Baadshaho Box Office Prediction

Milan Luthria’s Baadshaho is the big release this week and even though the sentence itself is getting repetitive – it comes at a time when the industry needs big films to work. Barring the incredibly consistent Akshay Kumar, every other ‘star film’ has failed after the release of ‘Bahubali 2’ in April last year. The only other movies that have worked on a smaller level are ‘Hindi Medium’, ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ and last week’s ‘Bareilly Ki Barfi’.

Factors in favour of Baadshaho:

• Ajay Devgn: His ‘multiplex-pull’ is questionable, but Ajay has a fairly strong following at smaller centres and a film like ‘Baadshaho’ should bring them out to theatres in big numbers. He also has the acclaimed ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’ team of Emraan Hashmi and director Milan Luthria with him. Luthria isn’t a very consistent director, but when in form, he can deliver a film that can strike a chord with audience across the country. Emraan has had solo-success to his credit in the past, so his presence should help too.
• Action: There hasn’t been an action film in quite a while, the last being ‘Bahubali 2’. The timing of release is quite good too, as there’s no big film until ‘Judwaa 2’ at the end of the month. Plenty of time to perform, if it does perform.
• Trailer and Music: The trailer of the film got a very good response. The music has done fairly well too. ‘Mere Raske Qamar’ has topped most charts, while ‘Socha Hai’ has gained popularity after its release.

Factors against the film:

• Multiplex business: ‘Shivaay’ flopped at the box office because business at multiplexes was extremely poor. Back then, the competition was from a big film like ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’. This time around it’s from a much smaller film like ‘Shubh Mangal Savdhan’. While the start is expected to be slow at metro cities and slightly better at smaller-city multiplexes, the growth over the weekend will decide if ‘Baadshaho’ can do what ‘Shivaay’ couldn’t.
• Like ‘Shivaay’ last year, the high for ‘Baadshaho’ was the launch of the theatrical trailer. After that, the interest to watch the film has reduced. It’s been a issue for most movies in recent times, including ‘Toilet’ and ‘A Gentleman’.

IndicineFBO: We expect ‘Baadshaho’ to collect Rs 10.4 crore on its opening day at the box office. The government holiday for Bakrid is on Saturday, but the advantage should begin to kick-in evening onwards on Friday.