New Delhi: The long-awaited romance drama Awarapan 2’s box office collection is on its way to beat the world record set by its prequel, Awarapan.
The Emraan Hashmi-starrer will release in theatres on 14 August. According to Sacnilk, the film has already sold around 1.25 lakh tickets for its opening day, generating nearly Rs 4 crore gross without any blocked seats. Including blocked seats, the first-day collection will cross Rs 6 crore and generate around Rs 10 crore in sales.
Awarapan 2 is targeting an opening in the Rs 20 crore net range, which would be the biggest opening of Hashmi’s career.
Directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mukesh Bhatt, the 2007 film was a remake of the South Korean action drama A Bittersweet Life and flopped at the box office, collecting only Rs 12 crore. It opened at nearly Rs 70 lakh against a budget of Rs 18 crore.
The sequel is directed by Nitin Kakkar and produced by Vishesh Bhatt. Alongside Hashmi, the film stars Disha Patani and Shabana Azmi.
Awarapan 2 will clash with Rajkumar Santoshi’s Batwara 1947, which marks the collaboration between the director and Sunny Deol after nearly two decades. However, early sales for the movie have been lower, with the film selling nearly 30,000 tickets and making the opening closer to Rs 81 lakh.
Bollywood has recently produced several sequels, but most have either flopped or earned less than their predecessors. Dhamaal 4 collected nearly Rs 198 crore against an estimated budget of Rs 150 crore to Rs 200 crore, while the last film in the franchise, Total Dhamaal, released in 2019, was made on a budget of around Rs 100 crore and collected over Rs 228 crore worldwide.
Similarly, Welcome To The Jungle collected nearly Rs 196 crore worldwide against a budget of around Rs 125 crore. While, Welcome Back (2015) collected Rs 168.70 crore worldwide against a budget of less than Rs 90 crore.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)