The Puri Jagannadh directed Liger has scored a low opening weekend at the box office in the Hindi belts. After clocking Rs 1.25 crore with paid previews on Thursday, the film collected Rs 4.40 crore on Friday, Rs 4.25 crore on Saturday and finally, Rs 3.60 crore on Sunday. The opening weekend total of this Vijay Deverakonda and Ananya Panday film stands in the range of Rs 13.50 crore. The biz is below the mark, and given that the talk about the film is negative, it’s difficult for Liger to sustain on the weekdays.
The best business has come in from CP, CI, UP and Bihar, which comprise of the heartland cine-going audience for Hindi cinema. There was actually some sort of excitement among the audience for Liger, which has resulted in footfalls for the film over the weekend. If the talk was positive, Liger might have emerged a successful bet, but box office doesn’t function on ifs and buts. The film is headed towards a sub Rs 22 crore finish at the box office in the Hindi belts, which spells nothing but failure.
The issue with Liger is also the pre-release expectations set in among the audience. While it helped in getting the initial, the reactions were a lot more vocal because great expectations leads to bigger disappointments. The Hindi version has actually trended better than the Telugu version, as there has been a freefall in the collections in the Telugu States. As far as all India collections are concerned, Liger stands at Rs 36 crore net, and it’s going to be a sub Rs 50 crore finish for the film.
The distributors across the board will lose money, and there is also a possibility of a lot of them stepping out to ask for refund. While it’s a set back for the Telugu Film Industry, they can afford one failure as the month of August has been fruitful for them with super successes like Bimbisara Sita Ramam and Kartikeya 2. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more box office updates.