On the Independence Day weekend, Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947 will go head-to-head at Bollywood box offices.
Both movies have already created huge excitement, but bookings early reports indicate that the social drama, Awarapan 2, directed by Emraan Hashmi is ahead of the curve compared to Sunny Deol’s ‘historic’ social drama.
Awarapan 2 Takes Early Lead
In Awarapan 2, Emraan Hashmi returns as played in the cult favourite film of 2007 Shivam Pandit. Not just that, the sequel also stars Shabana Azmi, Disha Patani and Suvinder Vicky with the music causing a lot of mumbles ahead of its release.
Meanwhile, batwara 1947 is the meet of Sunny Deol and director Rajkumar Santoshi. The Partition based social drama has the support of Aamir Khan and is also the comeback of Preity Zinta after almost 10 years.
Advance Booking Gives Awarapan 2 Big Advantage
Sales of advance tickets for both movies began around 48 hours ahead of their theatrical release. Awarapan 2 had a big lead at the pointy end at noon Thursday.
The report indicates that on the opening day, Batwara 1947 grossed an estimated Rs 81 lakh across the country with some 30,000 tickets sold.
For comparison Awarapan 2 had grossed over Rs 3.25 crore from advance bookings with over 1 lakh tickets sold. In the meantime, Awarapan 2 was fetching almost 4 times the amount from the advance sales as compared to Batwara 1947. But Batwara 1947 may come to the rescue with more spot bookings on Friday which is a common trend in Sunil Dutt’s films.
Estimates of the trade currently say that 1-0 is Awarapan 2. It is estimated to cross around Rs 20 crore net on opening day, and a more conservative estimate would be between Rs 15 crore and Rs 18 crore for its first-day revenue.
With a sensitive Partition-themed script Batwara 1947 is expected to open at a respectable floor at ₹ 8-10 crore net. Both movies could have great openings and will depend heavily on the showings of both audiences and critics.
Huge Expectations From Awarapan 2
Awarapan 2 is quite an interesting one, due to its predecessor from 2007 and Emraan Hashmi’s resurgence into one of his better known roles. The film is also rumoured to gross over ₹100 crore globally in its opening weekend, a quite impressive change overturn from the lifetime collection of the original film.
Batwara 1947 will hope to make hay from the Sunni Deol’s massive mass appeal and spot bookings once released in theatres and Awarapan 2 may continue to fight the good fight.