look news india
The pair of two veteran Bollywood stars, Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan, have returned to the big screen after a long wait of 18 years through the psychological crime thriller ‘Haiwaan’ directed by Priyadarshan. The audience and trade pundits were expecting a banging opening from this superhit pair, who had worked together in films like ‘Main Khiladi Tu Anari’, ‘Yeh Dillagi’ and ‘Tashan’. However, the official box office figures of the first day have surprised film analysts. Despite a huge star cast, huge budget and Priyadarshan’s comeback in the suspense genre, ‘Haivaan’ was struggling to gain momentum at the ticket window. The film has registered a much lower than expected and very cold business on the first day.
According to trade tracker website ‘Sacnilk’, ‘Haivaan’ has collected only ₹ 3.00 crore nett on its opening day (Friday) at the Indian box office. The total occupancy of the film in 7,224 shows across the country was recorded to be around 11 percent, which is quite weak considering the status of both the big stars. The gross collection in India was around ₹3.60 crore, while the film earned a gross revenue of around ₹1 crore from overseas markets. Thus, the film’s first day worldwide gross collection could only stand at ₹4.60 crore. Such a sluggish start is being considered a big setback for this film, which was made with a huge budget of around ₹130 crore.
Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan were seen together on screen for the first time after the 2008 film ‘Tashan’. The audience expected to see the same light and entertaining Jugalbandi between this Priyadarshan pair, but the makers gave it the form of a serious and dark revenge story. In the film, Saif Ali Khan plays the role of a visually impaired caretaker ‘Shyam’, while Akshay Kumar plays the role of a dangerous and violent villain ‘Parshuram’.
The film is basically the official Hindi remake of the 2016 Malayalam superhit film ‘Oppam’. Film critics believe that the long runtime of 2 hours 44 minutes, the slow pace of the first half and the complex screenplay failed to completely engage the audience. While Saif’s serious acting and Akshay’s dangerous villain form definitely got appreciation on social media, due to it being a remake, the suspense factor got weakened, which directly affected the opening day earnings.
The biggest reason for the very slow start of ‘Haivaan’ is the tremendous dominance of the two big films already firmly established in the theatres. The legendary blockbuster ‘Hanuman Ansh’, which has completed 36 days in theatres, is still running like a tsunami at the box office, creating a new record by earning a historic ₹ 10.50 crore on its sixth Friday. On the other hand, the veteran release of the crime genre, ‘Mirzapur: The Movie’ has attracted a large section of the audience by earning a strong amount of ₹ 9 crore on its second Friday. Due to the strong hold of these two films, ‘Haivaan’ could not get the footfall in multiplexes and single screens that a new release gets.
If we compare the box office figures, ‘Haiwaan”s ₹3 crore first day opening has become one of the lowest openings in the recent career of both Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan. Earlier among Akshay Kumar’s films, only ‘Sarfira’ and some low-budget films had such a low opening. In Saif Ali Khan’s account too, this collection seems to be at par with the films of the 2007-08 era. This figure of Friday proves that it has become impossible to draw the audience to theaters only on the basis of faces of big stars and old nostalgia; Strong content is the first condition.
Now the entire success of the film depends on Saturday and Sunday business and word of mouth. Since the film’s climax and Akshay-Saif’s face-off action scenes have received a positive response from the audience, trade pundits believe that if there is a 50 to 60 per cent jump in ticket sales across metro cities and multiplexes on Saturday, the film could touch a respectable figure of ₹15 crore in the first weekend. However, with the OTT rights already secured with SonyLIV, recovering its Rs 130 crore cost at the domestic box office is going to prove to be a very tough litmus test for ‘Haivaan’.