The new releases this week were DAADI KI SHAADI and KRISHNAVATARAM PART 1: THE HEART and both had dull collections as far as the opening day went. DAADI KI SHAADI collected in the 50-60 lakh nett range while KRISHNAVATARAM PART 1: THE HEART has around 1.50 crore nett which includes 35-40 lakh from paid previews held on Thursday. There was also MAIN ACTOR NAHIN HOON, which hardly had a release and collections would be less than 5 lakhs nett.

The collections for KRISHNAVATARAM PART 1: THE HEART are fine looking at the face value but the film has a good amount of money spent and they are not in accordance to that. DAADI KI SHAADI is also a film with limited face value and its a sort of film for the small screen today. Both films will see growth on Saturday but it has to be out of the ordinary. 

There was the Hollywood release, MORTAL KOMBAT II, which collected around 1.50-1.75 crore nett with better collections in the Soutern cities.

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KRISHNAVATARAM PART 1: THE HEART, a devotional drama doubled up its collections on Saturday which is good growth though collections remain low. The film picked up 2 crore nett on Saturday taking its overall total to almost 3.50 crore nett. The collections are not much but the film can have a run if Monday can be better or similar to Friday.

The growth is good on Saturday but ideally you would want 150-200% from the low starting point which would practically ensure Monday being better than Friday. The weekdays will tell if this film can go anywhere and break out at any level. The film was also released in regional languages with Telugu showing better response than Tamil though again very limited collections.

The collections of KRISHNAVATARAM PART 1: THE HEART (Hindi) till date are as follows.

Thursday - 40,00,000 apprx

Friday - 1,00,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 2,00,00,000 apprx

DAADI KI SHAADI collected 1 crore nett on its second day to take its two day total to 1.60 crore nett. The growth on day two is around is 60% but that is not much for a film opening this low and when the competition is growing 100% and still not in a good position and so, here the scenario is even worse. The film could do better on Sunday as its for the family audiences but with nothing for urban youth or mass it will be tough on the weekdays.

The collections of DAADI KI SHAADI till date are as follows.

Friday - 60,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 1,00,00,000 apprx

EK DIN is a huge disaster as has horrible collections on Monday and looks like the film will just about do 4 crore nett lifetime business. LOVEYAPA did business of almost 7 crore nett. The costs of EK DIN are huge and there will practically be zero theatrical recovery. It means that the only revenue will be non theatrical and with these results, that also won't be much.

The Marathi film, RAJA SHIVAJI, has done excellent business on Monday dropping around 40% from the first day and that first day was a big holiday in Maharashtra from where the bulk of the business is coming from. The film has collected 36.50 crore nett in four days from both the Hindi and Marathi versions.

The film did see a bigger fall in Hindi on Monday but has collected 10.25 crore nett so far and if it can get 20 crore nett in Hindi that is excellent for a Marathi film. It is the Marathi version that will drive the business from here though. There is an under 50% drop from Sunday for this version so it should run well over the next few weeks and maybe take the film to 100 crore nett.

The collectons of RAJA SHIVAJI are as follows.

Friday - 10,25,00,000 (Hindi - 3 cr / Marathi 7.25 cr)

Saturday - 9,50,00,000 (Hindi - 3 cr / Marathi - 6.50 cr)

Sunday - 11,50,00,000 (Hindi - 4 cr / Marathi - 7.50 cr)

Monday - 5,25,00,000 (Hindi - 1.25 cr / Marathi - 4 cr)

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RAJA SHIVAJI collected 60 crore nett in its first week with 45 crore nett apprx in Marathi and 15 crore nett in Hindi. The second Friday was 2.75-3 crore nett with 2-2.25 crore nett in Marathi and around 75 lakhs nett in Hindi. There have been drops over the weekdays. So, that 100 crore nett mark may be tough but it should become the highest grossing film from the Marathi industry when we include the collections of the Hindi version.

MICHAEL continues to do well as it collected 24 crore nett in week one and around 17 crore nett apprx in week two which gives it a total of 41 crore nett. The film will cross the 50 crore nett mark and is a success in India especially in the bigger southern centres.

