Opening Report: Prabhas starrer The Raja Saab (Hindi) opens low, Dhurandhar marches on

The Raja Saab (Hindi) has opened low with 10 per cent or so occupancy in the morning and noon shows. The opening was expected to be low, with Pinkvilla Predicts having it at Rs. 4-7 crore. The film opened advances quite late, with most places going on sale yesterday, and those advances were weak as well. The national chains sold less than 10,000 tickets, while overall advances for day one stood at around Rs. 1 crore nett.

From the start in the morning, the film may be looking at a Rs. 5 crore nett day. There seems to be feeding in play, especially for the shows later in the day, which could push the number high. Now, how aggressive the feeding will go is another matter, and at that point, the box office might become the number rather than the collections.

While the film is an entertainer from the in-fashion horror-comedy genre, staged on an extensive scale, the comedy hasn’t really worked in the trailers. It being a South-style comedy is probably the holding factor. Prabhas is arguably the biggest star from South India to have a market in Hindi circuits. He has consistently given an opening with his films; however, all of them have been from the action genre or with devotional elements. The two films, void of those, Radhe Shyam and now this, failed to get an opening.

The opening is better in the Telugu states, but that is hardly a thing to be said because every big film gets an opening there. That said, even there, the opening isn’t up to mark. The film has huge costs involved, and the recovery of them is highly dependent on the theatrical. The film has a highly lucrative holiday period at its disposal in the coming days, but the response from the morning shows is not instilling much confidence at this stage.

The Hindi dubbed version of the biggest Gujarati film Laalo: Krishna Sada Sahaayate has opened low as well on a much limited release. Among the holdovers, Dhurandhar continues to get collections and may end the day with minimal drop from yesterday, depending on how it goes in evening and night shows.