There has been a lot of talk about Aamir Khan starrer Laal Singh Chaddha recently, about the boycott calls for the film, why nobody is going to see the film and why the film has missed the mark, especially from the box office point of view.
The Aamir Khan starrer opened to a meagre low Rs. 11.50 cr on day 1, and that too on Raksha Bandhan, which accounts for a holiday in India. The film saw a big drop on day 2 and consolidated over the weekend, but at very low levels. The Independence Day numbers came lower than the first, third and fourth day, which basically explains the story. The film stood at a very low Rs. 46.25 cr after 5 days.
Laal Singh Chaddha marked Aamir Khan’s return on the big screens after four long years. The film was much anticipated right from the time it was officially announced, months after the release of his last film Thugs Of Hindostan and was under production for over 3 years.
The journey of the film started back when the screenwriter of Laal Singh Chaddha, Atul Kulkarni, pitched idea of making the Indian version of Forrest Gump to Aamir. Aamir took almost 8 years, just to get the remake rights to the film. All the effort put in to helm the film is not showing returns in equal measure as the film has been unable to put on a show, anywhere where it has released.
The overseas performance of the film has been fair, although nowhere close to what was expected out of it. The 6 day overseas gross is just over 5 million dollars and as the trend suggests, the film may be lucky to do 9 million dollars in its first phase.
Unfortunately, the film hasn’t shown any signs of a possible break-out. Positive reception from Taiwan and Hong Kong next month may help the film creep over 10 million dollars, but it again depends on the reception of the film more than anything else.
For now, on Tuesday, while Laal Singh Chaddha stood at Rs. 2 crores*, Raksha Bandhan came down to Rs. 1.75 crores*. This is a major crash when compared to Thursday opening of both the films, which stood at Rs.11.70 crores and Rs. 8.20 crores respectively.
The movie is great. The criticism is wrong.