BHOOTH BANGLA collected 1.50-1.75 crore nett on its third monday. The collections are down from Friday but it was a holiday on Friday. The trend from Sunday is pretty normal for a Monday though as it had the buy one get one offerm it maybe could have collected 10-15 lakhs nett more. However, it hardly matters as the week should get to 20 crore nett or thereabouts.

The film is a HIT now as is pretty much certain get close to 150 crore nett and it actually might get there especially as it seems that the buy one get one free offer will be there on weekdays. It is the third HIT film of the year after BORDER 2 and DHURANDHAR THE REVENGE. So, that's a good result in four months there were also supporting films like THE KERALA STORY 2: GOES BEYOND and MARDAANI 3. BHOOTH BANGLA is the only non franchise success so far this year.

BHOOTH BANGLA stands at 130 crore nett plus and the third week will be pretty similar to BORDER 2 which did 21.50 crore nett. It will have a good chance to beat the fourth week collections of BORDER 2.

The collections of BHOOTH BANGLA till date are as follows.

Friday - 5,00,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 9,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 11,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 3,50,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Friday - 4,35,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 4,25,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 5,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 1,65,00,000 apprx

Third Week - 15,50,00,000 apprx (4 Days)

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BHOOTH BANGLA has collected 207 crore so far worldwide as both India and Overseas does well. The overseas business of the film is coming to a close and will finish at $5 million plus total while there are still some legs in India which could take the film to a 220-225 crore finish as far as the worldwide business goes.

Last year, HOUSEFULL 5 did 248 crore, JOLLY LLB 3 collected 170 crore and KESARI CHAPTER 2 finished with 144 crore. BHOOTH BANGLA will not reach the 248 crore of HOUSEFULL 5 but going by the costs associated with the two films, its a far better performance and will only be 10% less by the end of its run.

The top Akshay Kumar grossers Worldwide remain GOOD NEWWZ, SOORYAVANSHI and HOUSEFULL 4, all of which earned around 300 crore mark.

The worldwide collections of BHOOTH BANGLA till date are as follows. 

India -   161 crore (132.50 crore nett)

Overseas -  46 crore ($4.9 million)

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BHOOTH BANGLA recorded a strong third week collecting 20 crore nett apprx giving it a drop of under 50% from the last week. This now takes the total of the film to 135 crore nett in three weeks and it has a outside chance of reaching 150 crore nett. It is sure to get over 145 crore nett and that 150 crore nett mark will depend on what happens next week when the film will face competition from PATI PATNI AUR WOH DO.

The success of a film is a good sign for the film industry as its what you would call a regular bread and butter film doing well and it does not have the trappings of  huge budget or scale, and is not even a franchise. Now it will be about a few other films going the BHOOTH BANGLA way over the next two months or so which may lead to an upturn in more films being made which is the need of the hour for cinema halls as lack of content brings down admits.

The collections of BHOOTH BANGLA till date are as follows.

Friday - 5,00,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 9,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 11,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 3,50,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Friday - 4,35,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 4,25,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 5,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 1,65,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 2,00,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 1,35,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 1,25,00,000 apprx

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BHOOTH BANGLA continues to dominate the box office as far as Hindi films go as its still the highest collecting Hindi film despite a few releases this week. The gap is only likley to increase over the weekend. BHOOTH BANGLA collected a 1.25 crore nett on its fourth Friday which is similar to the collection to the day before. The national chains were ever a little better than the day before.

The collections of BHOOTH BANGLA till date are as follows.

Friday - 5,00,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 9,75,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 11,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 3,50,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 3,00,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 3,75,00,000 apprx

Friday - 4,35,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 4,25,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 5,25,00,000 apprx

Monday - 1,65,00,000 apprx

Tuesday - 2,00,00,000 apprx

Wednesday - 1,35,00,000 apprx

Thursday - 1,25,00,000 apprx

Friday - 1,25,00,000 apprx

After tying the knot with entrepreneur Milind Chandwani last September, actor Avika Gor has permanently moved her base to Bangkok, we have exclusively learnt. Confirming the news, she says, “We’ve even bought a house there, which I’ve been setting up as per my taste.”

