Box office: Dull Friday for Bollywood; hopes pegged to Diwali revival with Tiger 3 now

Kangana Ranaut plays an Indian Airforce pilot in Tejas (Screen grab)

It was a dull day for Bollywood on Friday. Box office collections from the new releases (October 27) just about managed to cross Rs 2 crore, with Tejas and 12th Fail each pulling in just over Rs 1 crore. Tejas, produced by Ronnie Screwvala, stars Kangana Ranaut as an Indian Airforce pilot and centres on indigenous fighter plane - Tejas. Meanwhile, 12th Fail, starring Vikrant Massey, is inspired by the true story of IPS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma.

Last week, too, collections were low, with Ganapath, starring Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon, barely crossing Rs 2 crore on its opening day.

There are hopes that 12th Fail will gain some momentum from today onwards. Critics have appreciated the film and word of mouth among those who have watched it is good as well. As a result of that the first day's collections did stretch towards Rs 1.10 crore. Yes, Vidhu Vinod Chopra is at the helm of this film, and hence you expect big numbers. However, this one is a rather intimate outing and hence it all boils down to the word of mouth carrying it. One now waits to see what sort of growth comes in for the film today, since collections would be rather static tomorrow due to the big ODI World Cup match between India and England. If the Vikrant Massey starrer manages to bring in Rs 5 crore over the weekend, then it would at least pave the way for it to perform from Monday till the release of Tiger 3 on Diwali.

Meanwhile, Tejas, produced by the same team that made Uri: The Surgical Strike (worldwide box office collections: Rs 359.73 crore), has taken a start of Rs 1.25 crore* - much lower than the opening of Rs 4-5 crore that industry watchers had hoped for.

One more prominent Hindi film released this week: Sajini Shinde Ka Viral Video - the mystery drama saw negligible collections. It saw more of a token release as it has the kind of content that's suitable for OTT, and this is the medium where it should do well.

With no new notable release next week as well, one waits for a turnaround to take place on Diwali when Tiger 3 arrives.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources