BACHCHHAN PAANDEY had a low weekend of 34.75 crore nett as it could not really stand up against THE KASHMIR FILES. There was some hope on day one as collections did pick up well but it was mainly due to the Holi period.

The collections on Saturday and Sunday could not grow as they dropped in the places where it was a holiday on day one while the areas which have an extended Holi holiday period showed growth on Saturday and then flat on Sunday. THE KASHMIR FILES wave at multiplexes also meant that its shows being replaced by the Vivek Agnihotri-directorial due to the demand of that film. 

The reports of the film are also so so but the main reason for the weekend performance is THE KASHMIR FILES. It basically became a clash with a bigger film which is an established BLOCBUSTER post release and that took 67% of the market leaving 33% to BACHCHHAN PAANDEY. Its not that if BACHCHHAN PAANDEY would have taken all of THE KASHMIR FILES business if that was not there as BACHCHHAN PAANDEY is not a 100 crore weekend film. But it would have taken 40-50% and that would have been enough for a 65-70 crore nett weekend.   

THE KASHMIR FILES will also hit RRR this week though not to extent that hit BACHCHHAN PAANDEY as it will be in third weekend for RRR as against the second weekend for BACHCHHAN PAANDEY. The advance opened for RRR yesterday but plexes reported more enquiries for THE KASHMIR FILES as people could not get tickets and the plans for this film are not even open for the third weekend. 

The industry will see BACHCHHAN PAANDEY as a shocker but its got unlucky with THE KASHMIR FILES coming out of the blue. The film is now going to do less than other Akshay Kumar films like GOLD and PAD MAN which would never be the case if it remained the main Holi release. The lucky side is the huge 150 crore plus revenue from digital, satellite and music which will cushion the box office blow in terms of recovery.

Also Bihar managed 48 lakhs nett on Sunday when all cinemas opened and although its too late in the day for BACHCHHAN PAANDEY, its good news for the industry as the market was struggling but here the numbers have come just a little short of SOORYAVANSHI opening day on a national holiday. So the circuit is slowly recovering post the pandemic and gives RRR a chance to open better than SOORYAVANSHI in Bihar.

The weekend business of BACHCHHAN PAANDEY is as follows.

Friday - 12,25,00,000 apprx

Saturday - 11,00,00,000 apprx

Sunday - 11,50,00,000 apprx