Ajay Devgn and R Madhavan's Shaitaan have opened at the ticket counters in double digits. The Vikas Bahl directorial, on day 1, minted Rs 14.2 crore at the domestic box office, as per Sacnilk. The horror thriller witnessed an overall 25.70 per cent Hindi occupancy on its opening day, the report added. The film, which hit the theatres on March 8, also features Jyothika, Janki Bodiwala and Anngad Raaj in key roles. Shaitaan is jointly produced by Ajay Devgn, Jyoti Deshpande, Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak. Shaitaan is the Hindi remake of Gujarati film Vash, which was released last year in February.
It must be noted that Shaitaan marks R Madhavan and Jyothika's on-screen collaboration after more than 20 years. The two stars earlier shared the screen space in the 2001 Tamil film Dumm Dumm Dumm. Madhavan and Jyotika both expressed their excitement about working together. In a conversation with the Free Press Journal, Jyothika said, “Working with him after all these years made me realize how much the two of us have grown as actors. Back then, we played the quintessential hero heroine in the film, and today, when we get cast in such character-driven roles, it makes me realise how far we have come.”
R Madhavan added, "Also, 20 years ago, we both were romancing each other and in Shaitaan, you will see her go all out to harm and kill me. So yes, we indeed have come a long way.”
Jyothika's husband, Tamil superstar Suriya, earlier shared a special post to celebrate Shaitaan. On Friday, Suriya dropped a picture of himself standing next to Shaitaan's poster and wrote, “To my woman! My partner, my strength! It's a new beginning again with Shaitaan! Proud of everything you do! Lots of respect and love! Jyotika.
In his review for NDTV, film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave Shaitaan 1.5 stars out of 5. He wrote, “The fear factor in Vikas Bahl's Shaitaan is meant to be unsettlingly high. It is aimed to have you squirming in your seats. But the execution of the scenes that are ostensibly designed to terrify are generally terribly pedestrian and undermined irretrievably by done-to-death, near-risible methods.”