‘Simran’ or ‘Lucknow Central’, who took the lead on day 1 at the box office?

This Friday, we saw two movies lock horns at the box office. While Kangana’s much-anticipated ‘Simran’ hit the theatres, Farhan Akhtar’s ‘Lucknow Central’ too released. Let’s find out who took the lead, out of the two movies.

Let’s talk about ‘Simran’ first. This Hansal Mehta directorial has been in the news for a long time, sadly, for all the wrong reasons. At first, there was an ugly tiff between the writer Apurva Asrani, and Kangana, who also got the credits for her creative inputs, which the former did not like. As if this was not enough, during the promotions of the movie, Kangana was invited on the popular show ‘Aap Ki Adalat’, where she spoke at length about her affairs with Aditya Pancholi and Hrithik Roshan and minced no words. Allegations were thrown at her for doing this for publicity of the movie. However, now that it has released, let’s see what is the opening collection.

‘Simran’ has collected Rs 2.50 crore on its first day. For a movie which has been made on a budget of approximately Rs 30 crore, this is a fairly decent amount. However, it is yet too early to say what would be its fate at the box office. For now, it has been receiving mixed to positive reviews, mainly for Kangana’s performance. (Also read: Simran movie review: Kangana shines through an average, mildly-flawed film)

Now, let’s talk about Farhan Akhtar and Diana Penty’s ‘Lucknow Central’. The movie’s collection has been poor on day 1, as it managed to collect a meagre amount of Rs 1.75 crore. Blame it on slow promotions and no buzz, but looks like this one has generated absolutely no excitement amongst the moviegoers. Let’s hope that the numbers will pick up on Sunday.

Comparing the two, ‘Simran’ has clearly stolen the show. Let’s see who emerges a winner in the long run.

Coming week, three much-anticipated projects are going to hit the screens; Shraddha Kapoor’s ‘Haseena Parkar’, Sanjay Dutt’s comeback movie ‘Bhoomi’, and Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Newton’. Let’s wait and watch if ‘Simran’ and ‘Lucknow Central’ can turn the game around, till then.

Kadambari Srivastava

Grammar Nazi, word weaver, dreamer, bibliophile, technophile, caffeine addict, foodie, shuttling shopaholic! Mash it in a Bollywood recipe and voila! Pushpa, you’ve got her!