’83 is a huge victim of Covid third wave’: Director Kabir Khan on film’s poor box office performance

While 83 received glowing reviews, it did not translate into box office earnings. Director Kabir Khan addresses the low box office performance of the film, as he calls it a 'huge victim' of Covid-19 third wave.

83 released on December 24. (Photo: Twitter/Ranveer Singh)

Kabir Khan’s 83 released in December last year to glowing reviews. The film that chronicled India’s historic win at the Cricket World Cup, starred Ranveer Singh as veteran cricketer Kapil Dev, Saqib Saleem, Ammy Virk, Pankaj Tripathi, and Jatin Sarna, among others. However, the praise did not translate into box office earnings, as the third wave in India had already begun to sweep the country by then. The big-budget film could only manage a shade over Rs 100 crore at the box office.

Speaking about this to Bollywood Hungama, Kabir Khan said that there was indeed a ‘sense of disappointment’, as his film had become a ‘huge victim’ of the third wave. He said that the day the film released, two states announced night curfews. By day two, six states had cancelled the night shows and by the fourth day, Delhi had shut down the theatres. He acknowledged the adverse effect it had on the film, and understood the paranoia of the audience as the cases were increasing. “…there’s a sense of disappointment that our timing was all wrong,” he said.

Also Read | Rajinikanth applauds 83, calls it ‘magnificent’: ‘What a movie!’

However, he didn’t want to continue ‘crying’ about it, and is just overwhelmed by the love that the film has received. He also hopes that if things do get better in the 8-week run, the film might still have a chance to do better — especially Delhi, where the film only got a 3-day run. The director also addressed the charge that the film was not promoted a lot, saying that everything happened in a pandemic and they were wary of holding large congregations to promote the film. “I still believe that had conditions been alright, even with lesser marketing, we would still get the numbers. I hate to say myself because it’s my film, but the word of mouth of this film is unbelievable… But that word of mouth will really not be able to lead to anything unless there is access to theatre.”

Kabir Khan also shared that he was unhappy with box office analysts who didn’t take the pandemic into account and continued to compare the film with other films that released before the night curfews and weekend lockdowns kicked in and called them unprofessional.

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