Emraan Hashmi's latest release, "Raja Natwarlal", has reported tepid business despite opening on a holiday. Unlike other films that tend to do good business on festival releases, "Raja Natwarlal" has failed to cash in on this trend. The film's Friday box-office collection stands at ₹6.10 crore.
According to Box Office India, the film did well in Mumbai and Gujarat circuits due to Ganesh Chaturthi holiday. However, the opening day collection from rest of the country was below average. The crime thriller is not expected to pick up even during the weekend as it has mostly received negative reviews with even the word-of-mouth publicity not working in its favour.
The opening day collection of "Raja Natwarlal" is the seventh highest in the actor's career. Hashmi's "Raaz 3" remains the top-grosser with ₹10.47 crore, followed by "The Dirty Picture" (9.54 crore) and "Jannat" (₹8.52 crore), according to Bollywood Hungama.
Previous weeks' box-office releases -- "Mardaani" and "Singham Returns" – are expected to dominate over "Raja Natwarlal" in the coming days. While, "Mardaani" had a decent first week, "Singham Returns" did better in its second week.
On its second Friday, "Mardaani" minted around ₹1.7 crore, taking its eight-day total to ₹24.6 crore. The film will soon be declared 'hit' if it continues with the same pace at the box office. "Mardaani", starring Rani Mukherji, is a women-oriented film and has been doing good business in India. The film had a slow start, but in the opening weekend it picked pace owing to positive reviews. The film covered its cost (₹14 crore) before the end of the first week and has entered a safe zone now.
On the other hand, "Singham Returns" continues to fare well at the ticket window. On its third Friday, the film made around ₹1 crore and took its overall profit to more than ₹136 crore.
By the end of the third weekend, Ajay Devgn's film looks poised to beat Salman Khan's "Dabangg" and enter the list of top 10 highest grossers.
