Sidharth Malhotra in Aiyaary
Sidharth Malhotra in AiyaaryPR Handout

Neeraj Pandey's film Aiyaary has begun on a disappointing number. With mixed critics and audience reactions, the early estimates suggest the film has collected Rs. 3.75 crore on Day 1 at the domestic box-office.

This is Sidharth Malhotra's lowest opening since Karan Johar's Student of the Year. His first day box office collections for the movies he has been a part of since 2012 is as follows:

Student Of The Year – Rs 7.52 crore

Hasee Toh Phasee – Rs 4.39 crore

Ek Villain – Rs 16.43 crore

Brothers — Rs 15.20 crore

Kapoor And Sons – Rs 6.75 crore

Baar Baar Dekho – Rs 6.81 crore

A Gentleman — Rs 4.04 crore

Ittefaq — Rs 4.05 crore

What must have led to this? Well, there are a few reasons: Firstly, the movie reviews. IBTimes India gave it 2.5 stars and said: "Manoj Bajpayee and Naseer saab are terrific but the film is slow and disappointing." Apart from this, critics and audience reviews were also mixed. Secondly, competition with Hollywood film Black Panther. According to sources, Black Panther had more occupancy on February 16 than Sidharth Malhotra's film. Thirdly, already running competition from Akshay Kumar's PadMan and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmaavat.

While the film didn't see the light of the day in Pakistan, 'Aiyaary' received a flying starts in overseas markets. Australia ended up Day 1 with, 29 K Aus $, NZ & Fiji with 6 K each. The territory business of Aiyaary is almost at par with the business of Toilet EK Prem Katha, and four times that of Naam Shabana.

Toilet Ek Prem Katha and Naam Shabana are both Friday Film Works Productions' in association with Akshay Kumar's Abundantia Entertainment. In the Middle East, the film opened with a decent 275 K Dirham. In the US as per the latest trend, it will close the day with around 100 K, almost double of the business of Naam Shabana.

Whatever the case be, social media is abuzz with tweets saying Aiyaary could be Sidharth Malhotra's another flop. Will the film survive the weekend? something to note here is that Sidharth Malhotra has no future projects to talk about yet. After his breakup with Alia Bhatt, there's no information on Aashiqui 3 and Sadak 2. Will Karan Johar step in to save Sidharth Malhotra's career? Let's wait and watch.

Sidharth and Rakul who attended the launch of a new Carnival Select Lounge Programme on Friday, spoke to media about the response.

Talking about Aiyaary, Sidharth said something different though: "People have really liked the message of the film. They are connecting with the message which we have shown in the film and of course, it's a Neeraj Pandey film, so it's just the beginning for it."

Rakul Preet Singh also said: "On the whole, the film is getting good compliments. I am happy that after four years, the audience has seen me back on the Hindi film screen and I have got some positive response for that. A lot of people are talking that the film is so authentic in showing the way the army functions. People are really appreciating the dialogues as they are very crisp, so we all are very excited and looking forward to a more positive response from the audience."

Aiyaary's story revolves around a teacher named Colonel Abhay Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) and his protégé Major Jai Bakshi (Sidharth Malhotra). They are a part of the covert Data and System Diagnostic team in the Indian Army. Due to corruption and manipulation, Jai Bakshi decided to disappear and fix the system, because of which Abhay Singh and he became enemies and the cat-mouse race began. In the end, the Adarsh Housing Society scam in Mumbai is what is highlighted.