Vvaan Opens to Rs 8 Crore Net: Sidharth Malhotra Folklore Test

Sidharth Malhotra and Tamannaah Bhatia’s folklore fantasy The Vvaan: Force of the Forrest opened Friday to roughly Rs 8 crore India net and Rs 9.6 crore India gross, according to Sacnilk figures cited by The Indian Express and The Times of India.

The Day 1 total came from 6,746 shows nationwide. Occupancy sat near the mid-20s overall — Indian Express cited about 26 percent, while TOI’s Hindi 2D breakdown listed 28.25 percent overall, with night shows strongest at 41.46 percent. Morning shows lagged near 12 percent, TOI reported.

For Malhotra, the opening is being read as a meaningful test rather than a runaway smash. Indian Express noted that Kapoor & Sons in 2016 was his last clear theatrical hit, and that 11 subsequent theatrical titles failed to deliver a comparable win; pandemic-era Shershaah found acclaim on OTT instead. An Rs 8 crore net start is stronger than several of his recent launches, but reviews have been mediocre and weekend hold will decide whether the dry spell ends.

Tamannaah’s stake is equally sharp. The film marks her first Hindi theatrical lead in seven years, Indian Express wrote, after Khamoshi underperformed and she largely appeared in special song spots such as Stree and Raid 2. Pairing her with Malhotra in a pan-India folklore frame was meant to widen the audience beyond a pure star vehicle.

Directed by Deepak Kumar Mishra — with TOI also crediting Arunabh Kumar — Vvaan plants a rational urban couple inside an ancestral Bihar village during Chhath Puja. Malhotra’s Rishi returns to sell inherited land; Tamannaah’s Mamta arrives with him. Village warnings about a forbidden forest after sunset collide with development plans championed by Sunil Grover’s Deepak, TOI’s plot summary said.

Rishi eventually breaks an ancient seal inside the forest, awakening a supernatural force tied to local goddess folklore. The pitch sits in the same post-Kantara, Lokah and Stree appetite for Indian mythic horror that trade desks have flagged all year. Backers include Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor, whose television supernatural brands remain a cultural reference point, Indian Express noted.

Competition was limited but not invisible. Indian Express said Avengers: Endgame – Encore, the Marvel re-release with new footage bridging toward Avengers: Doomsday, took about Rs 8.68 crore gross across languages on overlapping days, with English contributing the largest share. Vvaan still held a standalone Hindi new-release position against that nostalgia play.

Compared with other September Hindi openers, the start looks healthier on paper. Indian Express pointed to Kareena Kapoor’s Daayra and Kunal Khemu’s Vibe, each stuck near Rs 1 crore territory. Malhotra’s prior Param Sundari also opened near Rs 8.7 crore gross before fading — a cautionary parallel trade writers are already citing.

For Bollywood readers, Day 1 is the beginning of the conversation, not the verdict. Folklore fantasies live or die on word of mouth once novelty tickets are spent. Mediocre reviews plus a mid-tier open usually mean Saturday–Sunday need a jump; a flat weekend would push the film toward a short theatrical life and faster digital window talk.

Sacnilk’s show count — 6,746 — suggests distributors wanted volume. Night occupancy above 40 percent hints that younger urban audiences sampled the premise after work, while morning weakness is typical for a first-day fantasy that is not yet a family must-see. How multiplexes allocate screens after the opening weekend will reveal whether exhibitors smell a hold or a cut.

Trade desks will also watch diaspora screens in the Gulf and North America, even if Day 1 headlines remain India-net focused. Folklore fantasies sometimes find a second wind overseas when domestic word of mouth stabilizes; the reverse is also true when overseas curiosity dies after a soft Friday. Neither Indian Express nor TOI had a full overseas breakout in Saturday’s Day 1 wrap, so that chapter remains open.

Malhotra’s long search for a theatrical rebound and Tamannaah’s Hindi lead return give the film a narrative beyond the numbers. Whether Vandevi lore and forest dread can outrun mixed notices is the question Saturday’s collections will start to answer. As of the dual Sacnilk-based reports Saturday morning, Vvaan stands at Rs 8 crore India net / Rs 9.6 crore India gross after Day 1 — a competent launch that still has everything to prove.