Box office: De De Pyaar De makes Rs57 crore nett in first week, SOTY2 slumps in week 2

First-time director Akiv Ali’s De De Pyaar De managed to hold on well on the working days of its first week, making an average of Rs5 crore daily, with a minor fall on Thursday, to Rs4.25 crore, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

The grand total of the comedy starring Ajay Devgn, Rakul Preet Singh and Tabu now stands at Rs56.75 crore. But this is a low number for a Devgn film. The star has had a good record in recent years, with the exception of the 2017 dud Baadshaho.

What makes matters worse for De De Pyaar De, produced by Luv Ranjan, is that the film's budget was rather high at close to Rs75 crore and the movie will need to do good business over its second weekend if it is to surpass that number. And that might be a little difficult. Though De De Pyaar De is an entertaining film, the story is rather bold for the regular Hindi cinema audience.

Meanwhile, Dharma's Student Of The Year 2 saw a big fall yesterday and could make only Rs85 lakh nett at the domestic box office, the first time the Punit Malhotra-directed film's daily collection has dipped under Rs1 crore. Overall, SOTY2, starring Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria and Ananya Pandey, saw a major fall in its second week, making just Rs10.10 crore nett against the first week's collection of Rs54.03 crore.