'Gumraah' box office: Aditya Roy Kapur-starrer off to slow start
What's the story
Aditya Roy Kapur and Mrunal Thakur starrer Gumraah was released on Friday.
A remake of the 2019 Tamil film Thadam, it features Roy Kapur in a double role for the first time in his career.
However, the film, inspired by true events, largely received mixed to negative reviews from critics upon its release and is off to a slow start at the box office.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Gumraah is another addition to a long list of south-to-Bollywood remakes—a trend that doesn't seem to be leaving anytime soon.
Some recent examples of such movies include Drishyam 2 (remake of the namesake Malayalam franchise), Shehzada (remake of Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo), and Bholaa (remake of Kaithi).
However, barring a few exceptions, remakes are usually destined to fail since the original is easily available online.
BO
The thriller failed to earn even Rs.2cr on Friday
Per Sacnilk, the film earned Rs.1.5cr on Friday and registered an 11.25% occupancy in the Hindi-speaking market.
It is important to note that the film is battling it out at the box office with Ajay Devgn's Bholaa and Nani's Dasara—both of which have been doing well critically and commercially.
It remains to be seen if Gumraah can pick up the pace on the weekends.
Reasons
What led to 'Gumraah's early downfall?
There are several reasons that may have led to Gumraah's tumultuous start.
For starters, the remake bug came to bite it, since people would prefer watching the film online rather than paying a huge sum of money at the ticket counter.
In addition to that, the reviews play a role, too, and most of them emphasized that the first half was a complete drag.
'Gumraah'
Read more about the plot of 'Gumraah'
Apart from Thakur and Kapur, Gumraah also stars Ronit Roy and Deepak Kalra in supporting roles.
It also marks the directorial debut of Vardhan Ketkar, who has previously assisted on Kapoor & Sons, among other films.
It revolves around two lookalikes Ronnie and Arjun who are prime suspects in a murder case, while Thakur and Roy play cops.
Here's our review of the film.