Now that’s a big surprise indeed! Three films released last Friday - Doctor G, Code Name Tiranga and Kantara (Hindi). While the first two were Bollywood offerings, the third is a dubbed version of a film belonging to the Kannada industry. Doctor G came from the ‘Ayushmann Khurrana’ genre of films and was made at a controlled cost, Code Name Tiranga had a good budget allocated to it and was a rare action entertainer featuring a leading lady, while Kantara was a hardcore regional offering with hardly any relevance to audiences outside Karnataka.
Still, it’s Kantara, which has emerged as the film that’s being loved the most while Code Name Tiranga has been completely ignored. As for Doctor G, it has been caught in the sudden hype for Kantara and the results were seen in the weekday collections when it was the south film that started overtaking it big time. So much so that even in terms of the overall collections, the difference between the two films is just around Rs. 5 crores and that too would be surpassed by the time the second weekend is through.
So far, Doctor G has collected Rs. 20.50 crores* at the box office and that’s a low total. This should ideally have been the weekend number for the film and even that would have been sub-optimal, though somewhat okay, given the current times. However, the trending so far indicates that at best the film would manage a lifetime of Rs. 26-28 crores. On the other hand, Kantara (Hindi) has its eye on Rs. 30 crores lifetime at the least since momentum is on its side. The film opened almost 30% of Doctor G on the opening day but by the time the week was through, it came close to the 75% mark. So far, the film has collected Rs. 15 crores* at the box office and by the time the second week is through, it should gather good enough pace to have a bigger total than Doctor G.
As for Code Name Tiranga, it has emerged as a theatrical disaster with the first week turning out to be less than even Rs. 1 crore. Disappointing.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
