Sooryavanshi box office day 1: Will Akshay Kumar-starrer revive cinema halls?

`Sooryavanshi`, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, is the first major all-India release after a gap of 19 months. It would be interesting to see if Rohit Shetty`s masala cop-actioner manages to pull the crowd at theatres, given the fear of coronavirus pandemic is still among people.

New Delhi: After a much-awaited wait, filmmaker Rohit Shetty must have heaved a sigh of relief after his latest cop-actioner 'Sooryavanshi' finally arrived in theatres on Thursday. Rohit's ambitious project 'Sooryavanshi' featuring Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh brings alive his cop universe.

Initially locked for March 2020 release, its release was postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The film was later scheduled for release on April 2021, only to be postponed indefinitely due to the second wave of COVID-19 in the country. On November 5, 2021, 'Sooryavanshi' finally arrived in theatres worldwide, coinciding with Diwali. 

The film is the first major all-India release after a gap of 19 months. During this phase, two COVID lockdowns were induced, which brought down the curtains for all outdoor activities, thus restricting the movie buffs largely to OTT platforms. Cinemas remained shut for over a year across the country, and during this time, streaming platforms provided much-needed entertainment to crazy cinema lovers. 

At the same time, a number of B-town celebs became embroiled in controversies - be it a drugs scandal or money laundering scams or the coverage around Sushant Singh Rajput's death, leading to people venting out their anger against the stars, and vowing to shun their films forever. With the release of 'Sooryavanshi', there were huge apprehensions whether the public would return to theatres to watch the stars flex their muscles and deliver whistle-blowing dialogues before villains on the big screen. 

However, as per a report in filminformation.com, the masala-entertainer has managed to pull the crowd to the theatres, which a section of critics claimed would be 'impossible', given that fear of coronavirus still prevails among people. The report added that 'Sooryavanshi' is expected to strike gold at the Box Office and mint around Rs 25-30 crore on the first day of its release. 

The report further claimed fact that the first day's total for Sooryavanshi in PVR properties is expected to beat the first day's total for 'Housefull 4' in the same multiplex chain’s properties, which was also released on Diwali (2019). And if it happens, the reason would be enough to celebrate the bounce-back of Bollywood.