Shuddh Desi Romance wins hearts, Zanjeer is a damp squib: Weekend box office report!

As expected, the Parineeti Chopra-Sushant Singh Rajput starrer has emerged a clear winner at the box office and earned Rs 22.25 crore over the weekend, while the Priyanka Chopra-Ram Charan Teja remake opened to a dull house and fared below average at the ticket counters, bringing in just Rs 9.25 croreYash Raj Films’ Shuddh Desi Romance starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Parineeti Chopra and Vaani Kapoor has not only been garnering good responses from audiences and critics alike, but is also raking in good moolah at the box office. Unfortunately Apoorva Lakhia’s highly-anticipated remake of Zanjeer featuring Ram Charan Teja, Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra is one of the biggest disasters of this year, as claimed by critics. Supported by exemplary pre-release buzz, the opening weekend of Maneesh Sharma’s hatke romcom is estimated to be in the range of Rs 23 crores (not counting the Ganesh Chaturthi Monday holiday). As trade analyst and film critic Taran Adarsh points out, “SDR is made within a controlled budget, boasts of decent music, flouts the rules of the game (conventional masala), is garnished with light moments and marketed correctly can yield rich dividends.” He explains, “All these factors put together resulted in an impressive start for SDR in the domestic market. The word of mouth was super-strong, which resulted in the business growing steadfastly over the weekend.” About Zanjeer, Adarsh tweets, “It failed to take off, despite aggressive promotions and a formidable cast to lure the spectators. The question that crossed my mind several times over the weekend was – why was it a non-starter at the ticket window? How does one explain the viewers’ indifference to this biggie? If, for instance, we claim that the audience isn’t comfortable with the idea of remaking an Amitabh Bachchan film, how do we explain the phenomenal success of Don and Agneepath, both Bachchan starrers?” According to BoxOfficeIndia, “Zanjeer has emerged as one of the biggest disasters of the year. The film costing around Rs 60 crores including print and marketing costs will find it extremely difficult to recover the production costs. The weekend breakdown is as follows – Friday Rs 3.25 crore, Saturday Rs 2.75 crore and Sunday Rs 3.25 crore. Total – Rs 9.25 crore. Shuddh Desi Romance grossed around 22 crore nett plus. The film had done very well in Rajasthan as the film is set there while Delhi/UP and East Punjab also witnessed good business. Ganesh Chaturthi holiday yesterday helped the film. The weekend breakdown: Friday Rs 6.25 crore, Saturday Rs 7.50 crore, Sunday Rs 8.50 crore. Total – Rs 22.25 crore!” So with Parineeti racing ahead of her senior star sister Priyanka at the box office, wethinks its high time PC pulled up her socks and give a tagda fight – though she says she’s extra protective of her baby sibling! – to Pari next time their releases clash at the box office. What do you think, peeps?Bollywoodlife.com/Dhiren Trivedi