John Abraham starrer Batla House, which has been released on Independence Day, is expected to earn over 14-15 crore on the first day, suggest film trade experts. Based on the 2008 controversial Batla House encounter, John Abraham's film is eyeing to cash in on Independence Day holiday and subsequent weekend, which could propel its overall box office collection to over Rs 40 crore, believe film trade experts. The Nikkhil Advani directorial's advanced bookings, coupled with John Abraham's popularity, could also give a tough competition to Akshay Kumar-Vidya Balan's Mission Mangal, which has also released on Thursday.
"Slowly & steady Batla House booking is catching up fast. Expecting good advance sale today & tomorrow," said film critic and trade analyst Sumit Kadel. In his review, Kadel said Batla House is a "stimulating thriller, (which) deals with real encounter incident in a intriguing way, which leaves audience contemplative & brooding". "John carries the film entire on his shoulders, fantastic performance," he added.
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"Independence Day is a big holiday and whatever films are released during this time gets a huge jump in the collections. Hence, with word of mouth being the key factor for the Nikkhil Advani directorial, he is "expecting Rs 13-15 crore collection for Batla House on the day of its release and the total collection for Independence Day weekend might be around Rs 35-40 crore," film trade analyst Girish Johar told the Indian Express.
Apart from John Abraham, Batla House also stars Mrunal Thakur. The gangster-terrorist thriller is a "John Abraham star vehicle," said India Today's Sandeep Unnithan in his review, adding that "the only reason the actor towers over the movie, Thanos-like, is because the film lacks a memorable supporting cast."
The movie is based on the Batla House encounter, officially known as Operation Batla House, which took place on September 19, 2008, against Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorists in the Batla House locality in Jamia Nagar, Delhi. During the shootout, two terrorists were killed while two others were arrested. Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma was martyred during the incident.
Edited by Manoj Sharma
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