Box office: Tanhaji has excellent first week, Chhapaak's struggle continues

Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior, starring Ajay Devgn, has had a fantastic run in its first week in the theatres with a domestic collection of Rs116 crore nett, according to figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

The film had made an excellent opening with Rs59.75 crore in the first weekend and then sustained the momentum well by adding another Rs56.25 crore on the weekdays.

Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior is a fictionalized tale of the Maratha general Tanaji Malusare who sacrificed his life to win back the difficult fort of Kondhana from the Mughals. Directed by Om Raut, the film was reportedly made on a huge budget of Rs150 crore and so, despite the excellent first week, it will have to keep up the run for a while yet.

Meanwhile, Meghna Gulzar's Chhapaak, which was released simultaneously with Tanhaji, failed to make a significant impact at the box office. Despite the largely positive reviews it received, the Deepika Padukone-starrer biopic of acid-attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal had opened with just Rs18 crore nett in its first weekend and thereafter added another Rs8 crore in the remaining four days of the first week to end with a collection of Rs26 crore nett.

Though Chhapaak was made on a relatively low budget of about Rs35 crore, the film is not out of the woods yet and will need a good showing on its second weekend if its producers are to recover their investment.

Meanwhile, the comedy drama Good Newwz, starring Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Kiara Adwani and Diljit Dosanjh, added another Rs14.25 crore in its third week in theatres, taking its total collection to Rs189.82 crore.

The film has a good chance of entering the Rs200 crore club in its fourth week. If it does so, this will be Akshay Kumar's second film to break into the exclusive club, after Housefull 4 (2019).