Bhooth Bangla collected Rs. 11.50 crore nett approx on Friday at the Indian box office. Add to that Rs. 3.50 crore nett from paid previews on Thursday night, and the all-inclusive opening day amounted to Rs. 15 crore nett approx. The film started ahead of Jolly LLB 3 in the morning yesterday and stayed ahead for most of the day, but in the night, it fell a little short.
If not for previews, the film probably would have collected a similar Rs. 14-15 crore nett on Friday, and that would be well ahead of Jolly LLB 3. The norm is to report previews and opening day separately in Bollywood. Now, coincidentally, the last three notable releases, The Kerala Story 2, Dhurandhar 2, and now Bhooth Bangla, all had previews before their official release day. Maybe it is reading a bit too early into it, but this could well become a regular thing and then the norm could be clubbing the two as one day.
Bhooth Bangla marks the reunion of Akshay Kumar and Priyadarshan, a pair that has delivered some of Hindi cinema’s most iconic comedy entertainers. From its title, casting, and promos, Bhooth Bangla appeared to carry tonal and thematic similarities to Bhool Bhulaiyaa, another film from the same actor-director duo. The recent Bhool Bhulaiyaa sequels, despite featuring a different lead cast, have performed strongly at the box office. While there is no official IP connection here, this familiarity has probably worked in the film’s favour.
Being a comedy entertainer, the film performed well in the Hindi belt states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. These should be showing strong surges on Sunday, which should propel the overall number as well. Karnataka and West Bengal were also good; the latter is generally considered to underperform for films that do well in Hindi belt circuits but tends to perform well for horror-comedies.
It is a positive start for the film, especially given that the costs involved are quite reasonable. The task now is to build on this start, making good gains over the weekend and then sustaining for the next couple of weeks. The advances today are good, which could lead to a 50 per cent or so growth, and that is what it should do. The film has the benefit of an open run, which should further facilitate it.