Explaining the decision, Avika tells us, “Milind and I realised it’s a better opportunity for him when it comes to work there. For me, it felt exciting. We have always believed in supporting each other to grow, even when we were dating for seven years.”

She adds that her profession has never tied her to one city: “Even when I was in Mumbai, I was shooting in Hyderabad, Rajahmundry or Visakhapatnam. I realised it doesn’t have to be Mumbai where I have my base.”

She adds that her work commitments in India remain unchanged. “I’ve only been there for about a month and I’m mostly in Hyderabad or Mumbai because of work,” she says, adding that setting up the new home has been special: “For the first time, I’m deciding everything myself, from the furniture to how the house will look.”

Riteish Deshmukh is a relieved man, physically, mentally and emotionally. His latest labour of love, Raja Shivaji, has worked at the box office, especially in Maharashtra. His craft as a director, apart from acting, too has found praise. Speaking on The Right Angle show, he spills the beans on everything, from the obsession with numbers to politics and the paparazzi:

About the figures floating around regarding Raja Shivaji’s budget, only the producers know the real budget. The last thing we need to do as filmmakers is discuss a film’s budget because it doesn’t affect anything. Budget se kya lena dena hai? If someone asks me the budget, I ask them, ‘How much are you paying for a ticket to watch it?’ They say ‘Rs. 100’ or ‘Rs. 250-300’, and I reply that’s the budget, it should just be worth your time. One should stop talking about it. Let it be magical, you just go and experience the film. When I would go to watch Amitabh Bachchan ji’s films like Sholay in my childhood, I would never think, ‘Iska budget kya hai?’ I just wanted the big-screen entertainment. We would never know how much it collected. Unfortunately, that’s the game today. People wonder how much actors charge for films… it’s our mistake, we feed these numbers. Those who feel this is right, it’s okay. We have made seven Marathi films under our production house, and we have never revealed our films’ budgets. It isn’t anyone’s business.

You have so much work at hand that you don’t really get the time to be nervous. I can be nervous about a film where someone else is doing all this work. But when you are the one making it and ensuring that the film reaches people on time, so much time goes into it… you can’t even think about what people will say about it.

Genelia (Deshmukh, wife-actor) and I are a team, of course, but most of the heavy lifting was done by Genelia. This is a production-heavy film. The heavy lifting was not on my shoulders, so it became easier. As for the subject, you can make a film on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from any angle, you just have to decide the narrative. We understand the connection he has with people. The biggest pressure, hence, is how do you write the right things when making a film on him? I would ask all such questions to myself. The prep as an actor for such a role was as long as the prep for being a director on it.

Six years after actor Irrfan Khan’s passing, an unreleased film featuring him finally saw the light of day. The Last Tenant, co-starring Vidya Balan, premiered on YouTube on his death anniversary (April 29). Directed by Saarthak R Dasgupta the 43-minute film was shot 26 years ago.

He tells us, “Those days, you didn’t have digital backups… One beta got lost, the other one was full of fungus. I forgot about the film all this time.”

But things changed just two weeks ago, during a house move: “I found an unlabelled VHS tape and assumed it was my wedding video... I was about to throw it away, but then I decided to check what was on it, and that’s when this film appeared.”

Since the video quality was not up to the mark, he was apprehensive about releasing the film: “(But) I felt I needed to pay tribute to Irrfan... So I decided to upload it on April 29. I didn’t even speak to Vidya before, as it was such a quick turnaround.

But Vidya was “very excited” about the retrieval. “I messaged Vidya after putting it out... This is the only film where these two legendary actors share screen space. So it’s special for her too,” he signs off.

On the first anniversary of Operation Sindoor today, as India marks the triumphant strike against the Pakistan-based terror camps, production house Bihar Film Company has secured the official rights to use the title Operation Sindoor for a film. The company is backed by Ankit Singh and Sangram Singh.

The title had drawn massive interest, with over 150 applications submitted to the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA).

Confirming the development, IMPPA president Abhay Sinha says, “There were several applications for this name, but it was allocated to the first applicants who wished to register it.”

Among others who applied was filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who had earlier announced that he had acquired the rights to make a film based on the book Operation Sindoor: The Untold Story of India’s Deep Strikes Inside Pakistan by Lt Gen KJS ‘Tiny’ Dhillon. “Vivek Agnihotri has been given two titles, Kashmir Files 2 and The Night of Operation Sindoor,” says Sinha.

