New Delhi: ‘Uunchai’ starring Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Parineeri Chopra, Neena Gupta has opened to a good start at the box office. As per a Pinkvilla report, ‘Uunchai’ collected around Rs. 1.60 cr to Rs. 1.85 Cr on its opening day, despite releasing on limited screens( 483) with merely 1500 shows. In fact, most audiences on the first day included the older generation; loyal fans of the veterans who star in the film.
‘Uunchai’ has also proved to be the biggest opening film for Amitabh Bachchan among the post-pandemic film releases starting with films like ‘Chehre’ ( Rs. 45 lakh), ‘GoodBye ‘( Rs. 90 lakh), and ‘Jhund'( Rs. 1.10 Cr). This has happened despite ‘Uunchai’ releasing on a lower scale than these films.
As per Pinkvilla, the three national chains PVR, Inox and Cinepolis have clocked Rs. 1.15 Cr,and there is a possibility that ‘Uunchai’ will collect around Rs. 1.60 Cr.
Perhaps if ‘Uunchai’ had had a wider release, it would have made more numbers on the opening day. It is also being reported that the show count will increase on public demand thanks to the positive word-of-mouth reviews. ‘Uunchai’s good opening weekend numbers can also be attributed to the fact that it is the only Hindi film ( with major) stars to release this weekend, barring the Hollywood mega-film ‘Black Panther’, there is no major competition for the Sooraj Barjatya film.
As per our in-house review, ‘Uunchai’ is like a documentation of what an intense trekking experience amidst the wilderness of Himalayas feels like. This template is then married to the family-entertainment genre of the Barjatya school of filmmaking which emphasises heightened emotions and drama. The Amitabh Bachchan, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Neena Gupta, Parineeti Chopra, Danny Denzongpa, and Sarika starrer is high on emotion, slow in pace, a genre-reverser film about life, relationships and coming to terms with old age. What really hurts is how each of the subject matter is treated chronologically in order to spoon-feed an audience which is smart enough to understand layers, nuances and landscape change without drilling it into their heads.’
