New Delhi: The D-day for the much awaited box office battle of this year incepted yesterday. The box office reports from first day suggest that ‘Dilwale' is ahead in the race from ‘Bajirao Mastani' by a margin of almost Rs 10 crores.
Starring superstar Shah Rukh Khan in the lead, ‘Dilwale' saw a great footfall at the theatres with occupancy of almost 70%. According to media reports, ‘Dilwale' has earned Rs 21.50 cr on its first day in India alone.
Well, it was expected that ‘Bajirao Mastani', would topple in front of ‘Dilwale'. According to a tweet by trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Bajirao raked Rs 12.80 crores on the first day. The magnum opus movie opened to 3050 screens. He also tweeted that the movie is expected to go strong because of the positive word of mouth.
Here's what he tweeted:
The international market got ‘Dilwale-fied' too; just like SRK has been addressing it. The Dilwale impact made it difficult for Bajiaro Mastani to attract audiences. In UK, Dilwale was at rank 2, after Star Wars, earning Rs 2.22 crore.
This is what Taran tweeted:
Also Read: 2015's biggest clash: SRK's Dilwale crushes Ranveer's Bajirao Mastani in morning shows
Trade expert Komal Nahta confirmed that Dilwale's has performed exceptionally well in UAE, the best ever for a Hindi film. It is ahead of Star wars by 60%. Komal tweeted this:
Both the movies are grand in scale. While Rohit Shetty's directorial ‘Dilwale' has been shot in picturesque locations of Iceland and Bulgaria; Sanjay Leela Bhansali tried bringing a bygone era on screen with opulent sets in ‘Bajirao Mastani'.
Seems, for ‘Dilwale' taking all the right steps at the right time worked for them. Shah Rukh's masterstroke to make PVR the distributor of the film definitely gave an edge to the movie. Also, a day before the release, Eros, the production house of ‘Bajirao Mastani', lost a legal case to single screen exhibitors. A contract which these exhibitors had signed with Eros, prohibited them from running shows of SRK-Kajol starrer. When the screen owners moved court, the judgement came in their favour allowing them to showcase both movies according to their wish.
The collections clearly favour ‘Dilwale' but there is a weekend which waits. Also, since there are no major releases in Bollywood, only time will tell if ‘Dilwale' manages to retain its win.
