Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt’s Shamshera makes a slow start

Published by
Nivedita P Nair

Shamshera, a historical epic from Yash Raj Films with Ranbir Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, and Vaani Kapoor in the lead roles, finally hit theatres after much anticipation. Shamshera was directed by Karan Malhotra. After four years, Ranbir Kapoor returned to the big screen, and it was Karan Malhotra’s first project in seven years. Due to the involvement of the greatest of directors, the picture was subject to enormous expectations. Unfortunately, the movie didn’t measure up to the expectations, and its opening day figures are, to put it mildly, disappointing.

Shamshera set out on its adventure with an opening day gross of between Rs. 9.65 crore and Rs. 10.65 crore. Given that the movie opened on more than 4350 domestic movie screens, the numbers are dismal. The modest start implies a rough path ahead and the opening is significantly lower than what the industry anticipated. Shamshera was anticipated to become the top Bollywood opener of the year, but instead it will either come in at number four or number five, depending on how well it has done outside the multiplex chains. The movie did move over the day, but it didn’t proceed along the expected lines.

For this historical epic, Yash Raj Films used a fairly aggressive pricing strategy, and the average ticket price was among the lowest for a Bollywood movie this year. The audience has been sparse, and the producers appear to have missed out on the extra money they could have made in their drive for a larger audience. It will be interesting to see if the movie can expand from here, as mass-market movies typically experience a decline on Saturday before consolidating on Sunday. Ek Villain Returns, which will debut less than a week from now, on July 29, is the main beneficiary of Shamshera’s underwhelming launch.