANCE, HUM PHIRR MILEINGE and RAFTAAR. Let's talk about the box office prospects of each of these four films.

Frankly, the only film which is expected to take at least a face saving start at the box office is Subhash Ghai production PAYING GUESTS. Though promotion of this multi star-cast affair (featuring the likes of Shreyas Talpade, Ashish Chaudhary, Vatsal Sheth, Javed Jaffrey, Celina Jaitley, Neha Dhupia, Riya Sen, Sayali Bhagat, Johnny Lever) has left a lot to be desired, this is still the best bet for the audience as far as entertainment quotient is concerned. If audiences have accepted movies like GOLMAAL, GOLMAAL RETURNS, DHAMAAL, APNA SAPNA MONEY MONEY and many of it's ilk then there is no reason why PAYING GUESTS should not find a place in their hearts.

Yes, there has been an overdose of comedy films during last couple of years and quite a few of them haven't really succeeded at the box office. But still, PAYING GUESTS appears to be a safe outing and it can be assumed that for the film starved junta, it should have good entertainment to offer. The opening shows aren't expected to boast of more than 30%-40% occupancy but by end of the first day, the film should easily cross the 50% mark. From there on, word of mouth should do the trick.

This brings one to the other three releases of the week - LET'S DANCE, HUM PHIRR MILEINGE and RAFTAAR. None of these films is getting a major release with LET'S DANCE still being better of the lot. A movie starring primarily newcomers, this movie with dance as it's central theme has seen some decent promotion coming it's way but not good enough to warrant a flow of audience in the opening shows of the week. A kind of movie that doesn't have in it to take a huge opening and would mainly rely upon reviews to entice audience.

The other two movies of the week, HUM PHIRR MILEINGE and RAFTAAR, can't even take solace from this factor. HUM PHIRR MILEINGE is a small time film starring Sarvar Ahuja which was earlier titled HUM PHIRR MILEIN NA MILEIN. The songs from the film were on air around 6 months back and though the promotion was hardly impressive, an aborted campaign didn't help it's cause. Seeing a patchy release, the film is expected to go completely unnoticed. As for the fourth release of the week, RAFTAAR, it is yet another small time film starring newcomers that doesn't quite boast of A-Grade standards. It would be a surprise if the film sees a release outside Mumbai.-Sampurn Media