Box office: Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor's Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui makes a slow start

Trade pundits had reasonably high expecations of Ayushmann Khurrana and Vaani Kapoor's Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui (2021). For one, Khurrana hasn't put a foot wrong in the past three years. And he has continued on his path of doing films that deliver social messages. Yet, the film directed by Abhishek Kapoor has made a slow start at the box office.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui only managed to rake in Rs3.25 crore nett on its first day yesterday, according to the trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com. This collection is not a good number, especially given the hype around the film and the mostly positive reviews.

The bigger surprise, however, is that the film struggled to earn decent numbers in metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, which is its target audience.

According to trade sources, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui which was made on a budget of Rs40 crore and the film will need to find a good audience on the weekend to stand a chance of breaking even, because next week Telugu star Allu Arjun's Hindi debut Pushpa: The Rise and the Hollywood film Spider-Man: No Way Home are set to take up most of the screens.

Meanwhile, last week's release Tadap (2021), starring newcomer Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria, added about Rs85 lakh nett on its eighth day in theatres, taking its total collection so far to Rs21.25 crore nett. This is a decent return for a film without any stars.

The Salman Khan-starrer Antim: The Final Truth added Rs25 lakh nett on its third Friday in theatres, taking its total collection at the domestic box office to Rs36 crore. Given that the Mahesh Manjrekar film was made on a budget of about Rs45 crore and stars Salman Khan, this is poor return.