Raksha Bandhan box office: Akshay Kumar’s film gets his worst opening this year

Raksha Bandhan, despite releasing on the festival of Raksha Bandhan, which was a holiday in some parts of India, recorded a low opening in theatres. The Akshay Kumar-starrer collected around ₹8 crore on its first day of release on Thursday.

Raksha Bandhan stars Akshay Kumar as Lala Kedarnath, a snack shop owner, who has taken an oath to get his four sisters married before he can marry his girlfriend, played by Bhumi Pednekar. Sadia Khateeb, Deepika Khanna, Smrithi Srikanth and Sahejmeen Kaur play Akshay’s sisters in the film. It has been directed by Aanand L Rai.

The film’s early estimates hint at day one collections of around ₹7.5 – 8 crore, as per a report on Boxofficeindia.com. The portal also states that the film showed more improvement than Laal Singh Chaddha as the day progressed but this had more to do with the fact that it was doing better in the belts where Raksha Bandhan was a holiday.

Raksha Bandhan clashed with Laal Singh Chaddha in theatres on Thursday. The Aamir Khan film collected around ₹10-11 crore on day one. Raksha Bandhan is Akshay’s third release of the year. His earlier films Bachchhan Paandey opened at ₹13.25 crore and Samrat Prithviraj opened at ₹10.7 crore.

Raksha Bandhan received mixed reviews. The Hindustan Times review of the film read: “With his latest release, Raksha Bandhan, Akshay only proves that if a film has its heart in the right place, it will connect with the audiences. This is not the first time the actor has done a film that’s relevant and has a strong social message — Raksha Bandhan touches upon the issue of dowry system in India. But it’s the way director Aanand L Rai chooses to narrate the story, weaving together the most delicate threads to deliver a strong message, that does the trick.”