After what seemed like forever, the Akshay Kumar–Sonam Kapoor–Radhika Apte starrer, Padman, finally hit screens on February 9, ie yesterday and has been receiving mixed to positive reviews from the critics and audiences at large. The film, like all Akshay Kumar films these days, has a social message — to remove the taboo that surrounds menstruation and sanitary napkins. It chronicles the life of social entrepreneur, Arunachalam Muruganantham, who invented a machine to manufacture low-cost sanitary pads, to make it easily available and accessible to women belonging to the lower economic strata. This is the first film co-produced by Twinkle Khanna, who took the narrative of the film from a short story of her own book, The Legend of Lakshmi Prasad. The film has opened to a decent start, having earned Rs 10.26 crore on the first day.
Senior film critic and trade analyst, Taran Adarsh took to his Twitter account to share the numbers with us and added that the film is expected to experience strong growth over the weekend. He wrote, “#PadMan has a DECENT start… Fri ₹ 10.26 cr… The biz, expectedly, picked up towards evening/night shows… The journey ahead is crucial… Sat + Sun should witness strong growth for a good weekend total… India biz.” Yesterday, he praised R Balki for the film, calling it his best directorial venture ever, and also lauded Akshay for making brave choices with his films. Take a look at his tweets below : (ALSO READ : Padman Movie Review: Akshay Kumar’s Film Is Watchable For Its Exceptional Subject)
Although, Akshay pushed Padman to a later date to give Padmaavat a solo release, which despite its many controversies, is seen going strong at the Box Office in its second week, many believe that it could play spoil sport in the BO run of the socially-relevant film. However, the flip side of this notion could be that many wanting to see fresh content on screen would flock to the theatres in great numbers to watch Padman, instead of Padmaavat. Well, the film has after all released in 2750 screens in India and 600 screens abroad, bringing the total number of screenings to 3350, which is a phenomenal number. Let’s see how the film fares over the weekend, which could decide the BO run for the film in the coming days and weeks.