As Ranveer Singh's 83 crosses Rs 100 cr at box office, Dulquer Salmaan's Salute gets postponed

Filmmaker Kabir Khan ’s cricket drama 83 24 has touched the Rs 100 cr mark at the domestic box office, the makers said on Monday.

Seventeen days since its release, the all-India collections of the Ranveer Singh-headlined film now stands at Rs 100.56 cr. The movie was released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam on 24 December.

Reliance Entertainment, one of the production houses behind 83, shared the news on its official Twitter account.

“India scores a century!” read the caption of the poster.

INDIA SCORES A CENTURY!
Box Office Collections - 17 Days.#ThisIs83

BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW!@bookmyshow: https://t.co/TvhH75T99X@PaytmTickets : https://t.co/bL2jzVXKWG

Watch it in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Also in 3D. pic.twitter.com/64Lr1FDW5R

— Reliance Entertainment (@RelianceEnt) January 10, 2022

83 was dubbed as an underperformer by trade analysts as the multistarrer failed to maintain the momentum of the Hindi film box office following the mammoth success of Akshay Kumar’s 2021 Diwali release Sooryavanshi  – the only Bollywood blockbuster of last year.

In an earlier interview with PTI, Khan had defended the film’s collection by calling 83 a “victim of the pandemic” and said the movie put up a show despite battling COVID-19 restrictions like closure of cinema halls in certain states and theatrical occupancy cap in key territories.

The film chronicled India’s win under Kapil Dev’s captainship, when the team defeated the mighty West Indies in the final to clinch their first-ever World Cup trophy in 1983.

Meanwhile, actor Dulquer Salmaan on Monday said his upcoming Malayalam crime thriller Salute has been pushed from its scheduled release of 14 January due to the rising coronavirus cases in the country.

Salmaan took to Instagram and posted a note, writing that the team had to take the decision keeping the safety of the audiences in mind.

The actor has backed Salute under his banner Wayfarer Films.

“We at Wayfarer films are bound to show social responsibility ahead of our personal interests. Just like all of you, we were most excited and eagerly awaiting our next release.

“Owing to recent developments and the spike in Covid-19 and Omicron cases, we have taken the difficult decision to postpone the release of ‘Salute’. We apologise if we’ve disappointed you. But in times like this we must prioritise health and safety,” the note read.

The Kurup star assured his fans that the film will be released “at the earliest”.

Directed by Rosshan Andrrews, the film features Salmaan as a cop and also stars Diana Penty.

Salute is the latest project to have deferred its release after films like Shahid Kapoor’s Jersey, filmmaker SS Rajamouli’s RRR, Prabhas starrer Radhe Shyam and Valimai, featuring Ajith Kumar had to push their releases due to the pandemic.

According to data updated by the Union Health Ministry on Monday, India saw a single-day rise of 1,79,723 coronavirus infections taking the total tally to 3,57,07,727, including 4,033 cases of the Omicron variant reported across 27 states and union territories so far.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)