Raja Saab (Hindi) has made a slow start with 10 per cent or so occupancy in the morning and afternoon shows. The opening was expected to be low, with Pinkvilla predicts it at Rs. 4-7 crores. The film went on sale quite late, with most locations opening yesterday, and even those advances were weak. The national chains sold less than 10,000 tickets, while the total advance for the first day was around Rs. 1 crore nett.
From morning onwards, the film’s earnings may reach Rs 100 crore and Rs 5 crore net day. There seems to be feeding into the game, especially for shows later in the day, which could push the numbers up. Now, how aggressive the feeding will be is a different matter and at that time, it may become a box office number rather than a collection.
While the film is an entertaining take on the fashion horror-comedy genre, staged on a grand scale, the comedy doesn’t really work in the trailers. This being a Southern genre comedy is probably the holding factor. Prabhas is undoubtedly the biggest star of South India having a market in the Hindi circuit. He has consistently given openings with his films; However, they all belong to the action genre or devotional elements. Two of these films, ‘Radhe Shyam’ and now this, failed to get an opening.
The opening is better in Telugu states, but this is not to say because every big film gets an opening there. That said, there too, the inauguration is not up to the mark. The film involves huge costs, and its recovery is highly dependent on theatricality. The film has a highly lucrative holiday window in the coming days, but the morning show response is not instilling much confidence at this stage.
The Hindi dubbed version of the biggest Gujarati film Lalo: Krishna Sada Sahayate has had a slow start with a very limited release. Amidst the holdovers, Dhurandhar continues to get collections and may end the day with minimal decline from tomorrow, depending on how it fares in the evening and night shows.
Also read: Bollywood Box Office Classification 2025: 8 Hits and 15 Successes, Dhurandhar is the biggest hit of the year
