Ayushmann Khurranna and Sushant Singh Rajput tussle for personal records with Dream Girl and Chhichhore, new releases struggle

It is turning out to be an unprecedented race at the box office as two young actors to beat their personal records and also outdo each other, and that too right at the same time.

Both Dream Girl and Chhichhore are doing quite well in theaters, which means Ayushmann Khurranna and Sushant Singh Rajput now have a real chance of surpassing their best till date with their latest releases.

Let's talk about Ayushmann Khurranna first. His biggest so far is Badhaai Ho, which released last year and accumulated Rs 138 crore at the box office. The manner in which the Ekta Kapoor production is doing currently, what with Rs 77.50 crore already been accumulated, it could well be possible.

As of now though, the film is already Ayushmann's second biggest grosser till date as Andhadhun's lifetime of Rs 75.65 crore has been surpassed in eight days flat.

Ditto for Sushant Singh Rajput, for whom Chhichhore is already his second biggest grosser too, what with Kedarnath [Rs 70 crore] been history long ago.

Now it is all about chasing down his biggest till date, M.S. Dhoni - The Untold Story [Rs 133.50 crore] and that should pretty much turn out to be a breeze, what with over Rs 112 crore having already been collected by the Sajid Nadiadwala production.

Such has been the kind of pull that Dream Girl and Chhichhore are enjoying that other releases are struggling to pull through. Section 375 was a casualty last week when it managed to collect just Rs 12.49 crore in the first week. Despite being well made, it was given the cold shoulder by the audience as it treated the film as a third choice.

The situation has turned out to be even more difficult for this week's releases. Despite good credentials backing Sunny Deol directing Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas, Sonam Kapoor in her comfort zone acting in The Zoya Factor and a heavy masala cast led by Sanjay Dutt for Prassthanam, the combined collections of the three releases are not even Rs 3 crore. In fact, only Chhichhore has collected better than the sum total of these three releases on its 15th day.

All eyes though are on whether word of mouth manages to pull through at least The Zoya Factor which has seen better reviews. That said, a newcomer affair like Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas has actually seen the best collections between the three films with over 1 crore coming in.

Nonetheless, the highest footfalls will still be reserved for Dream Girl and Chhichhore as these two films will continue to score well during rest of the week.

Then next week is pretty much open as well, which means Ayushmann and Sushant would continue to closely observe collections of their respective films till the arrival of Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff's War on October 2.