Box office: Kangana Ranaut-starrer Thalaivii has a poor first weekend

The Kangana Ranaut-starrer Thalaivii (2021) has generated poor numbers in its opening weekend across three languages — Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

Directed by AL Vijay, the film is a biopic of the late actress-turned-chief minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa.

Thalaivii opened with a collection of Rs1.35 crore nett on Friday, according to BoxOfficeIndia.com. The film saw a slight jump in the next two days, making Rs1.60 crore and Rs1.80 crore, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday, but it was hardly of any significance.

The film's total collection after the first weekend thus stands at Rs4.75 crore nett. According to trade sources, Thalaivii, which also stars Arvind Swami as the late actor-politician MG Ramachandran, was made at a cost of almost Rs75 crore. If the film's performance on its first weekend is any indication, Thalaivii is unlikely to get anywhere close to its cost of production.

Thalaivii has not been released in Maharashtra, the country's biggest market for Hindi films. The film's woes have been made worse by three major multiplex chains — PVR, Inox and Cinepolis — refusing to screen the Hindi version after the producers decided to halve the gap between its theatrical and online release from the usual four weeks to just two.