Sarfira box office collection day 1: Akshay Kumar delivers lowest opening in 15 years, film falls short of Mission Raniganj, Selfiee, BellBottom

Sarfira box office collection day 1: Akshay Kumar's film opens at Rs 2.40 crore, the actor's lowest opening in over a decade, and his lowest in an already disappointing post-pandemic era for him.

By: Entertainment Desk

Mumbai | Updated: July 13, 2024 10:03 AM IST

3 min read

Sarfira box office collection day 6: Another flop for Akshay Kumar.

Akshay Kumar‘s Sarfira, the Hindi remake of the National Award-winning 2020 film Soorarai Pottru, was released in cinemas on July 12 with minimal publicity. Sarfira is directed by Sudha Kongara, who also helmed Suriya’s critically acclaimed original film, about the life of Capt Gopinath, who founded India’s first low-cost airline. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, Sarfira earned only Rs 2.40 crore on its opening day. These figures are much lower than Akshay’s last big-ticket film, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, which earned Rs 16.07 crore, but was declared a flop as it’s lifetime nett collection stood at Rs 59.17 crore.

Akshay has been having a terrible time at the box office in the last few years; barring Sooryavanshi and OMG 2, he has had no other hits. According to Bollywood Hungama’s data, Sarfira has delivered his lowest box office debut since 2009’s 8X10 Tasveer, which opened to Rs 1.8 crore. The film’s Rs 2.4 crore debut falls short of even Mission Raniganj’s Rs 2.8 crore opening, Selfiee’s Rs 2.5 crore debut, and the Rs 2.7 crore that mid-pandemic release BellBottom opened with. Even Akshay’s biggest recent duds, Bachchhan Paandey and Ram Setu, managed to make Rs 13 crore and Rs 15 crore in their respective openings.

Sarfira witnessed an overall occupancy of 13.08 percent on day one. In Mumbai, where there were 472 shows, the film witnessed an occupancy of 14 percent. In Delhi and NCR, with 570 shows, the occupancy was 11.75 percent. Along with Akshay, Sarfira also stars Sarfira stars Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal, Seema Biswas in key roles.

Also read | Akshay Kumar is reminded of his ‘16 consecutive flops’ as he addresses recent duds: ‘I won’t give up’

Akshay, who delivered four Rs 200 crore hits in a single year just five years ago, has been experiencing a lull with seven of his recent films doing less than expected. In a recent interview with Galatta Plus, the actor spoke about this unfortunate period, and said, “I’ve seen people who work selectively, and their films flop as well. In our industry, what happens is that people stop offering you work if you deliver flops. Look at Mr Bachchan. He was the one who told me, ‘Akshay, kaam karte rehna beta. Kaam ko mat chhorna (Akshay, don’t turn down work). I learned this from him… Calculation is wrong, manipulation is wrong. Honesty is right, creativity is right. Believing in your luck is right. This is what I’ve learned.”

The Akshay Kumar-starrer is also facing competition from Kamal Haasan’s highly anticipated Indian 2 (Hindustani 2) which too released on July 12. Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas and Deepika Padukone’s Kalki 2898 AD continues to delight audiences. Kalki 2898 AD released on June 27, on its third Friday (July 12) it earned Rs 5.25 crore; Its three week total stands at Rs 548.60 crore.

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