Vaathi box office collection day 1: Dhanush film beats Kartik Aaryan's Shehzada on opening day, earns Rs 9.70 crore

Starring Dhanush in the leading role, the action drama film Vaathi was released in the theatres on February 17. Directed by Venky Atluri, the film has also been made in Telugu under the title Sir and marks Dhanush's foray into Telugu cinema. The actioner Vaathi/Sir comes with a social message of making quality education accessible to the poor.

The Dhanush-starrer has taken a decent start at the box office and has earned Rs 9.70 crore net on its first day of release, as per the entertainment tracking portal Sacnilk.com. Vaathi has contributed Rs 5.65 crore and Sir has added Rs 4.05 crore to the film's first-day collection. The trade portal also states that the gross collection for Vaathi/Sir day 1 is Rs 11.40 crore and both the films have earned Rs 3 crore overseas, taking the worldwide day 1 collection to Rs 14.40 crore.

Well, Dhanush has thus defeated Kartik Aaryan at the box office on the opening day as Kartik's masala entertainer Shehzada, which is an official Hindi remake of Allu Arjun's Telugu blockbuster Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo, collected Rs 6 crore on February 17, the first day of its release. The two films also faced a clash with Marvel's latest film Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Talking about Vaathi/Sir, Dhanush plays Balamurugan (Tamil) and Bala Gangadhar Tilak (Telugu), a junior lecturer standing up against the rich and powerful who want the government schools to be taken over by private entities. Samyuktha Menon stars as the leading lady.

Apart from its hero and heroine, the Venky Atluri film also features Sai Kumar, Tanikella Bharani, Samuthirakani, Thotapalli Madhu, Narra Srinivas, Pammi Sai, Hyper Aadhi, Shara, Aadukalam Naren, Ilavarasu, Motta Rajendran, Hareesh Peradi and Praveena among others.

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