Udta Punjab Flies Very High at Box-Office

Odds have been stacked against Udta Punjab for most of the days leading upto its release. 

First, there were extensive agendas to stop the film from showing most of its content. Then, when that unlikely battle was won, the film was pirated three days before its release. Frankly, it did kind of feel at that point that the film carried a bad omen with it. And whatever the critics and audience thought of the film come Friday, the damage to film's commercial aspirations was done.

But somehow that wasn't case when the movie opened this weekend. Yes, the reviews have been stellar, from both audience and critics. But the fear that the negative publicity and online piracy would have stopped audiences from purchasing tickets was quickly put to rest.

The film earned an impressive ₹10.05 crore on Friday, the fifth highest opening for a Bollywood film in 2016. It is behind Fan, Housefull 3, Airlift and Baaghi. What's especially noteworthy is that none of these films were released with an A certificate like Udta Punjab was. This makes the highest opening for an A-certified Bollywood film this year. 

The film brought another ₹11.25 crore on Saturday, with every possibilty of an even bigger Sunday. According to reports, the film has brought in ₹12.50 crore on Sunday, bringing the film's weekend total in the territory of ₹35 crore. Grand Masti which is the highest grossing A-rated Bollywood film of all time, grossed ₹40 crore in its first three days. But it did that without any insensible controversy or illegal piracy that Udta Punjab had to deal with.

Odds have been stacked against Udta Punjab, and now it defies them.