Desperate times call for desperate measures. Owing to the underwhelming performance of Om Raut’s movie Adipurush, the makers of the movie have slashed the rates of the tickets twice, but this has also failed to entice audiences to the theatres. Despite all the efforts, Adipurush managed to earn only Rs 7.2 crore net in India in all languages on its second Sunday which marked the tenth day of its release, reports Sacnilk.com
The film registered an overall theatre occupancy of 16.34 per cent in the Hindi belt on Sunday, June 25.
This takes its 10-day net collection in India to around Rs 275.75 crores at the domestic box office in all languages and the gross collection to 325.05 crores.
#Adipurush 10 Days Box Office Update –
— Sacnilk Entertainment (@SacnilkEntmt) June 26, 2023
India Net – 275.75 Cr
India Gross – 325.05 Crhttps://t.co/ZqE77jvG3i
The dipping trend had, in fact, continued the entire last week with Prabhas, Saif Ali and Kirti Sanon starrer movie collecting Rs 3.40 crore on its second Friday (June 23) and Rs 5.25 crore on its second Saturday (June 24).
Makers further slash ticket prices amid free fall at box office
It may be noted, that in response to declining box office performance and growing backlash, the makers of Adirurush announced a reduction in ticket prices for Thursday and Friday shows to Rs 150. However, due to continued criticism and a drop in collections on Monday and Tuesday, they have further lowered the prices. On Sunday, on the 10th day, the makers announced that the new price had been set at Rs 112.
“Witness the epic saga unfold. Book your tickets starting from just Rs112/-* and experience the grandeur world of Adipurush, Offer starts tomorrow! #JaiShriRam,” read the announcement from T-Series official Instagram handle. It also has a tagline which states that Adipurush will be screened with edited and changed dialogues.
Notably, the movie had made a great start with 200 crores in its first weekend but raked in only 10 crores on June 20. It experienced a startling drop of 75% on Monday and has been experiencing a subsequent decline thereafter.
One of the most expensive Indian films, Adipurush which was released on 16 June to negative reviews is ‘based’ on Valmiki’s Ramayana. Written and directed by Om Raut and produced by T-Series, it features Prabhas as Raghava, Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh, Kriti Sanon as Janaki, Sunny Singh as Shesh and Devdatta Nage as Bajrang. It was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages.
Controversy around Adipurush
The 3D project has been in the headlines due to its revered subject ever since the makers announced its inception. The excitement soon turned into disappointment after its teaser was released. After the extreme backlash to the visual effects and CGI, its budget was increased to 500 crores from 400 crores to improve and enhance the visual effects, CGI, lighting and colour grading. The makers also pushed back the original release date from January to fix the issues pointed out.
However, when it finally made its way to the theatres it proved to be a huge letdown, largely owing to the colloquial dialogues penned by Manoj Muntashir Shukla, the performance and outfits of the actors, the lousy storyline, the awful VFX, the poor direction and most importantly the deviation from the source material.
The low numbers seem to be a result of the negative word of mouth against the film. Adipurush has been slammed for its dialogues and for giving a colloquial twist to the sacred Ramayana. There have been calls for a ban on the movie by several Hindu outfits, other organisations as well as audiences for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus. Recently, the All Indian Cine Workers Association had written to PM Modi, then subsequently to Amit Shah and Mumbai Police seeking a case against the makers of Adipurush for making a ‘mockery of Ramayan.’
