Toxic advance bookings storm past ₹18 crore in 48 hours; Yash film on a rampage, outpacing Dhurandhar, Animal, Jawan

Advance bookings for Yash ’s highly anticipated film, Toxic, began on Friday morning, five days before the film hits the screens. The film, directed by Geetu Mohandas, has been mounted on a massive scale and is being billed as a pan-India entertainer. Given Yash’s stardom and the film’s scale, the interest in Toxic is high. Its breakneck pace in the first 24 hours indicates that this one may be set for a monumental opening, challenging several all-time records in Indian cinema.

Advance bookings for Toxic opened at around 6 AM on Friday, August 21. The national cinema chains opened their screens a few hours later. There was an immediate rush for tickets on all major online ticketing platforms. By Sunday morning, the film was selling 10k tickets per hour on BookMyShow, a sizable figure four days before release. Toxic crossed ₹ 18 crore in advance bookings on its first day, in just 48 hours. By Sunday morning, the film had sold over 4.7 lakh tickets across India in all languages. This included a staggering ₹ 10 crore gross from the original Kannada version alone.

The Hindi dub is also performing better than expected by the industry. By 8 AM on Sunday, the Hindi version of Toxic was beating industry projections, grossing ₹ 8 crore in advance bookings for day 1 alone. This is in line with Yash’s popularity in the north since the success of the KGF films. The film is expected to compete with Hindi releases with its dubbed version.

Toxic sold close to 2.5 lakh tickets across India in advance bookings in its first 24 hours. This breakneck pace is among the best in Indian cinema history, surpassing blockbusters such as Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan (1.5 lakh), Ranveer Singh's Dhurandhar 2 (1.3 lakh), and Ranbir Kapoor's Animal (55k). The Hindi version of Toxic alone beat Animal, with 60k tickets sold in 24 hours.

Toxic, directed by Geetu Mohandas, also stars Nayanthara, Kiara Advani , Huma Qureshi, Rukmini Vasanth, and Tara Sutaria in the lead roles. The film will release in theatres on August 26. Toxic has been in the news for its steamy, intimate scenes and sequences that appear to show women in a not-so-favourable light through imagery and dialogue. The film was cleared by the CBFC with no cuts and an A-rating.

Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border.