Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office collection day 1: Comedy opens at ₹7.50 crore, one of Varun Dhawan's lowest ever

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office collection day 1: The Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur, and Pooja Hegde film was way behind Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office collection day 1: David Dhawan’s romantic comedy, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, released in theatres this Friday (June 5). The love triangle stars Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur, and Pooja Hegde, and was expected to struggle a bit at the box office, given lukewarm reviews. The film has taken a single-digit start at the domestic box office (under ₹10 crore net on day 1), which makes it one of Varun Dhawan’s lowest openings ever.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai stars Varun Dhawan, Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde in lead roles.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office update

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai earned ₹7.50 crore net on day 1 in India. This is lower than Varun’s previous solo releases - Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari ( ₹10 crore) and Baby John ( ₹11.25 crore). In fact, barring October and Main Tera Hero, no Varun Dhawan film has taken such a low opening. The first day numbers of Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai are in the same range as his debut film, Student of the Year, which released 14 years ago. Varun’s best solo opening so far has been Judwaa 2, which earned over ₹16 crore net on its first day back in 2017.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai struggles at the box office

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai released in over 2500 screens across India, making it a wide release for a non-mass-action Hindi film. Yet, it showed weak occupancy throughout the day. The morning shows had weak occupancy of just 9%, which thankfully grew as the day progressed, but the night shows maxed out at 30%, as per Sacnilk. Overall, the film had a sub-20% occupancy in theatres across India on Friday.

Given that the film has received few positive reviews, its chances of turning the tide on Saturday are low. Word of mouth usually depends on what people are saying about the film, and the general discourse on the David Dhawan film is far from positive.

The Hindustan Times review of the film read: “Hai Jawani Toh... proudly wears its nonsense on its sleeve. Yet, even by the standards of a David Dhawan comedy, the first half gets off to a dull start. The jokes rarely land, and there was an eerie silence in our theatre as almost nothing clicked, not the music or comedy, not even the infectious energy that one expects from this genre.”