Box office: Marjaavaan opens at Rs7 crore, Bala sustains well on second Friday

Writer-director Milap Zaveri’s Marjaavaan had a good opening yesterday. The film starring Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria and Riteish Deshmukh made about Rs7 crore nett yesterday, as per figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

According to the website, the film worked better in smaller centres and on single screens than in metros and multiplexes, something that is to be expected from a film of this nature.

Marjaavaan has mostly received poor reviews and it would be interesting to see if this has any impact on collections over the weekend.

Its opening collection, while not bad, is much lower than the number garnered by Ek Villain (2014), the previous film to feature Malhotra and Deshmukh together. Ek Villain had opened to an excellent Rs16.43 crore nett. The general response to that film was also better than what Marjaavaan seems to be getting.

Trade sources put Marjaavaan's budget at Rs35–40 crore. The film will need collections to rise today and on Sunday to keep alive the prospect of becoming a hit.

Meanwhile, the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Bala sustained well on the first day of its second week. The film, directed by Amar Kaushik, collected Rs3.25 crore nett yesterday to take its overall total to Rs73 crore.