The Indian cinema has witnessed some historic box office clashes over the years. This weekend the audience gets to choose between Shah Rukh Khan’s comedy-drama Dunki and Prabhas’ crime-thriller Salaar. People on the internet have started to pick sides in this battle of stars. While some are done watching bloodshed in films and want to watch Dunki, others can’t take a chance of missing Salaar, which comes from brand Prashanth Neel of KGF fame. However, in this clash of big titles, film trade analysts are sure about a massive footfall at the box office during the holiday season.
Since Rajkumar Hirani helmed Dunki is a comedy-drama and belongs to a starkly different genre from Salaar, it will co-exist with the Prabhas starrer at the ticket counters. While in the northern states it will have an edge over Salaar, the southern states would be hard to conquer as not only Salaar, but Mohanlal’s Neru, is also releasing in the theatres on December 21.
Film trade expert Sreedhar Pillai revealed that Salaar has already gotten more screens in Kerala than Dunki. In his opinion, not just in Kerala, but that will be the scenario in the entire South India.
He said, “In Kerala, Salaar will undoubtedly have an upper hand, especially since it’s an action film featuring both Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Prabhas’ films have consistently performed well in the state. Despite this, the fact that it is directed by Prashanth Neel, whose KGF 2 achieved extraordinary success, further enhances Salaar’s prospects here. The actioner has already secured more screens in Kerala than Dunki and is being distributed by a reputable company. In my opinion, in the entire South India, Salaar will have a huge edge.”
Also, Dunki is only releasing in Hindi and is not dubbed in Tamil or Telugu, making it even harder for the SRK film to attract South Indian moviegoers. “Since Dunki is a family-oriented, emotional film, it will not get that many screens and will be limited to multiplexes as it does not have Telugu or Tamil dubbed versions. But, at the end of the day, only the film with the best content will succeed in Kerala,” added Pillai.
As of now, Dunki has sold 3,83,898 nationwide for its opening day and has earned Rs 10.92 crore. In comparison, Salaar, which releases on december 22, a day after Dunki is much ahead as it has garnered Rs 16.92 crore from the sale of 7,73,439 tickets.
Industry expert AB George asserted, “Bollywood movies will perform only in Tier 1 centres in Kerala.” Looking at the advance booking trends, he assumes that Salaar will take a better opening than Dunki and Neru. But all three films, combined, would do a business of Rs 100 crore in Kerala alone. However, Neru can take the lead with a positive word of mouth. “Mohanlal can create wonders in Kerala,” said George.
However, in the North Indian market, Salaar and Dunki’s clash would be similar to Hollywood’s Oppenheimer vs Barbie box office clash, where both the films did good business. Film producer and trade analyst Girish Johar said, “It could be another week of both the films doing exceedingly well, just like in Hollywood it happened for Barbie and Oppenheimer. Luckily, the target audience and the geographical market are different for both films, so there is a good opportunity for both the films to do well at the box office.”
However, the last big box office clash, between Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal and Vicky Kushal’s Sam Bahadur, also was a clash between films belonging to completely different genres. Still, Sam Bahadur was overshadowed by the Sandeep Reddy Vanga film. A similar trend was observed when Gadar 2 and OMG 2 were released on the same day.
Johar predicted an opening of Rs 35 crore for Dunki and explained that the film has a chance of performing well because there have been many action films which did well in 2023, and “Dunki is like a breath of fresh air.” He added that the audience would prefer to watch something “light” during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Johar predicted an opening of Rs 25 crore for “massier” Salaar (all languages), calling it a “critical film” for its lead actor Prabhas, who has been struggling to register a hit since 2017. His last Bollywood film Adipurush tanked at the box office after an impressive opening of Rs 36 crore.
Film distributor Akshaye Rathi agrees that Salaar and Dunki coming together will affect their box office performance, but only on the first day. “Of course, there will be an impact, but only on the opening day because shows would be divided between both the films. Eventually, I believe the audience would want to watch both films. So, the lifetime collection of both should be very good,” he said. Dunki is releasing on 4000 screens in comparison to Salaar’s 5000 screens.
About Prabhas not being able to deliver a hit, Rathi said it is not on him but the content of his films, “Be it Adipurush or Saaho, as a star he (Prabhas) has managed to always give a big opening. What really didn’t work for these films was their content and that is what let his stats down. Now, I really hope that Prashanth Neel, who has given cinematic experience with films like KGF, does justice to his onscreen persona and gives him the kind of movie that his fans deserve.”
While Salaar is currently ahead of Dunki in terms of advance ticket sales, Rathi suggests that Rajkumar Hirani has never delivered big openings. Instead, he is a ‘lambi race ka ghoda’ and his films are known for staying in the cinema halls for a longer duration and Dunki will possibly follow suit. The filmmaker’s last release, Ranbir Kapoor starrer Sanju, had opened at Rs 34 cr.
With inputs from Anandu Suresh
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Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘family-oriented’ Dunki to have ‘limited’ showcasing in South India, ‘massier’ Salaar to emerge as winner: Trade experts – The Indian Express
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