Two contrasting films released in theatres last week.
While Sarfira was a true story, Hindustani 2 was larger-than-life.
Both were helmed by directors from the south. Sudha Kongara remade her Tamil National Award-winning film Soorarai Pottru in Hindi while veteran film-maker Shankar took charge of the Kamal Haasan-led film.
And while the former was a remake, the latter was a sequel.
As it has tuned out, Sarfira started slow with Rs 2.50 crore (Rs 25 million) on Friday.
This wasn't surprising since it's more of a word-of-mouth film. Even though Akshay Kumar stars in it, Suriya's Soorarai Pottru is already available on OTT.
The audiences did give it a thumbs up, and so Saturday saw a jump at the box office and the momentum continued on Sunday.
The weekend collections stand at Rs 12 crore* (Rs 120 million) and now one waits to see how the numbers stabilise during the weekdays.
The Hindi version of Hindustani 2 didn't do much.
The first day numbers were around Rs 1.25 crore (Rs 12.5 million). While that was low, it wasn't unexpected since audiences have become choosy about what they want to consume on the first day of release.
It boiled down to word-of-mouth again, but in this case, the jump was restricted and the weekend numbers stand at Rs 3.50 crore* (Rs 35 million).
Comparatively, the original Tamil version has done much better with the weekend collections going past the Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) mark.
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources.
