New Delhi: The new Hindi film releases of the week opened to unimpressive collections, giving little reason to celebrate. Romantic comedy The Zoya Factor, Sunny Deol’s Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas and Sanjay Dutt’s Prassthanam had made ₹2.30 crore, ₹4.60 crore and ₹2.95 crore at last count, despite star presence in at least two of the offerings.
Trade website Box Office India said the three films had pretty much sealed their fate on Saturday when they failed to show any growth post the dismal first day numbers on Friday. However, the winner of the week is a Punjabi film called Nikka Zaildaar 3 that collected ₹1.3 crore on Friday, the second best opening for a Punjabi film this year so far. The four big centres in Punjab recorded good collections with Chandigarh at ₹20.37 lakh, Ludhiana at ₹11.54 lakh, Jalandhar at ₹8.42 lakh and Amritsar at ₹8.37 lakh. The earnings in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh were around ₹12 lakh.
The obvious benefit of this lackluster performance has gone to holdover titles from previous weeks. Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Dream Girl collected ₹24.75 crore over the second weekend, taking its 10-day total to ₹95 crore. The Raaj Shaandilyaa directed film had the fourth best second weekend of the year after Kabir Singh, Uri - The Surgical Strike and Mission Mangal, according to Box Office India.
“Dream Girl continues its dominance. Will cruise past ₹100 crore mark today (Monday). Will be Ekta Kapoor’s second century (after Ek Villain). Also Ayushmann Khurrana’s second century (after Badhaai Ho),” trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.
Box Office India said the film continues to be strongest in the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh circuit with collections nearly touching ₹25 crore.
Director Nitesh Tiwari’s comedy drama Chhichhore is also going strong, at last reported collections of Rs. 108 crore with the ₹140 crore mark looking like a possibility. Box Office India said the film can beat the numbers of Gully Boy ( ₹134. 21 crore) which is ninth highest grosser this year so far.
“Chhichhore concludes week two on a glorious note. Trends better than several biggies released in 2019,” Adarsh tweeted.
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