Kesari box office collection: Akshay Kumar's war drama becomes 2019's fastest film to hit Rs 100 cr mark

Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra’s historical war-drama Kesari  has emerged as the fastest Rs 100 crore grosser in 2019, after the film’s week-long run at the box office. It has outperformed  Gully Boy  and  Total Dhamaal , which hit the  Rs 100 crore milestone on its eighth and ninth day, respectively. [caption id=“attachment_6327821” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Akshay Kumar and Parineeti Chopra in a still from Kesari. Image from Twitter[/caption] While the movie crossed the  Rs 75 crore mark in its extended first weekend run, it witnessed a sharp decline in earnings on the weekdays. Kesari minted Rs 8.25 crore on Monday (26 March), Rs 7.17 crore on Tuesday and Rs 6.52 crore on Wednesday, pushing it’s total earnings to Rs 100.01 crore.

#Kesari is now *fastest* ₹ 100 cr grosser of 2019 [so far]... Crosses ₹ 100 cr on Day 7... Thu 21.06 cr, Fri 16.75 cr, Sat 18.75 cr, Sun 21.51 cr, Mon 8.25 cr, Tue 7.17 cr, Wed 6.52. Total: ₹ 100.01 cr. India biz... ₹ 100 cr in days: #GullyBoy [Day 8]. #TotalDhamaal [Day 9].

— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) March 28, 2019

Kesari also became the highest opener  of 2019,  becoming Kumar’s second biggest opener after last year’s sports drama Gold. 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.