"Ram-leela", featuring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, continues to draw crowds to the theatres, taking its first week domestic box office earning to almost ₹81.90 crores, after collecting ₹6.10 crore on Thursday.
The Sanjay Leela Bhansali directorial was released in nearly 3,000 screens in India and 500 screens abroad on 15 November. Made on an estimated budget of ₹35 crore, the makers of the film recovered the production cost in the first weekend by earning over ₹52 crores.
Now, the film's collection from the domestic box office is inching towards the ₹100-crore mark and it is expected to happen in the second week.
"#RamLeela Fri 16 cr, Sat 17.25 cr, Sun 19.50 cr, Mon 8.75 cr, Tue 7.70 cr, Wed 6.60 cr, Thu 6.10 cr. Total: ₹ 81.90 cr. Excellent at plexes!" tweeted trade analyst and film critic Taran Adarsh on Friday.
"Ram-leela", which is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's epic love story "Romeo and Juliet", collected ₹16 crore at the domestic box office on the opening day, despite its screening being disturbed in a few theatres following protests over its content and title. The makers of the film changed the title of the film to "Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-leela" following an order by the Delhi High Court and a few controversial words were replaced.
The collection of the film is expected to fall on Friday following the release of "Gori Tere Pyaar Mein", starring Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor, and "Singh Saab The Great" featuring Sunny Deol, Amrita Rao and Urvashi Rautela, but it will continue to earn decent revenue on good word of mouth. In fact, it won't come as a surprise if "Ram-leela" beats the new releases at the box office.
