It was predicted in this column a few days back that Dangal would open to a start of over 25 crore. However, the film has fetched numbers even beyond expectations as it has come close to the 30 crore mark instead. With 29.78 crore coming in on Friday [including 59 lakhs from the Tamil and Telugu versions], the film has taken the second best start of the year after Sultan [36.54 crore]. Also, it has comfortably surpassedM.S. Dhoni – The Untold Story, which had collected 21.3 crore on its opening day.
As a matter of fact, the start of Dangal is almost comparable to that of Sultan since latter had arrived just around Eid and there was no impact on the Salman Khan starrer due to demonetization either. In case of Dangal, one can claim that around 10% [3 crore] has definitely been lost due to a good chunk of ‘aam junta’ still struggling with cash issues. This isn’t all as if one looks at the fact that Dangal is not really a quintessential Bollywood film (zero romantic angle, no chartbuster song, rural background, sports theme no villainy per se) and defies quite a few stereotypes, and it makes the opening all the more phenomenal.
Aamir Khan in a still from Dangal
Reviews for the Nitesh Tiwari are out and out positive and the word of mouth too ranges from good to excellent. As a result, it is pretty much on the cards that the growth for Dangal would be fantastic from this point on. It is a given that the film would fetch a weekend of 100 crore, hence turning out to be one of those very few films in the history of Bollywood to achieve this feat.
Dangal has embarked on a Blockbuster start and while the stage has already been set, next few days would define if it would be stepping into the All Time Blockbuster zone as well.
Note: All numbers as per production and distribution sources
