In the March of this year, a small film called Kashmir Files was released on very few screens in the Hindi belt. As the days progressed, the film started to trend extensively among the public through tremendous word of mouth. The film which is made with roughly a Rs 14 Crore budget became a sensational hit and ended up with a worldwide collection of Rs 250 Crores. The plot point which revolves around the plight of Kashmiri Pundits during their exodus from Jammu and Kashmir has struck a chord with the people and the result was sensational. Now, Karthikeya 2 is on a path similar to the Kashmir Files. The film started with just 50 screens on its release date and after one week, has reached 3130 screens and counting.
An interesting bottom note here is that the film has surpassed the screen count of Aamir’s Lal Singh Chaddha and Akshay Kumar’s Raksha Bandhan. Compared to Karthikeya 2, LSC has 3060 screens and RB has 2950 screens. This count is excluding the Telugu screens and is only for the Hindi belt. Considering Telugu screens too, Karthikeya must be said to be definitely on a roll. The audience in the Hindi belt is completely connected to the movie. August 15 and Krishnashtami helped with the collections and craze respectively. On the 8th day, the film is said to have collected Rs 8 Crores in the Hindi belt, which is a very profitable venture. Overall, the film is said to have minted over Rs 40 Crores gross till Friday and box office reports are yet to be seen. Overall, the film might cross Rs 50 Crores gross easily and could even target the Rs 100 Crore club if the current trend continues and the screen count goes on increasing. But, that is a far-fetched expectation for now.
Interesting thing is that the film is not doing that great in the Telugu states. Many reviews have declared that the film is not up to the expected or publicized range. Slow screenplay and poor narrating style are the main drawbacks of the film. While the concept behind the story is good, Chandoo Mondeti staggered while executing the film which a clumsy and hurried screenplay in the first half and climax, opine the reviewers. Well, when the film is doing good collections, no reviews will matter anyway.