SS Rajamouli’s Telugu film Baahubali has recorded the highest single day and opening day collections in the history of Indian Cinema. The film has collected close to Rs 50 crore, out of which the Hindi version (presented by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions) has contributed Rs 5.1 crore and the collections from the Telugu version alone was around the 31-32 crore mark.
Baahubali has also opened to extraordinary collections in Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In Karnataka, all three versions (Hindi, Telugu and Tamil) were released in cities like Bangalore and all three were running to decent occupancies throughout the day.
What makes the Day 1 collections of Bahubali truly staggering is the fact that the film released on a non-holiday. Previously, the biggest single day grosser was Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year and that film released a day after the Diwali holiday, arguably the best day for film business in India.
Even though the film is performing well in states that are not affected by Ramadan, the impact is still there and this is what makes the Day 1 collections of Baahubali mind-boggling.
The Mumbai circuit collections of the Hindi version is around the 2.5 crore mark, which is by far the highest for a dubbed film.
‘Baahubali’ has also opened well in the overseas markets and the global box office collections of the film could have crossed the 60 crore mark.
Note: The entertainment tax for Telugu films in Andhra Pradesh is 15%, whereas Hindi films pay more than 3 times the entertainment tax in a major state like Maharastra. So the ‘gross’ collections (including entertainment tax) of Happy New Year is still the highest, but when it comes to net collections (after deducting entertainment tax) and distributors share (after deducting exhibitors / theatre share), Baahubali is the highest single day grosser in the history of Indian Cinema.