Raja Shivaji collected Rs. 13.75-14 crore approx on its opening day in India. This includes Rs. 9.75-10 crore approx from the original Marathi version and Rs. 4 crore (Rs. 3.25 crore nett) approx from the Hindi version. The home state of Maharashtra accounted for Rs. 10.75–11 crore approx, driven largely by the Marathi version, though the Hindi version also chipped in well, benefiting from spillover demand wherever the original version was running to capacity.
Raja Shivaji is comfortably the biggest opening ever for a Marathi film, the previous best for the industry being Rs. 3.60 crore of Sairat in 2016. This was always on the cards, as the film was not just targeting Marathi industry benchmarks but also aiming for the biggest openings in Maharashtra overall.
The biggest opening day in Maharashtra belongs to Dhurandhar: The Revenge at around Rs. 22 crore, the next best being Pushpa 2 at Rs. 18 crore and Chhaava at Rs. 17 crore. While Dhurandhar: The Revenge was always out of reach because that film had an insane capacity, due to absurdly high ticket prices. Pushpa 2 and Chhaava probably could have been done, but even there, not being a solo release like those two and comparatively lower ticket prices kept it from it. The overall state box office yesterday was Rs. 16 crore, closer to those two. The shortfall was mainly in Mumbai city, with the rest of the state being on par with Pushpa 2 and Chhaava opening day. Marathi films traditionally perform stronger in the interiors of Maharashtra, as Mumbai has a significant Hindi and Gujarati speaking population, which dilutes the dominance of Marathi films.
Films like Chhaava and Tanhaji exhibited strong trends over time, and Marathi films in general tend to show long legs. Chhaava is currently the highest-grossing film in the state with over Rs. 300 crore gross box office collections. Raja Shivaji has the potential to replicate this trend; the coming weeks will be interesting to follow. The highest-grossing Marathi film is Sairat at around Rs. 100 crore. Raja Shivaji appears highly favoured to top it.
