The very ambitious film from producer-director Karan Johar brahmastra featuring Bollywood heavyweights such as Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Amitabh Bachchan, Nagarjuna and even Shah Rukh Khan in a cameo role was released on September 9, 2022 on over 8000 screens worldwide.
The film’s day one collection, which was reportedly made on a huge budget of Rs 410 crore, netted around 35-36 crore across all its releases. Shopping website BoxOfficeIndia.com reported Brahmastra’s collection at around Rs 35-36 crore. This is considered the highest opening day on a non-holiday for original Hindi content.
Brahmastra is the most expensive Hindi film ever made at 410 crores, breaking the record of Thugs Of Hindostan which was made at a cost of around 310 crores. By the way, Thugs of Hindostan earned around 52.5 crores on its opening day.
Compared to these numbers and stats for Brahmastra, Prashanth Neel’s KGF 2, starring Southern star Yash in the lead role of Rocky, not only grossed more at the box office, but was also produced with a quarter of the brahmastra budget.
According to reports, KGF-Chapter 2, which was made on a budget of Rs 100 crore, collected Rs 134.50 crore in India and Rs 164 crore globally on its first day of release. The Hindi version earned Rs 53.95 crore at the box office on its first day, making it the biggest opening day collection for a Hindi film.
‘KGF2’ DAY 1: ₹134.50 CR… #KGF2 broke ALL RECORDS on day 1… Gross ₹134.50 cr Gross BOC [#India biz; ALL versions]…OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT BY POSTER… pic.twitter.com/ZB0NVJMKBR
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) April 15, 2022
So if the budget and first-day collection of these two films are compared, KGF-2 emerges as the clear winner, as it not only brought in a higher first-day collection than Bramhastra, but was also made with a quarter of the budget. giving him a clear advantage.
Huge disappointment: Karan Johar’s Brahmastra fails to impress
Notably, Karan Johar’s film Brahmastra, which is in theaters now, failed to impress film critics and critics alike despite all the hype surrounding it. On Friday, famed film critic Taran Adarsh took to Twitter to review the film. He canceled the film altogether and called it a “huge disappointment”. Giving director Ayan Mukherjee’s film a two out of five star rating, Adarsh said the film was “low in content”. He felt the film was “all shiny, soulless”.
Taran Adarsh wasn’t the only one who wasn’t impressed with the film. Many other film critics and media have given the film abysmal ratings ranging from 2 to 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Financial Express later lashed out at the film, calling it a “kids movie”. “Brahmastra Review: Ayan Mukherji’s Rs 410,000,000 Grand Vision Ends Up as a Kids’ Movie!” reads the title of Financial Express’ report on the big-budget movie.
In fact, moments after the film’s poor reviews began to surface, the stock prices of the nation’s major multiplex chains began to plummet. PVR and INOX, the two major listed cinema chains, are estimated to have lost more than Rs 800 crore in market capitalization on Friday. The shares had started to gain in recent days, but they crashed on September 9, coinciding with the release of Brahmastra.
Karan Johar’s film faces boycott calls
For the uninitiated, Karan Johar’s Brahmastra has been having issues since its trailer premiered. He was attacked after his lead actress, Alia Bhatt, also told people they didn’t have to watch his film. Also, a video of actor Ranbir Kapoor, who plays the film’s protagonist, surfaced where he said he was a beef-eating foodie. This too drew a lot of criticism. To add fuel to the fire, Hinduphobic tweets from Dharma Productions head of development, Shreemi Verma, have also gone viral on social media.
Along with the screenshots of her anti-Hindu tweets, netizens started posting on Twitter that she is associated with Dharma Productions and linked to the upcoming Brahmastra movie. Netizens have called for a boycott of the film for its association with such a Hinduphobic person. She eventually deactivated her account to control the backlash of her comments.
