Box office: Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 passes the Monday test, Dhaakad is one of the year's biggest disasters

The Kartik Aaryan-, Kiara Advani- and Tabu-starrer Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (2022) had a successful weekend and was also expected to pass the Monday test. It has done so with flying colours, amassing Rs10.75 crore nett yesterday, according to trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com.

Directed by Anees Bazmee, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 is the second film in the franchise after Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007), which was helmed by Priyadarshan and starred Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav.

The grand total of the horror comedy at the domestic box office now stands at an impressive Rs66.25 crore nett. According to trade sources, the film was made on a budget of about Rs75 crore, so the film is turning out to be a safe bet for its producers.

The Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Anek (2022), directed by Anubhav Sinha, will be released this week. But the film is unlikely to pose a threat to Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 as it is not a mass entertainer. Bazmee’s film may, however, face competition from the Tom Cruise-starrer Hollywood movie Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Meanwhile, as expected, Dhaakad (2022), the other release of last week, slipped further yesterday after a disastrous first weekend. The film's Monday collection was a pathetic Rs20 lakh nett, taking its total collection to a paltry Rs1.85 crore against its estimated production budget of about Rs70 crore.

The Kangana Ranaut-starrer seems set to become one of Hindi cinema's biggest box-office disasters on the lines of Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Broken Horses (2015) and Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet (2015).