It seems to be an unusually joyous weekend at the box office that is set for good news from both north and south India with Alia Bhatt-starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi, Ajith’s Tamil film Valimai and Telugu action flick Bheemla Nayak, released last Friday, clocking in impressive numbers. While the Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed film notched up two-day collections of ₹22.50 crore and is looking at an opening weekend of ₹37 crore- ₹38 crore, the two southern films had brought in ₹30 crore and ₹37 crore, respectively, on their first days alone.
Trade website Box Office India said Gangubai performed better than the last big-ticket Bollywood release ’83 in several mass markets and while cities like Mumbai were always expected to bring in good numbers, central and eastern India and Andhra Pradesh have also done well, especially despite the release of a big Telugu film for the latter. Despite the 50% capacity limit in several states, at ₹10 crore, it opened higher than Bhatt’s other solo hit Raazi that had made ₹7.33 crore when released in 2018, and is also the third-highest opening day post covid for a Hindi film, after Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi ( ₹26.29 crore) and ₹( ₹12.64 crore). The last two, however, had the advantage of releasing on holiday weekends such as Diwali and Christmas.
“To all the naysayers who had dismissed and written off Bollywood—even said that Bollywood has lost its shine and glory—the superb start of Gangubai Kathiawadi brings Bollywood back in the limelight. Now await the forthcoming films," trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.
Telugu film Bheemla Nayak is the highest opener in the Andhra Pradesh region post the pandemic and could beat the numbers of Allu Arjun’s Pushpa in the Telugu-speaking markets, Box Office India said. It comes on the back of lead actor Kalyan’s last film Vakeel Saab that had also managed a ₹35 crore opening day figure last year right before the second wave.
To be sure, this weekend’s releases are expected to continue to contribute to the upward growth trajectory for cinemas with footfall set to steadily increase over the next few weeks, according to trade experts besides heralding, the start of a very busy and prolific movie season for 2022. Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Jhund releases next week, followed by Prabhas' Radhe Shyam and SS Rajamouli's RRR.
