Julia Roberts' Eat Pray Love has no takers in India

India’s not loving it. After being panned internationally, Julia Roberts’ ambitious project, Eat Pray Love, has failed to find any takers in India, too, where a part of the film was also shot.

Abroad, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) gave it a rating of 4.8 on 10, and film review site Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of only 38%. In Delhi, cinema halls admit that the response has been disappointing. Advance booking for the film touched a mere two per cent, so halls have now decided to reduce the number of shows, and in some cases, run none.

“We aren’t showing it in Delhi as the advance bookings in other parts of North India were not great. In Mumbai and Bangalore, we put it up on three to four screens, but ticket sales were very low,” says Deepak Taluja of Fun Cinemas. “We expected at least an average response since it’s a Julia Robert film and has an Indian connect, but, it has not excited Indian audiences,” says Yogesh Raizada of Wave Cinemas.

Competition from other films is another reason for the poor response. “Two English films, as well as Emraan Hashmi’s Crook are also opening on the same day. This has divided the audiences’ attention,” says Munish Sharma of Satyam Cineplex.

Some hall owners, however, are still hopeful. “We are running five shows, but only in South Delhi. We are hoping audiences will warm up to it gradually,” says Hira Choudhary of DT Cinemas.