New Delhi, Aug 15 (IANS): 'Gadar 2' box office numbers have exceeded Rs 173 crores much to the surprise of everyone as initially, it did not seem that the movie would do very well while also having two strong competitors with 'OMG 2' and 'Jailer'.

Initial numbers were expected to be about Rs 25 crores, though on its opening day alone the movie surpassed over Rs 40 crores, which was a staggering amount, far outpacing all expectations.

Speaking to IANS, film trade expert Karan Taurani said: "I think these numbers are really a big positive surprise as no one had really expected this. One reason I think is that the long weekend of Independence Day where people wanted to go out and outing options in India are limited. Second big reason is that it is a franchise based film. Part 1 had done phenomenal collections and Part 2 is also doing very well right now because of the franchise."

He continued: "So I think franchise based content, VFX based content, patriotic content, these are the things that Hindi cinema needs to move forward towards in order to move back to pre-COVID levels. This is particularly because in India, Hindi cinema is the only one that is currently at a 20-25 per cent growth rate below pre-COVID levels while content of other languages and genres have already achieved their pre-COVID momentum and moved beyond that as well."

Asked about weekend and lifetime collections, Karan Taurani said that he expects weekend collections to be Rs 230 crores, including collections from Tuesday while lifetime is an estimated Rs 350-400 crore. Earlier, trade expert Ramesh Bala had said that the maximum he estimates the film to earn is over Rs 500 crore at most.

Replying to the query whether 'Gadar 2' will enter the Rs 1000 crore club he said: "There is very little to almost no chance." Domestically, 'Gadar 2' could at best compete with 'Jailer' and get the same amount, though internationally it won't have any chance.

The reasons for that are because 'Jailer' has a very big audience in the South where ticket prices are also capped as well as an international audience while 'Gadar 2' has little occupancy in the South, little international audience and even in North and other Hindi markets such as Delhi and Mumbai, audiences are choosing to go far 'Jailer'.

Nonetheless, the numbers given by 'Gadar 2' are indeed a very big surprise and a good indicator for Hindi cinema overall.