The much-awaited box office clash between Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency and Abhishek Kapoor’s Azaad has finally started, with both films opening to lukewarm openings despite the added advantage of Cinema Lovers Day and its subsidized ticket rates of ₹99. Here’s how the two releases fared:
Kangana Ranaut’s portrayal of India’s late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the turbulent years of the Emergency (1975–1977) was bound to attract eyeballs with its strong historical and political themes. But the film’s opening-day performance was not exactly what was expected:
Advance Bookings: 34,000 tickets sold across PVR, Inox, and Cinepolis.
Opening Day Estimate: ₹2 crore.
Audience Response: Mixed response, where people have appreciated the performances of Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, and Milind Soman. Some of them argue that it was slightly slow in terms of narration.
The word-of-mouth will play a crucial role for the movie in the coming weekend to drive walk-in ticket sales.
Featuring newcomers Aaman Devgan and Rasha Thadani in their acting debuts, Azaad is a 1920s period drama that tells the emotional story of a stable boy and his spirited horse. Although the film had a slow build-up, it was not a good performer at the box office:
Advance Bookings: 17,000 tickets sold across major cinema chains.
Opening Day Estimate: ₹1.25 crore.
Audience Response: The emotional storyline and Ajay Devgn’s special appearance have garnered a positive response, but the buzz around the movies is still pretty limited.
Both movies suffered from the following issues:
1. Less Pre-Release Buzz: Neither Emergency nor Azaad could create any major pre-release hype among viewers.
2. Mixed Word-of-Mouth: It seems both movies do not have universal appeal and won’t do enough walk-in business for the theaters. 3.Rivals in Theaters: Reloading the reloaded version of Pushpa 2, with an added 20 minutes of Allu Arjun’s thrilling action scenes, has worked.
