NEW DELHI - Vishal Bharadwaj’s unusually titled and much-awaited dark thriller “Kaminey”, starring Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, is turning out to be a strong player at the box office.

“‘Kaminey’ is the biggest opening for any Shahid, Priyanka and Vishal Bhardwaj film so far. We are completely delighted with the moviegoers reaction who have loved the film. The response has been fantastic,” Girish Johar, AVP, UTV Motion Pictures, told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

The movie which released Friday marks the acting debut of “Taare Zameen Par” writer Amole Gupte, who has impressed audiences in the film.

The audience are lapping up the movie for a heady mix of Shahid’s two avatars, edgy and power-packed music and fast-paced narrative.

“‘Kaminey’ has received rave reviews and the movie has witnessed strong box office collections across locations. With the opening up of multiplexes in Mumbai today (Monday) we have seen the expected rush in advance bookings and expect the strong response to continue throughout the week and the coming weekend,” said Tushar Dhingra, COO BIG Cinemas.

Though the movie did not release in Mumbai Friday thanks to the swine flu scare in Maharashtra, it hasn’t affected the collection of the film, said Amit Awasthi, manager, programming and operations of Spice Cinemas, Noida.

“‘Kaminey’ has done very good business. We have collected a gross of around Rs.2.5 million over the initial weekend. The reaction has been mind-blowing as the holiday period proved to be a boon,” said Awasthi.

“However, it was only 75 percent of the audiences who liked the film despite good reports and the rest didn’t quite appreciate it,” he added.

Nevertheless, “Kaminey”, which released with 1,200 prints worldwide, is scoring well over multi-starrer “Life Partner”, which released on the same day.

“We are running 26 shows for ‘Kaminey’ in a day while six shows are kept for ‘Life Partner’ which has not been liked at all. The comedy is not that good. We collected only Rs.400,000 over the weekend with the latter movie,” said Awasthi.

A source from PVR cinemas said: “‘Kaminey’ has done exceptionally well and the reaction has been fantastic. We are hoping the movie will stretch at least for the next two weeks. However, ‘Life Partner’ has done only average business.”

The movie has now opened in Mumbai theatres.