As Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma-starrer Roohi kickstarted its run across 3,000 theatres yesterday, exhibitors across the country were jubilant. The horror comedy is the first Bollywood biggie to hit the marquee since cinemas were allowed to function at 100 per cent occupancy in February. It will be a tough road ahead for films as they lure audiences back to the movie halls, but trade analyst Taran Adarsh is proud that producer Dinesh Vijan and director Hardik Mehta have taken the brave step. “It is too early to gauge the collection, but horror comedy is a great genre, with Stree [2018] and Golmaal Again [2017] having worked at the box office. The occupancy is lean because of the pandemic. The national average is 15 per cent, with north India recording better occupancy than the rest of the country,” he says.

Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi hopes that Roohi and the upcoming Mumbai Saga will start the movie consumption cycle that has been put on hold since last March. Pointing out that the occupancy is varying from five to 50 per cent in different regions of the country, he adds, “In one of my theatres at Raipur, 50-plus people came to the noon show. It’s the best single-day collection since cinemas have reopened. Going by early trends, the film will do a minimum of Rs. 2.50 crore on day one and sustain well over the weekend. Largely, the pan-India picture looks reassuring.”