‘Brahmastra’ Earns $2.4 Million In Third Weekend

Indian film theatres celebrated National Cinema Day on Friday, September 23, with tickets priced at mere $0.92 and millions of people flocked to the cinema halls. Old releases including Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmastra Part One Shiva, and Hollywood’s re-release Avatar scored the biggest. New Hindi releases Chup The Revenge of An Artist and Dhokha Round D Corner also had a decent performance at the ticket windows.

The Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt-starrer scored $2.4 million in the third weekend of its release. The film released on September 9 across the globe. It has grossed nearly $49 million worldwide over the past three weeks. R Balki’s Chup The Revenge of An Artist earned $0.85 million in the Indian market while Dhokha Round D Corner collected $0.28 million.

Balki’s film is a comic thriller that is also an ode to legendary Indian filmmaker Guru Dutt. How critics hurt the feelings of filmmakers while panning a film is the core of the narrative that relies on a psychopath serial killer to convey the message. Featuring Shreya Dhanwanthary, Dulquer Salmaan and Sunny Deol in lead roles, the film traces events around a serial killer who targets movie critics who do view cinema the way he does. The film is co-written by Raja Sen who has been a professional film critic for a long time.

Chup The Revenge of An Artist is a sweet ode to Dutt, especially his last film Kaagaz Ke Phool. The film often points out the similarities it wants to draw with Dutt’s cinema, in case you haven’t watched enough of the legendary filmmakers’ gems. It even ends with one of the lead actors in an iconic Dutt-style frame – his silhouette against light. It does falter and does not quite work as a thriller, with most of the crucial points being predictable enough. Nonetheless, it is a good watch powered by a convincing job by the lead cast.

Featuring R Madhavan, Aparshakti Khurrana, Khushali Kumari and Darshan Kumar in lead roles, Gulati’s Dhokha Round D Corner is also a thriller, and a comic one. Both the new films opened to mixed reviews and have managed to secure decent collections for the opening weekend in India.

All the three Hindi films running in theatres currently have announced slashed ticket prices starting Monday. The tickets for these films will cost $1.22 till September 29 to mark the festival of Navratri, the producers have announced. The steps seem to have been inspired by the tremendous response to National Cinema Day celebrated in India on September 23 which saw more than 6.5 million footfalls as per the Multiplex Association of India. Most theatres reported 70-90% occupancy through the day.