Joginder Tuteja
What a success Badla has turned out to be. The film is a clear example of word of mouth helping a good story cover a much greater distance. Not that there was huge hype around the Sujoy Ghosh directed film en route release. In fact, it had seemed that the film would take Rs 3-4 crore opening at best. However, the film started exceeding expectations from the very first day and then never looked back.
This can well be evidenced by the fact that the first week numbers stand at Rs 38 crore. For both Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, these are very good collections already. Just last year Big B had delivered success in 102 Not Out and now Badla is set to be bigger. In fact, the blues of Thugs of Hindustan can well be washed away too. Also, if one compares the film's outcome with Amitabh Bachchan's earlier suspense thriller outing Wazir then Badla has managed to almost equate its lifetime number in just one week.
On the other hand, Taapsee Pannu too can rejoice. Last year was quite eventful for her when she had several back to back releases in the form of Soorma, Mulk, Manmarziyaan and Dil Junglee. However, Badla has turned out to be much bigger than each of these films and would cover a much larger distance. What has to be seen is that whether this Shah Rukh Kham production goes further up than even Pink which had featured both Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu.
As for the other release in the running, Luka Chuppi, the film has turned out to be a solid Hit at the Box Office. The film continued to be strong in the second week as well and now stands at Rs 75.25 crore. With the current week not really throwing much of a competition, this Dinesh Vijan production would add on more moolah in its kitty. While Rs 85 crore is certainly in the pipeline, it's stretched journey towards the Rs 90 crore lifetime would be quite interesting.
As for Kartik Aaryan, he has turned out to be a hat-trick hero now, with back to back big successes of Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and now Luka Chuppi. Very few newcomers manage this feat and Kartik Aaryan has found himself right up there. For Kriti Sanon too, this is a fantastic start to 2019 which has three other films of hers in the pipeline - Arjun Patiala, Housefull 4 and Panipat.
Meanwhile, in the times when multi-starrer films are hardly made in Bollywood, Total Dhamaal has covered a really good distance already. After being in theatres for three weeks now, the film has accumulated Rs 145.71 crore. Director Indra Kumar went against all odds to put together a huge ensemble cast and then also wrapped up the film in record time.
There were quite a few other new releases around it but this family entertainer action comedy has managed to bring in good moolah. In fact, had the film seen a festival release, it would have benefitted by at least Rs 20 crore since this is a mind of entertainment that has huge appeal amongst family circles.
Nonetheless, the film will cross Rs 150 crore mark this week which would be a massive achievement. From there on, whatever more that the film manages to bring in would be added bonus.
A major Hit.
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