Cinegoers leave Regent after watching Krrish 3 on Friday. Picture by Jai Prakash

Superhero Krrish weaved his jadoo (magic) on the city and emerged the winner over Babli and Rahul.

The rush for Dhanteras shopping could not keep cinema-goers from catching the first-day shows of Hrithik Roshan’s latest, Krrish 3. Receiving a bumper opening, it raked in Rs 18,10,429 and broke the first-day collections of Besharam and Chennai Express, which released on October 2 and Id respectively.

Besharam starring Ranbir Kapoor as Babli made Rs 16,92,689 on its first day, while Chennai Express starring Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul collected Rs 16,85,786 in August. What is even more special for the Krrish 3 team is that the film broke Besharam’s record with lesser shows — if Krrish 3 got 32 shows on first day, the Ranbir starrer had two more.

The morning and afternoon shows went houseful.

Anandpuri resident Anurag Singh said: “It is an amazing film with excellent sound and special effects. The film was beyond my expectation and far better than Koi… Mil Gaya and Krrish. Vivek Oberoi has done some really good acting after a long time — it does not matter that he had a negative role. I am going to watch it one more time after Diwali.”

More fans lined up for advance tickets at the cinemas for the Diwali weekend but only a few were lucky to get one.

Suman Kumar Sinha, the owner of Regent, said: “At the time of advance booking I had said the film would do good business. I will give all credit to the star of the film, Hrithik Roshan.”

Cinepolis manager Abhishek Ranjan agreed. “Krrish is very popular among children, so many people came to watch the film with their sons and daughters. Another important factor for the film’s bumper opening was having Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut in important roles,” he said.

Madness to catch the film at Mona and Elphinstone was such that cinema-goers even bought tickets in black, for up to Rs 400 and Rs 450, respectively.

Vikas Kumar, a student of AN College, said: “I shelled out an extra Rs 200 for a ticket at Mona but I have no regrets. It was complete paisa vasool. Hrithik is really the superhero of Bollywood. I hope there is another sequel.”

Advisor of Cine Society, Patna, R.N. Das said the film would run without obstacles at least for a month even though Ram-Leela, Gori Tere Pyaar Mein! and Bullet Raja are lined up this month.