‘Adipurush’ Scores Below $60 Million Worldwide In Two Weeks

The new Hindi film based on the Hindu mythological epic – Ramayan – has scored very low in the first two weeks of its release. Adipurush made nett collections of $35 million in India, and made gross earnings of around $56 million – way behind the $60 million-mark – globally in the span of 14 days since the initial release on June 16.

On the last day of its second week, Adipurush earned mere $153,000 nett in Indian markets. The Hindi version has collected $18 million while the Telugu version earned $15.8 million. The Tamil and Malayalam versions collected $4,35,002 and $1,56,000 and the Kannada version made nett collections of $257,000 in India in two weeks.

Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, Saif Ali Khan and Devdutta Nage play lead roles in the film that features them as Raghav, Janaki, Ravan and Hanuman. Directed by Om Raut, the film also stars Sunny Singh, Vatsal Seth, Tejaswini Pandit, and Sonal Chauhan. Adipurush film is co-produced by UV Creations, Retrophiles, Tseries, alongwith filmmaker Raut. It has been produced at an estimated budget of $63 million. The film released in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Tamil and languages.

Prior to Adipurush, Raut directed Tanhaji The Unsung Warrior starring Khan and Ajay Devgn. He also made the 2012 Akshay Kumar-starrer OMG! Oh My God. On the other hand, Prabhas achieved international stardom when he first featured in SS Rajamouli’s Bahubali The Beginning in 2015. He also worked with Rajamouli on Bahubali The Conclusion in 2017.

The film is based on a Hindu mythological epic and the makers hoped to encash the religious sentiments of the Hindus in India, Adipurush had a great start with an opening score of $16 million globally. Based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayan, Adipurush scored a high advance booking collection too. In Australian & New Zealand markets, the film collected $16000 a week ahead of the release and it made advance collections of $600,000 in India.

However, a bad WOM resulted in a major dip on the second day itself and which only ruined with time. In India, Adipurush recorded around 25% drop in collections on its first Saturday and the first Monday saw a 72% downfall in the collections. It made a first weekend total of $33.1 million nett collections worldwide.

The journey of Adipurush has been full of roadblocks and controversies. The first trailer of the film received wide criticism over the bad quality of the graphics used, and the producers announced they’d rework it. It was 2020. When they finally came back to the audience with a new trailer three years later, many fans still had issues with the way Ravan was being portrayed in the trailer. Several people, including a few state ministers in India objected to characters being dressed in leather, claiming these were major errors that could hurt religious sentiments. Several court cases have now been filed against the filmmakers for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Soon after the film released, Nepal stalled screenings and objected to the film labeling Janaki as India’s daughter while it should be Nepal. Even in India, the screening of the film was disrupted in various places, though it was not officially banned anywhere. Fans of the mythological characters claimed the figures were insulted due to the language used in the film. A few days after the release, the producers, and writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla changed the controversial dialogues and the revised version is now running in theatres.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/swetakaushal/2023/06/30/india-box-office-adipurush-scores-below-60-million-worldwide-in-two-weeks/