Salman Khan's latest Eid release Bharat has stormed the Indian box office and how! Obviously, everyone was expecting that the film would rake in big moolah but going by the figures it's pretty clear that Ali Abbas Zafar's directorial venture has outperformed itself on day 1 at the domestic box office. The trade pundits had predicted that Bharat would earn around Rs 35 crore on the first day. However, Salman starrer has taken everyone by surprise with its humungous day 1 collection. Co-starring Katrina Kaif in the lead, the film has become the highest opener for Salman by beating the opening day record of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh took to the microblogging site Twitter just a while back and announced the first day collection. He tweeted, "#Salmania grips the nation... #Bharat storms the BO... Proves *yet again* Salman Khan is the biggest crowd puller... #Bharat opens much bigger than Salman - Ali Abbas Zafar’s #TigerZindaHai [₹ 34.10 cr] and #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]... Wed ₹ 42.30 cr. India biz."

He also wrote, "#Bharat hits the ball out of the park on Day 1...Emerges Salman’s biggest #Eid opener, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]. Emerges Salman’s *biggest opener ever*, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #PremRatanDhanPayo [₹ 40.35 cr]."

Despite India's first world cup match against South Africa on Wednesday, Salman's Bharat fared brilliantly at the ticket windows, proving that Eid will always remain lucky for him. While the film will witness a drop in its collection on Thursday as its a normal working weekday, Bharat will still put up a solid figure in its extended five-day opening weekend for sure. Apart from Khan and Kat, the period drama also features Sunil Grover, Disha Patani, Sonali Kulkarni, Jackie Shroff and Nora Fatehi in the supporting roles.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 06, 2019 11:57 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).