Box office: Sunday jump for Bell Bottom, but overall collection remains low

The Akshay Kumar-starrer Bell Bottom saw a rise in its box-office collection yesterday. The film made Rs4.50 crore nett on the day, according to figures shared by BoxOfficeIndia.com.

Directed by Ranjit M Tewari, the film collected Rs2.75 crore each on Thursday and Friday and Rs3 crore on Saturday. The jump was bigger on Sunday. A substantial part of the collection has come in from Gujarat.

However, this isn’t good news for the film as it has so far earned only Rs13 crore nett. According to trade sources, Bell Bottom is an expensive film made at a cost of almost Rs150 crore. Currently, the film hasn't touched even a tenth of that number.

The film, which also stars Lara Dutta Bhupathi, Huma Qureshi, Vaani Kapoor and Adil Hussain, has not been released in Maharashtra where theatres continue to remain shut after the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Maharashtra is the biggest market for Hindi films. Moreover, in most of the states that have allowed theatres to reopen, only 50% occupancy is permitted.

It was a gamble by the producers to go ahead and release the film while theatres in Maharashtra continued to remain shut, For now, the ploy does not seem to have worked. It remains to be seen now if Maharashtra allows theatres to reopen in the first week of September and the makers decide to release Bell Bottom there.