Box office: Sui Dhaaga makes Rs36.50 crore, Pataakha earns Rs3.80 crore in opening weekend

Sharat Katariya's Sui Dhaaga: Made In India has had an impressive start at the box office, earning Rs 36.50 crore nett in its opening weekend, as reported by Boxofficeindia.com. After a fairly decent opening of Rs8.25 crore nett on Friday (28 September), Sui Dhaaga did well over the weekend bagging Rs12.25 crore on Saturday (29 September) and Rs16 crore on Sunday (30 September). The film's three-day total stands at around Rs36.50 crore nett. 

Made at an estimated budget of Rs50 crore, the Yash Raj Films project had released in 2,500 screens across India.

However, film exhibitor Akshaye Rathi believes the earnings have not been good enough as Sui Dhaaga is a 'content-driven film' and not a typical Dhawan flick. “An opening of around Rs6-7 crore nett is not a Varun Dhawan opening. Usually, a Dhawan film would fetch around Rs11-12 crore net. Sui Dhaaga is a film that doesn’t exactly play to the Varun Dhawan gallery, it is a content driven, topical film. There are some films that ride on star power while, then are some films that lend a degree of star power to a subject,  Sui Dhaaga is the latter. These are films that essentially grow on word-of-mouth, the merit of its content. I expect Sui Dhaaga to have a steady Monday (1 October) and a good Tuesday (2 October).

Meanwhile, despite largely getting good reviews, Vishal Bhardwaj’s Pataakha has failed to get going at the box office. Pataakha opened poorly with Rs80 lakhs on Friday but earnings grew on Saturday with Rs.1.25 crore nett. The film would have hoped a significant growth on Sunday, too, but it could only manage a high of Rs1.75 crore nett.

The total earnings of the film, starring Sanya Malhotra and Radhika Madan, stands at Rs3.80 crore nett. Made at an estimated budget of Rs20 crore nett, Pataakha had released in 875 screens across India. 

Speaking about Pataakha's box office performance so far, Rathi opined that Bhardwaj's reputation as a niche filmmaker has worked against him for this film. 

“When you have a name like Vishal Bhardwaj to a film. There is unfortunately, a perception around that alienates a huge chunk of the audience. Every time a Bhardwaj film comes around, most people are sceptical of buying a ticket. Pataakha is a film that appeals to a wide audience and has a universal subject, but it has a Vishal Bhardwaj name attached to it. It takes a while to beat a perception of a super niche, abstract filmmaker/artiste,” Rathi noted.

Tuesday (2 October) is a holiday on account of Gandhi Jayanti and might help Sui Dhaaga add to its fine start. Pataakha, too, might fare better on the back of good word-of-mouth.

Meanwhile, Shree Narayan Singh's Batti Gul Meter Chalu made Rs2.50 crore in its second weekend, taking its overall domestic total to Rs34.33 crore nett. The film was made at an estimated budget of Rs50 crore. 

Amar Kaushik's Stree, too, made Rs2.50 crore nett in its fifth weekend. The film, starring Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor, has made Rs121.16 crore nett in India so far.