Bollywood asianculturevulture vibes: ‘Dunki’ V ‘Salaar’, the hard numbers and those Christmas get togethers…

As two of the biggest films of year battle it out at the box office, here’s everything about their numbers, and those star Christmas parties…

By Rodrigues C

WELCOME from a pleasant Mumbai – at least in terms of the weather.

Christmas is over us and the city now eagerly awaits New Year’s eve, when the law and order machinery of the megapolis is put to the test.

Bollywood celebrated Christmas in a big way. And unlike the star-studded Diwali parties all over town, Christmas jamborees are private affairs in Bollywood. Thanks to social media, everybody has an inkling of these celebrations.

Arguably, the most famous of Bollywood’s Christmas events is the annual lunch of the Kapoors, which was started by the late Shashi Kapoor and his wife Jennifer Kendal.

Kunal Kapoor, elder son of Shashi Kapoor, has been hosting the traditional do for the last few years. The festive lunch was also the first time that Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor revealed the face of their 13-month-old daughter Raha to the media. Babita Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Ritu Nanda, Reema Jain, Aadar Jain, Karisma Kapoor and her kids Samaira and Kiaan were part of the gathering.

Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan were missing in action as they are holidaying in London with sons Taimur and Jeh.

Alia Bhatt also attended a Christmas dinner at her father Mahesh Bhatt’s Mumbai home, along with Ranbir Kapoor, mother Soni Razdan and sister Shaheen Bhatt.

Among other stars, Malaika Arora’s soiree at her suburban pad was attended by beau Arjun Kapoor, her son Arhaan Khan and Sohail Khan’s son Nirvaan Khan.

Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan, who is the delight of the Indian media, was seen partying with Ananya Pandey at the latter’s city residence.

A host of actors posted pictures of their Christmas celebrations on social media. These included Sidharth Malhotra with wife Kiara Advani, Soha Ali Khan with husband Kunal Kemmu and daughter Inaaya, Vanni Kapoor, newlyweds Parineeti Chopra and husband and Raghav Chadha, who are in London; Janhvi Kapoor, Diana Penty, and Kartik Aaryan with his pet dog Katori, then there was Bipasha Basu with husband Karan Grover, Neha Dhupia with hubby Angad Bedi, and Sara Ali Khan with parents Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh, in London.

Moving away from the Christmas celebrations, let’s take you inside the results of the big box office collision that had been dominating headlines the whole of this month.

Yes, we are taking about Shah Rukh Khan’s Rajkumar Hirani helmed ‘Dunki’ and the Prashanth Neel directed Telugu actioner featuring star Prabhas ‘Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire‘.

As things stand, the latter seems to have won the numbers game at the box office. ‘Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire’, which was released on December 22 debuted with a worldwide collection of £16.7 million, India accounted for £8.7m of this figure. ‘Dunki’ collected £5.5m on its first day of December 21; £2.7m out this was from India. ‘Salaar Part 1: Ceasefire’ has so far minted £37.2m worldwide with its Indian collection amounting to £26.6m.

Its dubbed Hindi version had raked in ₹100 crore (£9.5m), which is considered a milestone here as far as box office numbers are concerned. According to film trade experts, the film is expected to reach the ₹500 crore (£47.6m) figure by the weekend.

This would be Prabhas’s third film to cross this milestone after SS Rajamouli’s ‘Baahubali’ and ‘Baahubali 2: The Conclusion’, which minted £57m and £179m, respectively.

As for ‘Dunki’, its worldwide box office numbers are £24.3m with India amounting to £13.3m. The movie which also stars Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Boman Irani, is now eyeing a figure of ₹300 crore (£28.5m), despite its collections dropping drastically on Tuesday, a day after Christmas.

In fact, even experts believe the numbers of ‘Dunki’ would be average in India during the upcoming long weekend. The overseas market though could perform better for this SRK comedy-drama.

So, as we move into the new year next week, the box office battle between the two behemoths will continue.

‘Dunki’ may have not performed as well as SRK’s previous two hits of the year ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’, it’s still a hit.

For Prabhas, ‘Salaar 1: The Ceasefire’ has served as a professional rebirth after delivering back to back flops in the form of ‘Saaho’ (2019), ‘Radhe Shyam’ (2022) and ‘Adipurush’ (2023).

Signing off here and wishing you all a very lovely and happy new year from Mumbai!