Akshay Kumar starrer Mission Raniganj, the biopic of Jaswant Singh Gill, is has already hit the theatres today, on October 6. Following the success of Rustom, Akshay Kumar and director Tinu Suresh Desai reunited for this film, which was shot primarily in the UK during the pandemic.
The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), with an acceptable run time of 2 hours and 18 minutes, has certified the biopic as U/A.
In North India, PVR Pictures is the distributor of the Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra-starring Pooja Entertainment production, which is receiving a sizable release and screening on roughly 2500 screens.
Instead of going all out with an extensive campaign, the producers chose to simply focus on releasing assets, such as teasers, trailers, and songs. On Wednesday night, the producers began accepting reservations for Mission Raniganj, and as Thursday morning approached, more and more performances were added.
It was very troubling to see how poorly the pre-sales have performed and how little interest there is in Mission Raniganj. The public could have been puzzled about the existence of a movie with the name Mission Raniganj due to the title changing many times during production.
However, after seeing the film post release, audiance appriciated the film. They left the theater with a smiling face and by prasing Akshay Kumar’s acting in the film. Though Parineeti got the less screen time but audiance also appriciated her part.
Mission Raniganj closed its account with PVR, Inox, and Cinepolis at 6 p.m. on Thursday after selling slightly more than 3200 tickets in each of the three national chains. The company expects to sell between 6500 and 8000 tickets on the first day of release.
In terms of first-day expectations, Mission Raniganj should have ideally aimed for a start in the North of at least Rs 7 crore, but considering the initial reaction to advance booking, it appears that an optimistic start would be at or near Rs 5 crore. For the movie to gain traction at the ticket counter throughout the weekend, strong word of mouth and significant Friday night pickups are required.