Box office collection: Kiran Rao's 'Laapataa Ladies' gets underwhelming start
What's the story
With the feminist drama Laapataa Ladies, Kiran Rao has made a return to direction 14 years after the release of Dhobi Ghat.
Headlined by Sparsh Shrivastava, Nitanshi Goel, Pratibha Ranta, and Ravi Kishan, the film was released on Friday.
Despite overwhelming critical praise and decent promotions, the movie has suffered due to the lack of an A-lister, opening at less than Rs. 1cr.
BO numbers
Looking at the film in numbers
Per Sacnilk, the film collected Rs. 75 lakh and had an overall occupancy of 8.12% on Friday, with the maximum turnout of 8.9% in the evening shows.
It clashed with Hollywood movies The Zone of Interest, May December, and Dune 2, Satish Kaushik's Kaagaz 2, and Varun Tej and Manushi Chhillar's Operation Valentine.
LL is now completely dependent on positive word-of-mouth to sail forward.
Story
A comedy of errors
LL is about Deepak (Shrivastava), who is overjoyed at his arranged marriage to Phool (Goel).
However, since Phool draws a long veil, and the train they are traveling in also has several similar couples, confusion and chaos ensue.
This leads to Deepak deboarding the train with another newlywed, Pushpa (Ranta). A hapless Phool eventually alights at a different station.
Here's our Laapataa Ladies review.
Rao's perspective
Rao on her ambition behind movie
Speaking about her intent behind Laapataa Ladies, Rao told HT, "I'm not against the institution of marriage at all."
"In fact, I wanted to tell this story in a way that women are encouraged to find spaces for themselves, even if it's within the marriage or within the family."
"I didn't want to endorse any massive revolution or breaking of ties," she added.
Lead actors
Claim to fame of the 3 lead actors
Shrivastava is best known for playing Sunny in Netflix's hit show Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega.
He has also been a part of Collar Bomb, Black Coffee, Apharan, and Sher-E-Punjab: Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
Ranta garnered fame through Aadha Ishq and Qurbaan Hua, while Goel is a social media influencer and has earlier worked in Daayan and Peshwa Bajirao, among others.