Radhika Apte vs Nargis Fakhri: Banjo will fare better than Parched suggests trade expert

This week on September 23 will witness the release of two films Banjo and Parched. They are both not big budget films but whenever two films release together at the box office, comparisons are ought to happen. Banjo brings together Nargis Fakhri and Riteish Deshmukh in the lead roles and they have been both trying very hard to promote the film. The Banjo Costars appeared on Kapil Sharma’s popular TV show The Kapil Sharma Show too whereas Parched hasn’t really been promoted as much. The film landed in a huge controversy earlier because a steamy scene from the film got leaked. But that’s that.

A Ravi Jadhav directorial, Banjo stars Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis Fakhri, Dharmesh Yelande, Mohan Kapoor in key roles while Leena Yadav’s Parched stars Surveen Chawla, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Adil Hussain, Radhika Apte in lead roles. We asked our trade analyst Akshaye Rathi about how would the films fare as far as box office success is concerned. “If you look at pure numbers, obviously Banjo will get great numbers because the film has a much wider release than Parched. Parched will be a very niche, small release because its not a film meant for mass audience. It isn’t meant for everyone. And therefore it will have a very niche audience. It won’t release in more than 350 odd cinemas whereas Banjo will possibly release in about 2000 cinemas. The target audience in case of both these films is widely different,” he said.

He also added, “Banjo should do really well in Maharashtra because Riteish Deshmukh and director Ravi Jadhav have a huge fan following in Maharashtra. The director has done some phenomenal films in Marathi. So the coming together of these two guys and doing a film in a language like Hindi only widens your audience. Riteish and Ravi have done a film together in the past which is Baalak Palak and they had delivered phenomenal results in the past together as well as by themselves. So the coming together of these two for a film which is based in Maharashtra, that has mass and has good music totally looks like a formula that has pretty much worked well at the box office. If the film isn’t well made, then it would obviously not do well. Ideally, Banjo should do very well in Maharashtra.” (ALSO READ: “I’m not interested,” says Radhika Apte when quizzed about her leaked sex scene from Parched! – watch video)

On being asked about the box office numbers, he said, “Banjo day one should be around Rs 3 crores. In Bombay and in smaller towns of Maharashtra especially, the film should do very well because Riteish alone has a solid fanbase in Maharashtra.”

While Banjo is more of a commercial film, Parched is a content-driven movie. Both the movies are absolutely different from each other and the audience for Banjo and Parched are very different. If the trade buzz is taken into consideration, Riteish and Nargis’ Banjo looks like a clear winner. But with a stellar starcast and a powerful storyline, Parched too looks an interesting movie. Let’s wait and watch which film rules the box office.