Kesari, Akshay Kumar's fictionalised re-telling of the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi, performed well on its second weekend, bringing the total to Rs 125 crore, tweeted trade analyst Taran Adarsh. He also predicted that Kesari will cross the lifetime business of Akshay Kumar's Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (Rs 134.22 crore) to become his second highest earning film after 2.0 (the film's Hindi version made Rs 189.55 crore). "Kesari attracts abundant footfalls in the second weekend... Should comfortably cross lifetime business of Toilet: Ek Prem Katha and emerge Akshay Kumar's highest grossing film, after 2.0 . Week 2 total so far is Rs 125.01 crore," tweeted Taran Adarsh.
Here's the updated box office report card of Kesari:
#Kesari attracts abundant footfalls in Weekend 2... Should comfortably cross *lifetime biz* of #ToiletEPK and emerge Akshay Kumar's highest grossing film, after #2Point0 [#Hindi]... [Week 2] Fri 4.45 cr, Sat 6.45 cr, Sun 8.25 cr. Total: 125.01 cr. India biz.
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) April 1, 2019
#Kesari biz at a glance...
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) April 1, 2019
Week 1: 105.86 cr [8 days]
Weekend 2: 19.15 cr
Total: 125.01 cr
Biz has stabilised outside North India [which is doing excellent biz from Day 1]... Should touch/cross 150 cr, in view of the current trending. India biz.
At the ticket window, Kesari is battling new releases Junglee, starring Vidyut Jammwal, and Notebook, a Salman Khan film, starring newcomers Pranutan and Zaheer Iqbal. Pranutan is the granddaughter of late actress Nutan and the daughter of actor Mohish Behl.
As per a Box Office India report, Junglee has managed to collected over Rs 13 crore in the opening weekend while Notebook scrapped only a few crores.
Kesari opened to decent reviews on Holi (March 21). Film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave the film 3-star rating and wrote in his review for NDTV: "Kesari has enough self-sustaining fire to be a well-above-average film. And with Akshay Kumar doing the heavy lifting with unwavering enthusiasm, the star's fans will find it easy to get into the swing of this tale of extraordinary courage in the face of daunting adversity."
Kesari, directed by Anurag Singh, also stars Parineeti Chopra and Govind Namdev.