Riteish Deshmukh’s Raja Shivaji has become the highest-grossing Marathi opener ever while Aamir Khan’s Ek Din faced a disastrous opening at the box office.
Key Points
- Riteish Deshmukh’s Raja Shivaji achieved a historic opening weekend, collecting Rs 36 crore (Rs 360 million) across Marathi and Hindi versions.
- The film recorded the biggest start of all time for a Marathi film, with its first day collection at Rs 12.40 crore (Rs 124 million).
- Aamir Khan’s production Ek Din, starring Junaid Khan and Sai Pallavi, was a box office disaster, earning only Rs 2.75 crore (Rs 27.5 million) over its opening weekend.
- Hollywood release The Devil Wears Prada 2 has done well amongst its target elite audience at multiplexes across major centres.
Last Friday saw the release of Riteish Deshmukh’s directorial Raja Shivaji. A Marathi film that has also released in Hindi, the film scored well in both languages. Particularly in Marathi, it has taken the biggest start of all time and has sustained well right through the weekend.
Since the film tells the story of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, there was huge curiosity, especially amongst Marathi audiences, to check it out in theatres. As a result, the first day was super huge at Rs 12.40 crore (Rs 124 million).
For a regional language film, this is a very good score and if one compares with the biggest openers of 2026, then it’s the fourth best after Dhurandhar: The Revenge, Border 2 and Bhooth Bangla.
Raja Shivaji‘s Historic Box Office Run
The wonderful trend continued into rest of the weekend, with collections on Saturday going to Rs 11.50 crore (Rs 115 million) and Sunday sustaining the feat. As a result, the weekend score stands at Rs 36 crore* (Rs 360 million), across both Marathi and Hindi versions. That’s fantastic since no Marathi film has done such business in history!
Of course, the costs are high for this multi-starrer, which features Sanjay Dutt, Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan, Bhagyashree, Sachin Khedekar, Amol Gupte and Mahesh Manjrekar. Apart from his wife Genelia Deshmukh, friends like Fardeen Khan and Boman Irani have put in cameos. Salman Khan adds star value as well, which means this isn’t an ordinary Marathi film. So with such scale and hype, the box office results need to be huge as well.
Ek Din‘s Disastrous Turn
Ek Din was a disaster on arrival.
The Aamir Khan production had a big budget for a star cast including his son Junaid Khan and Sai Pallavi, making her Bollywood debut before her biggie, Ramayana. Surprisingly, the film arrived with zero marketing and promotion despite not being a bad film.
As a result, Ek Din saw disastrous collections of merely Rs 2.75 crore* (Rs 27.5 million) over the weekend and the first week will close at around Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million). For a well-mounted film which has been extensively shot in Japan, it will suffer major losses.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 Does Well
The Hollywood release The Devil Wears Prada 2 has done well amongst its target elite audience at multiplexes across major centres.
The film opened well at Rs 4.50 crore (Rs 45 million) and sustained well enough to have a weekend of Rs 13 crore* (Rs 130 million).
*Estimates.
Note: All collections as per various box office sources.
Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff
