Doctor G box office collection Day 1: Ayushmann Khurrana’s film takes a slow start, but performs better than Anek, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Actor Ayushmann Khurrana returned to the big screen with the campus comedy-drama Doctor G on Friday. The film was released in theaters along with Parineeti Chopra’s Code Name: Tiranga and the Hindi dub version of Rishab Shetty’s Kannada hit Kantara. Among the three new releases, Doctor G performed the best.
Doctor G has fared better than Ayushmann’s last release, Anek. Its opening day collections are closer to what his 2021 release Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui made on day one. While Anek did made just Rs 1.77 crore on its first day, Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui opened with Rs 3.75 crore. As per film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Doctor G has earned Rs 3.87 cr on Friday.
“Despite low pre-release buzz, #DoctorG puts up a decent total on Day 1… National chains fare better, while mass pockets are extremely dull… Has scope for improvement on Day 2 and 3… Needs that push for a respectable weekend total… Fri ₹ 3.87 cr. #India biz,” Taran wrote on Twitter.

Now, it will be important for the film to perform well on Saturday to avoid the post-pandemic trend of ‘content-driven’ films not performing well in theatres (Anek, Jhund, Rocketry: The Nambi Effect).
Doctor G, also starring Shefali Shah, Sheeba Chaddha and Rakul Preet Singh, has received a mixed response from film critics. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review, “ the time Dr G realises his true yin-yang potential, it settles down. The second half is an uneasy tonal switch, featuring the problems around an underage pregnancy, which feels like it was created to tell us just how far the hero has travelled from where he began.”