Akshay Kumar’s Film Opens To “Dull Response”

Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra in the movie. Courtesy: TaranAdarsh

New Delhi:

Akshay Kumar’s real-life based drama Mission Raniganj failed to impress the box office on the opening day. According to a report by Box office India, the film managed to earn Rs 2.75-3 crore nett. Box Office India mentioned in its report, “Mission Raniganj opened to a dull response as it collected 2.75-3 crore nett. The collections of the film looked to be coming under the 2.54 crore nett of Selfiee when the film opened but managed to beat that film by around 10-15% though it hardly matters much.” The report added, “The simple fact is the trailer was better than Selfiee and it should have opened better and maybe even double of that film but the audience has shown no interest in the film and with such an opening it is a difficult ride going forward. This sort of cinema had chance pre pandemic but today its tough with a star like Akshay Kumar unless its an established franchise where the audience knows about the film like Oh My God 2 or Drishyam 2.”

The report didn’t show much hope in the film’s future prospects. It added, “The film should grow and maybe even compete with the holdovers in terms of growth but with such a starting point there is not much hope unless somehow Monday shows up with better numbers than the Friday.”

Mission Raniganjopened to largely average reviews. In his review for NDTV, film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave the movie 1.5 stars and wrote, “Mission Raniganj reinforces the lingering belief that Hindi cinema should leave true stories alone, especially if Akshay Kumar is to be placed at the centre of the action. Mission Raniganj suffers the deleterious consequences of the spotlight being focused on the star rather than on the issues surrounding the mining disaster.”

Mission Raniganj showcases the story of late mining engineer Jaswant Singh Gill, who led the heroic coal mine rescue mission and helped the miners trapped inside a flooded coal mine in Raniganj in November 1989.

Mission Raniganj also features Parineeti Chopra, Kumud Mishra, Pavan Malhotra, Ravi Kishan, Varun Badola, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Rajesh Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Shishir Sharma, Ananth Mahadevan, Jameel Khan, Sudhir Pandey, Bachan Pachera, Mukesh Bhatt, Omkar Das Manikpur. The film has been directed by Tinu Suresh Desai. Akshay Kumar was last seen in OMG 2 with Pankaj Tripathi and Yami Gautam.