When Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh, Tabu Delivered A 100 Crore Film Despite A Start Of Less Than 10 Crores
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Rarely does it happen that a biggie enjoys a lifetime number which is more than 10 times that of the opening day. Yes, it does happen with smaller films but when it comes to films featuring superstars, they are usually top heavy with the opening day followed by the opening weekend doing the chunk of the business, which ranges from 30%-50%. Reason being that audiences throng theaters right at the onset and from there on it’s the word of mouth that takes over.
In case of De De Pyaar De, it was the other way round. Yes, the film was touted to open around the 15 crores mark. After all, it had Ajay Devgn in the lead and promo had created a huge impression with audiences (expected to be) loving the humor quotient that the romcom had to offer. The songs too were peppy and that took care of the youth segment.
However, and surprisingly, the film opened far lesser with 9.42 crores coming in on Friday. There were paid previews on Thursday which had contributed 1 crore. Still, the first day number of less than 10 crores was not what trade, industry and of course everyone associated with the film were expected. The common notion was that the bold subject of a love story between a 50 year old man [Ajay Devgn] and a young woman half his age [Rakul Preet Singh] hadn’t really caught audience’s fancy.
Things started looking a bit better with the weekend rising to 38.54 crores. Still, for a film which was expected to collect at least 50 crores in the first three days, the gap was big. The trend was good for rest of the weekdays, but not tremendous, and the collections stood at a decent 61.05 crores.
Any other regular biggie would have folded up around the 80 crores mark after a start like this. However, over a period of its first seven days, the Akiv Ali directed film had managed to build some sort of equity for itself. The word of mouth was positive, the target audiences amongst the urban multiplexes were happy with what they saw, and this is where the footfalls started become steadier with every passing day.
Eventually, the film managed to hang in well out there and register a total of 103.50 crores. With this, De De Pyaar De turned out to be yet another 100 Crore Club hit for Ajay Devgn, while for Rakul Preet Singh too this was a good step ahead in Bollywood. As for Tabu, she continued to impress as an actress who stays on to be relevant in the Bollywood scheme of affairs.
It has been one year since the release of De De Pyaar De and though its content merited a lifetime in the range of 150 crores, the fact that it still managed to hit a century despite a start of less than 10 crores is commendable indeed.
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