After experiencing a career-high with Padmaavat (2018), Shahid Kapoor is back with Batti Gul Meter Chalu (2018). While the earlier film, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, also featured Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the lead, the latest has Kapoor playing a solo lead. The film has bagged just Rs21.50 crore nett in its opening weekend, as reported by Boxofficeindia.com.
After opening with Rs6.25 crore nett, the Shree Narayan Singh directed film showed marginal growth on Saturday (22 September) and Sunday (23 September), bagging Rs7.25 crore and Rs8 crore nett, respectively. While for a Kapoor solo lead, an opening weekend figure of Rs21.50 crore nett isn’t bad, the trouble for the film is its budget, that is Rs50 crore.
Batti Gul Meter Chalu released in more than 2,500 screens across India. The film has had a tough journey after its shoot was halted due to the financial disputes between the initial producers KriArj Entertainment and T-Series. Thereafter, Vashu Bhagani of Pooja Entertainment dragged T-Series and KriArj Entertainment to court claiming he holds the distribution rights for the film. Bhagnani filed separates cases in Delhi and Mumbai, but the court didn't rule in his favour. Before the film released, writer Vipul K Rawal hit out at the director and writers, Siddharth Singh and Garima Wahal, for denying him credit for the story and screenplay.
Meanwhile, Nandita Das's Manto, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, had a poor opening weekend, earning only Rs1.95 crore nett. After a poor opening of Rs45 lakh, Manto struggled over the next two days, where it couldn’t even touch the Rs1 crore nett mark. The film made Rs70 lakh on Saturday and Rs80 lakh on Sunday.
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Remarkably, holdover release Stree enjoyed another fine run as it made an impressive Rs6.50 crore nett in its third weekend. Stree has so far made Rs115.96 crore nett at the domestic box office.
The earnings of Manmarziyaan, that hit the screens on 14 September, slid further making Rs3.45 crore nett in the second weekend. Made at a budget of Rs30 crore, Manmarziyaan had released in 1,500 screens across India.