Salman Khan starrer ‘Radhe—Your Most Wanted Bhai‘ has managed to collect Rs 17,792 from two theatres in Maharashtra over the weekend. About 216 tickets for the movie were sold over the weekend.
With the coronavirus restrictions easing up in Maharashtra, theatres operating in districts and cities that fall under Level 1—the places where the COVID-19 outbreak is firmly under control—have been allowed to operate. Radhe—Your Most Wanted Bhai, which was released on Eid this year, that is, on 13 May 2021, was consumed in the country on the pay-per-view platform, ZeePlex, since cinema theatres were closed due to the restrictions.
While there are many districts and cities that fall under Level 1, many theatres in this region have decided not to operate due to lack of content. But two cinema theatres blew away the lockdown cobwebs and took the initiative of screening Salman Khan’s most recent film Radhe-Your Most Wanted Bhai from Friday, June 11 onwards. These two theatres are Enjoy Drive-in cinema at Malegaon and Khinvasara Cineplex (formerly Apsara Cinema) in Aurangabad. The Enjoy Drive-in cinema played Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai twice in the day, at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm, while the Khinvasara Cineplex showed the movie four times in a day, at 12 noon, 3:00 pm, 6:15 pm and 9:30 pm.
In an exclusive report published by Bollywood Hungama on Saturday last week, 62 people came to watch Salman Khan starrer movie for the first show. However, the 9:30 pm show was cancelled because of lack of audience. At Khinvasara Cineplex, a total of 22 tickets were sold across 4 shows. According to a trade expert, the film collected Rs 6000 approximately on June 11.
On Saturday, the response to Enjoy Drive-in cinema was poor as compared to Friday as only 16 tickets were sold. At Khinvasara, the occupancy of shows nearly doubled, but it was nevertheless poor as the theatre reported a sale of paltry 41 tickets. On Sunday, 39 tickets were sold at Enjoy Drive-in while Khinvasara Cineplex saw 36 viewers across four shows. Trade experts claim Radhe earned Rs 5,445 and Rs 6,229 on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Salman Khan’s action flick was also released in theatres in Tripura, where it collected Rs 63,248 so far. The total collections of the film from Tripura and Maharashtra cinemas now stand at Rs. 81,040.
Meanwhile, owing to low turnout, Khinvasara Cineplex has decided to play only 2 shows of the movie instead of 4, at 3 pm and 6:15 pm. It remains to be seen if other theatres join the bandwagon to screen movies or wait for the new releases to start their operations.
Apparently, it was also reported that the movie was pirated and available online hours after its release on the OTT platform. Khan’s latest release had also failed to dazzle the viewers and film critics alike. The Self-styled film critic Kamaal R Khan uploaded a particularly nasty video of his review of Salman’s movie after which the Bajrangi Bhaijaan actor sent a defamation notice to him.
Salman Khan sends defamation notice to self-styled critic KRK for criticising his movie Radhe—Your Most Wanted Bhai
On May 13, KRK had reviewed Salman Khan’s latest release, Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai, where he kept referring to Salman Khan as ‘Daadu’ (grandfather).
KRK had said that in action scenes it was quite evident that some of the scenes were done by Salman Khan’s ‘duplicate’ (body double). He said that people on set would have noticed the difference between the two but they must be too afraid (of Salman Khan) to point it out. “Because if they would have said, Daadu would’ve asked him not to come to sets anymore,” he said.
He further refers to the lead heroine and love interest, Disha Patani, as Salman Khan’s granddaughter. “Disha is a model and when Sallu Daadu meets her for the first time, he tells her that he also wants to become a model. That means, Sallu Daadu’s age is about 20-22 and Disha starts calling him ‘Bholu cute boy’. After this, in the rest of the movie, she keeps calling him ‘Bholu cute boy’. After this, Sallu Daadu also removes his shirt in one scene. And VFX team has done a great job. They have put up his 25-year-old on this face,” he says in the review.
