Two polemical releases hit the screens in Dabangg and The Film Emotional Atyachar this Friday. Most Bollywood gurus predicted a successful start for the big budget Dabangg. It’s official now. DABANGG is a hit. All the hype about the movie and the diligent promotion undertaken by the lead Salmaan Khan has born fruit.  And the nation is already loving the flavor of the masaledaar Dabangg. Salmaan does a Robin Hood in the character of Chulbul Pandey, and his elder brother Arbaaz Khan would be beaming in pleasure at the success of his nascent production.

As far as core numbers are concerned, Dabangg is setting the record books on fire. By grossing a total of Rs 145 million (Rs 14.50 crore), this movie has barged ahead of the previous record holder for the maximum collections on the opening day. It is true. Dabangg has raced ahead of 3 Idiots which collected Rs 13 crore on the opening day. And going by the euphoria that is sweeping over the nation, Dabangg looks all set to build upon the strong foundation and it might even tumble down the overall collections record of 3 Idiots. And if it sustains the pace at which it is going, we might witness what was not being anticipated at all, i.e., a comprehensive drubbing of Aamir’s 3 Idiots!

The Film Emotional Atyachar’s producers would be regretting the release time of the movie. Competition with the mighty Dabangg has resulted in below average returns for it and the first day saw close to Rs 50 lacs registered in the ledger for the film. The figure might have been a lot bigger had the release been a bit well planned.

Siddharth P. Malhotra’s We Are Family, though starting on a brisk note, failed to make further in roads and is staggering. The big bang with which Dabangg has hit the screens is good enough to further dampen the spirits in the Karan Johar camp as audiences are likely to give the family drama a cold shoulder in preference to the complete entertainer in Dabangg. The makers of We Are Family might as well already start looking at the satellite rights’ selling for the much needed impetus to the cash flow. We Are Family’s collections are stuck at something around Rs. 4 cr.

Lafangey Parindey’s shows are almost wrapped up now and Yash Raj Films’s big budget film has failed to give appreciable returns to the stakeholders. Had it not been for the profits from the worldwide distribution and the satellite rights, things might have been intolerably dismal for the producers.

Hello Darling has surprisingly maintained its cash collections and despite the tasteless content, it making some handsome cash. Till now, the film has made Rs. 8 cr. The considerable success is due to the urbane audience of the metros, mainly Maharashtra.

The next week will be very interesting. Bollywood pundits might wish to keep their calculators handy as Dabangg makes an attempt at re-writing the financial record books of Bollywood. It will be fun to watch how it fares.