Akshay Kumar delivered his second biggest opener of his film career with Kesari. Directed by Anurag Singh, Kesari is based on the real-life battle Battle of Saragarhi which was fought between 21 Sikh soldiers and 12,000 Afghan invaders. Though they lost the battle being outnumbered by their soldiers, the valiant Sikh soldiers held the fort and stopped them from reaching Fort Gulistan and Fort Lockhart. The film is inching closer to the Rs 100 crore mark slowly but gradually. The film managed to earn Rs 86 crore in a matter of one week.
The experts are now pondering over the question that did IPL 2019, which started from 21st March, affect the box office numbers of this Akshay Kumar starrer. While we expected the numbers to go down a bit after the commencement of IPL 2019, the trade experts beg to differ.
“The film's collection dropped on Monday as well. So it was not just about IPL,” told a trade expert to Moneycontrol.
“It's a great subject which hasn't been treated greatly. It is like the Kangana Ranaut-starrer Manikarnika. These films are an example of good subjects making a small impact at the box office because the star became the story,” he added.
Atul Mohan said, “There is no need to fear IPL. The movie industry had success stories during last year's IPL. Avengers (Infinity War), Baahubali, Raazi and 102 Not Out did very well last year and this has been the trend in the last few years.”
Not only Kesari, but many Bollywood as well as Hollywood movies are also slated to release during the IPL 2019 season. Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan’s multi-starrer film Kalank is scheduled to release on April 17, while Hollywood’s most-awaited film Avengers: Endgame is hitting the theatres on April 26. Let’s see how IPL fever affects showbiz.
