Three Hindi films opened in theatres on Friday, 16 October 2026: Rajkummar Rao’s Prahaar: The Untold Story of Ujjwal Nikam, Yami Gautam Dhar’s Nayyi Navelli and Rao’s other film, Raftaar. Early box-office figures for the first day are available for two of them, according to Sacnilk, FilmiBeat and Bollywood Hungama, and they are provisional.
Prahaar earned about Rs 2.33 crore net in India on its first day, according to Sacnilk figures cited by India TV, with a gross of Rs 2.75 crore, from 4,130 shows. Bollywood Hungama put the opening at Rs 2.25 crore and headlined it a ‘dull start’. A smaller early estimate of Rs 0.95 crore appeared on one tracker’s page, which was probably taken early in the day, an inference by IndiaX24. The range of estimates runs from Rs 0.95 crore to Rs 2.33 crore.
Nayyi Navelli earned about Rs 3.31 crore net, according to FilmiBeat’s comparison. That puts it ahead of Prahaar by 98 lakh rupees, or about 42 per cent, calculations by IndiaX24 from Rs 3.31 crore and Rs 2.33 crore. The two films together made about Rs 5.64 crore net on the day, a sum by IndiaX24.
The forecasts had pointed the same way. FilmiBeat’s prediction said that Prahaar was heading for a slow start and asked whether it would beat Maalik, a film whose opening it used as a benchmark, and India.com predicted that Nayyi Navelli would outperform the courtroom drama. The courtroom drama had been projected to collect between Rs 1.50 crore and Rs 2 crore, and the reported net of Rs 2.33 crore is above that range, according to the search results.
Raftaar, Rajkummar Rao’s other release, does not have a reliable figure in the sources IndiaX24 opened. The film, a start-up drama with Keerthy Suresh, opened on the same day, as IndiaX24 has reported, and IndiaX24 will add its number when it is available. The result is that Rao had two films on the same day and only one has a reported figure.
The comparison with the south Indian releases is stark. Jailer 2 opened a day earlier with Rs 59.70 crore net, and Ranabaali earned about Rs 3.7 to 3.9 crore net in Telugu-led release, as IndiaX24 has reported. The three Hindi films’ combined known openings of about Rs 5.64 crore net are therefore less than 10 per cent of Jailer 2’s first day, a ratio of 5.64 to 59.70 calculated by IndiaX24.
The numbers are early and should be treated with care. Different trackers publish their own estimates, which are revised through the evening and the following day, and final figures can differ by 10 or 20 per cent, which is general background. The reports reviewed do not say which tracker is the most reliable.
Word of mouth over the weekend will matter more than the first day for films like these. Prahaar is a courtroom drama based on the career of a public prosecutor, and Nayyi Navelli is a horror comedy, so their audiences differ. IndiaX24 does not forecast the weekend.
IndiaX24 will update the figures when the weekend collections are published.
Image: The Regal cinema in Connaught Place, New Delhi (file photo; a stand-in image). Photo by Manoel Lemos from S�o Paulo, Brazil, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Leave a Reply