Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif's movie Bharat opened to humongous response at the Indian box office on the first day and beaten the collection records of Baahubali 2.
Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif and Ali Abbas Zafar have delivered a blockbuster success like Tiger Zinda Hai. The trio is back with Bharat and this combo has created a lot of expectations about the film. Its promos and the storyline featured in its trailer has doubled the curiosity. Above all, the movie has hit the screens on Eid holiday and it will have a five-day-extended first weekend. All these things have generated a lot of hype.
The distributors have released Bharat in 4,700 across India and 1,300 screens across 70 international markets and its worldwide total count stands at 6,000 screens, which is the highest number for a Bollywood film. The hype surrounding it helped the movie register an average of over 60 advance booking for its opening day, while many shows sold out 100 per cent ticket.
After seeing these aspects, the trade experts in the B-Town predicted that Bharat would take the box office by storm. Sumit Kadel tweeted, "#Bharat Advance booking is going BONZER today. Tomorrow is EID National holiday, providing the prodigious advance booking, Bharat can go past ₹ 40-42 cr nett also if Mumbai-Gujarat circuit overflows. Is Baar EIDI kaafi acchi milegi Salman Fans ko."
The first screening of Bharat began in many centres across the domestic market early in the morning on Wednesday and most of the shows ran to a packed house. Sumit Kadel tweeted, "#Bharat off to a BUMPER start at the box office across India. Film opened with 60-65% occupancy in early morning shows. Advance booking for today is HUGE, all set for record breaking EID opening."
Bharat was successful in striking a chord with most of the filmgoers in the early morning shows and a positive talk went viral on the social media minutes after the show got over. The word of mouth boosted its occupancy with the theatres across the country witnessing unprecedented crowd in the regular morning and matinee shows. Its collections grew further in the afternoon and evening shows.
As per early estimates Bharat has collected Rs 45 crore net at the Indian box office on the first day. Taran Adarsh tweeted, "#Salmania grips the nation... #Bharat storms the BO... Proves *yet again* Salman Khan is the biggest crowd puller... #Bharat opens much bigger than Salman - Ali Abbas Zafar's #TigerZindaHai [₹ 34.10 cr] and #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]... Wed ₹ 42.30 cr. India biz."
Taran Adarsh added, "#Bharat hits the ball out of the park on Day 1... ⭐️ Emerges Salman's biggest #Eid opener, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]. ⭐️ Emerges Salman's *biggest opener ever*, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #PremRatanDhanPayo [₹ 40.35 cr]."
The movie has beaten the records of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Rs 40.35 crore) and Sultan (Rs 36.54 crore), which were the biggest openers for Salman Khan. It has also shattered the record of Baahubali 2 (Rs 41 crore) and become the third biggest Bollywood openers of all-time after Happy New Year (Rs 44.97 crore) and Thugs Of Hindostan (Rs 52.25 crore).
