Amid fan frenzy of the kind that the Hindi film industry had not witnessed in a very long time, Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’s’ box office performance has been better than expected on opening day, and that, too, without the help of traditional marketing tools.
"Love wins" was the larger message that Hindi film personalities, including Karan Johar, Pooja Bhatt and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, sent out following the success of ‘Pathaan’ which raised a whopping Rs 57 crore as domestic box office numbers on its opening day.
The early response to the stylish spy thriller, also featuring Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, appears to be a shot in the arm for Bollywood reeling under the pandemic-induced losses, a series of box-office failures in 2022, and calls for boycott by a section of people on social media and elsewhere. According to production house Yash Raj Films (YRF), the movie’s net day one collection stood at Rs 55 crore, the "highest grossing first day for a Hindi film". Its dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu fetched additional Rs 2 crore from theatres across the country. Karan, frequent collaborator and close friend of Shah Rukh, praised team ‘Pathaan’ for crossing the Rs 100-crore mark in reported global earnings. "Hits beyond a century!!! Rs 100 crore and above in one day! GOAT mega star SRK, visionary and legendary YRF and Adi... Sid, Deepika, John!!! Wow. Love forever trumps hate! Mark this date..." the filmmaker wrote on his Instagram Stories on Thursday. "Love in action! #Pathaan. Thank you @iamsrk for far more than the movies," tweeted Pooja.
Zeeshan, who has worked with Shah Rukh in "Raees" and "Zero", said he watched a late night show of "Pathaan" which had over 95 per cent occupancy. "Love wins and you are love @iamsrk sir… @deepikapadukone superb. #JohnAbraham terrifying. Kudos to the whole team. @yrf #SiddharthAnand Thanks!" he added in his tweet.
The Siddharth Anand directorial, which faced boycott calls over the song "Besharam Rang" for allegedly hurting religious sentiments, had sold 4.19 lakh tickets till Tuesday in advance booking reflecting 80 per cent occupancy on day one, even for early morning shows beginning at 6 AM or 7 AM, said industry insiders.