Akshay Kumar’s Kesari was expected to open quite well around the Rs. 20 crore mark. The film did better than expected as Rs. 21.06 crore came in. This is a very good number as majority of theatres across the country opened only after 3 PM due to the festive occasion of Holi which means all the morning shows were practically lost and a good chunk of afternoon shows too were impacted. As a result, most of the heavy lifting had to be done by the evening and night shows and this is what allowed the film to go past the Rs. 20 crore mark.
This is still commendable since it pretty much reflects how fast the word of mouth travelled for this Anurag Singh directed film. The hype was always there and so was the buzz. However what was of paramount importance was for that to translate into good footfalls as well. This is what happened and with Karan Johar and team ensuring that the film’s release was substantial enough at 3600 screens, the results were there to be seen.
There would be a dip in numbers today since it is a regular working day. While Rs. 12-13 crore would still come in, anything in the vicinity of Rs. 15 crore would be a very good hold for the film. Post that, it would be the growth over Saturday and Sunday that would be the deciding factor around how far would the film eventually go. As of now, the start has been made and it is all about capitalising from this point on.
An interesting piece of trivia as that Kesari has pretty much shown ‘21 ka dum’. The film is about 21 brave Sikh soldiers, released on March 21, and has now collected Rs. 21 crore on its first day. Some coincidence this is!
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources