Box office: Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi off to a slow start; Genius fares worse

Friday saw two new Hindi films being released, Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi and Genius. The former is a sequel to Mudassar Aziz's 2016 crossborder comedy Happy Bhag Jayegi. The film had a slow start at the counters, bagging around Rs2.75 crore nett on its opening day, as reported by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

Happy Bhag Jayegi (2016) had bagged around Rs2.29 crore nett on its opening day. That film, however, had been made at an estimated cost of Rs20 crore and released on 1,000 screens. Happy Bhag Jayegi eventually made a decent Rs28.19 crore nett in its India business.

In contrast, Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi has been made at an estimated cost of Rs30 crore and released on 1,500 screens across India. Director Aziz will be banking on the generally good reviews and strong word-of-mouth for the film's business to grow over the weekend. 

Meanwhile, Anil Sharma's Genius, a launch vehicle for his son Utkarsh, has got bad reviews and the film also opened poorly, bagging just Rs70 lakh on its first Friday despite the presence of Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the villain.

Genius has been made at an estimated cost of Rs25 crore and released on 800 screens across India. With such a poor opening, it will take a stroke of genius for the film to even recover its cost.

Meanwhile, holdover releases Gold and Satyameva Jayate saw a natural drop in their second Friday collections. Akshay Kumar's Gold made Rs1.75 crore nett, while John Abraham's Satyameva Jayate made Rs 1.50 crore nett. Gold has so far collected Rs89.85 crore nett in India, while Satyameva Jayate has bagged Rs67.35 crore nett.

If Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi does not pick up over the weekend, the two Independence Day dramas will hope to grow at the comedy's expense.