The Kamal Haasan-led ‘Vikram’ crossed Rs 90 crore in its first two days — a record also because it was a non-holiday weekend — and ‘Major’, starring Adivi Sesh, with Prakash Raj and Revathi playing stellar roles, notched up Rs 25.4 crore. Samrat Prithviraj’, backed by two big brands (Yash Raj Films and Akshay Kumar) is struggling at Rs 23 crore.
‘Samrat Prithviraj’, produced on a Rs 300-crore budget, opened on 4,590 screens with the blessings of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. While ‘Vikram’ is a Tamil-only film running on 3,200 screens.
Critics have also pointed out that unlike ‘Vikram’, where Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi and Faahad Fasil have delivered some power-packed performances, and Adivi Sesh, Saiee Manjrekar, Prakash Raj and Revathi also pull off virtuoso acts, ‘Samrat Prithviraj’ depends entirely upon Akshay Kumar. And he has not been able to do either a Ranveer Singh (as in ‘Bajirao Mastani’), or an Ajay Devgn (as in ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’).
