Weekend: November 16–18, 2007

U.K. BOX-OFFICE

SAAWARIYA [last weekend: No. 12, this weekend: No. 16]: In its second weekend, the film has collected £47,870 on 40 screens, with the per screen average working out to £1,197. Total: £269,819 [approx. Rs. 2.18 crores].

Everyone who has seen Rani Mukerji give a smashing performance as a saucy tart in Saawariya is commenting on the similarities between Rani's and Rakhi Sawant’s speech patterns and body language.

The decision to incorporate elements of Rakhi's personality into the character was taken on the day Rakhi, who's a huge fan of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s work, was invited on the sets of Saawariya when Rani was shooting.

PUNE: The district collector of Ahmednagar, Umakant Dangat, on Wednesday ordered an enquiry into the reported purchase of agricultural land by Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji.

Dangat said, "Rani Mukerji's father had come here a few days ago to have the land registered in their names but the land was already allotted for farming purposes."

SAAWARIYA has fared below expectations in U.K. The numbers may seem impressive considering it stars a new pair, but given the fact that it’s made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and released during the festive season, it falls short of expectations in U.K. However, the business is impressive in America.

MSN India today announced its exclusive online association with Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s eagerly awaited Saawariya, a musical love story, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rani Mukerji and Salman Khan. Fans can now access exclusive content on Saawariya at www.in.msn.com. MSN India also hosts a special contest where fans can win tickets to the movie and autographed audio CDs by answering a few simple questions.

Crushing the opening records of such mammoth hits as Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna, Shah Rukh Khan emerged as the new champ as his film Om Shanti Om grossed $1.5 million in just three days in America and Canada. KANK had grossed about $1.35 million over a year ago.

The industry was also pleasantly surprised with the $600,000 gross for Saawariya which was in 85 theatres in North America. Despite many people grumbling that the film is too long and has a weak climax, the word of mouth for the Sanjay Leala Bhansali movie hasn't been all that bad.

Love, in real life, is rarely as all-out sweet and high-minded and uplifting as it is in the movies, and the last thing you expect is two blueblood Bollywood newcomers to service this nihilistic notion of romance – but that’s what Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor (making confident debuts as Raj and Sakina) do in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya.