As expected, Akshay Kumar’s Sarfira, the official remake of Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru, is off to a disastrous start. Despite getting good reviews from critics, the biographical drama failed to show any growth in the evening and night shows. As per the early estimates, Sarfira earned about 2.5 crores nett on its release date. After the pandemic, Sarfira is the third film of Akshay that opened in the vicinity of 2 crores, after Selfie and Mission Raniganj.
What’s even more appalling is that Prabhas starrer Kalki 2898 AD, which has been in theatres since two weeks, raked in more bucks than the opening day numbers of Sudha Kongara’s directorial. Kalki collected over 4 crores nett on its third Friday, which is higher than the combined day one collections of Sarfira and Hindustani 2 (Indian 2).
Remakes have always been a concern for Bollywood, especially after the pandemic. Only Ajay Devgn scored two hits with remakes (Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan), but no other hero was able to deliver success. To note, Mohanlal starrer Drishyam 2 was not released in Hindi, and the original version of Shaitaan was not available on any OTT platform during the film’s release.
That’s the reason Shaitaan and Drishyam 2 fared well at the ticket windows. There is no point in remaking a film that is already available on OTT. Mostly, Hindi films aren’t front-loaded like Telugu or Tamil films, and if at all the stars wish to remake a movie, then they should play it smart like Ajay Devgn. If filmmakers do not take sufficient care, they will have to pay the price for their own actions.
