The court room drama HAQ starring Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi has taken an average start at the box office in India. According to early trends, the Suparn Verma directorial has collected in the range of Rs. 1.50 crores to Rs. 2 crores, which is on the expected lines.

The film has matched pre-release expectations for the opening day, and it's now on it to capitalise with a strong spike in business over the weekend. It's a must for this Yami Gautam and Emraan Hashmi starrer to double up on Saturday, and then show another spike on Sunday to be on track to emerge as a success story.

Haq is made on a limited budget, and it will be a financially safe venture once the business tops the Rs. 25 crores. The early reports are positive, and the eyes are on the trajectory over the weekend. Haq will aim to hit the Rs. 7.50 crore mark over the weekend, and then score a Monday equal to Friday.

The film is produced by Junglee Pictures and set against the backdrop of a courtroom case that has found a place in the history books

Baahubali: The Epic is first of its kind experiment where two epic parts of Baahubali were merged and released as a single film with a running duration of around 3:45 hours. A never heard before phenomenon, this seemed really exciting because SS Rajamouli has created a modern-day classic which is still fresh in everyone’s mind after 10 years.

Perhaps that’s the reason why the kind of box office response that one anticipates from the re-release hasn’t really been seen at theatres. When it comes to films like Sanam Teri Kasam, Tumbbad or Laila Majnu that had seen minimal business in their original release, then there is an audience out there which wants to see these for the “first time” in theatres as they missed it earlier. However, when a phenomenon like Baahubali arrives then majority has already watched it at the big screen and hence it’s primarily the hardcore fans who come to theatres again to relive the experience.

This is the reason why the Telugu version still has a better start with a weekend of around Rs. 22 crores since there is huge fan service for Prabhas and Rajamouli online that circuit. However, in Hindi it was very selective footfalls despite a good release and hence the weekend was Rs. 4 crores after a fair start of Rs. 1.15 crore and then the weekdays have got into lakhs zone with five-day collections standing at Rs. 4.35 crores.

The film should ideally have done better since there is huge effort that has gone into remastering the print and the audio as well as visual appeal has been accentuated in a major way for today’s theatrical experience. One now waits to see if there is some sort of sustainability that is seen, now that the initial euphoria has settled.

Note: All collections as per various box office sources

Diwali is through and Thamma and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat have done their maximum business already. There is no threat for new releases this weekend and if merits are right then they can well find their audience without facing any competition from holdovers releases, including Baahubali - The Epic which has had a rather low first week.

The films which are arriving this week are Haq and Jatadhara. Both are as different from each other as they can be, what with former being inspired by real life events and latter being a fantasy tale. Yami Gautam leads the charge in Haq which has Emraan Hashmi as her adversary. The film has seen a limited and minimal promotional and marketing period and is primarily catering to niche audiences at urban multiplexes. The trailer of the film is decent and has fetched some eyeballs. This should ensure some sort of a start for the film and the first day could well be in Rs. 3-4 crores range.

As for Jatadhara, it’s a Telugu-Hindi bilingual with Sonakshi Sinha and Sudheer Babu coming together along with Shilpa Shirodkar making a comeback and Divya Khosla Kumar in a special appearance. The film has been promoted and marketed rather extensively, and especially in south it should take a better start due to the genre and the elements involved. In Hindi though it would all boil down to word of mouth, which means the first day could well be in Rs. 2-3 crores range and then merits of the film would take over the rest of the weekend.

The Gujarati film, Chaniya Toli, which was released on Diwali, has emerged as a huge hit at the box office. Produced by Anand Pandit's Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Vaishal Shah's Jannock Films, the comic caper, which tells the story of a group of village women robbing a bank, had generated tremendous pre-release buzz. There were apprehensions about whether it would be able to withstand competition from the big Hindi releases on Diwali, that is, Thamma and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat. Chaniya Toli not only gave a tough fight to these two films but is collecting much more than them in Gujarat since last week.

Chaniya Toli released in cinemas on Tuesday October 21 and opened at Rs. 1.12 crores, which is a feat, considering it’s a regional film and also the competition from the Bollywood films. The collections jumped to Rs. 1.24 crores on Wednesday and Rs. 1.36 crores on Friday. The earnings further increased to Rs. 1.64 crore on Saturday and Rs. 1.68 crore on Sunday. All films dropped majorly on Monday, October 27, but Chaniya Toli ended up netting Rs. 83 lakhs. On Tuesday, the film got advantage of the discounted tickets offer and it collected Rs. 1.02 crore. The Wednesday and Thursday collections were Rs. 81 lakhs and Rs. 68 lakhs, respectively.

Until Thursday, Chaniya Toli has collected Rs. 11.90 crores and is already a huge super-hit. The film was made in just Rs. 5 crores, with Rs. 3.50 crores spent on production and Rs. 1.50 crores on P&A. The film has already earned more than double its investment and is now all set to emerge as the biggest Gujarati film of 2025 as it's all set to cross the lifetime of films like All The Best Pandya and Umbarro. It’ll cross the Rs. 15 crores mark on weekdays and if all goes well, it has the potential to enter the Rs. 20 crore club as well.

What has stunned the trade and industry is that Chaniya Toli’s collections began to go past that of Thamma from Monday, October 27, and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat from Friday, October 24, in Gujarat. We went through the data of Rajhans Cinemas, which has a strong presence in the Western state. On Monday, while Thamma collected Rs. 8.66 lakhs and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat collected Rs. 8.11 lakhs in Rajhans, Chaniya Toli accumulated Rs. 11.75 lakhs.

The gap widened in the weekend gone by. On Sunday, November 2, Chaniya Toli earned a huge Rs. 13.95 lakhs. As for Thamma, it earned Rs. 7.79 lakhs and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat collected Rs. 6.93 lakhs. In short, the collections of the Gujarati film are now nearly double of the other two Hindi movies and this is surely a rare feat.

Directed by Jay Bodas and Parth Trivedi, Chaniya Toli stars popular actor Yash Soni and he’s joined by Ragi Jani, Netri Trivedi, Nikita Sharma, Jassi Gadhvi, Sohni Bhatt, Heena Jaikishan, Kalpana Gagdekar and Shilpa Thaker. The film has been loved for its treatment, grandeur, performances and comic quotient. The team also deserves credit for correctly marketing the film with its quirky promo and eye-catching posters. An item song ‘Popat’, featuring Janki Bodiwala of Vash and Shaitaan fame, helped the film make noise before it arrived in theatres.

The collections of Chaniya Toli, Thamma and Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat in Rajhans cinemas from October 31 – November 2

Friday Thamma - 6,81,577 Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat - 5,17,545 Chaniya Toli - 11,37,894

Saturday Thamma - 8,49,924 Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat - 6,65,109 Chaniya Toli - 12,75,826

Sunday Thamma - 7,79,284 Ek Deewane Ki Deewaniyat - 6,93,096 Chaniya Toli - 13,95,406