My Box Office Predictions for EK VILLAIN

April 26, 2013: The release of AASHIQUI 2. Despite having a new star cast, the film went on to become a huge hit at the box office as the public appreciated both the film and of course the chart busting songs of the film.

Flash forward a year later. On paper, before any promos released, EK VILLAIN was a film that would have had just moderate expectations. Sure, there was the coming together again of director Mohit Suri and Shraddha Kapoor, but with the star cast consisting of two-film-old Sidarth Malhotra, an actor who has been successful but mainly only in supporting roles (Ritesh Deshmukh), and KRK (😆) the expectations would not have been humungous.

Then, everything changed in the beginning of April. The teaser of EK VILLAIN came and left an indescribable impact. Throughout the teaser, Sidharth Malhotra was shown as the villain, and then suddenly at the end of the teaser, someone yells "AE VILLAIN! AE VILLAIN!" and when the villain turns around, it turns out to be Ritesh Deshmukh!

"WOW! Ab yeh kya hua?!"

That right there immediately created tremendous curiosity for EK VILLAIN!

But that was only the beginning. The songs of the film instantly became chartbusters (Galliyan has become a rage amongst people). All of the promos of the film have worked. The way that all the promos have ended with the voice calling the villain's name and the villain being Ritesh Deshmukh, and then the Awari song promo where the villain's name is being called and Sidharth Malhotra is shown, is just fantastic. The makers have created so much curiosity that one doesn't really know who the actual villain is supposed to be, which goes with the tagline of the film, "there are no heroes".

So, how will EK VILLAIN do at the box office? Well, does one need to explain? The film is going to be a huge hit!

Sidharth Malhotra up until this point was considered to be a multiplex star. With EK VILLAIN, all that could change. HE will be known as a star with both classes and masses. He has already formed somewhat of fan base amongst the multiplex audience with the success of STUDENT OF THE YEAR and the moderate success of HASEE TOH PHASEE, and with EK VILLAIN, not only will his fan base with the multiplex audience strengthen even more, but even the masses will now be a fan of him. He will silence his critics who felt that he can't act by giving a performance in EK VILLAIN that will be praised by many. He is a future superstar, due to his looks, height, and his solid acting skills will be acknowledged by the public with EK VILLAIN. The film will be a turning point for his career, his first step towards being a superstar.

Ritesh Deshmukh is an early candidate for all "Best Actor in a Negative Role" category at award shows. Everyone felt up until this point that he was just an actor suited for rom-com type of roles, but the promos of EK VILLAIN have showed everyone a different side of him. I am sure, he will get immense appreciation for his acting in EK VILLAIN, and he may be called the show-stealer of the film by many. With the masses especially, he may get taalis and ceetis!

Shraddha Kapoor will likely be appreciated as well for her performance, although as I've mentioned, Ritesh Deshmukh will likely be the one that people will talk about the most for his show-stealing performance.

KRK 😆 What can I say? It will be funny if he turns out to showcase good acting ability.

The film is all set to take a bumper opening at the box office due to several factors such as Mohit Suri-Shraddha Kapoor combination together again after Blockbuster AASHIQUI 2, the tremendous curiosity created by Sidharth Malhotra and Ritesh Deshmukh through the promos with their characters/performances, the curiosity of the Villain character, the chartbusting songs of the film, the cool posters of the film, etc.

However, it should also be mentioned that two other major films are coming this Friday: Hollywood film TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION, and Punjabi film PUNJAB 1984 starring Punjabi superstar Diljit. Because of this, EK VILLAIN's opening will be comparatively lower at multiplexes of metros (due to TRANSFORMERS) and lower in Punjab (due to PUNJAB 1984). But still, EK VILLAIN will get its own share of audience and still get a huge opening. Opening will be best at single screens of mass-dominated areas, especially as the title of the film is very appealing for the masses.

EK VILLAIN will definitely carry a strong Word-of-Mouth amongst the public, but there are a few limitations that the film has in terms of lifetime collections. Firstly, because of the dark, violent nature of the film, the film will be less liked by the class audience (may have a mixed WOM amongst the class audience), and definitely will be more liked by the masses. Also, because it is a suspense type of film, there will be limited repeat value because once the viewer knows everything that has happened in the film by seeing the film once, the suspense is then gone and reduces the incentive to watch the film again. As it is, the film is very dark and violent, so there will be less repeat value. EK VILLAIN somewhat resembles one of Mohit Suri's other films MURDER 2, which was also dark, violent, and had the villain attacking females. The film's trending wasn't great, and it may be a similar thing with EK VILLAIN. What worked for AASHIQUI 2 was the pure love story element, and that's what got the film to become a Blockbuster because it could be viewed by both the family audience and the youth. EK VILLAIN, on the other hand, seems too violent for the family audience, but the youth will embrace the film.

I am sure that the masses and youth will still come to watch the film though after the opening weekend as the WOM amongst the masses and youth will definitely be strong. It these two sections of the audience that will bring the film to the big winning post.

Out of all the films released so far this year, EK VILLAIN will be one of the biggest hits of the year so far. When the first 6 months of the year 2014 are talked about, the biggest hits of these 6 months will be remembered as being 2 STATES and EK VILLAIN.

My Box Office Predictions for EK VILLAIN:

Opening Day: 12 crores net

Opening Weekend: 35+ crores net

Lifetime Collections: 75+ crores net

Overall Box Office Verdict: Super Hit

This will be Ritesh's Biggest hit playing a -ve role... w8g for it 🥳 Awards se lekar praises all will come for him.

Even if a chunk of the audience doesn't come on Sunday, I think Sunday collection will be on par with Friday at minimum (minimum 12 crores on Sunday) which would still get the film 35 crore weekend at minimum.

What are your thoughts though on my predictions bro?

I don't follow your predictions, but saw your prediction coming true for Humshakals. So based on that i think you might come true for this one also.

I wanted Ek Villain to Score a Century, but Ramadan factor will make it hard for it. Still i want it to score a 100 Cr. Ritesh's the best performance so far.

I really agree with you on the genre part, its a suspense, and if the suspense is not up to the mark it can give a bad WOM. So I am still not sure about EV being a Super Hit.

The film does have potential to do 100 crores business, but the film does have limitations at the box office for lifetime collections which I have talked about in the post! which is why I ultimately decided to go with 75+ crore range for lifetime