KANTARA: A LEGEND – CHAPTER 1 had a good opening day in Hindi as it collected 17.75-18 crore nett with Mumbai circuit doing very well. It recorded the second best opening day number of the year after CHHAAVA and ahead of WAR 2, SIKANDAR and SAIYAARA in this circuit. This is despite the film having lower collections in Gujarat due to the end of Navratri and when this is over, it should gain in this circuit.

The film had higher expectations mainly; the first film saw huge appreciation as it went from 1 crore plus opening to almost 80 crore nett and other films from the South which had broken out like this went on to open huge in their second parts. The expectations for the Hindi version were mainly because of this but KANTARA: A LEGEND – CHAPTER 1 is not that larger than life hero driven commercial cinema like KGF or PUSHPA. So, it probably does not have as wide audience in the core Hindi circuits as those films and still remains a more word of mouth films especially outside Maharashtra.

Despite these expectations, this number is still good for a dubbed film from the South and it should do well from here. There will be a drop on Friday but the film should come back over the weekend and the target will be to cross the 20 crore nett mark on Sunday. The film looked like it could have got to 20 crore nett on the first day but while Maharashtra got that huge holiday push, the other places were more limited as to how far they went. The collections were extraordinary in the home market of Mysore/Karnataka while the Telugu version also did well in Nizam/Andhra. But the real box office glory in India is all about the Hindi markets and KANTARA: A LEGEND – CHAPTER 1 has a chance to make a mark here.

The number is also better than it looks as there is very limited contribution from the South. So, the market is actually smaller than the original Hindi film. In terms of dubbed South films, it is the seventh best ever collections after PUSHPA 2 - THE RULE, KGF - CHAPTER 2, BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION, KALKI 2898 AD, RRR and 2.0. SAAHO and ADIPURUSH are taken as bilingual but if included, they would be higher as well.