Box office: Hindi version of Prabhas’s Saaho records very good opening

The Hindi version of the Prabhas-starrer Saaho has recorded a very good opening in India. The action thriller directed by Sujeeth made Rs24 crore nett on opening day, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com. 

Following the super success of SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017), Prabhas gained in popularity in regions outside his native Telugu market. Hence, there was keen anticipation for Saaho, his next project, for which audiences had to wait for more than two years.

This seems to have worked to the film's advantage on the first day despite a not-so-encouraging trailer and poor reviews. One must also remember that some regions in the North and the East had to cancel their morning shows as the prints were not delivered on time. Else the opening number could have gone still higher.

After Baahubali, I didn’t know what to do, says Prabhas

The opening of Saaho, which also stars Shraddha Kapoor, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Jackie Shroff and Chunky Pandey, is the second best for the Hindi version of a multi-lingual film. The first spot belongs, but of course, to Prabhas’s own Baahubali: The Conclusion, whose Hindi version made a mammoth Rs40.73 crore on the opening day. Saaho has also been shot and released simultaneously in Telugu and Tamil.

Have got offers from Hindi cinema, will do pan-India films if Saaho works, says Prabhas

But Saaho and Prabhas will face their real test today and tomorrow since the film has received poor reviews and terrible word-of-mouth publicity. In the recent past, these two factors have spelt doom for some big-budget Hindi films like Aamir Khan's Thugs Of Hindostan (2018), Shah Rukh Khan's Zero (2018) and Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt's Kalank (2019) despite encouraging openings.