Rustom races to Rs 100 crore in box office earnings; will it be Akshay Kumar's quickest hit?

It may have been panned for its flawed depiction of the KM Nanavati vs State of Maharashtra case , from which it is inspired. The inauthentic detailing — be it in the costumes or props — hasn’t slipped by commentors. [caption id=“attachment_2966322” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Akshay Kumar with Ileana D’Cruz in a scene from ‘Rustom’[/caption] And as for reviews about the performances of its cast, well those have been mixed . But all that doesn’t seem to have mattered one whit to Akshay Kumar’s Rustom, which is fast racing towards the Rs 100 crore mark at the box office. Rustom has helped cement Akshay Kumar’s reputation as one of the most bankable stars in the Hindi film industry today — in the face of potential competition from the Hrithik Roshan-Ashutosh Gowarker historical Mohenjo Daro. It has also further cemented Akshay’s ‘poster child of patriotism’ persona, developed through films like Airlift, Baby, Holiday, Gabbar is Back and others (read the full Firstpost report here ). However, Rustom has also helped Akshay set a record of his own: It is being called possibly his quickest 100-crore earner so far. Merely a week after its release (on 12 August), Rustom is already being counted among the top-five earners of 2016 so far. The top spot is occupied by Salman kKan’s Sultan (at Rs 300+ crore) — but the next three spots are all taken up by Akshay’s films: Airlift (Rs 127+ cr); Housefull 3 (Rs 107+ cr) and Rustom, collections for which currently stand at Rs 90 cr, as per this report by trade website KoiMoi. Shah Rukh Khan’s Fan rounds off the top-five with lifetime collections of Rs 85 crores. While it currently stands at the number four spot, trade experts have pointed out that Rustom in fact, has reported the second-highest week one earnings of any film in 2016. Sultan — on the back of a nearly nine-day opening week (thanks to the public holiday for Eid) — netted a cool Rs 200 crore in its first week. Rustom too has had the benefit of the Independence Day weekend, in addition to partial holidays for Navroze and Raksha Bandhan that have drawn more footfalls to the theatres. Akshay’s previous film — Airlift — had earned around Rs 85 crores in its first week. It is expected that Rustom will add to its coffers over its second weekend. And with no major films in the running — Happy Bhag Jayegi and UNIndian both cater to niche audiences after all — there’s nor reason why it shouldn’t.