Awarapan 2 soars past Rs. 110 crore, Batwara 1947 stumbles: Who won the big Independence Day clash? 

The face-off at the box office on Independence Day between Awarapan 2 and Batwara 1947 has been a completely unbalanced affair, with Emraan Hashmi’s action movie coming out as the undisputed champion while Sunny Deol’s patriotic film is finding it tough to hold audiences. 

The two films hit the screens on August 14, hoping to take advantage of the Independence Day weekend. But the performance of the two films could not have been further apart. 

Outstanding opening weekend for Awarapan 2 

Awarapan 2 has had an amazing opening weekend. As per the trade website Sacnilk, the film earned Rs. 26.40 crore gross in India on Friday, Rs. 40.50 crore on Saturday, and Rs. 31.20 crore on Sunday. In total, its three-day total in India is Rs. 98.10 crore. The overseas gross was Rs. 12 crore, making its total worldwide gross Rs. 110.10 crore in just three days. 

It should also be noted that the Sunday figures are especially remarkable considering that Awarapan 2 has seen a drop of 23% in collections in comparison to the figures for Saturday but after all has still been able to outperform its opening day numbers. 

The second part of Awarapan marks a significant reversal in the fortunes of the franchise as compared to the original film released in 2007 to a lackluster response at the box office but grew to have a cult following over the years with earning of Rs. 13 crore in its lifetime. Awarapan 2 crossed that figure on its opening day itself.  

Comparable to that, Batwara 1947 has had a much tougher time at the box office. The Sunny Deol and Preity Zinta starrer had collected Rs. 5.75 crore at the box office on Friday. It received a boost of Rs. 13.50 crore from the Independence Day holiday on Saturday but failed to keep up the momentum. The movie earned Rs. 7.25 crore on Sunday dropping significantly from its previous days and taking the three-day total collection in India to about Rs. 31.61 crore.  

Adding around Rs. 5.50 crore from overseas, Batwara 1947 registered a worldwide collection of about Rs. 37.11 crore.  

The contrast is made even more stark if budgets are taken into account. Reportedly, Batwara 1947 has been made at a budget of about Rs. 120 crore, while its worldwide box office collection is only a small percentage of that amount. 

A clear winner emerges 

In comparing box office figures, Awarapan 2 collected Rs. 110.10 crore in its opening weekend as against Batwara 1947’s Rs. 37.11 crore, a number which is scarcely a third of the bigger film’s earnings and even more astonishing when we consider that both movies were released on the same day, on Independence Day. 

Sunny Deol’s film needed a lot of help to gain a respectable Saturday performance, but Awarapan 2 was able to sustain the moviegoer interest beyond the first day of showing. Thanks to the positive word-of-mouth of the first run, nostalgia and the successful return of Emraan Hashmi to the role of Shivam Pandit, the sequel has proven that this battle for the audience between the two movies can be declared as a victory. 

For Awarapan 2, this weekend has proved to be one of the largest hits in Hindi cinema. In contrast to this, for Batwara 1947, Monday will show us whether the movie will make its first box office trip profitable or not.