Bhediya box office week 1 collection: Varun Dhawan film performs below expectations, earns ₹42 crore

Bhediya box office: Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon's horror-comedy could not cross the ₹50 crore mark in its first week. It did a business of ₹42 crore in India.

Bhediya, starring Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon, has collected ₹42 crore in its first week at the domestic box office. The film is said to have performed below expectations after it failed to cross ₹50 crore in its first week. The film now faces competition from Ayushmann Khurrana's An Action Hero, which released in theatres on Friday.

A still from Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon's Bhediya.

The collections of the film were lowest on Thursday as it collected ₹3 crore. Sharing the first week collections of Bhediya, film trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted on Friday, “Bhediya fares way below expectations in week 1… Weekend business raised expectations, but weekdays underperformed… Friday ₹7.48 cr, Saturday ₹9.57 cr, Sunday ₹11.50 cr, Monday ₹3.85 cr, Tuesday ₹3.45 cr, Wednesday ₹3.20 cr, Thursday ₹3 cr. Total: ₹42.05 cr. India business.”

Bhediya released last week amid positive reviews but failed to gain momentum despite positive word of mouth. Directed by Amar Kaushik of Stree fame, Bhediya is a horror comedy film also starring Abhishek Banerjee and Deepak Dobriyal. Shraddha Kapoor also has a guest appearance in the film. It is the third film in producer Dinesh Vijan's horror-comedy universe after Stree and Roohi.

Varun recently shared a behind-the-scenes video to show the hard work put in by him for the film. He captioned it, "Playing bhediya has been by far the most challenging character I have ever played. The physical exhaustion I sure feel post doing the transformational scenes I can't explain. Thank you @amarkaushik @maddockfilms @pvijan @officialjiostudios #dineshvijan for this opportunity. To my audience thank u for the (with heart emoji)."

An excerpt of the Hindustan Times review of the film read, “Varun Dhawan is in top form and owns each frame. He has literally pushed the envelope, tried a new genre, and looked so convincing in it. His transformation scenes from a man to a wolf are stunning and scary at the same time with his ripped muscles and sculpted body giving you the chills.”