Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara Chapter 1’ Roars At Box Office With Massive Day 1 Collection
‘Kantara Chapter 1’ stormed into theatres with a Rs 60 crore Day 1, overshadowing ‘Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari’, which opened with Rs 9.25 crore.
Rishab Shetty’s ‘Kantara: A Legend Chapter 1’, the much-awaited second installment of the blockbuster franchise, stormed into theatres on Gandhi Jayanti with a phenomenal opening. The film, which serves as a prequel to the 2022 cult hit ‘Kantara’, collected Rs 60 crore in India on its very first day. As per industry tracker Sacnilk, the film made Rs 18 crore in Kannada, Rs 19.5 crore in Hindi, Rs 12.5 crore in Telugu, Rs 5.25 crore in Tamil and Rs 4.75 crore in Malayalam, taking its domestic first day collection to Rs 60 crore.
For comparison, the original film had opened modestly at around Rs 2 crore before word of mouth transformed it into a juggernaut, earning Rs 309 crore in India and over Rs 407 crore worldwide.
Released in five languages – Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam – ‘Kantara Chapter 1’ dominated screens across India with over 8,800 shows. The film saw the strongest response in its home state: the Kannada version had 1,500 shows with a staggering 88 per cent occupancy. In Hindi, the film played across nearly 4,700 shows, recording around 30 per cent occupancy. Telugu (1,000 shows) and Tamil (840 shows) each saw over 70 per cent occupancy, while Malayalam (600 shows) reported a solid 65 per cent turnout.
The numbers put Rishab Shetty’s magnum opus in the league of other big festival releases. Its Day 1 haul almost matched Rajinikanth’s Coolie, which collected Rs 65 crore in India on opening day. The film comes on the heels of another Hombale Films success – ‘Mahavatar Narsimha’ – which grossed Rs 250 crore domestically and Rs 325 crore worldwide earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor’s rom-com ‘Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari’, which also released on Gandhi Jayanti, had a decent but far more modest start. According to Sacnilk, the film collected Rs 9.25 crore nett on its first day in India. While nowhere close to the scale of ‘Kantara’ or ‘War 2’, this is still a respectable opening, particularly for Janhvi, whose last release ‘Param Sundari’ opened lower.
‘Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari’ had over 3,000 shows nationwide, led by Delhi NCR (711 shows) and Mumbai (535 shows). The film recorded an average occupancy of 34.08 per cent across the day — starting at 14.77 per cent in the morning, jumping to 38.93 per cent in the afternoon, peaking at 43.65 per cent in the evening, and settling at 38.95 per cent for night shows.
Directed by Shashank Khaitan and backed by Dharma Productions, the film also stars Rohit Saraf, Sanya Malhotra, Maniesh Paul, Abhinav Sharma, and Akshay Oberoi. Despite criticism over its lack of freshness, the film’s opening gives hope it could build momentum through word of mouth in the coming days.
