Akshay Kumar starrer Kesari ended its day 1 at the box office with excellent collection on Thursday. The movie managed to earn huge moolah on its opening day despite being affected by the festival of Holi.
Kesari is based on the incredible real-life battle of Saragarhi, in which 21 Sikh soldiers fought against around 10,000 Afghan invaders. The movie has good hype around it as it is a Akshay starrer and also the trailer of the film had received positive response.
Kesari has had a poor occupancy at the theatres on the morning shows as people were busy celebrating Holi. However, the footfalls increased towards the afternoon shows, and witnessed massive growth in the evening.
Having been released on 3,600 screens across India, Kesari collected Rs 21.50 crore at the Indian box office on Thursday (day 1), becoming the highest opening day grosser of 2019 so far. Earlier, it was Gully Boy that had held the record with a collection of Rs 19.40 crore on opening day.
"#Kesari roars... Emerges the biggest opener of 2019 [so far]... After limited shows in morning/noon [#Holi festivities], the biz witnessed massive growth from 3 pm/4 pm onwards... Evening shows saw terrific occupancy... Thu ₹ 21.50 cr. India biz," trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted.
The positive reviews from critics and strong word of mouth, helped Kesari's opening day business. While the second day earning may fall a bit, the movie is likely to witness some massive rise in its collection as the weekend starts.
Directed by Anurag Singh, Kesari is Akshay's first film of 2019, and looks like he has already hit the bull's eye. While Parineeti Chopra has a limited screen space in the film, the movie has no other major star than Akshay.
However, Kesari is likely to go a long way as far as box office collection is concerned as it has all the elements to pull the audience.
