The box office numbers for Tu Yaa Main on day 3 show a drop, with the Adarsh Gourav and Shanaya Kapoor film taking in only Rs 65 lakh on Sunday – that’s based on first looks at the figures. It began with Rs 60 lakh on Friday, went up to Rs 1.45 crore on Saturday, and has a three-day total of around Rs 2.70 crore. The film was shown 988 times, and the average number of seats filled was 16.4 percent.
How it opened over the weekend
Sunday’s Rs 65 lakh is clearly slower than Saturday’s big increase, showing the film doesn’t have a lot of momentum for the weekend. The jump on day 2 made people think it would continue to do well, but the drop on day 3 brought the weekend average down.
First estimates of the box office put the film’s total – both gross and net – at a reasonable level; right now the net is Rs 2.70 crore after three days. Given that it came out during Valentine’s weekend, the numbers show it hasn’t yet had a very wide commercial success.
Tu Yaa Main had an inconsistent start, which is what often happens to films that depend on people telling each other about them, and appeal to a small group of people. Saturday’s doubling to Rs 1.45 crore showed people were curious about it over the weekend, but Sunday didn’t keep that going. Now the film has to get through the important weekdays and either get stable, or continue to go down.
The people who make and distribute the film will be looking closely at how many people go to see it on weekdays, to see if schools, colleges, and people talking about it on streaming services can make people interested again.
With the number of seats filled being low, and fewer than 1,000 showings, the film being ‘found’ by people may depend on what people say about it on social media, and on promotions aimed at certain groups.
What the film is about, who is in it, and who made it
Bejoy Nambiar directed Tu Yaa Main, and it was made by Aanand L Rai, Himanshu Sharma, and Vinod Bhanushali. The adventure-romance survival thriller is about two social media personalities whose romantic break goes wrong when they get stuck in a swimming pool with a crocodile.
Shanaya Kapoor is Avani – also known as Miss Vanity – and Adarsh Gourav plays Maruti, or Aala Flowpara. The film mixes the feeling of a thriller with drama about the relationship, and comments on social media, trying to combine things that will get people to come to the cinema with the power of the genre.
Shanaya has said she wants to be an actress who connects with the audience. She says she wants her films to fill theatres, and is working to make that happen; this shows she is both ambitious, and knows what is really happening at the box office for new actors.
Shanaya Kapoor on her role and getting ready for it
To get ready for Avani, Shanaya watched survival thrillers like Jaws, Crawl, and The Meg, and worked on how she moved and what she seemed to be, with acting coach Atul Mongia. She said she studied videos of good performances to get a graceful, sexy, and confident way of acting for her character.
What other films are out, and what the box office might look like
Tu Yaa Main came out when there was a lot of competition, with films that had made more money already taking up people’s attention over the same weekend. One big film was doing much better at the box office, with a two-day total that was far bigger, and a war drama that had been running for a long time was still doing well in its fourth week. This meant there were fewer possible showings, and less of the audience.
What could make the film earn more in the future
In the near future, whether the film does well will depend on how much the numbers drop on weekdays, what critics and the audience say about it, and how it is marketed. If people on social media and in reviews point out the thrills in the film, and the acting, it could get stable; otherwise, the money it makes may stay at a low level.
Important things are people continuing to talk about it on social media, the audience giving it good feedback, and more showings in cities. The film’s survival-thriller idea could attract fans of the genre, but it needs to be clearer about what it is, to reach people outside of that small group.
In the end, how Tu Yaa Main does at the box office will show how well it turns people being curious into them coming back to see it again, and telling other people about it. For Adarsh Gourav and Shanaya Kapoor, the film gives them a chance to be seen, and could still build a steady reputation after it is in the cinemas, if the promotions and how the audience reacts go well together.
