Other than Akshay Kumar, if there is one superstar who is consistent at the Box Office, it is Ajay Devgn.
In the last few years, the actor delivered a hat-trick of successes—Golmaal Again, Raid and Total Dhamaal—each crossing Rs 100 crore mark in box office collection. Now with De De Pyaar De, he has made it four in a row as the film has emerged a success.
In its first week, the film collected Rs 61.05 crore. Though, it should be mentioned that the collection is lesser than what the aforementioned films had collected in their first week.
Golmaal Again had opened with Rs 30.14 crore owing to its Diwali release, Raid had a regular Friday of Rs 10.04 crore whereas Total Dhamaal saw Rs 16.50 crore coming on the first day. Comparatively, De De Pyaar De started at around Rs 9 crore.
However, De De Pyaar De's first-week collection is just marginally lower than Raid [Rs 63.05 crore]. What has to be seen is whether it will now hold on well enough to come close to the Raid's lifetime of Rs 103.07 crore.
Even if De De Pyaar De's collection reaches close to that of Raid, it would be pretty much a touch-and-go case as in its second week, the Ajay Devgn, Rakul Peet Singh and Tabu-starrer has seen just Rs 3.58 crores coming in.
New releases of the week have started on expected lines. PM Narendra Modi benefitted from the fact that BJP enjoyed a thumping win just a day before (Thursday) and hence, film's Friday collections were reasonably okay at Rs 2.88 crore. For Vivek Oberoi, who is returning to a Bollywood film after a hiatus, this is a decent enough start, and now it has to be seen how much does the film grow over rest of the weekend. Reports of the film are fair and hence the Omung Kumar directed affair can grow.
Same is expected for Arjun Kapoor-starrer India's Most Wanted as well. The movie is a niche offbeat affair and has raked in Rs 2.1 crore on its opening day. The film's reviews range from average to very good. The story of the film is quite impressive though, which means it would be interesting to see whether this dramatic thriller by Raj Kumar Gupta would see big jumps over the weekend.
Amongst new releases, it was Hollywood flick Aladin that saw maximum returns. The film has collected Rs 4.25 crore on its release day, which is just a little less than the combined collections of India's Most Wanted and PM Narendra Modi combined. Considering the fact that this is a family film, one can expect good momentum in the weekend.
As for Student of the Year 2, it is now in its closing stages. The film has collected Rs 68.91 crore in its two weeks of running and now would at maximum be reaching Rs 75 crore in lifetime collection. Still, for director Punit Malhotra this is some sort of respite as he was coming back after Gori Tere Pyaar Mein.
For Ananya Pandey and Tara Sutaria, the film has done a little better than Student of the Year which had a lifetime collection of Rs 70 crore and was an out and out debutant affair. That said, the Karan Johar directorial outing had released back in 2012 and hence, adjusted collections are much higher.
When it comes to the next big release though, all eyes are on the Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif-starrer Bharat, which is expected to be the third biggie in a row by director Ali Abbas Zafar when it arrives this Eid.
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