Bhola Shankar box office collection Day 1: Chiranjeevi actioner opens strong with Rs 20 crore, but unlikely to maintain momentum

A remake of director Siva’s Tamil movie Vedalam, which featured Ajith Kumar in the lead role, Meher Ramesh’s Bhola Shankar achieved an overall Telugu occupancy of 61.92 per cent on Friday. The film experienced a noteworthy 65.05 per cent occupancy in the Telugu market during its morning shows.

However, these percentages started to fluctuate as the day progressed. They decreased to 49.95 per cent for afternoon shows, then climbed to 60.95 per cent for evening shows, ultimately settling at a mediocre 71.74 per cent for the night shows.

While Bhola Shankar’s opening day earnings are not bad, they fail to elicit significant admiration given that the film features none other than Chiranjeevi in the lead role. This gains significance because Superstar Rajinikanth’s Jailer amassed an astounding Rs 48.35 crore on its release day, August 10, and further bolstered its success with an additional Rs 27 crore on Friday. With a projected Rs 30 crore on Saturday, the movie is set to swiftly cross the Rs 100-crore mark in just three days.

On the other hand, the presence of Sunny Deol’s Gadar 2 and Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2, which managed to collect Rs 40 crore and Rs 9.5 crore respectively on Friday, is also expected to impede the movie’s seamless advancement at the box office. Although both these titles are targetted mostly to north Indian audiences.

Dubbing Bhola Shankar as a lacklustre remake, The Indian Express wrote in its review of the film: “Meher Ramesh’s comeback sort of feels like he has actually gone further back in time in terms of the story and narration of the film.” Apart from Chiranjeevi, the film stars Tamannaah Bhatia, Keerthy Suresh and Sushanth in key roles.