Two Hindi films have been released today: Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947. Awarapan 2 has opened on a GOOD note (it could even be called VERY GOOD) with occupancy of around 25 per cent, while Batwara 1947 has had a POOR opening, with hardly any initial audience at around 5 per cent. This comes as no surprise. It was widely expected from the pre-release buzz, then reinforced by the advance sales, and now the opening figures are reflecting exactly that.
For Awarapan 2, the morning shows collections are more than double that of films like Welcome to the Jungle and Dhamaal 4 at the time of writing. The final figure could be closer to 3x despite playing on fewer shows. This sets the film up for Rs. 20 crore nett plus opening day, but that isn’t a given yet because of two reasons: A) the genre has more opening value than those of Welcome to the Jungle and Dhamaal 4 being youth-centric, and B) the showcasing is smaller than those two. What the film has going for it is that tomorrow is a holiday, and the later shows today in the evening and night could collect very well and push it towards that number.
Awarapan 2 is a sequel to a 2007 film, which was a DISASTER on release but found some cult following. The success of this tragic love story films last years has led to the sequel being made, and now that has proven to pay off, as the film appears to be a sureshot HIT, probably much bigger if the reception is on its side. The costs are controlled, and the recoveries are handsome.
Batwara 1947, on the other hand, is off to a poor start, unlike other recent films of Sunny Deol. This film was set in production after the mega blockbuster success of Gadar 2, which brought back Sunny Deol to the forefront after being phased out in the past two decades. The film has a partition backdrop and has the mass elements, although not as front-footed as Gadar films. More importantly, here it’s about a Pakistani Sunny Deol saving a Hindu woman and her religion, which won’t play as well as a Tara Singh fighting out Pakistan to its core audience. The film has been in production for a long time, and this start is not a good thing. The hope will be for word of mouth to push it forward.
The opening of Awarapan has made this into a good Friday, but that aside, what is utterly shocking and absurd is the showcasing that has been allotted to the two films, which is virtually the same. You have a film that has 8 times the advance bookings of the other but is still having similar shows. What makes this even more shocking is that this outcome was entirely predictable. At Pinkvilla Predicts, Awarapan 2 was forecasted nearly a month ago to open around Rs. 15 crore nett, while Batwara 1947 was around Rs. 5 crore nett. The difference was there to see in advance sales from two days ago, which itself could have corrected this.
Despite all that, today we have both films playing with similar showcasing. This happened because the distributor of Batwara 1947 is also the biggest cinema chain in the country and has put that at their disposal, giving equal shows to both films. Batwara, in fact, has more seats allotted to it in the chain. This sort of monopolistic practice is both ethically and commercially wrong. The Hindi film industry needs to fix this.
DISCLAIMER: The box office figures, opening-day forecasts, and lifetime collection projections mentioned in this article are subjective trade estimates compiled from various commercial parameters, advance trends, and market sentiment. These are purely analytical tracking figures and do not constitute actual, finalised collections or certified accounting statements. Pinkvilla does not make any representation or warranty, express or implied, regarding the pinpoint accuracy or completeness of these projections. No statement in this article is intended to defame, harm, or malign any individual, production house, artist, or commercial entity involved in the making of the film.
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