Here's why Sanjay Leela Bhansali feels Dilwale was always supposed to have bigger opening than Bajirao Mastani

Written By DNA Web Team | Updated: Dec 26, 2015, 08:10 PM IST

The 'Black' director is happy that the word of mouth has helped 'Bajirao Mastani' gain momentum at the box office.

Filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose magnum opus Bajirao Mastani clashed with Shah Rukh Khan starrer Dilwale, says the actor is a bigger star and will definitely have a good opening at the box office any day.

"Shah Rukh is a bigger star. He is such a big star that even if he would have come on any day he would have got a good opening," Bhansali told PTI.

"We are happy creating it and seeing it (Bajirao Mastani). It was magic. There was some blessing of God constantly on the film so I knew it will start a little slow, but we will eventually catch up," he added.

Reportedly Dilwale had collected Rs 21 cr on the first day, Rs 20.09 cr on the second day, Rs 24 cr on the third day and Rs 10.09 cr on Monday. The SRK starrer film collected Rs 75.18 cr in the first four days.

On the other hand, Bajirao Mastani on day one earned Rs 12.80 cr and saw an upsurge in its collections on day two as it collected Rs 15.52 cr, Rs 18.45 cr on the third day and Rs 10.25 cr on Monday. Total collections of the Bhansali film are Rs 57.02 cr.

The Black director is happy that the word of mouth has helped Bajirao Mastani gain momentum at the box office.

"It is heartening to know that people are loving our film so all that numbers and mathematics eventually collapse when you like a film or you don't like a film. So, when I have more number of screens but if people don't like the film it doesn't matter," he said.

"The repeat value is important. Love of the people to experience this world of Bajirao Mastani is important," he added.

Bhansali's directorial venture Bajirao Mastani is the love story of the Peshwa Bajirao and the half-Muslim Bundelkhandi princess Mastani. While the Rohit Shetty film is an action comedy.

"Both Bajirao Mastani and Dilwale are of different genres... This is a full family big screen experience that is comedy..I am not sure about the genre. The genre of both the film is different, different actors and two different directors," the 52-year-old director said. 

Before the release of Bajirao Mastani, the producers were fighting a battle for getting more screen space and the matter even reached court.

At this time, Bhansali was caught up giving finishing touches to the film. "I have not taken that stress (of screen space) the producers Eros International take that stress. I was mixing..
giving final touches four-five days before the release of the film. I was making sure we do not miss out on the deadlines," he said.

"Eros takes care of screen space as it is their expertise... They don't come in between when I am taking a shot. It was important for me to know about it (number of screens and all) but I had left it as finishing touches of the film were more important to me," he added.