Padmaavat was expected to earn a lot of money at the box office as it is one of the most anticipated biggies of this year. But even then, it was never expected to match up to the first day collection of Shah Rukh Khan‘s Happy New Year, which is also Deepika Padukone’s highest opener. The 2014 Diwali release had earned a whopping Rs 44.97 crore while Padmaavat has only managed to earn Rs 19 crore on day 1. If you want to argue that it was because of the protests, even without that it still wouldn’t have managed to beat HNY. That’s because if Baahubali 2 with more than 5000 screens in India alone couldn’t make it happen, no film can. In fact, we feel even Shah Rukh Khan can’t beat this record of his. (Also read: Baahubali 2 fails to beat Shah Rukh Khan’s Happy New Year – here’s how)

A lot was working in HNY’s favour when it released. First it was a Diwali release. The festival of lights not just brightens our homes but box office as well. Very rarely has films failed to make a mark on this day. Second, Shah Rukh Khan, the Diwali favourite, arrived at the box office with a film. Who wouldn’t watch that? People even went to watch Ra.One for the same reason. Third, HNY was a dramedy which had ample dose of jokes, jibes, romance, heartbreaks and some funny one-liners. A perfect festival entertainer… no wonder that the film became such a big hit!

Padmaavat on the other hand, is a period drama which speaks about the tale of a brave Rajput queen who decided to embrace death instead of Alauddin Khilji. It was expected to see record breaking ticket sales which it did witness despite the chaos, but it isn’t as big a movie as HNY to make that kind of money. But Padmaavat is the one which will last at the box office more.