Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran's crime thriller picked up pace on Saturday even as its two-day haul stays a fraction of its reported Rs 55 crore budget.
Meghna Gulzar's Daayra didn't exactly announce itself at the box office. But it's climbing.
The crime thriller, starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Prithviraj Sukumaran as two DCPs on opposite sides of a brutal case, opened on Friday to what The Free Press Journal called a disappointing start. Numbers cited for that first day differ depending on who's counting. Bollywood Bubble, citing figures put out by the film's own PR team, pegged the opening day net at Rs 1.15 crore, with trade tracker Sacnilk's gross figure coming in at Rs 1.20 crore. The Free Press Journal, also working off Sacnilk, used a Rs 1 crore net figure as its Day 1 baseline. Either way, it wasn't a number anyone was throwing a party over.
Day 2 changed the mood a little. Sacnilk numbers, as reported by The Free Press Journal, put Saturday's net collection at Rs 1.60 crore, a jump of roughly 60% over the previous day. That takes the film's two-day India net to about Rs 2.60 crore, with gross collection around Rs 3.10 crore.
The budget problem
Here's the thing that makes those numbers look smaller than they already are. Daayra reportedly cost around Rs 55 crore to make, per The Free Press Journal. Two days in, it has recovered a sliver of that. For a film to break even, let alone turn a profit, it needs the kind of sustained daily growth that most Hindi films this year haven't managed past their opening weekend.
Part of the problem is timing. Daayra released on September 18 into a crowded Friday, going up against Kunal Kemmu's Vibe, which happens to star Kareena's brother-in-law. Two mid-budget films chasing the same city-multiplex audience on the same day rarely ends well for either.
What's working in the film's favour is the word of mouth. Bollywood Bubble gave it four stars, calling it unapologetic and raw, and praised the way it refuses to let either DCP come off as simply right or wrong. The Free Press Journal's review landed at 3.5 stars, describing Daayra as among Meghna Gulzar's better films and predicting it would set off arguments on social media given how it handles its subject, sexual violence and the debate over what should happen to the accused.
That's the bet the makers are making now. Junglee Pictures and Pen Studios need this weekend's word of mouth to translate into actual footfall rather than just praise. The film runs across roughly 700 screens in targeted centres, a release strategy built for growth rather than a wide first-day sweep. Sunday's numbers, and whatever the film does across its first full week, will tell us whether that bet is paying off or whether Daayra ends up another well-reviewed film that couldn't find its audience in time.
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