Whether you like it or not, Dhadak is turning out to be a surprise hit of 2018. Or is it wrong to call it a 'surprise'? Of course, we expected Dhadak to take a good an initial at the box office. Well, we never hoped for it to have earth-shattering opening day collections as Ranbir Kapoor's Sanju, Salman Khan's Race 3 or Tiger Shroff's Baaghi 2, but Dhadak's opening weekend collections have been more than decent enough. In four days the movie has collected Rs 39.19 crore at the box office, considering the movie stars two newcomers in the lead.

So what is making Dhadak tick at the box office? Well, there are a lot of factors working in favour of the Shashank Khaitan-directed film. In this special feature, we will analyse why Dhadak is bringing in the audiences despite the initial dislike for being a Sairat remake. Okay, let's start off with that point only!

Being a Sairat remake

When Karan Johar first announced that he is remaking the Marathi blockbuster, Sairat, there was a huge outrage over this. Even the people involved in the original film, including director Nagraj Manjule, were against the idea, though the rights have been officially sold. That hate continued even as the release date approached but as the days went by, it transformed into a curiosity factor for the film. And even with the outrage, like they say, any publicity is good publicity. Master strategist, Karan Johar, definitely knew this.

And a Dharma product

Any film that comes out from the Dharma banner automatically comes with the 'high expectations' tag and they mostly work at the box office. Sure, there have been failures, like Ungli and OK Jaanu, but the hit ratio of the production house is higher. It also helps that the production house has a great fan following and has good associations with major media houses, which helped in marketing the movie.

Curiosity over Janhvi Kapoor and Ishaan Khatter

Even though we accused Bollywood and of course, Karan Johar, of being nepotistic, we ourselves also have to be blamed for playing into their game. More than outsiders, we have often shown curiosity for star kids and are excited to hear about their launchpads. There was a lot of intrigue about Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor before the movie came out. Janhvi, especially, got more limelight, even though, admit it or not, it was more due to sympathy wave for her because of her mother, late Sridevi's untimely demise. Luckily for Karan, both of them aren't bad actors and do have the potential for a better future.

Early positive reviews

There have been reviews (including ours) that have been scathing in analysing Dhadak, when compared to Sairat. But luckily for the film, the first reviews have been in the favour of Dhadak, which helped the movie in getting a good traction over the weekend.

A decently made film appealing to youth

Dhadak is nothing but a one-dimensional plastic replica of a multi-layered, nuanced and gutsy Sairat. But it knows its audience - the youngsters -  with many not having watched the original film, especially in the North Belt. For them, Dhadak is a decently made romantic drama with some pleasant moments and a heart-wrenching climax. They may not realise that the best things about the movie are all borrowed from Sairat. But the trick worked!

Dhadak is budgeted at approximately Rs 40 crore, so it has to earn more than Rs 50 crore to be called a hit. But with the kind of pace it is making money at the box office, Dhadak will cross that barrier in the next couple of days. It remains to be seen if it can enter the Rs 100 crore club, especially considering there are multiple releases this week.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 24, 2018 11:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).