BENGALURU: Akshay Kumar’s mega-budget movie ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ took an exceedingly insipid start at the ticket windows on Friday in almost all circuits. As the day progressed, the collections picked up at a few places such as Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but the numbers in big cities of other states remained on the lower side.
The film totted up Rs 10.50 crore nett on Day 1 which is hugely underwhelming for a project of this scale, budget and star cast. The report of the film is comme si comme sa, so the collections will improve over the weekend but perhaps not as much as needed after such a low opening. It will clock up decent numbers in a few circuits but the Tier A cities across India have to come on board in a big way for the movie to script a turnaround.
However, the trade is not in a hurry to write it off.
Girish Johar, a producer and film business expert, told The New Indian that though the opening is low, we have to wait at least till Monday before passing the verdict.
“There is no doubt the beginning of ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ is subpar given the fact that it stars Akshay Kumar and is mounted lavishly. We are keeping an eye on the growth during the weekend. The spurt in collections has to be really huge because the starting point is low,” he opined.
“But it is not fair or reasonable to write it off as yet. I’ll be talking through my hat if I predict the lifetime total for the film. We must hold our horses at least till Monday and give breathing space to the movie,” he said.
“I am an optimistic person, so I am hoping that the film will jump on Saturday and Sunday. The metro cities have to start firing in a big way for the movie to put up healthy lifetime numbers,” he added.
Vishek Chauhan, a Bihar exhibitor, said that ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ is doing good, but not extraordinary, business in his circuit.
“As far as my cinema hall is concerned, this film has a bigger opening than ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’. The scenario is the same across Bihar. I’m sanguine that it will show an upward trend across India in the weekend as the reports are good. It’s hard to talk about its lifetime business as of now as we will see how it will perform once the weekend is over,” he stated.
When asked about the reasons for such a low opening for an Akshay-starrer, Vishek reasoned that it lacks sabre-rattling dialogues and heroism.
“See, the makers have opted to make this movie look more real. ‘Prithviraj’ isn’t presented as a larger-than-life character because they didn’t want to take liberties with history. There are no thunderous dialogues and tubthumping sequences though it’s a well-made film. Hence it hasn’t caught the fancy of the youth and the masses who savour movies such as ‘RRR ‘and ‘KGF – Chapter 2’. But the families are liking the film and that’s a plus” he opined.
“The audience is famished for big-scale entertainers. Look at the teaser of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’. It is simply outstanding. I can tell you that it will run to packed houses all over India for the first three days irrespective of the content. The last decade was pretty bad for Shah Rukh but he has learned his lessons and is picking the right films which are befitting for the star of his stature,” he asserted.
The trailer of Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, which is slated to release on August 11, has received a highly polarised response from people and the trade. A section of netizens has already dismissed this official remake of the Hollywood classic ‘Forrest Gump’. But Johar thinks otherwise.
“Let us talk about a few facts first. Aamir could easily have taken a safer route and gone for the OTT release for ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, like many films which began before the pandemic, but he is sticking his neck out and promoting the movie with unbridled enthusiasm. That shows he has conviction in the product. Secondly, Aamir has rarely gone wrong in the last 15 years even though he experimented with unconventional subjects. So, we must have faith in his skills and judgement,” he explained.
“Lastly, even the first poster of ‘PK’ was derided by a section of the industry but it became a monumental blockbuster. So, I am not completely buying what people are saying about ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’. I am certain if it is a good movie, which I am hoping for, it will do smashing business. Aamir is not a Salman-like star where an individual draws people into theatres. In Aamir’s case, people flock to cinema halls if the content is top-shelf. If ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ is as brilliant a film as previous films of Aamir, there will be no stopping it at the ticket counters,” he signed off.
Last week’s release ‘Anek’, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, earned only Rs 7.5 crore nett in its first week and is one of the biggest disasters of the year.
Kartik Aaryan’s ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’ is still attracting the audience in its 3rd week and is a super-hit. It has chalked up Rs 145 crore nett in India till now and has a chance of finishing over Rs 170 crore.