IMAGE: NTR Jr and Hrithik Roshan in War 2.
It’s going to be a record-breaking day at the box office on Thursday, August 13.
Two event films, from different film industries, will collide at the box office.
War 2, starring Hrithik Roshan and NTR Jr, carries forward the Spy Universe and has been hyped ever since its announcement.
Then, there’s Coolie, which has its own loyal Rajinikanth audience.
Between the two of them, over Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) is expected. If that happens, it would be the biggest day for Indian cinema as never before have theatres attracted footfalls worth this much on a single day.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan boasts of the biggest single day collections as it brought in Rs 80.10 crore (Rs 801 million) on its fourth day, which was a Sunday.
IMAGE: Rajinikanth in Coolie.
Coolie is living up to the hype and the Tamil version should take a record opening. While it should cross the Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) mark, the Hindi version should bring in a further Rs 8-10 crore (Rs 80-100 million), the Telugu and Kannada dubbed versions should add about the same numbers, which means the first day collections should be in the range of Rs 65-70 crore (Rs 650-700 million).
War 2 should also take a start of over Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million).
In fact, more is expected as War (2019) had crossed Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) with ease.
Had there been a couple of chartbusters in the second installment, perhaps the outcome would have been bigger.
There is a four-day extended weekend ahead for the films, releasing in the Independence Day weekend, and the stage is set for both to emerge as huge grossers of 2025.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
