Salman Khan's latest film Dabangg 3 from the blockbuster franchise Dabangg is bearing the brunt of the ongoing unrest against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the country. The film's box office collections in the first three days were below what was expected by the film analysts. Dabangg 3 earned between Rs 78 crore to Rs 80 crore in its opening weekend (Friday to Sunday). However before its release, trade analysts had predicted film's opening three-day collections to be around Rs 90 crore. The Prabhu Deva directorial saw a shortfall of approximately 11-13 per cent in its opening weekend box office collections.
Several analysts said that the prime reason behind the drop in Dabangg 3's collections was the anti-CAA protest that hit almost all parts of the country. The anti-citizenship law agitation-led majorly by students erupted across Assam, followed by Jamia University in Delhi. It quickly spread across, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Northeast, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Rajasthan, and other parts of the country.
The massive protests impacted the box office business of Dabangg 3. The action comedy, which was expected to rake in nearly Rs 30 crore on its Day 1, stood at Rs 24.50 crore. On Saturday, Dabangg 3 collections remained same as Day 1, which was Rs 24.75 crore. On Sunday, the film collected roughly Rs 29 crore.
As, the protests subdue, Dabangg 3 is expected to pick up. Despite the protests, Dabangg 3, has recorded the fourth-best opening weekend of the year after War (Rs 166.25 crore), Bharat(Rs 166.25 crore) and Saaho (Hindi) (Rs 79.08 crore). It also witnessed the second best non-holiday weekend after Saaho (Hindi).
The film is a sequel to the 2012 film Dabangg 2 and the third installment of Dabangg film series. In the film Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha and Arbaaz Khan are reprising their roles from the previous films. Apart from these actors, the film also features Mahesh Manjrekar, Nawab Shah, Tinnu Anand, Pankaj Tripathi and Milind Gunaji in supporting roles.