Kantara: Chapter 1 (Hindi) is off to a good start at the Indian box office, with early estimates putting its first-day collections in the range of Rs. 16.50-17 crore nett. The opening is best in Maharashtra and the Eastern circuits. Gujarat and the Central circuits are decent but could have been better, considering they generally overindex for South dub films. The North was expectedly low.

Given the extraordinary run of the original film, expectations within the trade were sky-high. With the added advantage of a holiday release, the film was expected to open around Rs. 40 crore or so, akin to sequels of South breakouts like Baahubali, KGF, and Pushpa.

Those lofty expectations were ruled out early on when the advance opened, as there was no rush in bookings. In fact, the initial advance

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