The much-anticipated Kamal Haasan starrer Indian 2, the follow-up to ‘Ulaganayagan’, released in theatres across India on Friday. Despite the movie’s successful box office opening, particularly in Tamil Nadu, it received unfavourable reviews from critics and viewers.
Industry tracker Sacnilk reports that on the first day of its release, Indian 2 brought in a total of Rs 26 crore net across India, with Rs 17 crore coming from the Tamil version, Rs 1.1 crore from the Hindi version and Rs 7.9 crore from the Telugu version. The opening day gross of Indian 2 is Rs 26 crore, which is slightly less than the Rs 28 crore that Kamal Haasan’s last film, Vikram, made on its first day in 2022. However, Vikram garnered favourable reviews and went on to become the actor’s highest-grossing film with a lifetime global collection of over Rs 430 crore worldwide.
Sacnilk reports that the Tamil version of Indian 2 had an overall 55 per cent occupancy, with the majority of interest coming from the night shows. Chennai reported 68 per cent occupancy. Hindi occupancy was negligible, at 11 per cent. Mumbai and Delhi-NCR reported occupancies of 12.5 and 8 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, the Telugu version of Indian 2 fared better, reporting 58 per cent occupancy.
Prior to that, Kamal Haasan had starred in the 2018 film Vishwaroopam II, which fared poorly at the box office.
Indian 2 is the sequel to the 1996 hit movie Indian, directed by Shankar which also starred Urmila Matondkar and Manisha Koirala. Indian, a vigilante action film starring Kamal Haasan as the iconic character Senapathy, was well received. In the sequel, which had a challenging production and resulted in the deaths of several crew members, he plays the same character. However, the universal negative review for the film has put the forthcoming Indian 3 in jeopardy.
Notedly, Indian 2 has been released as Hindustani 2 in Hindi and as Bharateeyudu 2 in Telugu.