Dunki and Salaar were released in theaters very recently. Dunki stars Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role, and Salaar stars Prabhas in the lead role. The audience was eagerly waiting for the release of both movies. Due to their simultaneous release, both movies’ box office collections were affected.
Dunki, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, was released on December 21, 2023. Besides this, Salaar was released the next day after Dunki, i.e., on December 22, 2023.
Dunki is based on the story of five friends from a small village who dream of a better life in London. They take an illegal path called Donkey Flight to enter another country. During this, they face many challenges in their way.
Despite this, Salaar, directed by Prashanth Neel, was released on December 22, 2023. The storyline of the movie revolves around two best friends and their journey in Khansar. Later, the story takes a turn, and due to some circumstances, the friends become enemies of each other.
Prabhas’ Salaar takes over Dunki in Telugu states
Both Prabhas and SRK have a huge fan base at the national and international levels. Dunki had a very good release in the Telugu states too, as most of the multiplex chains did not entertain Prabhas’ Salaar. This led to Dunki having a wide release in the Telugu states.
Despite this, the audience felt disappointed by its story as they were unable to connect with it. As a result, the occupancy fell flat by the evening itself. Reports claim that Dunki’s occupancy fell by at least 40% in the evening shows in the Telangana region.
Besides this, fans have huge anticipation towards Salaar, as it was released with massive hype, which further contributed to the decline in Dunki’s occupancy. By its 2nd day, Dunki’s occupancy fell by 50% in most theaters in the Telugu states.
The continuous fall in the occupancy percentage led the distributors to change theaters from Dunki to Salaar. Additionally, SRK has a massive fan following in the Telugu states, as the last two films, Pathaan and Jawaan, did quite well. These two SRK’s previous movies made a significant collection at the box office.
However, Dunki’s low buzz and the fan war between Dunki and Salaar, also caused negative promotion in the Telugu states. Now, it will be interesting to see how much both movies globally collect at the box office.
