WILL SHAITAAN EMERGE AS A BIG HIT?
The month of March began on a weak note thanks to the underperformance of Laapataa Ladies and Dune: Part Two. Laapataa Ladies enjoyed glorious reviews and it began at just Rs. 75 lakhs. But it jumped to Rs. 1.35 crores and Rs. 1.65 crores on Saturday and Sunday respectively. It gave hope that Monday’s collections will be higher than that of Friday, which is always an encouraging sign. Sadly, Laapataa Ladies collected just Rs. 50 lakhs on its fourth day. Dune: Part Two, meanwhile, is expected to collect Rs. 15 crores in Week 1. The earnings are alright though it can still cross the Rs. 25 crores mark if it gets patronage in the second and third weekends.
However, the coming Friday will be exciting, going by the advance ticket sales of the big release, Shaitaan. It stars Ajay Devgn, R Madhavan and Jyotika and is a supernatural thriller. It is the official remake of the 2023 Gujarati super-hit film, Vash. Interestingly, Vash has pulled down from streaming websites until Shaitaan releases! As a result, there won’t be fears for Shaitaan’s makers that their film might not get footfalls from a section of people who have already consumed the original version.
The trailer was launched two weeks ago and instantly caught attention. The casting is also enticing. Yet, it came as a surprise when the advance was thrown open on Sunday and it got an encouraging response. What also goes in the film’s favour is that it releases on Mahashivratri, which is a partial holiday. This will further boost the collections.
Shaitaan is sure to have a double-digit opening and it can also jump to Rs. 12-13 crores. If the word of mouth is positive, a Rs. 40 crores weekend is guaranteed. Then, it needs to sustain in the weekdays and also in the coming weeks which will see a heavy flow of releases. But all of them are mid-sized and won’t dent the earnings of Shaitaan majorly.