Begum Jaan Shows How The Genre Has Restricted Audience; Stays Low On 1st Monday

Three years back when Madhuri Dixit had led an army of women and taken to guns in Gulaab Gang, the film had a low reception at the Box Office. The film had a weekend of 9 crores and then the first week stood at 13 crores, before the lifetime closed at 15 crores.

Circa 2017 and Begum Jaan, which has a similar premise of Vidya Balan leading an army of women who take to guns, the film is again seeing a low reception at the Box Office. With an 11.48 crore weekend, the film has been doing somewhat better than Gulaab Gang, though overall it is catering to similar audiences and fetching familiar response. This was reflected in 1.87 crore that came in on Monday which has taken the overall collections to 13.35 crore. The film should go past the 15 crore mark by tomorrow, hence allowing itself a better Week One than Gulaab Gang.

What works to an extent (strictly from the commerce perspective) is the fact that the film’s cost of production (including P&A) is 19 crores, half the amount has already come in from overseas theatrical, TV, music and digital revenue, and there is further 2 crore subsidy from the Jharkhand government.

This way, the makers [Vishesh Films] have managed to go past the breakeven point. However, the film’s performance theatrically shows that such genre has a restricted audience for itself and one can’t expect a major turnaround of audiences.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder