Box office: Qismat 2 achieves highest opening for a Punjabi film in the pandemic

Jagdeep Sidhu’s Punjabi movie Qismat 2, the sequel to Qismat (2018), made an impressive opening yesterday, with a collection of Rs1.25 crore nett, according to trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com.

In fact, this is the highest opening for a Punjabi movie since the COVID-19 pandemic struck early last year. The previous record was held by Chal Mera Putt 2 (2020) which had opened with Rs1.05 crore nett on its re-release last month.

Qismat 2's collection was the highest in east Punjab alone where it made Rs95 lakh nett. But apart from doing well in a few other centres in Punjab, the film achieved this number because it scored highly even in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh. It fetched Rs26 lakh in these areas, which is excellent for a Punjabi movie.

In fact, in a few centres in Delhi, the film fared better than the big-budget Hindi movie Bell Bottom (2021), which was released last month, and Roohi (2021), which was released in March.

Qismat 2 is the sequel to the 2018 hit film Qismat. The earlier film was also helmed by Sidhu and had the same leading pair of Ammy Virk and Sargun Mehta.

Compared to the Punjabi market, the Hindi film scenario hasn’t been impressive at all after theatres reopened, with all big releases like Bell Bottom, Chehre (2021) and Thalaivii (2021) doing poor business at the ticket window.