Box office: Alia Bhatt's Gangubai Kathiawadi is off to a good start

Trade pundits had quite high expectations of Alia Bhatt's Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022) as it marks the actress's first release in theatres in three years. Given the hype around the film and the mostly positive reviews, it was expected to make a good start and it has done exactly that. The film, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, raked in a decent Rs9.75 crore nett on its first day yesterday, according to the trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com.

In fact, the film appears to have surpassed industry expectations. The collection is good considering the film's protagonist is a woman and it deals with a dark and serious subject. In fact, Gangubai Kathiawadi's first-day collection is the second highest ever for a woman-driven film after Veere Di Wedding (2018), which had made Rs10.42 crore nett on its first day. And that was back in the pre-pandemic era, when the concept of limited occupancy in theatres was unknown.

Gangubai Kathiawadi review: Alia Bhatt has swagger and sass as a brothel madam who rises to great heights in Bombay

Given the solid start at the box office and the positive word-of-mouth, the film could be on course to register a first-weekend collection of Rs35 crore at least.

According to trade sources, Gangubai Kathiawadi has been made on a budget of Rs110 crore, which means the film will have to build on its good start at the box office for at least two weeks to break even.

Backed by Pen Studios, Gangubai Kathiawadi is a biographical crime drama based on S Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai. Besides Bhatt, the film features Ajay Devgn, Shantanu Maheshwari and Seema Pahwa in pivotal roles.