BREAKING: Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai releases in 2 cinemas in Maharashtra; 84 tickets sold on the first day; film collects Rs. 6,017.86 in a day
Last Friday, the government of Maharashtra announced that they will unlock the state by grading the districts on different levels. The districts and municipal corporations that had the least positivity rate and least oxygen bed occupancy fell in Level 1 while those with most cases were categorized in Level 5. The cities and districts which came under Level 1 and even Level 2 were allowed to open up a bit and interestingly, even theatres got the approval to resume operations. Unfortunately, due to lack of content and with major cities like Mumbai, Delhi etc still not getting the permission to reopen cinemas, the places under Level 1, too, preferred to keep their cinemas shut.
But yesterday, that is, on June 11, two cinema halls took the initiative to open up by releasing Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai. These two theatres are Enjoy, a Drive-in cinema at Malegaon, and the other is Khinvasara Cineplex (formerly Apsara Cinema) in Aurangabad. Zee Studios posted a picture of the Enjoy Drive-in cinema yesterday where a row of cars were seen for the 7:30 pm show of the Salman Khan starrer. This theatre is running two shows of the film daily, at 7:30 pm and 9:30 pm. Meanwhile, Khinvasara Cineplex will screen Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai four times in a day, at 12 noon, 3:00 pm, 6:15 pm and 9:30 pm.
When contacted, Tushar Tisage, owner of Drive-in cinema said, “For the 7:30 pm show, 22 people came to watch the film in the car while 40 viewers sat on the chairs.” He then revealed, “We had to cancel the 9:30 pm show as nobody turned up. I wish it had not come directly on OTT. Then the response would have been great. We had screened Mumbai Saga. It had released directly in cinemas and a lot of people had turned up to see it.”
A trade expert told Bollywood Hungama, “The collections from the Auranagad theatre yesterday were Rs. 2420 while from Drive-in cinema in Malegaon, its collections were Rs. 3597.86. So, the total collections yesterday were Rs. 6017.86. All these are approximate figures.”
Bollywood Hungama had earlier reported that Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai had collected approximately Rs. 63,248 from the 3 theatres in Tripura in a week. With these collections from Maharashtra yesterday, the domestic box office earnings of Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai now stand at Rs. 69,265.86.
An industry insider meanwhile states, “The collections obviously won’t be record breaking as it has already come out since a month ago. Also, the response wasn’t encouraging. Yet, I am amazed that a small number of people are going for Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai even today. Its weekend time and that should add to the collections. What also helps is that it’s a film that warrants a big screen experience.”
Suhas Kotecha revealed, “We didn’t give any ad in the papers that we are releasing Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai. We got the posters only by late afternoon. Still, some people found out and came to see the film.”