Raees vs Kaabil: Shah Rukh takes early lead against Hrithik in box office race

#Raees has a FANTASTIC Day 1... Wed 20.42 cr... Today [Thu; Republic Day] will witness HUMONGOUS biz again.

taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 26, 2017

#Kaabil Wed 10.43 cr... Biz should escalate today [Thu; Republic Day].

taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) January 26, 2017

Raees also saw 15 per cent more sales in comparison with Kaabil and was sold out all through Wednesday. Raees opened to 2800 screens as opposed to 2400 screens allotted to Kaabil.

Both the movies had their share of controversy before the release. Members of Hindu extreme groups staged protests against Raees in different parts of Maharasthra and Madhya Pradesh for having Pakistani actor Mahira Khan as a female lead in the film.

While Kaabil was in the news after its producer Rakesh Roshan expressed his disappointment at the decision of the makers of Raees to release the film on the same date.

In an interview to a national daily, he said, "Whatever dates we are taking, they are following us. I would have never done the same. I belong to an old school of film making and I have given 50 years of my life to the industry. I would never release my film on a day when another filmmaker has already announced their film. I decided to remove Krrish 4 also from Christmas 2018 because I saw SRK's film is coming that day. I could have easily released my film with Befikre or even with Dangal if I had to clash. But when I announced the film in February, I saw a clean window in January and hence I picked the date."

In Raees, Shah Rukh Khan plays a gangster from Gujarat while Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the cop. On the other hand, Kaabil is a movie from a different genre. The movie is a love story with its protagonist as a visually-impaired Rohan Bhatnagar (played by Hritik Roshan).

According to trade experts, both films are expected to do the business of around Rs 200-250 crore.