Shocking! Ranbir Kapoor's much hyped Shamshera, which was expected to take the biggest opening for a Bollywood film in 2022, has barely managed to find a place amongst the Top-5. There was so much going in favour of the film - huge canvas [Karan Malhotra], credible production house [YRF], a superstar who is reliable [Ranbir Kapoor], a villain who is having the time of his life [Sanjay Dutt], excellent marketing & promotion, extensive release [4000+ screens], solo arrival and zero competition, pandemic scare gone. Still, the results are disheartening.
The film has barely managed to scrape the Rs. 10.25 crores mark and that's practically the poorest performance for a wide release as footfalls per screen are out and out low. One can't fathom why this has actually happened as even on a conservative note, it was expected that at least 15 crores would come in and that would make it the biggest opener of the year by beating Kartik Aaryan's Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 [Rs. 14.11 crores]. However, it is lower than even Akshay Kumar's twin releases Bachchan Pandey [Rs. 13.25 crores] and Samrat Prithviraj [Rs. 10.70 crores]. Wait, this isn't all. It has failed to go past even Gangubai Kathiawadi [Rs. 10.50 crores] which pretty much tells the tale
This is quite bad for the industry too since a biggie like this should at least take an opening, and then the merits came come into picture by the evening/night shows or on Saturday. This way least Thugs of Hindostan had benefitted on Friday at least when over Rs. 50 crores had come in, but crashed thereafter due to poor content. In case of Shamshera, the content is actually not at all bad as it is being made out to be and it is surprising that it is finding so much negativity coming its way when in reality it's a harmless action revenge drama which is fun to watch.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
