Riteish Deshmukh’s ‘Ved’ Is Second Highest Marathi Grosser

Riteish Deshmukh’s directorial debut has proved to be a profitable venture. Titled Ved, the Marathi film scored an impressive figure in its first week, despite a limited release across India. The film continues to rule hearts as well as the box office in India as it entered the third week on Friday. Made on an estimated budget of $1.8 million, the film has grossed more than $5 million. Ved released across 700 screens and is now being showcased in 1200 screens.

Starring Genelia Deshmukh, Riteish Deshmukh, Jia Shankar and Siddharth Jadav, the film is an official remake of 2019 film Majili, and is now the second highest grossing Marathi film. Nagraj Manjule’s 2016 film Sairat remains the highest grossing Marathi film ever. Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh have also produced the film. In the first week, Sairat had collected $3.07 million in India, and surpassed $5 million in mere 12 days of the release. The Rinku Rajguru-starrer was also the first Marathi film to have crossed $5 million-mark and had released aross 525 screens.

Ved collected $1.2 million over its first weekend and the second weekend figures stood at $1.4 million, thanks to the good reviews it has received. Ved, just like Majili, is the story of Satya Dinkar Jadav (Riteish Deshmukh) who is an aspiring cricketer but he is forced to choose between his first love and cricket at a crucial point. After losing both, he turns into a useless alcoholic and his neighbor (Shravani, played by Genelia Deshmukh) marries her. What happens between the husband and wife, how he regains his love for cricket forms the rest of the story.

Ved deviates from the original, Majili, in some important parts, and it works for better. Deshmukh has introduced small but important elements and the most remarkable change is how Shravani’s character has been treated in Ved, that marks Marathi debut for Genelia Deshmukh.

Her character has a little more meat than what Samantha Ruth Prabhu had in the original. Both play the dedicated, selfless, agency-lacking wife of the main character (Satya); both make are committed to make Satya and his father comfortable. What makes Deshmukh’s Shravani a winner over Prabhu’s is the small sequence towards the end of the film in which she takes a stand for herself, albeit a momentary one.

Ashok Saraf, who plays Satya’s dad in Ved, stays in his image of a comic father. Interestingly, Saraf rose to national fame in the late 90s with his Hindi TV show titled Hum Paanch. And, just like the TV serial, he is seen talking to the picture frame of his dead wife in the film. Major portions of the first half of the film is also likely to remind one of the male chauvinistic, angry vibes that Arjun Reddy(2017 Telugu film starring Vijay Devarakonda) /Kabir Singh (2019 Hindi film starring Shahid Kapoor) had.

Earlier on Sunday, the film scored the highest single day number for a Marathi film at the box office. Riteish Deshmukh shared his happiness on social media.

Meanwhile, Hollywood hit Avatar The Way of Water has grossed nearly $53.5 million in India. The James Cameron film has grossed nearly $1.8 billion worldwide.