Ali Abbas Zafar's directorial venture Bharat is undoubtedly at the forefront in the box office race. The film starring Salman Khan, Sunil Grover, and Katrina Kaif in the lead released last week on June 5 and took the biggest opening of the year by collecting Rs 42.30 crore at the Indian box office. The period drama even went on to perform brilliantly over the first weekend and surpassed the Rs 150 crore mark in just five days. And then recently, Bharat ended up becoming the second highest grossing film of the year by beating Kesari and Total Dhamaal. Bharat Box Office Collection Day 9: Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif's Action Drama Fares Well in its Extended Week 1

While Zafar's latest offering has been minting money at the ticket windows, the collections have been dipping further with each passing day. After raking in around Rs 4.5 crore on Thursday, Bharat earned merely Rs 3.75 crore on Friday as per trade portal BollywoodHungama.

This means the total collection of Salman starrer now stands at Rs 182.85 crore. While the figure seems really good, it's highly unlikely that Bharat will enter the Rs 200 crore club in the second weekend and that's bad news for Khan and his team. Further, Boxofficeindia.com has reported, "The film is a success but there are cricket matches in the way that could come in the way of the film being a clean HIT." Bharat Box Office Collection Day 8: Salman Khan's Eid Release Witnesses a Drop in its Collection on Wednesday, Is Slowly Heading Towards the Rs 200 Crore Mark

"There is a big match on Sunday with India v Pakistan and this could take out a big chunk of the business which could leave the film with a low weekend and as appreciation is limited, it will struggle to cover the losses of Sunday on the weekdays." Since there is no competition at the box office, Bharat will indeed draw the audience to the cinema halls but only time will tell how far it will go in the box office race.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2019 04:05 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).