Hindi films that released on Friday (7 September) - Paltan, Laila Majnu and Gali Guleiyan - have not fared well on their first day at the box office.
Among the three, JP Dutta’s war-film Paltan released across 1,000 screens. Made at an estimated budget of Rs25 crore, Paltan could only manage Rs1.25 crore nett on its opening day. Paltan is Dutta’s first film after twelve years. He last made Umrao Jaan (2006).
Imtiaz Ali-written Laila Majnu, featuring new comers Avinash Tiwari and Tripti Dimri, made only Rs30 lakh nett. The film marked the directorial debut of his brother Sajid Ali.
Dipesh Jain's psychological thriller Gali Guleiyan, an independent film, earned around Rs5 lakhs on its opening day.
Horror films seem to be the flavour of the month for Indian film goers. Rajkummar Rao-starrer Stree is doing great buisness at the box office. Hollywood film The Nun, directed Corin Hardy, opened to an impressive Rs7.75 crore nett, as reported by BoxOfficeIndia.com.
Made at an estimated budget of $22 million, The Nun enjoyed a fairly wide release bagging around 1,500 screens in India. The Hollywood film is a part of the The Conjuring franchise that has enjoyed success in India. The Nun records the highest opening for any film from the franchise. Below is the opening day figure for the previous films in the franchise.
The Conjuring (2013) - Rs60 lakh
The Conjuring 2 (2016) - Rs5.36 crore nett
Annabelle Creation (2017) - Rs4.61 crore nett
Trade analyst Amod Mehra said, “The Nun is off to a good start. A horror genre has set audience. Whereas the new Hindi releases, were as good as non-starters because there was no awareness that these films are being released. Irrespective of the content being good or bad is different, if there is no awareness, then the film can’t grow. Thus there is no collection for these films."