Salaar has been undoubtedly one of the most awaited movies of the year, for multiple reasons. Be it the directorial backing of KGF maker Prashanth Neel or the big-scale production values that reflect in the trailer or the combo lead pairing of South stars Prabhas and Prithviraj Sukumaran, film-goers had been keenly awaiting every update about the film with bated breath.

At the same time, the boxoffice potential of Salaar also stands to be majorly impacted because of its clash with another big film - Raj Kumar Hirani’s Dunki, which released today. Will Salaar manage to hold its own despite all the odds? Republic spoke to a few trade experts who offered their valuable insights into the subject.

What impacted Salaar's box office potential in ‘North belt’?

Reportedly, The advance booking for Salaar have been majorly impacted because the major multiplex chains have kept the screens on hold due to some conflict between distributors of the two big releases this week - Dunki and Salaar. However, While Sumit Kadel believes that Salaar could take an opening of Rs. 10-15 crore nett in North centres, trade analyst Ramesh Bala believes that its opening day figures in North could go up to 25 crore.

Bala said, “Prashanth Neel’s goodwill from his KGF films will offset any scepticism that could possibly come in Hindi belt with the association of Prabhas, whose last few Hindi projects - Adipurush, Saaho, and Radhe Shyam - didn’t fare well at the box office.”

Salaar's no. of screens could shoot up from day 2 in north

And more importantly, Ramesh Bala says any question marks on Salaar’s box office fate only remain till 2 pm tomorrow, post which word-of-mouth on social media will start seeping in, and it will create the buzz of whether Salaar is worth a theatre visit or not. While Bala admits that Salaar has very limited screens in Hindi belt on day 1, the chances of its screens going up are very high if the film lives upto the hype. Bala gave the example of Prashanth Neel’s previous film KGF 2 which had released around the same time as Thalapathy Vijay’s Beast. Even though the film initially had lesser screens, the strong word-of-mouth eventually helped KGF sideline a biggie like Beast, and dominate the Tamil Nadu box office for many weeks.

Ramesh Bala also notes that unlike some of Prabhas’ previous Hindi films - for example a romance-drama like Radhe Shyam or a mythological like Adipurush, Salaar is a proper action entertainer that appeals directly to the audiences of B and C centres.

Can Salaar do 100 crores on day 1 in India?

Meanwhile, Sumit Kadel notes that Salaar’s box office prospects in South remain very strong despite all the conflicts. Kadel states that in South centres, Salaar would make a minimum of 60 crore nett on opening day, even if one is to make a conservative estimate. He also states that besides having a home audience in Andhra states, Salaar is also a Karnataka film in many ways because of Prashanth Neel’s popularity for his KGF franchise movies. Kadel also notes, “Salaar has a very good response in overseas, so one can easily expect the film to touch 140 crores gross at worldwide box-office on day 1 alone.”