Box Office Opening Day Estimates: SLB’s Gangubai takes a good start; Alia Bhatt starrer collects 8.25 crore

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s much awaited Alia Bhatt starrer has taken a good start as the film raked in collections in the range of Rs 7.85 to 8.85 crore on it’s opening day as per early estimates. Much like most films in the pandemic times, major chunk of collections for Gangubai have come in from the national multiplex chains. 
The film has fared the best in Mumbai City followed by Gujarat, as the rest of country was rather on the lower side with Delhi gaining some stream towards the evening and night shows. Sanjay Leela Bhansali films are usually loop sided with Mumbai driving the biz and Gangubai seems to be no different, as even the leading lady, Alia Bhatt has a fanbase in the four metros with Mumbai leading from the front. 
The collections in the mass belts were on the lower side, and this was expected since Gangubai was never supposed to cater to the audiences outside the metros. Around 60% of the total collections have come from the three national chains, PVR, INOX and Cinepolis. The actual figures can be higher or lower depending on how the single screens fare, however, limited data we accessed suggests a below the mark opening in the centres at heartland of India. 
None the less, this is a good start for Gangubai, and the best for a solo Alia Bhatt film by surpassing her previous best, Raazi. The numbers coming in middle of a pandemic makes it an even bigger achievement and this also suggests that a double-digit day one was on cards if not for the pandemic. A film like Gangubai, which is driven by Mumbai, has lost out on some business owing to the 50 percent capacity cap in Maharashtra, but if the talk is positive it will make up for the lost money in the longer run. 
An opening in the range of Rs 8 crore has set the base for the weekend and it’s upto the film to grow from hereon and put up a weekend in the range of Rs 30 crore. This would be a good result, but just half the battle won since costs of this period drama are on the higher side and it would be the trend on weekdays that would give us a clearer picture on the future outcome of this SLB directorial. 
Note: These are early estimates based on samples we got and we shall update the website with the final figures in the morning.