New Delhi: Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda’s debut film, Saiyaara, has emerged as the most successful debut vehicle in Bollywood since Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter’s Dhadak (2018).
Released in theatres across India on 18 July, Saiyaara opened to an impressive Rs 20 crore (as per Sacnilk), making it one of the biggest opening-day collections of the year.
Saiyaara, directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Yash Raj Films’ Akshaye Widhani, has outperformed several debut films including Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (Rs 0.45 crore), Refugee (2000) starring Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor (Rs 1.52 crore), Saawariya (2007) with Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor (Rs 3 crore), Heropanti (2014) with Tiger Shroff and Kriti Sanon (Rs 6.55 crore), Hero (2015) starring Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty (Rs 6.90 crore), and Student of The Year (2012) starring Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra (Rs 7.48 crore) and Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter’s Dhadak (2018) which minted (Rs 8.71 crore) at the box office.
In addition to being the highest opener for debut leads, Saiyaara has also secured the fourth-highest opening day of 2025, behind Chhaava (Rs 33.10 crore), Sikandar (Rs 27.50 crore), and Housefull 5 (Rs 24.35 crore).
It has surpassed films like Raid 2 and Sky Force in terms of opening day business.
The film has also broken the first-day collection record of Ek Villain (Rs 16.70 crore), making it Mohit Suri’s biggest opening film to date.
Promotion strategy
Director Mohit Suri chose a unique promotion strategy for the film—he kept the stars out of the limelight. Suri, too, gave only selected interviews.
In a conversation with Just Too Filmy, he was asked if this decision—to keep the newcomers away from the media—was a strategic move, similar to what he did during Aashiqui 2. At the time, Suri had kept Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor largely out of the spotlight during promotions.
“It was an idea that collectively came forward. My producer Akshaye Widhani and, of course, Aditya Chopra, who has mentored us through this thing, suggested that until the two actors don’t have anything behind them to talk about, the conversation will be filled with questions like ‘Who is the prankster on the set?’ or ‘How is it to work with Mohit Suri?’ It’s all redundant stuff, and I don’t think anyone has any interest in listening to all that,” the filmmaker said.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)