The boom time for the Mumbai film industry is not translating into windfalls for top Bollywood production house Yash Raj Films (YRF), with its first offering of 2008, “Tashan”, failing to live up to the hype.

While in 2007, YRF’s tally of flops outweighed that of hits, their first release this year has failed to charm critics and the audience response to “Tashan” has not been too heartening.

Though heavy on formula and style, the film starring the reigning star of the box-office, Akshay Kumar, and media’s favourite star couple, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, has no story to tell. Seems that writer-director Vijay Krishna Acharya was so busy packaging egos that he forgot what he wanted to say in “Tashan”.

The fact that “Tashan” did not release in several multiplexes due to a long-standing tiff with cinema hall owners over sharing of revenues has been a major dampener. The country’s top production house has been trying to get multiplex owners to agree on a new revenue sharing formula.

Their offer of keeping 55 percent of the box-office collections in the first week was rejected by exhibitors.

According to news reports, the first day’s collection of “Tashan”, which opened only in single-screen theatres on Friday, stood at 70 percent to 80 percent in Mumbai. Given that the film has not met expectations of both critics as well as audiences, the collections are likely to dip in the days ahead.

Its releasing in single-screen theatres is economically less profitable as fewer number of shows can be screened each day and the cost of tickets is much lower than in multiplexes.