At a time when Bollywood’s future seemed uncertain with even the so-called “most anticipated“ projects underperforming, director Mohit Suri‘s musical romantic drama Saiyaara, starring Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda, has breathed new life into the ailing industry and emerged as a surprise hit. Since day one, Saiyaara has been dominating the box office and is now poised to cross the Rs 100 crore mark in the domestic market on Tuesday. The film is also performing strongly in overseas markets, resulting in a global gross that is rising almost shockingly fast.
In just three days since its release, Saiyaara has recorded an India nett collection of Rs 84 crore, marking the biggest opening weekend ever for a romantic film in India. After earning Rs 22 crore on its opening day (Friday), the film went on to collect Rs 26.25 crore on Saturday and Rs 35.75 crore on Sunday. With Rs 17.25 crore grossed overseas and Rs 101.75 crore grossed in India, the film’s current worldwide total stands at Rs 119 crore (USD 13.80 million).
Here are 10 milestones Saiyaara achieved in its opening weekend:
* Highest worldwide opening weekend ever for a debutant-led Hindi film.
* Biggest opening weekend for a romantic film in Indian box office history.
* Sunday’s Rs 35.75 crore nett is the highest single-day collection ever for a romance film in India.
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* Its opening weekend global gross of Rs 119 crore is the highest ever for a romantic film in Indian cinema.
* First and only romance film to gross over Rs 100 crore worldwide in its opening weekend.
* Rs 22 crore nett on Day One is the highest-ever opening for a love story in India.
* Career-best opening for director Mohit Suri.
* Most advance ticket sales for a debutant actor’s film.
* Most advance ticket sales for a love story.
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* Biggest-ever opening for a debut producer in the romance genre.
Interestingly, Saiyaara has already surpassed the total domestic collection of Alia Bhatt’s debut film Student of the Year (2012), which had earned Rs 70 crore in India. It has also overtaken the lifetime India collection of John Abraham’s The Diplomat (Rs 38.97 crore).
In her review of the movie, SCREEN’s Shubhra Gupta wrote: “What could have been a bitter-sweet love story, and that’s what the Mohit Suri film is clearly going for, is done in by its dialogue-heavy, inconsistent bits.”
