Rajkummar Rao’s courtroom drama Prahaar – The Ujjwal Nikam Story has crossed Rs 11 crore in Indian net collections after four days, with Sacnilk reporting a Rs 2 crore Monday. The day-four figure is a 45.2% decline from Sunday’s Rs 3.65 crore, but the underlying audience data tells a sharper story than the headline fall.
Directed by Avinash Arun Dhaware, the film revisits landmark legal cases through public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, including the 1993 Bombay blasts and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The cast includes Rajkummar Rao, Wamiqa Gabbi, Lalit Prabhakar, Jaideep Ahlawat and Sikandar Kher.
The four-day scorecard
The film opened on October 16 and improved through the weekend before the expected Monday slide.
- Friday: Rs 2.35 crore net from 4,133 shows
- Saturday: Rs 3.15 crore from 3,908 shows
- Sunday: Rs 3.65 crore from 3,730 shows
- Monday: Rs 2 crore from 3,281 shows
That takes India net to Rs 11.15 crore. Domestic gross is Rs 13.26 crore, overseas adds Rs 2.15 crore, and worldwide gross stands at Rs 15.41 crore. Cumulative footfalls reached 492,852, with 100,535 on Monday alone.
Why the Monday number matters less than the time bands
A first Monday fall of around 45% is normal for a niche issue-led title. The more useful signal is where audiences showed up. Overall occupancy was 25.36%, but morning shows managed just 7.46%, while night shows led at 33.77%, followed by evening at 28.31% and afternoon at 24.92%. That is a working-adult profile concentrated in post-work slots, not a mass family crowd.
The ETimes review rated the film four stars and said it “neither sensationalises the tragedy nor reduces it to a spectacle.” That critical framing may support word of mouth in urban, issue-driven pockets, but the opening numbers suggest a considered drama rather than a broad commercial play.
What to do with this data
Exhibitors have already cut capacity: show count fell from 3,730 on Sunday to 3,281 on Monday. The time-band data argues for protecting evening and night inventory and trimming weak morning slots, rather than cutting prime shows across the board. For marketers, the occupancy curve is a media-planning signal: lean budgets toward evening and night channels and use the legal-case hook for targeted social and programmatic campaigns.
The next test is Tuesday. If the film holds near Rs 1.5 crore, it signals a steadier run; a sharper fall would suggest the weekend accounted for most of the demand.
Source: The Times of India
