Box Office: A dismal opening day for Laal Singh Chaddha & Raksha Bandhan shocks the industry

At the box office, Aamir Khan and Akshay Kumar are facing off! After numerous delays, Laal Singh Chaddha was finally released, however it clashed with Raksha Bandhan. While Raksha Bandhan centres on a brother who is struggling to marry off his four sisters and the stress of dowry hanging over his head, Laal Singh Chaddha is the official remake of the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump (1994) starring Tom Hanks.

Despite being released on the same day, which should ideally result in better occupancy rates, both films had an average occupancy of 25% throughout the day. While the Akshay Kumar starrer was shot over the period of two months in the thick of the pandemic, the Aamir Khan starrer had a greater production budget to begin with and was in development for over three years. As a result, the Aamir Khan starrer barely beat out the Akshay Kumar starrer.

On its first day, Laal Singh Chaddha made Rs. 10.75 crore (net), which is a sixth of his previous high-profile film, Thugs Of Hindostan (2019). The film's success outside of East Punjab has not been as strong as it has been there.

Raksha Bandhan, on the other hand, made a pathetic Rs. 7.5 cr nett on its opening day, which is less than the previous two Akshay Kumar films to hit theatres this year, Samrat Prithviraj and Bachchhan Paandey.

As we discuss two movies with two major ticket-selling stars who have persisted in the industry for more than 30 years, it has been a horrible Raksha Bandhan for the industry, and the numbers are utterly shocking.