Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office: Varun’s Baby John earned more than this comedy

3 min readMumbaiJun 6, 2026 09:12 AM IST

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office collection day 1: The film earned Rs 7.5 crore.

Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai box office collection day 1: Varun Dhawan has reunited with his father, filmmaker David Dhawan, for another comedy entertainer, Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, co-starring Mrunal Thakur and Pooja Hegde. Released on Friday, the film opened to a lukewarm response at the box office. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, it earned Rs 7.5 crore net on its opening day. Its gross domestic collection stood at Rs 9 crore, while it added another Rs 2 crore from overseas markets, taking its worldwide total to Rs 11 crore.

The film, which was screened across 9,081 shows on Day 1, recorded an overall Hindi occupancy of 20.15%. Occupancy began at 9% during the morning shows, rose to 19.23% in the afternoon, climbed to 21.92% in the evening, and ended the day at 30.46% during the night shows. Delhi-NCR registered the highest number of screenings, with 1,054 shows, but recorded a modest occupancy of 15%. Mumbai followed with 579 shows and performed slightly better, registering an overall occupancy of 23%.

Compared to Varun Dhawan’s recent releases, the opening is underwhelming. His war drama Border 2 opened to Rs 30 crore net earlier this year, while Sunny Sanskari Ki Tulsi Kumari collected Rs 9.25 crore net on its first day last year. Even Baby John had a stronger opening with Rs 11.25 crore net. The only post-pandemic Varun Dhawan release that Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai has managed to surpass is Bhediya, which opened at Rs 7.48 crore net. The film has also fallen well short of Judwaa 2, the last theatrical collaboration between Varun and David Dhawan, which had opened to an impressive Rs 16.1 crore.

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For Mrunal Thakur, however, the film marks a comparatively better opening than some of her recent releases, including Dacoit: A Love Story (Rs 6.55 crore), Do Deewane Sheher Mein (Rs 1.25 crore), and Son of Sardaar 2 (Rs 7.25 crore). For Pooja Hegde, the film has performed better than Deva, which opened at Rs 5.5 crore, but trails behind films such as Retro (Rs 19.25 crore) and Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (Rs 13.5 crore).

The film is also facing competition from other releases, including Bobby Deol’s Bandar and Ram Charan’s sports drama Peddi. It now remains to be seen whether the film can witness growth over the weekend and generate stronger momentum at the box office.