Sarfira Struggles To Fly High At Box Office

Two
contrasting
films
released
in
theatres
last
week.

While

Sarfira
was
a
true
story,

Hindustani
2
was
larger-than-life.

Both
were
helmed
by
directors
from
the
south.
Sudha
Kongara
remade
her
Tamil
National
Award-winning
film

Soorarai
Pottru
in
Hindi
while
veteran
film-maker
Shankar
took
charge
of
the
Kamal
Haasan-led
film.

And
while
the
former
was
a
remake,
the
latter
was
a
sequel.

As
it
has
tuned
out,

Sarfira
started
slow
with
Rs
2.50
crore
(Rs
25
million)
on
Friday.

This
wasn’t
surprising
since
it’s
more
of
a
word-of-mouth
film.
Even
though
Akshay
Kumar
stars
in
it,
Suriya’s

Soorarai
Pottru
is
already
available
on
OTT.

The
audiences
did
give
it
a
thumbs
up,
and
so
Saturday
saw
a
jump
at
the
box
office
and
the
momentum
continued
on
Sunday.

The
weekend
collections
stand
at
Rs
12
crore*
(Rs
120
million)
and
now
one
waits
to
see
how
the
numbers
stabilise
during
the
weekdays.

The
Hindi
version
of

Hindustani
2
didn’t
do
much.

The
first
day
numbers
were
around
Rs
1.25
crore
(Rs
12.5
million).
While
that
was
low,
it
wasn’t
unexpected
since
audiences
have
become
choosy
about
what
they
want
to
consume
on
the
first
day
of
release.

It
boiled
down
to
word-of-mouth
again,
but
in
this
case,
the
jump
was
restricted
and
the
weekend
numbers
stand
at
Rs
3.50
crore*
(Rs
35
million).

Comparatively,
the
original
Tamil
version
has
done
much
better
with
the
weekend
collections
going
past
the
Rs
50
crore
(Rs
500
million)
mark.

*Estimates.
Final
numbers
awaited.

Note:
All
collections
as
per
production
and
distribution
sources.