Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor’s romantic comedy ‘Param Sundari’ is finally finding its footing at the box office after a muted start. The film, which opened on August 30 to mixed-to-positive reviews, has seen collections climb steadily across the weekend, fuelled by encouraging word of mouth.

On Sunday, the cross-cultural romance brought in ₹10.25 crore net in India, an 11% jump from Saturday and nearly 40% higher than its opening day figures. This pushed its domestic weekend total to ₹26.75 crore net (around ₹32 crore gross), according to trade estimates.

The film is also performing well in key international markets. Early data shows ‘Param Sundari’ has taken in more than $1.1 million (roughly ₹11 crore) overseas, led by strong numbers in the US and the UK - territories where Indian family dramas and love stories traditionally resonate. Together, the domestic and international takings have propelled the film to a worldwide weekend haul of ₹43 crore.

That figure is already higher than the lifetime global earnings of ‘Dhadak 2’, which finished its run at ₹36 crore, though it still trails July’s blockbuster ‘aiyaara’, produced by Yash Raj Films, which debuted to ₹117 crore in three days and has since crossed ₹570 crore.

Industry tracker Sacnilk reported that Param Sundari’s opening weekend gross of nearly ₹27 crore in India marked “a positive result” for a North–South love story with fresh faces in a market dominated by event films.

The romantic comedy has drawn comparisons to Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chennai Express’ for its cross-regional pairing and comedic culture clashes. Directed by Tushar Jalota and produced by Dinesh Vijan under Maddock Films, the film stars Malhotra as Param, a carefree Delhiite from a wealthy family who experiments with investing in start-ups. In a bid to prove a point to his father, he tries Soulmates, an AI-powered matchmaking app, only to be paired with Thekkepattu Sundari Damodharan Pillai (Kapoor), a Kerala native who runs her ancestral homestay with her uncle, a practitioner of Kalari Payattu.

Their worlds collide — Param’s modern, city-bred lifestyle meeting Sundari’s tradition-rooted existence — setting off a journey filled with humour, cultural differences and unexpected emotional depth as they question whether technology really led them to true love.

The ensemble cast includes Sanjay Kapoor, Renji Panicker, Siddhartha Shankar, Manjot Singh, Abhishek Banerjee and Inayat Verma.