Even with two new weekend releases, 'Toilet-Ek Prem Katha' steals the show

Bitti’s (Kriti Sanon) tales from Bareilly failed to create excitement at the box office with opening day collections from Bareilly Ki Barfi being close to Rs 2.25 crores only. In spite of good reviews, this Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari film couldn’t steal the limelight from Shree Narayan Singh’s Toilet-Ek Prem Katha.

Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar-starrer Toilet-Ek Prem Katha scored collections to the tune of Rs 3.75 crore at the box office on its eighth day. The film that is expected to enter the Rs 100-crore club by the end of this weekend has made Rs 97.75 crore already.

“The reviews are not bad and no one has given Bareilly Ki Barfi a thumbs-down so the interest might just build up. One of the promotion strategies had been to keep the ticket prices on the opening day as low as Rs 80-100 across several multiplexes in Mumbai and that acted in the film’s favour,” said film trade analyst Atul Mohan.

On the other hand, Gurinder Chadha’s Partition:1947 fell flat at the box office with box office collections of less than Rs 1 crore. The director known for her previous films like Bend it Like Bekham and Bride and Prejudice failed to create any magic at the box office.

The Manish Dayal, Huma Qureshi, Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, and Michael Gambon-starrer Partition, even with a gripping storyline that tells tales from the viceroy’s house during the partition of India and music done by AR Rahman, couldn’t do much to pull crowds.

Partition is not a mass film and is niche for the general audience to understand, felt analysts. “The film might be critically acclaimed but there is not too much hope around its box office collections,” Mohan added.