The Vvaan Day 1: Sidharth Malhotra Folklore Thriller Opens Strong

Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia’s folklore thriller The Vvaan – Force of the Forrest hit Indian cinemas Friday, Sept. 25, with Day 1 India net tracking into strong mid-to-high single-digit crore territory after a trailer that lifted opening expectations, Bollywood Hungama and Koimoi reported in the run-up — and early Friday trade tallies later put the film near Sidharth’s best openers of the past decade.

Balaji Telefilms, in association with TVF Motion Pictures and 11:11 Productions, positioned the Deepak Kumar Mishra–directed title as a faith-meets-folklore story set against a Chhath Puja backdrop. Hungama’s trailer package framed the pitch as “When Faith Meets Folklore,” with Malhotra, Tamannaah, Sunil Grover, Maniesh Paul, Shweta Tiwari and Anup Soni among the billed cast and a music slate spanning Vishal Mishra, Amit Trivedi, Tanishk Bagchi and Sam C. S. Visual director and DOP credits went to Manu Anand, with producers including Shobha Kapoor, Ektaa R Kapoor, Arunabh Kumar and Niraj Kothari.

Koimoi’s pre-release box-office read said the trailer’s mix of devotion, mythology, horror-mystery and TVF-style grounded humor moved the Day 1 needle into an expected 5–8 crore net band — enough, on that projection, to lock the sixth-biggest post-COVID opening for Balaji Motion Pictures and overtake Mastiii 4’s 2.75 crore start. Koimoi’s Balaji post-COVID opener list still crowned Bhooth Bangla (18.31 crore), Dream Girl 2 (10.69) and Crew (10.21) at the top, with Ek Villain Returns and Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video rounding out the mid-tier ahead of the films The Vvaan was chasing on opening day.

By Friday evening, Sacnilk figures cited in trade coverage put The Vvaan at about Rs 7.47 crore India net by 8 p.m., with night shows still to report and some outlets sketching a path toward the Rs 10 crore Day 1 neighborhood if evening occupancy held. North India — Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi-NCR — led, with Mumbai also a major contributor, according to those tallies. That pace would place the film among Sidharth’s strongest first days since Thank God (Rs 8.10 crore) and ahead of recent openers such as Param Sundari (Rs 7.37 crore).

For readers following Hindi theatricals on Bollywood, the opening is as much a brand-collaboration story as a star vehicle. TVF’s rooted-content reputation helped pre-asset buzz; Balaji’s marketing push, including the Chhathi Maiya–linked music cut billed as a festival-dedicated track, then converted trailer curiosity into spot bookings on release day, trade desks said. Word of mouth remains the weekend hinge for a genre film that is not selling pure romance or mass action alone.

Story-wise, Malhotra plays a city man returning to his family’s Bihar village, where locals treat the surrounding forest as magical and forbid entry after sunset. Ignoring the rule awakens a wrathful goddess and darker forces, forcing the skeptic into belief and combat — a folklore-horror hook Hungama’s trailer materials and Koimoi’s concept notes both emphasize. Tamannaah’s presence widens the South–Hindi crossover audience that Balaji and TVF both courted in promotions.

Advance sales had already framed a “decent to good” base before Friday’s walk-ups. Koimoi separately flagged strong post-COVID pre-sales for Sidharth around the title, while Hungama’s morning occupancy snapshots earlier Friday showed PVR and NCR circuits among early leaders — typical urban multiplex signals for a mid-budget genre film chasing holdover over pure opening fireworks. Midday nett snapshots in the tens of lakhs range were treated as a warm start rather than a runaway, leaving evening shows to decide the final Day 1 card.

Whether Day 1 settles closer to the mid-7s or pushes nearer 10 crore will hinge on Friday night and Saturday morning holds. Either outcome still clears Koimoi’s pre-release floor for a meaningful Balaji post-COVID rank and gives Malhotra a competitive 2026 theatrical start after a stretch of mixed openers that included lower single-digit crore bows for titles like Yodha.

Comparisons to Balaji’s own recent slate matter because the banner’s post-COVID openers have swung from breakout horror-comedy highs to quieter prestige plays. Landing in the 5–8 crore band — and tracking near 7.5 crore by evening — puts The Vvaan in the conversation Koimoi previewed: not a Bhooth Bangla-scale explosion, but a respectable franchise-building start for a folklore thriller that needs Saturday and Sunday to prove legs.

Weekend holds, not the opening title card alone, will decide if The Vvaan converts folklore intrigue into a multi-day earner. For now, Hungama’s cinema-date confirmation and Koimoi’s trailer-impact framing — plus Friday’s mid-single-digit crore actuals — put the Sidharth–Tamannaah starrer on the board as one of the day’s clearest Bollywood box-office stories, with North circuits and Chhath-season cultural hooks doing early heavy lifting.