Ramayana: Part One collected Rs. 63.50 crore nett on its opening day at the Indian box office. The film faced a tough pre-Diwali period, which limited its reach. Despite this, it set an all-time record in Karnataka with Rs. 12 crore, helped by the presence of superstar Yash.
Ramayana: Part One (Hindi) collected Rs. 45 crore nett approx on its opening day at the Indian box office. The South dubbed versions brought in another Rs. 18.50 crore nett. That adds to a healthy Rs. 63.50 crore nett first-day number.
These numbers, particularly the Hindi ones, may appear low; they are, in fact, low, but there are a couple of external factors in play which make these numbers make sense. First and foremost is the pre-Diwali period, which is a major limiting factor. There was hope that perhaps this being a huge film would be able to somewhat overcome it, but that didn’t happen. For that matter, as a devotional film catering heavily to family audiences, this impact was even more pronounced.
The film did better in South and Eastern India, where pre-Diwali impact tends to be less, but even in the South, the film couldn’t put up numbers for the Hindi version as it should have. The reason here was a lesser release for the Hindi version, with the regional dubbed versions eating the business. Now this may look like a bad thing if someone is only concerned with the Hindi business, but the simple thing to do is to look at the overall number. At the end of the day, money is money, whether it comes from Hindi or Kannada or Telugu or Tamil. When you look at the overall number, the film netted a fantastic Rs. 12 crore in Karnataka, which is an ALL-TIME RECORD for a Bollywood film. The presence of Kannada superstar Yash was a big contributing factor to it.
The good thing is that the initial audience reception seems to be positive. The next three days will be time to sit tight. There will be a drop in business today, as is the norm for Thursday releases. Saturday sales are looking good, so it should bounce back that day and then again take a dip on Diwali day on Sunday. It will finally be Monday when the audience will be coming out in a big way, and that will be what really sets the tone for the film.
NOTE: The above numbers are inclusive of 3D charges. The norm in the past has been to exclude 3D charges, but things have changed gradually over the last couple of years, and now the norm is probably going to change. To do that, what better film than Ramayana? Excluding 3D charges, the film collected Rs. 59.50 crore nett on the first day, including Rs. 42.50 crore nett in Hindi. Read more about 3D charges reporting here.