The Kerala Story box office collection Day 1: Sudipto Sen’s film gets better opening than Selfiee, Shehzada, Kashmir Files; earns Rs 7.5 cr

The Kerala Story box office collection Day 1: The Adah Sharma-starrer delivered strong collections on its opening day. The film is among the top five openers of the year.

Amid backlash for its alleged factual inaccuracies, director Sudipto Sen’s controversial film The Kerala Story hit theatres on Friday. Upon its release, the film received poor reviews, but seems to have drawn the attention of audiences, as shown by the good start that it got at the box office.

According to industry tracker Sacnilk, The Kerala Story earned Rs 7.5 cr on Friday (early estimates). Bollywood Hungama reported that Rs 4 cr came from the three National chains, PVR, INOX, and Cinepolis. Given the response that the film has received from the audience, the theatre owners have added more shows of the film and its collections at the ticket counters is expected to grow over the weekend.

Starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani, The Kerala Story was earlier officially described as the story of more than 32,000 Kerala women who’d allegedly been radicalised by Islamic fundamentalists. However, the number was changed to three from 32,000 after protests began online against the misinformation being spread by the film.

In terms of its box office collection, The Kerala Story is among the top five openers of 2023 so far. The list is topped by Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan (Rs 55 cr), followed by Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (Rs 15.81 cr), Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar (Rs 15.7 cr) and Bholaa (Rs 11.2 cr). The Kerala Story delivered a better opening than Akshay Kumar’s Selfiee (Rs 2.55 cr) and Kartik Aaryan’s Shehzada (Rs 6 cr), and the equally controversial The Kashmir Files (Rs 3.5 crore) on its opening day.

However, the film hasn’t impressed critics. The Indian Express’ Shubhra Gupta wrote in her review of the film, “The film itself is nothing but a poorly-made, poorly-acted rant which is not interested in interrogating the social complexities of Kerala, an India state proud of its multi-religious, multi-ethnic identity. All it is intent upon is creating the most simplistic, paper-thin characters to tell us that Kerala is in danger because its innocent, naïve Hindu and Christian girls are being swayed by evil Muslim men, and radicalised to the point of no return.”

News Source:- The Indian EXPRESS