Is Rani Mukherjee's new movie 'Hichki' going to be her best comeback?

While Bollywood is known to not welcome its actresses after long breaks, it looks like the heroines of the industry are changing the trend. Be it late Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Aishwarya Rai and now Rani Mukherjee all are strongly signaling that they may not have been around for some time but the film industry is their home ground and they will do their best to get their strong foothold back in the industry.

After a four year hiatus, Rani is back on the big screen with her latest release Hichki that hits the theatres on Friday. The film has created a lot of buzz both in the industry and amid audience but will it take a flying start at the box office and be Rani’s best comeback?

Hichki released on 961 screens in India, 380 screens overseas, taking the worldwide total to 1,341 screens. The film’s cost of production comes to about Rs 12 crore and publicity expenses is at around Rs 8 crore, taking the overall budget to Rs 20 crore.

Rani’s last release Mardaani had stirred the emotions of the movie goers by talking about a sensitive topic of prostitution and child abuse. The film was critically acclaimed and also fetched good response at the box office as it went on to collect close to Rs 36 crore with a budget of Rs 21 crore.

Trade pundits expect Hichki to not do as well as Mardaani, speculating its first day business at Rs 3-3.15 crore. Mardaani on the other hand had raked in around Rs 3.44 crore on its opening day.

Looking at her career graph, it seems that a lot rides on Rani’s newest offering Hichki. She has acted in 9 films in the last 10 years but not all of them have been able to make a mark at the box office . In fact, only four of her films have performed decently at the box office including Mardaani, Talaash, No One Killed Jessica, Ta Ra Rum Pum. But her other films like Aiyyaa, Dil Bole Hadippa and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic tanked at the box office.