'Bheed' box office: Rajkummar Rao-starrer 'locked down' to slow start
What's the story
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha's film Bheed hit the cinema halls on Friday.
It traces numerous characters navigating through the early days of the nationwide COVID-19-induced lockdown that was imposed in March 2020.
Despite a hard-hitting script that brings many true incidents to the screen, Bheed has reportedly failed to perform well at the box office on the first day of its release.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Bheed stars Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar in the lead. While Rao plays a policeman belonging to a lower caste, Pednekar, his love interest, is a doctor from the upper caste.
Interestingly, Sinha's black-and-white film tried to draw parallels between the partition of India in 1947 and the lockdown-triggered mass migration.
Box office collection
'Bheed' registers disappointing start in number game
According to Sacnilk, which tracks box office numbers, Bheed managed to collect just Rs. 15 lakh (early estimates) on the first day of its release in the theaters. The data also suggested that it had only 5.48% occupancy.
The movie has performed worse than Sinha's previous release, Anek, which starred Ayushmann Khurrana. Anek had reportedly earned Rs. 1.77 crore on its opening day.
'John Wick 4' v/s 'Bheed'
'John Wick: Chapter 4' beats 'Bheed'
Friday witnessed a Hollywood-Bollywood clash as Keanu Reeves's John Wick: Chapter 4 opened against Rao's Bheed.
The craze among the audience for the Reeves starrer was apparently way more than that for Bheed, which was also reflected in the box office numbers.
The fourth installment of the John Wick franchise collected Rs. 8.50 crore in India, as per reports.
About 'Bheed'
Everything to know about 'Bheed'
Bheed also stars Pankaj Kapur, Ashutosh Rana, Dia Mirza, and Aditya Shrivastava.
Sinha included several emotionally-charged scenes in the movie that happened with people belonging to the lower economic strata of society, including migrants, watchmen, and maids.
Bheed found itself in the midst of a controversy after its first trailer was released, as some audiences were offended by the comparison to the 1947 partition.