Bollywood has a special nexus with Eid in releasing movies. It is no exaggeration to say that Eid is one of the best festive seasons for a Hindi film to have its release. Audiences throng to the theatres and whoop it up when their favorite hero’s film releases. Unfortunately, this has not been the scenario for the last few years, and the collections of movies during this Eid season were awful, to say the least.

Not one but two biggies released this Eid season, but there wasn’t much anticipation and hype around them from the beginning. Ajay Devgn starrer biographical sports drama Maidaan is one film, and the other is Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff’s multistarrer Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Both films had low bookings prior to release, but the trade expected that the Eid holiday would give these films the required push. But to the shock of all, both the films started on a disastrous note at the box office.

As per the early estimates, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan earned around 15-16 crores nett on the opening day, which is appalling for a movie that costs over 300 crores. Had the movie released yesterday as planned earlier it would have got a single digit opening. Maidaan, on the other hand, collected around 5 crores nett (excluding paid previews), and it would be around 7.5 crores nett if paid previews are included. Despite receiving rave reviews and great acclaim, the biographical film didn’t get the expected numbers, which is a worrisome sign. Let’s see how these films fare in this weekend.

In Maidaan, Priyamani played the wife of Ajay Devgn, whereas Boney Kapoor bankrolled this biographical film. Bade Miyan Chote Miyan is produced by Jackky Bhagnani, Vasu Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh, and Ali Abbas Zafar. Prithviraj Sukumaran played the antagonist. Manushi Chhillar, and Alaya F played the leading ladies, while Sonakshi Sinha essayed a cameo.