Begum Jaan box office prediction: Vidya Balan film to face competition from Fast and Furious 8. Will word of mouth help?

Vidya Balan’s Begum Jaan has direct competition from Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious 8, which would largely affect the box office business.

Vidya Balan’s Begum Jaan made quite a mark through its trailer. But soon after, the buzz around the film failed to stay put. As the film is heading towards the theatres for the audience to take the last call, Vidya’s latest outing is expected to perform just like any other movie with a social cause or an incident like partition in its background. Film distributor Akshaye Rathi in conversation with indianexpress.com spoke about the trade expectations from the film.

According to Akshaye Rathi, Begum Jaan has direct competition from Vin Diesel’s Fast and Furious 8, which would largely affect the box office business of this Srijit Mukerji film. “Fast and Furious series has a pan India approach. It is famous which has done amazing business in the past. So, Vidya’s film might suffer because of the competition. However, Vidya’s film might show growth post its releasing weekend because of word of mouth.”

 

Akshaye further said that the numbers would also be fluctuating because of selective screening of the film. “The film will be screened at around 1100 to 1150 theatres. So, on the first day, looking at the screens, I don’t expect the film to earn more than 3.5 to 4 crores on day one, by the weekend, it might earn Rs 10-11 crores. The film has been made with a low budget of around 14-15 crores and must have recovered half of the money by selling off satellite and music rights.”

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Also read: Begum Jaan: Vidya Balan quashes rumours of CBFC suggesting cuts in the movie

However, Akshaye is not certain if the film will be considered a hit. Srijit’s Begum Jaan is the Hindi remake of Bengali film Rajkahini, starring Rituparna Sengupta. Apart from Vidya, the film also stars Gauahar Khan, Ila Arun, Chunky Pandey, Naseeruddin Shah and many others. It will release on April 14.