Udta Punjab is had a good first weekend grossing 33.50 crore nett with East Punjab doing record weekend business for the year so far. Delhi / UP was also very good while other circuits ranged from good to decent. Mumbai and Mysore showed the best growth over the weekend as this sort of content normally does better in Mumbai city and Bangalore.

The trend overall was good as the film did get a little boost from the controversy on day one so fair value for the first day was around 9 crore nett instead of 10 crore nett which in real terms meant 20% growth on Saturday. The film followed up with 10-15% growth on Sunday. The weekend is the fifth best of 2016.

The censor issue created extra hype for the film but it did not reflect in collections as much as it could have. The opening numbers of the film were as Ki & Ka in Mumbai, South and East India. Central India was a little better and it was North India which was 2 crore nett better and that was always going to happen even if there was no controversy due to the regional content. This basically means only around 75 lakhs nett was added due to the controversy.

It we take the genre of the film then the weekend is very good as these sort of film don't get over 30 crore nett in the first weekend though on the other side it did have a good cast which meant a wider audience than most dark thrillers.

A good Monday hold will see good business for 2 and a half weeks. The film does not have much in its way till Sultan though in East Punjab it will have to compete with Return Of Sardaarji which will hit collections. The big hollywood film Independence Day 2 is there but thats unlikely to be a 9 or 10 crore opener in India.