Box office collection: Shahid's 'Udta Punjab' opens better than Akshay's 'Housefull 3'

The censor board controversy surrounding "Udta Punjab" has worked in its favour. "Udta Punjab," starring Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh, opened to good occupancy across India on Friday.

In fact, the opening day occupancy of "Udta Punjab" is better than Akshay Kumar's "Housefull 3" in the entire Northern region. Generally, a movie starts on an average note and then the occupancy picks up post afternoon shows. But in the case of "Udta Punjab" the film recorded good occupancy from the morning shows itself.

Movie critic and trade analyst Kamaal R Khan (KRK) tweeted about the same and said that the film is set for a good opening day box office collection. "Film #UdtaPunjab has got a better opening than #Housefull3 in the entire north region. So producers can smile," KRK tweeted.

Abhishek Chaubey's directorial film is about the issue of drug trafficking in Punjab. The film has been in the limelight after its trailer release. Initially, Alia was slammed on Twitter for portraying the character of a Bihari migrant. Later, the Central Board of Film Certification demanded over 94 cuts in the film, for which they were trolled on social media. The makers later approached the Bombay High Court for the film's clearance.

After the court passed the film with just one cut, a censor copy got leaked online just before the film's release. However, trade analysts believe that the leak will not hamper the box office collection of the film.

"I am of the opinion that it will hardly affect the film. Maybe there will be a marginal effect of it. People who want to watch it in theatres will still watch it there and people who want to watch it online, they will definitely watch it online, irrespective of when the film is leaked," leading exhibitor and distributor Akshaye Rathi told DNA.