Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s ‘The Kashmir Files’ has taken a fair start at the box-office, despite low screen count (561) in India. The initial reports are terrific and the movie is certain to see a huge upswing from Saturday evening. The movie has pleasantly surprised the trade as its first day collections might leapfrog a much bigger film like ‘Badhaai Do’.
The business at present is driven mostly by multiplexes of big cities, but looking at reports, the collections might see a jump even in other ‘A’ centres such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Surat and Ahmedabad.
The director’s last movie, ‘The Tashkent Files’ (2019), had also opened in just 300 screens but it ran for more than 10 weeks in cinemas and proved a success.
The Hindi dubbed version of Telugu film ‘Radhe Shyam’, starring Prabhas, has opened to dull houses. The super success of Hindi dubbed version of ‘Pushpa’ had raised expectations from ‘Radhe Shyam’ but they were belied by lacklustre initial. It is doing slightly better in Maharashtra as South stars have some following in Mumbai and CP Berar circuit, but even in these circuits, the numbers are below the mark.
Last week’s release ‘Jhund’ is a flop, though it sustained decently at low levels in Maharashtra. The opening of the Amitabh Bachchan starrer was terribly tepid and it didn’t show the spurt it required. Even in Maharashtra, the numbers are quite low but outside the state, it is a complete washout. In its first week, it earned only Rs 9 crore nett in India.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’ sustained very well in the second week to notch up Rs 36 crore nett. Overall, the movie has so far clocked up Rs 103 crore nett in two weeks. The smashing business in Maharashtra and Gujarat is driving the movie as it continues its superb run in these states. The business in Andhra and Nizam is also creditable. Outside these states, the movie is holding up well though the numbers are not spectacular.
‘Gangubai’ has retained a good number of screens going into its third week so it is likely to do fair business. The movie sees a big spurt in collections during the weekend because outside Maharashtra and Gujarat, its best business is coming from high-end multiplexes of big cities especially Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Overall, ‘Gangubai’ is a profitable movie and underlines the pulling power of Alia Bhatt who is at present the no.1 female star of Bollywood. For a movie toplined by a female star to recover such a big budget – Rs 150 crore – and generate profits is laudable. The lifetime business of ‘Gangubai’ in India will hover around Rs 125 crore.
Next week, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Bachchan Pandey’ will hit the screens and will occupy the lion’s share of screens. Directed by Farhad Samji, the movie has generated excitement among trade and the masses. It will perhaps fetch the best opening of the year 2022 by a Bollywood film.