The much hyped Padmavati has had a mixed advance which opened over the weekend. The advance has not opened in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. While UP, Bihar and Haryana sees advance open at places with the rest being normal. The advance can be only be judged where it is open like normal and that is Mumbai (exc Gujarat), Delhi NCR, Punjab (state only), West Bengal and South.

In these areas where its a normal advance it can be compared with last years Republic Day week release Raees at some of centers of these circuits but other places hardly have an advance. Its a very mixed picture as far as advance is concerned. This is probably because its a wait and watch attitude by the audience at many places.

An example of this is that South Delhi has a strong advance which is similar to a Raees but then Faridabad which is close by has an advance of a 4-5 crore film opening film like Raabta or Secret Superstar. There can be differences between South Delhi and Faridabad but not this much. This is because the audience in South Delhi probably feels its more safer to watch the film.

A huge advance theatre like E Square (UR) hardly as a advance which is unthinkable for this type of film. It can only be because of fear of protests or violence. The controversy around the film may have created hype but its also probably created fear as well and for the audience to come out in huge numbers that will have to subside.

It is already being said in the media and trade that it will break records obviously because of the controversy around it. But all a huge controversy can do is make a film open 50% or 75% better than it should, for this one due to the controversy being at another level. lets say it can even open 100% better but even with that you cant say its a record breaker. Then there is something called appreciation and when this is not there a film will come down fast irrespective of controversies. So an eventual record hinges on the appreciation which no one has an idea about yet.

If we go back to the trailer release then the film looked a 20 crore nett opener with the business being lopsided towards Mumbai circuit. Now this huge controversy would have pushed this up to 30-35 crore nett or maybe even more but that would be if the film is allowed to release properly across India. Now what remains to be seen on Thursday is do the negatives (theaters not playing and fear) of the controversy bring it back down to 20 crore nett or even lower or does the controversy work in its favour and push it higher than 20 crore nett.

The best scenario for the film is an understanding between the makers and anti Padmaavat group and then the opening will be huge irrespective of advance though record breaking opening would still probably be going to far.