Exhibitors SHOCKED with TOTAL rejection of Kangana Ranaut-starrer Tejas: “It is an UNMITIGATED disaster. For the first time this year, the morning show in my theatre got CANCELLED because of zero ticket sales”

By Fenil Seta -

October 30, 2023 - 2:25 PM IST

The Kangana Ranaut-starrer Tejas has emerged as a huge disaster. The collections were flat on the first three days and the lifetime collections are expected to be less than Rs. 10 crores. Bollywood Hungama spoke to exhibitors around the country to understand how it has fared in cinemas.

Exhibitors SHOCKED with TOTAL rejection of Kangana Ranaut-starrer Tejas: “It is an UNMITIGATED disaster. For the first time this year, the morning show in my theatre got CANCELLED because of zero ticket sales”

An exhibitor, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The occupancy was bad even on a Sunday. There are hardly 10-12 people in each show. From Monday, more than 50% of shows are discontinued.”

He added, “The film is not as bad as the collections reflect. Agreed the VFX is poor. But it’s watchable. However, the film has been totally rejected.” He also revealed, “12th Fail’s shows are very limited but it’s doing better business than.”

Vishek Chauhan, owner of Roopbani Cinema in Purnia, Bihar, minced no words as he said, “Tejas is an unmitigated disaster. For the first time this year, the morning show in my theatre got cancelled because of zero ticket sales.” He continued, “Hardly 20-30 people were there in the rest of the shows.”

Kiritbhai T Vaghasia, who runs The Friday Cinema multiplex in Surat, shocked us as he said that all 15 shows of Tejas from Friday to Sunday were cancelled due to zero audience. He said, “Not a single show of Tejas has been played in my theatre. There were zero bookings. On Friday, I gave one whole audi to Tejas and decided to play 6 shows as it’s just 2 hours long. But due to no audience, I decided to play 3 shows of Tejas on Saturday.”

He further stated, “We have a policy that we play a show only if there are 10 patrons. With Tejas, we thought at least 4-5 viewers might turn up at least for some show. Even that didn’t happen. The same scenario has been repeated on Sunday as well.” He continued, “No one has come to even enquire about Tejas. Can you believe it?”

Kirtibhai, however, heaved a sigh of relief as he said, “I have replaced its shows with Leo. It’s doing great business. Mine is the only theatre in this area that is playing the film since the other multiplexes in the vicinity have decided not to screen the movie due to certain issues.”

The multiplexes and theatres that aren't screening Leo, aren’t lucky. A duty manager from a leading multiplex said, “We have reduced the shows of Tejas but there’s nothing else to replace it with.”

Manoj Desai who runs the 1000-seater Gaiety in the G7 multiplex in Mumbai rued, “The collections are worse.” He explained, “On Sunday, we managed to get 100 viewers. For the rest of the shows, the number of moviegoers was less than 100.”

Manoj Desai has decided to continue playing Tejas on the weekdays in Gaiety and not play it in the smaller audis like 100-seater Gossip due to no other exciting content. He has given an incentive to pull audiences, “From Monday, I have reduced the rates of stall from Rs. 130 to Rs. 100 and of balcony from Rs. 150 to Rs. 110.”

Satadeep Saha, CEO of SSR Cinemas Pvt Ltd, meanwhile, said, “As per our limited expectations, Tejas is doing good. Of course, it could have done better.”

Also Read: Kangana Ranaut shares video; pleads her fans to watch Tejas after its disastrous start