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Shah Rukh Khan’s much-awaited film Pathaan is already exceeding expectations at the Indian box office as the film’s advance ticket sales surge. By the looks of the ticket sales, it seems as if SRK fans are unfazed by the controversies surrounding the film and are making sure they get to catch a glimpse of their favourite superstar as Pathaan, an Indian spy, on the big screen.

According to The Indian Express, the Hindi and Telugu versions of Pathaan have sold the maximum tickets in the country. It has already amassed a gross collection of INR140 million, according to industry tracker Sacnilk. Out of the INR140 million, INR17.9 million comes from the NCR region and same amount from Mumbai. Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata are also major contributors to the advance sales figures. According to Bollywood Hungama, Pathaan is expected to open with around INR400 million on day one.

Last year, we saw Aayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra collect INR196.6 million in advance sales, becoming the third biggest Bollywood blockbuster of 2022. Then came Kartik Aaryan’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 that managed to make INR65.5 million from advance bookings and Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha with INR55.2 million. SRK’s Pathaan has six days to beat Brahmastra’s record at the Indian box office.

According to Indian Express, Ashish Saksena, COO of Cinemas, BookMyShow, shared that SRK’s action-thriller has sold 400,000 advance tickets via online ticketing in less than 36 hours.

“The response across India has been phenomenal with Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Lucknow and Chennai leading the charge on ticket sales. South India has been particularly impressive showcasing an upward trajectory with Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru contributing 26 per cent of the overall advance sales so far. With more screens set to open for advance sales over the weekend, we are confident that Pathaan is set to take the box office by storm,” he said.

Pathaan marks SRK’s comeback to a lead role after four years. Helmed by Siddharth Anand, Pathaan is a spy thriller that also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham in pivotal roles.

The film is scheduled to hit the theatres on January 25.