Why did Kites fail both in India as well as in the West? Why was Kites no better than "Chandni Chowk To China?" As the Indian film with the biggest ever release, Kites opened in 2,000 screens worldwide, including 200 in the America. However, Kites has only grossed $1 million in North America, less than Aamir Khan's student drama "3 Idiots" and Shahrukh Khan's version of a muslim Forest Gump, "My Name is Khan," both of which had far less marketing and distribution outlay..

From an analysis at Globalpost,

"Kites" is neither Bollywood nor Hollywood so its failure holds no surprises, said New York-based Bollywood critic Aseem Chhabra. “Some call it a bad Bollywood movie trying to be a bad Hollywood movie,” ...

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What the internet is saying about Kites movie: Avoid it