Udta Punjab bags best opening ever for a Shahid Kapoor film

After all the hype and the controversies around it, Udta Punjab took off smoothly across the country, bagging a net of Rs10.05 crore on its opening day. The film starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Punjabi star Diljit Dosanjh released on more than 2,000 screens in India. The film's budget is pegged at Rs48-50 crore.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted the opening-day figure as

Udta Punjab recorded the fifth highest opening-day collection of the year. The films above it are Fan (Shah Rukh Khan, Rs19.2 crore), Housefull 3 (Akshay Kumar-Abhishek Bachchan-Riteish Deshmukh, Rs15.21 crore),  Airlift (Akshay Kumar-Nimrat Kaur, Rs12.35 crore) and Baaghi (Tiger Shroff-Shraddha Kapoor, Rs11.94 crore).

Meanwhile, BoxOfficeIndia.com pegged the net opening day figure for Udta Punjab at Rs10 crore. Given the staunch opposition to the film, first by the Central Board of Film Certification and then from some groups in Punjab, the numbers coming from that region are encouraging. 

According to BoxOfficeIndia.com, the film bagged Rs1.93 crore net in the East Punjab market. This is the best opening-day collection for any Hindi film in the region this year. Fan got Rs1.75 crore, while Housefull 3, Airlift, and Baaghi bagged Rs1.58 crore, Rs1.24 crore and Rs1.30 crore, respectively.

This is an acheivement for Shahid Kapoor as well. The Rs10 crore net opening is the highest first-day collection for any of his films, beating the previous best of Rs9 crore set by by R...Rajkumar (2013).

It is difficult to say whether, given the buzz around the film, Udta Punjab should have done even better, but the positive reviews and good word-of-mouth publicity are likely to bolster collections on Saturday and Sunday.