Kaalakaandi, Mukkabaaz and 1921, which clashed at the box office on Friday, January 12, opened to a dull start at the theatres on its first day. The Zareen Khan starrer and Saif Ali Khan's film, however, fared better than the Anurag Kashyap directorial.
Released in about 1200 screens in the domestic market, Kaalakaandi is much bigger than Mukkabaaz or 1921, in terms of hype, screen count, budget, promotion and star cast.
According to Boxofficecollection.com, Kaalakaandi has collected Rs 1 crore on Day 1 at Indian box office. The collection apparently got affected because the film mostly catered to the multiplex audience. According to reports, the film, which is set in Mumbai, has performed better in the city and its nearby areas than the rest of the country.
Although it registered a slow start, Saif's movie left many impressed and is expected to help draw viewers to the theatres over the first weekend. The film is likely to recover its production cost in the first week itself.
Saif's film has, however, performed better than Mukkabaaz, which despite having received an overwhelming response from critics and celebs, failed to pull the audience to the theatres. Mukkabaaz collected the lowest among the three films with around Rs 75 lakhs net.
The sports drama has gained immense positive word-of-mouth publicity and hence, is expected to do a decent business over the weekend.
1921 performed the best among all with an approximate collection of Rs 1.50 crore net at the Indian box office on its opening day.
Zareen's movie is the fourth instalment of the 1920 franchise and if the collection of the previous two films are taken into consideration, then it can be said that 1921 didn't have a great opening. 1920- Evil Returns (2012) had made a business of Rs 3.40 crore on its first day while 1920-London made Rs2.50 crore.
However, with two big movies – Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavat and Akshay Kumar's Padman – set to release next week, Kaalakaandi, 1921 and Mukkabaaz have only a week's time to draw the audience to theatres and recover production cost.
