Kahaani 2 box office: fares well on opening weekend despite tough competition from Dear Zindagi

Sujoy Ghosh's Kahaani 2 has managed to grow steadily at the box office throughout the weekend in spite of facing competition from Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi which continued to run smoothly on its second weekend.[caption id="attachment_3142142" align="alignleft" width="380"] Vidya Balan in a still from Kahaani 2[/caption]Both the films attribute their constant rise to word of mouth. Both films are led by female actors who are holding their own at the box office. Kahaani 2 opened to a lukewarm collection of Rs 4.25 crore on Friday but rose to Rs 5.79 and Rs 6.93 on Saturday and Sunday respectively.When compared to Kahaani, the film has gained a marginal edge over its prequel. International Business Times reports that Kahaani had garnered Rs 13.83 crore on its opening weekend. Since the rise to Rs 16.97 crore in 1,235 screens across India is marginal, it can also be attributed to the rise in ticket prices since Kahaani released in 2012.When compared to other suspense thrillers, Kahaani 2 is ranked second out of the four films of the same genre that released earlier this year. Koimoi.com reports that Bejoy Nambiar's Wazir had a collection of Rs 21.01 crore on its opening weekend but it went on to recover its costs. Though Kahaani 2 is much ahead of Ribhu Dasgupta's TE3N (Rs 11.13 crore) and Nishikant Kamat's Madaari (Rs 9.75 crore), it is not quite likely if it will be able to recover its costs of Rs 35 crore. Thanks to Dear Zindagi, which collected Rs 10.10 crore on its second weekend.The Alia Bhatt-starrer has not only managed to break even but has also been declared a commercial hit since it has gained twice the amount of its budget of Rs 25 crore. Its total domestic gross collection stands at Rs 57.10 crore.While it is clear that Dear Zindagi has remained unaffected by demonetisation, Ghosh argues that the move will have no impact on his film's performance either. In a report by The Indian Express, he is quoted as saying, "I don’t think demonetisation will affect my film. It’s all about priority so if people would really want to watch it they will definitely go to theatres. It doesn’t matter if there is a currency problem in the country,"That is news for Arjun Rampal, one of the actors of the film, who blamed the poor performance of his musical ensemble Rock On 2 on demonetisation last month. Now that the impact of demonetistaion is not that much, Aditya Chopra's romantic drama Befikre, which is slated to release this Friday. is likely to do well at the box office and give tough competition to not only Kahaani 2 but also Dear Zindagi on its third weekend.