Kesari box office collection: Akshay Kumar's period war drama inches towards Rs 100 cr mark

Akshay Kumar's Kesari recently crossed the Rs 75 crore mark  in its extended first weekend run. While the film has witnessed a decline, it is now slowly inching towards the Rs 100 crore milestone at the domestic box office. Trade analysts write that the North Indian zone is driving Kesari's business. The film earned Rs 8.25 crore on Monday (26 March) and Rs 7.17 crore on Tuesday, taking its total collection to Rs 93.49 crore.

Akshay Kumar in a still from Kesari. Image from Twitter

Kesari also became the highest opener of 2019, becoming Kumar's second biggest opener after last year's sports drama Gold. The period war film even outperformed  Gully Boy, Total Dhamaal and even MCU's Captain Marvel in terms of opening day earnings in the country. Kesari also had the highest opening weekend earnings of 2019.

Kesari is based on the Battle of Saragarhi, which took place on 12 September, 1897. A group of 21 Sikhs, who belonged to British Indian regiments and were in charge of protecting the forts of  Lockhart and Gulistan on Afghani borders, were faced in combat with 10,000 Afghan soldiers at Saragarhi. Led by Havildar Ishar Singh, the troops managed victory on the first two attacks and were able to defend the forts. However, the battalion succumbed to the final attack. But the troops were able to buy enough time for the British to call in for reinforcements.

Directed by Anurag Singh, and produced by Hiroo Yash Johar, Apoorva Mehta, Karan Johar and Sunil Khetarpal, Kesari also stars Mir Sarwar, Vansh Bharadwaj, Jaspreet Singh, Vivek Saini and Vikram Kochhar in supporting roles.