Sidharth Malhotra‘s ‘Yodha’ hit the screens on Friday, March 15. While the expectations were high from this one, owing to this big screen appeal with high-octane action, the film has failed to get a good opening. Trade expert Girish Wankhede says, “It has been a lack lustre show for Yodha because irrespective of Siddharth Malhotra doing the City tours and promoting it aggressively, the numbers are not up to the mark.The first day looks dull because opening is slow which would end in single digit number number of 6 to 7 crores. This opening is quite depressing and the collections of Saturday or Sunday also doesn’t look upbeat and upwards. The word of mouth and even the reviews are not very promising. This may result in weekend collection wrapping below 20 crores which is clear cut disaster for this highly ambitious film.”
Film distributor Rajesh Thadani expects the film’s opening to be around Rs 5 crore or less than that on Friday, but expects the evening and night shows to be better. “It’s not opened well, but there could be a pick up in the evening and night shows. If that happens, the weekend shoud be better but it definitely didn’t take a start which was expected. Right now, it could be in the range of Rs 4 to 5 crore if it jumps in the weekend. If there is a jump over the weekend, then the upper limit of the total of the all three days is expected to be around Rs 15-20 crore.”
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi also has a similar sentiment. He feels that there were hopes high from ‘Yodha’ as well as ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ which released today. “Siddharth Malhotra has just had Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force. Before that, he had Shershaah, which did very well. And Adah Sharma, Vipul Shah and the director of this team is coming in from ‘The Kerala story’, which again was a bona fide blockbuster. So, both came with a certain degree of expectations. Both different genres and both stories that are very relevant and very palatable to the people of this country in that sense.”
Girish Wankhede further analysis what may not have worked in the favour of ‘Yodha’ despite that it was mounted on a grand scale. “Several postponement of the film might have made it a stale proposition and there was no novelty in the look or positioning of the film. Barring one or two innovative hoardings in Mumbai, there was nothing to talk about. The promotions and visibility on digital space was also inadequate and nothing novel was pushed . The look and feel was too routine and mundane. It had a pure disconnect with the audience owing to its main lead pair and visibility quotient. The weekend, which was supposed to be for Yodha will invariably go to Shaitan’ which is growing by every day.”
Rathi also feels, somehow movies have not been able to gain momentum since the last few months, except for ‘Shaitaan’ to an extent. “I think it’s been a fairly rickety time over the last few months, where we’ve just not been able to galvanize the momentum as an industry to have box office victories one after the other, with Shaitaan finally coming in and doing some numbers. It’s not been the best opening they could be for either. But the hope is that the content of the movie appeals to the public and cuts eyes with them and manages to consolidate the business over the weekend and going forward.”
As per the early trends, the Day 1 collection of ‘Yodha’ is expected to be around Rs 5 crore while ‘Bastar’ can be expected to score Rs 1 crore on its opening day!
Film distributor Rajesh Thadani expects the film’s opening to be around Rs 5 crore or less than that on Friday, but expects the evening and night shows to be better. “It’s not opened well, but there could be a pick up in the evening and night shows. If that happens, the weekend shoud be better but it definitely didn’t take a start which was expected. Right now, it could be in the range of Rs 4 to 5 crore if it jumps in the weekend. If there is a jump over the weekend, then the upper limit of the total of the all three days is expected to be around Rs 15-20 crore.”
Exhibitor Akshaye Rathi also has a similar sentiment. He feels that there were hopes high from ‘Yodha’ as well as ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ which released today. “Siddharth Malhotra has just had Rohit Shetty’s Indian Police Force. Before that, he had Shershaah, which did very well. And Adah Sharma, Vipul Shah and the director of this team is coming in from ‘The Kerala story’, which again was a bona fide blockbuster. So, both came with a certain degree of expectations. Both different genres and both stories that are very relevant and very palatable to the people of this country in that sense.”
Girish Wankhede further analysis what may not have worked in the favour of ‘Yodha’ despite that it was mounted on a grand scale. “Several postponement of the film might have made it a stale proposition and there was no novelty in the look or positioning of the film. Barring one or two innovative hoardings in Mumbai, there was nothing to talk about. The promotions and visibility on digital space was also inadequate and nothing novel was pushed . The look and feel was too routine and mundane. It had a pure disconnect with the audience owing to its main lead pair and visibility quotient. The weekend, which was supposed to be for Yodha will invariably go to Shaitan’ which is growing by every day.”
Rathi also feels, somehow movies have not been able to gain momentum since the last few months, except for ‘Shaitaan’ to an extent. “I think it’s been a fairly rickety time over the last few months, where we’ve just not been able to galvanize the momentum as an industry to have box office victories one after the other, with Shaitaan finally coming in and doing some numbers. It’s not been the best opening they could be for either. But the hope is that the content of the movie appeals to the public and cuts eyes with them and manages to consolidate the business over the weekend and going forward.”
As per the early trends, the Day 1 collection of ‘Yodha’ is expected to be around Rs 5 crore while ‘Bastar’ can be expected to score Rs 1 crore on its opening day!
