Dangal bags Rs29.25 crore opening, fails to beat Sultan

No records were shattered on opening day, but Aamir Khan's Dangal has got off to a flying start, collecting a nett of Rs29.25 crore, according to BoxOfficeIndia.com.

Dangal fell short of the highest opening-day record set by Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (Rs39.32 crore) in 2015. Aamir Khan's wrestling epic also missed the mark of Ajay Devgn's action-cop movie, Singham Returns (2014, Rs31.68 crore), and Salman Khan's Ek Tha Tiger (2012, Rs30.61 crore).

However, Dangal’s opening collection is impressive as the film was released on a working day unlike the others. In terms of highest opening day collections for 2016, the film is second to Salman Khan’s Sultan (Rs36.59 crore). Sultan also benefited from a holiday release during the Eid festival.

Tarde analyst Taran Adarsh pegged the opening-day figures for Dangal at Rs29.78 crore, with Rs59 lakh coming from the dubbed Tamil and Telugu releases. 

Based on the story of former wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat and his champion daughters, Dangal had the second highest opening for any film releasing on a working day. The film with the highest opening record is also an Aamir Khan film, Dhoom 3 (2013). The Yash Raj Films production raked in a staggering Rs32.48 crore on its opening day, as reported by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

Dangal was released on 4,300 screens in India, (including 100 screens each in Tamil and Telugu). Its overall budget is speculated to be around Rs70 crore. Nitesh Tiwari's film has also been released across 1,000 screens in the overseas market.

The film has received overwhelmingly positive response from the critics, and strong word-of-mouth publicity is expected to enable it to build on the numbers over the holiday weekend.