The romantic comedy climbed 30 percent from its opening day but still trails well behind what a ₹3 crore budget needs to call this a hit.
Prem Keetanu isn't setting the box office on fire, but it's not dying either. Veer Pahariya's second film as lead collected around ₹65 lakh net in India on its second day, a 30 percent jump from the ₹50 lakh it opened to on Friday, October 2, per figures tracked by Sacnilk.
That puts the film's India net collection at roughly ₹1.15 crore after two days, with the gross figure sitting a little higher at around ₹1.38 crore. Overseas numbers haven't surfaced yet, so a worldwide total isn't on the table.
For context, the reported budget on this one is about ₹3 crore, though the makers haven't put out an official number. Run the math and the film has already clawed back a decent chunk of that cost inside 48 hours. Which sounds like good news until you remember this is still a two-day haul under a crore and a half. Call it stable, not strong.
The film pairs Pahariya with debutant Aadia Sayed, with Aparshakti Khurana, Rakesh Bedi and Nikhil Vijay rounding out the cast. The story is straightforward enough: Vishal (Pahariya) falls for Suhani (Sayed), who ends up working under the insufferable Ranjeet (Khurana), and the two men spend the runtime competing for her attention.
The bigger conversation around Prem Keetanu, though, has had nothing to do with its opening numbers. Comparisons to the 2024 Malayalam hit Premalu have followed the film since before release, with some reports claiming this was an official adaptation. That claim picked up heat after the original title reportedly went missing from a streaming platform around the time Prem Keetanu was being promoted, fuelling speculation that something was being quietly papered over.
Pahariya has since pushed back on the remake tag directly, saying Prem Keetanu is not a version of Premalu. The makers haven't offered a parallel statement clarifying the rights situation, so the comparison hasn't fully gone away online, where users have kept flagging the resemblance.
For Pahariya, this is only his second lead role, and the box office verdict so far reads as cautious rather than damning. A 30 percent single-day jump is a genuine signal that word of mouth isn't actively hurting the film, even if it isn't pulling in the kind of crowds that turn a modest budget into a talking point for the right reasons.
The real test comes over the weekend. Saturday and Sunday numbers will show whether Prem Keetanu can build on this small bump or whether it settles into the kind of quiet run that vanishes from screens inside a fortnight.
Be the first to comment
Join the argument. No password, just your email or a passkey.