The one-day bandh in Karnataka on Friday, Sept. 9 over the Cauvery row has affected the collections of films from Bollywood and other film industries of India. The business of new releases like "Baar Baar Dekho," Freaky Ali" and the recently-released "Janatha Garage" has taken a toll as good buzz had been generated around the movies.
The biggest blow has come for "Iru Mugan," as the movie is unlikely to get screened this weekend. Fearing attacks from the pro-Kannada groups, theatre-owners are unwilling to screen any Tamil movie until the situation returns to normalcy.
Coming to Hindi movies, trade experts had expected "Baar Baar Dekho" to get a flying start in Bengaluru. But the bandh call given by the groups forced the theatres owners to cancel all the morning and matinee shows.
But theatres will be open for evening shows. "Baar Baar Dekho," which was expected to have close to 200 shows on Friday, will have around 100 shows instead. The other release, "Freaky Ali," has managed to get 20 shows in the city on Friday.
However, both the Hindi movies will get maximum number of shows on Saturday. While "Baar Baar Dekho" will have over 190 shows, "Freaky Ali" will get around 50 shows.
On the other hand, Telugu film "Janatha Garage," which had a good run in Bengaluru and earned a share of Rs. 4.25 crore for distributors, has also been affected by the bandh. It will have 41 shows on Friday, and 91 shows on Saturday.
Pro-Kannada organisations called for a bandh on Sept. 9 to protest against the Supreme Court's latest directive to the Karnataka government to release 15,000 cusec of Cauvery water per day to Tamil Nadu for 10 days.
