Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia’s supernatural folklore thriller The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest opened on an estimated 1,800 to 2,000 screens in India, and the first-day data is a case study in not reading a box-office headline without the showtime curve.
A Rs 8 crore opening with a caveat
According to Sacnilk, the film collected Rs 8 crore net on opening day, with gross at Rs 9.60 crore across 6,746 shows. That is slightly under the Rs 10 crore-plus projection based on advance bookings, because those bookings included blocked seats.
Average occupancy was 26.0% on day one. The showtime spread is more revealing: morning shows ran at 12.23%, afternoon at 24%, and evening peaked at 26%. The pattern points to walk-in audiences and evening preference, not a heavily pre-sold first day.
Beating Param Sundari, but below his best
The Vvaan outshined Sidharth’s previous release, Param Sundari, which opened to Rs 7.00 crore. In the context of his career openings, it sits in the middle:
- Ek Villain (2014): Rs 16.70 crore
- Brothers (2015): Rs 15.21 crore
- Thank God (2022): Rs 8.10 crore
- Student of the Year (2012): Rs 7.48 crore
- Param Sundari (2025): Rs 7.00 crore
What the net-gross gap tells us
The difference between the Rs 8 crore net and Rs 9.60 crore gross is the tax share, which is why planners should use net numbers when comparing openings. Blocked seats, by contrast, are inventory holds that can inflate advance-booking totals and create a false pre-release benchmark.
For a fantasy thriller with average reviews, the first-day result is not disastrous, but it is not a breakout. The film needs word of mouth to move beyond the modest evening-heavy audience.
Why the showtime curve matters
For media planners and entertainment marketers, the gap between the Rs 10 crore projection and the Rs 8 crore actual is the central takeaway. Blocked seats are not confirmed demand, and a 26% average occupancy across a 1,800-2,000 screen release is a modest base.
The day-one curve—morning at 12.23%, evening at 26%—shows where the audience is. That makes late-day and weekend targeting the more useful lens than opening-day totals alone.
What to watch next
The Vvaan is produced by Balaji Motion Pictures in association with TVF and 11.11 Production, with Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa R Kapoor, Arunabh Kumar and Niraj Kothari among the team. Music is by Tanishk Bagchi, Vishal Mishra, Amit Trivedi and Sam CS.
The film’s commercial future will be decided by weekend holds and whether the evening crowd returns, not by the day-one number alone.
Source: ETV Bharat National
