iSmart Shankar box office collection day 1: Puri Jagan scores biggest opener for Ram

Director Puri Jagannath's iSmart Shankar has made a good collection at the box office in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on the first day and become the biggest opener for Ram Pothineni.

Puri Jagannadh and Ram Pothineni are among the popular directors and actors of Telugu film industry. But both of them suffered a severe setback with back-to-back failures in recent years. The two joined hands with each other for the first time to bring back each other's fallen glory. Hence, there was a lot of hype for iSmart Shankar and its interesting promos doubled the curiosity about the movie.

The hype surrounding iSmart Shankar helped the makers sell its theatrical rights for record prices and the distributors released the film in a large number of screens in a bid to cash in the craze, which helped the film register decent advance booking for its first day. After seeing these aspects, trade analysts predicted that the flick would start with a bang at the box office.

As per predicted, iSmart Shankar received a fantastic response in the early morning with some theatres running houseful across the Telugu states. The movie has been successful in impressing the audience. Its regular morning shows witnessed unprecedented crowd and the word of mouth boosted its collection in the later shows on the first day.

According to reports, iSmart Shankar has collected Rs 10.93 crore gross at the AP/TS box office on the first day. The movie has beaten the record of Nenu Sailaja, which was the biggest opener for Ram Pothineni with its first-day collection of Rs 4.75 crore gross in the Telugu states. It has also become one of the biggest openers for Puri Jagannath in recent years.

On its opening day, iSmart Shankar has reportedly earned Rs 7.83 crore for the distributor in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Here is the area-wise share. These numbers may not match with actual figures.