My Box Office Predictions for Humshakals

...Because after shouting things like "HIMMATWALA is an All Time Blockbuster", "main vaada karta noon ki pehle teen (3) dinon mein aapko ticket nahin milegi", and "HIMMATWALA will be amongst the top 3 biggest hits of the year" before release, Sajid Khan's HIMMATWALA released in theatres on that day only to be rejected by the audience. The popular joke circulating was that "the real HIMMATWALA is he who stepped in the theatre to watch the film". In short, the joke was on Sajid Khan as he got ridiculed for making the film!

Now flash forward a year later. This Friday, Sajid Khan's HUMSHAKALS releases in theatres. This time, Sajid Khan is not shouting anything. He seems quiet, perhaps wanting the film to do the talking.

There is no Ajay Devgan this time. There is also no Akshay Kumar though, who seems to have been the director's favourite. Instead, there is Saif Ali Khan, along with Ritesh (another favourite of Sajid) and Ram Kapoor.

What will be the box office fate of HUMSHAKALS? Will it be successful like other Sajid Khan films HEY BABY, HOUSEFULL, and HOUSEFULL 2? Or will it be a washout like HIMMATWALA?

Some things to analyze here! Firstly, Sajid has been known for making urban-style comedy films over the years. That is what has worked for him, with evidence being the success of HEY BABY, HOUSEFULL, and HOUSEFULL 2. When he tried something different (a desi action-masala film HIMMATWALA), he failed miserably in impressing the audience.

With HUMSHAKALS, Sajid is in his comfort zone. He is back to his comedy genre space that he has been successful at. With that being said however, the film is missing Akshay Kumar, who had a huge role in making those films successful as well. As a matter of fact, HUMSHAKALS seems like a copy of the HOUSEFULL series, as there are similar traits such as a lot of characters, a big house, a night song, etc.

Ritiesh Deshmukh has said that HUMSHAKALS is the funniest film he has done, but it all depends on if the public thinks the same.

I feel that HUMSHAKALS will not be a flop like HIMMATWALA. However, neither will it be as successful as Sajid's other films, especially not as successful as HOUSEFULL 2. It will be somewhere in between-a moderate success at best!

The songs seem to have worked with the public, especially "Caller Tune" and "Piya Ke Bazaar" and perhaps others.

The film's overall buzz may not seem that high (google trends in India in particular show it as being low), but the film does have a star like Saif Ali Khan as well as hit songs to pull in the audience. Saif Ali Khan's presence will bring in the audience from the metros/big cities of India as he is popular with the urban audience, while the hit songs and comedy genre would bring in audience from the smaller centres. There is also Ritesh Deshmukh who also has a pull when it comes to comedy films (his GRAND MASTI took a big 12 crore opening, although it may have also been due to MASTI franchise). Also, Sajid Khan films always get a good opening. Amongst the heroines (Bipasha, Tamanha, and Esha Gupta), Bipasha is the bigger star, but oddly she has not been promoted much as being apart of the film, something that has generated a bit of negative publicity for the film. All things considered though, HUMSHAKALS should have a solid opening day, even though Ormax Media shows that the pre-release buzz is not as much as the pre-release buzz for HOLIDAY.

The film could sustain well after the opening weekend if the audience enjoys it like how they've enjoyed Sajid's other comedies. The comedy factor could especially work big time with the family audience. However, if the comedy gets too complicated for the public (there are triplets of each main character!) it would cause the public to reject the film and spread negative WOM. In my opinion though, the film will have a decent WOM and will be able to make a bit of profit through its combined sources of revenues (theatrical collections, music rights, satellite rights, etc) making it somewhat successful at the box office, although the media will over-hype it a bit by bringing headlines like "Sajid Khan is back" even with the film not being a huge success. It would be a similar case as Shahid Kapoor, who's R...RAJKUMAR was just a Semi-Hit but was treated as being some sort of career-changing Blockbuster for Shahid Kapoor by some of the media and fans.

The film does face competition a week later from the eagerly-anticipated EK VILLAIN. The good thing though for the team of HUMSHAKALS though is that both films belong to different genres (one being a violent love story and the other being a light-hearted comedy entertainer) which could ensure that each film gets it's own audience.

My Box Office Predictions for HUMSHAKALS:

Opening Day: 11 crores net

Opening Weekend: 35+ crores net

Lifetime Collections: 65+ crores net

Overall Box Office Verdict: Semi-Hit

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I have exact same feelings about humshakals...many in IF are certain that it will flop but i feel it would do good just like you said

IT will be ATBB 🥳