Mumbai: With ‘Jawan’ opening to tumultuous scenes in Mumbai and Chennai, where fans were seen doing an abhishekam of Shah Rukh Khan with milk, the Atlee film starring SRK, and southern superstars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi, is headed to beat the opening-day figure of Rs 57 crore notched up by ‘Pathaan’ and touch Rs 70 crore, according to the trade media.
Across languages, ‘Jawan’ is likely to cross Rs 104 crore with Rs 20 crore from the Tamil markets and another Rs 14 crore from the Telugu-speaking universe. It will be interesting to see how much the film collects from the global Tamil audience, which has powered the huge success of Rajanikanth’s ‘Jailer’.
The optimism of the trade media is hinged on the unprecedented advance bookings for ‘Jawan’. According to BoxOfficeIndia.com, the figure for these bookings adds up to Rs 55 crore for the weekend, slightly more than what ‘Pathaan’ made, namely, Rs 54 crore.
SRK, therefore, now holds the record of attracting two Rs 25 crore-plus advance bookings in one year. The three major multiplex chains in the country — PVR, Inox and Cinepolis — had reported they sold 2.35 million advance tickets within the first three days of the bookings being opened.
What is also expected to work for the film is the surge expected in Delhi-NCR because of the closure of schools, colleges and offices on account of the G-20 Summit. With the Metro services running normally in all but one station and no major traffic restrictions outside designated areas, people are expected to throng cinemas in larger numbers than usual between September 7 and September 11.
The figures for the first-day collections on ‘Jawan’ will be available early on September 8.
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