Mohalla Assi was always expected to be a non-starter. After all it was a delayed release with Sunny Deol not really enjoying any market and then the subject too (the business of religion) not the kind that is expected to attract masses. Moreover, it arrived sans any pomp or show. As a matter of fact this film directed by Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi found a token release of sorts.
Still, the film was expected to bring in Rs. 75 lakhs-1 crore, which again would have been very poor. However, what transpired in theatres was even poor as the numbers couldn't even come close to these low numbers. The footfalls were terrible and that reflected in the disastrous first day collections of just Rs. 25 lakhs. This is now even lower than what Sunny Deol's earlier delayed release I Love NY had collected [Rs. 50 lakhs] way back in 2015. The film is a disaster already and one waits to see how it survives beyond the first weekend.
On the other hand Pihu is a small film and is the trend with such kind of genre; it was expected to start around Rs. 45 lakhs mark. This is exactly what happened as the Vinod Kapri directed survival flick brought in Rs. 45 lakhs on Friday. Though these are again low numbers considering the fact that the film had seen a reasonably fine release, one waits to see if word of mouth pushes it through. Reviews are mixed and not really extraordinary as one would have thought and word of mouth too isn't really widespread. One waits to see the film's footfalls today.
Still, a good win for Pihu is that it has collected much better than Mohalla Assi on its first day and the gap is only going to widen further during rest of the weekend.
