Pathaan becomes ‘highest grossing first day for a non-holiday release’ film

New Delhi: Shah Rukh Khan made a grand comeback to the big screen with his new Hindi film ‘Pathaan’ raising a whopping Rs 55 crore net and its dubbed versions bringing in additional Rs 2 crores on the opening day, the makers announced.

According to production house ‘Yash Raj Films’ (YRF), the movie’s net day one collection stood at Rs 55 crore, the ‘highest grossing first day for a Hindi film’. ‘Pathaan’ was also released in Tamil and Telugu on January 25.

The Siddharth Anand directorial, which faced boycott calls over the song ‘Besharam Rang’, marks Shah Rukh’s return to movies after a gap of over four years. His previous film was 2018’s ‘Zero’.

YRF said ‘Pathaan’ had set multiple new records, including the ‘widest Hindi release of all time in India’ and ‘highest grossing first day for a non-holiday release’.

The first-day gross collection of the stylish spy thriller is also the ‘highest ever’ in Shah Rukh’s career, as well as for co-stars John Abraham and Deepika Padukone, director Anand and YRF, the studio stated.

“It is a historic day for Indian cinema and we are humbled to see the love and appreciation that is flowing for ‘Pathaan’ globally. For ‘Pathaan’ to shatter records in this fashion on a non-holiday just proves that the theatrical business is here to stay, provided we make films that entice people to come to the cinemas to witness a never seen before experience that entertains them thoroughly,” Akshaye Widhani, CEO of ‘Yash Raj Films’, said.

With its record-breaking first-day haul, ‘Pathaan’ has exceeded the expectations of the industry experts who were banking on the action spectacle to pull Bollywood from the trenches of the pandemic and a string of box-office duds. The film opened on over 5,000 screens across the country, including in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai. The movie has a five-day extended opening weekend as it was released just the day before Republic Day.

‘Pathaan’ is the fourth film in producer Aditya Chopra’s ambitious spy universe, following Salman Khan’s ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ (2012) and ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ (2017) and ‘War’, starring Hrithik Roshan (2019).