Trade Experts Predict Who Will Win Between Shah Rukh Khan's 'Dunki' And Prabhas' 'Salaar'
'Dunki' and 'Salaar' are all set to wreak havoc at the box office, this weekend but who will come out on top in this mouth-watering battle.
2023 will end with a bang as Shah Rukh Khan's Dunki' goes head-to-head against Prabhas' 'Salaar: Part 1 - Ceasefire'. Rajkumar Hirani's 'Dunki', which also stars Taapsee Pannu and Vicky Kaushal, will be releasing on December 21, a day prior to Prabhas' 'Salaar', which has been directed by Prashanth Neel. Fans on the internet have already picked their sides, and now it needs to be seen who comes out on top, or is there a case of both films earning good money? Rajkumar Hirani's 'Dunki' is a comedy drama film while 'Salaar' promises a lot of bloodshed and violence.
Film trade expert Sreedhar Pillai stated that 'Salaar' has already gotten more screens in Kerala than 'Dunki'. He also said that 'Salaar' will dominate SRK and his film in South India.
“In Kerala, Salaar will undoubtedly have an upper hand, especially since it’s an action film featuring both Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran. Prabhas’ films have consistently performed well in the state. Despite this, the fact that it is directed by Prashanth Neel, whose KGF 2 achieved extraordinary success, further enhances Salaar’s prospects here. The actioner has already secured more screens in Kerala than Dunki and is being distributed by a reputable company. In my opinion, in the entire South India, Salaar will have a huge edge," he told Indian Express.
For the unversed, 'Dunki' is just releasing in the Hindi version while 'Salaar' is releasing in five languages -- Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.
“Since Dunki is a family-oriented, emotional film, it will not get that many screens and will be limited to multiplexes as it does not have Telugu or Tamil dubbed versions. But, at the end of the day, only the film with the best content will succeed in Kerala,” added Pillai.
Talking about advance ticket sales, 'Dunki' has sold 4,10,890 tickets for Day 1, as reported by industry tracker Sacnilk. On the other hand, 'Salaar' has sold 8,75,998 tickets for the opening day.
Industry expert AB George said, “Bollywood movies will perform only in Tier 1 centres in Kerala."
"It could be another week of both the films doing exceedingly well, just like in Hollywood it happened for Barbie and Oppenheimer. Luckily, the target audience and the geographical market are different for both films, so there is a good opportunity for both the films to do well at the box office," said trade analyst Girish Johar.
Girish Johar also predicted that 'Dunki' will go on to register an opening of Rs 35 crore while 'Salaar' will get an opening of Rs 25 crore in the Hindi version.
“Dunki is like a breath of fresh air," said Johar.
