On Day 10 Malayalam movie Vettaiyan,with Vijayakanth and Ramya Krishna, Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan, collected ₹4.25 crore, across India, an increase of 38 % to ₹2.61 crore of the movie collected on Day 9. However, the raise of such questions amplifies doubts about the film’s absolute performance at the box office.
Dropping Dussehra, Vettaiyan opened with a good collection and earned ₹26.75 crore on the first Saturday and ₹22.3 crore for the first Sunday. But the cumulative collection in the first week has been ₹122.15 crore, which is still short of ₹300 crore mark despite the demand. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the film has done less business than expected and was trailing by 50%.
The tenth day revealed better indicators of theatre occupancy in Tamil Nadu; Chennai was at 34%, Trichy at 36% and Coimbatore at approximately 30%. However occupancy in metro cities such as NCR and Mumbai was 9.67% and 16.50% respectively.
It is reported that, the production company of Vettaiyan, Lyca Productions has reportedly discussed to Rajinikanth about the possibilities of cop income of the film. Although the information still has not been announced officially, industry insiders claim that the studio is negotiating on lowering the fee for the superstar for further cooperation. This comes despite past box office disappointments including Lyca’s other Rajinikanth movies such as 2.0, Darbar and Lal Salaam.
Directed by TJ Gnanavel, Vettaiyan stars Rajinikanth as a cop, with hints of a prequel titled Vettaiyan: The Hunter. The prequel would show how Rajinikanth character becomes the encounter specialist and Fahadh Faasil how he turns into a police informant. Comparatively this much hyped combo of Rajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchan has not been decent at the box office.
