New releases from 15 March — Milan Talkies, Mere Pyare Prime Minister and Photograph — failed to get going at the box office. Holdover releases Badla and Captain Marvel were the first choice for the cinegoers.
Badla, starring Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, made Rs2.50 crore nett on its second Friday, to take its India business to Rs58.54 crore nett.
Made at an estimated budget of Rs24 crore, Badla was released on 1,000 screens in India. As per trade sources, Red Chillies Entertainment has sold the combined digital and satellite rights for Rs20 crore to digital platform Netflix. The film may see a digital release first before they syndicate it to a satellite channel. The music rights have been sold to Zee for Rs1 crore. Badla is the remake of Spanish film, Contratriempo (2016).
Hollywood film Captain Marvel (2019) too held its own, making Rs2 crore nett on its second Monday. Distributed by Disney, Captain Marvel has so far made Rs72.62 crore nett in its India business.
The new releases — Ritesh Batra’s Photograph, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Milan Talkies, and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Mere Pyare Prime Minister — continued their poor run.
Of the three, it was Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Photograph that touched the Rs1-crore mark at the box office. Photograph made Rs10 lakh nett on its first Monday that helped it touch Rs1.05 crore nett. Photograph was released on nearly 700 screens and is said to be made at a budget of around Rs20 crore.
Milan Talkies, starring Ali Fazal and Shraddha Srinath, picked Rs7 lakh nett on its first Monday to take its four-day business to Rs52 lakh. The film is made at an estimated budget of Rs10 crore and was released on 500 screens in India.
Mere Pyare Prime Minister, starring Anjali Patil and child artiste Om Kanojiya, fared the worst of the lot, collecting a paltry Rs33 lakh in four days. The film’s cost of production is between Rs3-4 crore.