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Laal Singh Chaddha Is A Disaster, But...

August 23, 2022 10:41 IST

The Overseas collections for Laal Singh Chaddha is better than that of India.

After a week-and-a-half run in the theatres, it's all over for the Aamir Khan-Kareena Kapoor starrer Laal Singh Chaddha.

For a film that started at Rs 11.70 crore (Rs 117 million) on its opening day, and reached Rs 1.80 crore (Rs 18 million) on its second Sunday, it shows how the start itself was quite poor, with the fall getting worse.

That too when, at the time of its release, the competition was with Akshay Kumar's Raksha Bandhan, which fared even poorer, and it was practically an open second week ahead with the sole release of the niche film Dobaaraa.

Laal Singh Chaddha's failure can be judged by the fact that the Hindi dubbed version of the Telugu film Karthikeya 2, which released a couple of days after Laal Singh Chaddha, managed only Rs 700,000 on its opening day and went on to collect Rs 4.07 crore (Rs 40.7 million) on the second Sunday.

Laal Singh Chaddha needed as many as 10 days to go past the first day collections of Aamir's last release Thugs of Hindostan, which had brought in an opening of Rs 52.25 crore (Rs 522.5 million) on its Diwali release back in 2018.

 

It is ironical that the overseas collection for the film is better than that of India.

While in India, the film is inching towards the Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) mark, it has already collected around Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million) overseas.

The US, UK and Canada have contributed reasonably well towards this film.

Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor's star power has helped the film fetch added footfalls.

Still, that will not save Laal Singh Chaddha from being a theatrical Titanic.

While the film's budget is pegged anywhere between Rs 200 crore-Rs 250 crore (Rs 2 billion to Rs 2.5 billion), depending upon how Aamir's remuneration is adjusted as a part of the package, the global theatrical business would at best find itself in the Rs 130 crore-Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.3 billion to Rs 1.35 billion) range.

One waits to see what price the film fetches from satellite and OTT sales.

Even with the best of the deals coming into place, the film could still see a loss of around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).

JOGINDER TUTEJA