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The title has been given to Bihar Film Company by producers Ankit Singh and Sangram Singh. There were several applications for this name but it was allocated to the first applicants who wished to register the title.

- ABHAY SINHA, PRESIDENT, IMPPA

Motherhood brings joy, but also relentless scrutiny — especially for female actors. After Patralekhaa was trolled for her post-pregnancy weight following her appearance at the screening of Toaster, fellow actor Swara Bhasker speaks out against the pressure women face to “bounce back” after childbirth.

Bhasker, who has dealt with online abuse for over two years since becoming a mother, fumes, “All mothers should be left the hell alone. Nobody knows what an individual mother’s journey is. I saw Patralekhaa’s post, messaged her, and shared her post. A month ago, the media was trolling Rihanna for it too. Do people know what Rihanna has achieved before they shoot their mouth off and talk rubbish? Even Aishwarya Rai [Bachchan] wasn’t spared.”

While actors like Alia Bhatt, Kiara Advani and Deepika Padukone returned to their pre-pregnancy physiques quickly, Bhasker stresses that “everybody’s body is not the same”.

“It’s bizarre that not only men, even women are trolling me. People don’t care if a man looks old. But if a woman stops looking desirable or glamorous in the way they feel actresses should, people get upset, forgetting that women have other feminine attributes too. Having a baby shifts your priorities in ways that are inexplicable, at least for me,” she says.

It’s Mother’s Day, and what better time to talk about the new reality show Maa Hai Na and the mothers starring in it? After making guest appearances on screen over the past two years and sparking public curiosity, Sunita Ahuja, wife of actor Govinda, is set to make her reality show debut with the upcoming Zee5 series.

Ahuja will participate in the celebrity cooking show alongside daughter Tina Ahuja. The series, hosted by Shilpa Shetty Kundra, is scheduled to stream in June.

Having already started shooting for the show, Ahuja tells mid-day her decision stems from a desire to create her own identity. “My honourable husband Govinda told me, ‘Go ahead and work. But don’t use my name to get ahead in life.’ I want to stand on my own feet without anyone’s support.”

Despite competing with several popular faces, Ahuja says she feels no pressure. “I don’t find anything challenging in life. Whatever I do I make sure it’s top notch,” she says

 Asked whether she is open to more reality shows, Ahuja replies in her trademark candid style, “I have understood in the last two years that money is important, not love. Pyaar karke dekhliya 40 saal. Now, whatever work I will do, I will do it for money. So, I am open to doing any kind of show.”

The Royals was greenlit for a second season, soon after the first dropped. But now mid-day has learnt that the leading lady, Bhumi Satish Pednekkar has left the show. The Netflix drama, which marked Zeenat Aman’s OTT debut, is expected to take a different turn from where the first season ended.

A source close to the production says, “When you do a romance, it is the story that leads. When the show came out, what resonated [with the audience] was the family — Ishaan [Khatter], Sakshi [Tanwar], Zeenat, and the world of The Royals — which feels different. We left season one at an unresolved romance. There was no decision to carry it forward. There was no fight with Bhumi. The makers are simply letting the story lead forward organically in the second season.”

Pednekkar has moved on from the series and is now prioritising darker, layered material. Sources say the actor is in talks for a courtroom drama backed by the makers of Haq (2025).

“Bhumi is also set to feature opposite Imran Khan in what insiders describe as his long-awaited comeback film for Netflix. The project, currently under wraps, has been in development for some time. She is also expected to begin working on Daldal 2, a project that aligns more closely with the intense space she has increasingly gravitated towards in recent years,” adds the source.

Pednekkar, who faced criticism after the first instalment, admitted in her Sit With Hitlist interview on mid-day that the backlash deeply affected her. “The noise became so loud that I couldn’t hear my own creative voice anymore. When you are told every day that you ‘don’t look like yourself,’ it starts to seep in. I felt numb.”

Sources close to the production maintain that the season two is being designed as a natural continuation of the world established in the first season, even if the central love story no longer remains the priority.