Sarfira Box Office Prediction Day 1: Film Expected To Open Better Than Mission Raniganj, Selfiee

Sarfira is all set to hit the big screens on July 12. The film, directed by Sudha Kongra, also features Paresh Rawal and Radhika Madan in pivotal roles. Sarfira is a Hindi remake of the Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru (2022) featuring Suriya in the lead role. The film comes with high stakes as past projects of Kumar have failed to impress the audience at the box office. 

Can Sarfira break the dry spell of Akshay Kumar's movies at the box office? 

Sarfira has sold a total of 22349 tickets for day 1 shows in advanced bookings. This amounts to a total of ₹441. Lac. While the number is decent, it is only mediocre when compared to other biggies of the year like Kalki 2898 AD, Crew, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya and Fighter. As per Sacnilk, the advanced booking of the film is moving at a ‘snail-pace’. The trade tracking website shared, “In comparison to the previous movies of Akshay, the pre-sales of Sarfira are trending a little above Selfiee which finished opening day sales at just around 40 lakhs, and below Mission Raniganj (76 lakh gross), which are among the lowest for the actor in many years. Sarfira's pre-sales will probably finish somewhere between Selfiee and Mission Raniganj.” 

Trade analyst Sumit Kadel took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to share, “Sarfira has sold around 5000 tickets at PIC For Day 1. Final numbers looking to close around 6000 tickets. The film is set to open above ₹ 3 cr nett.” he further added positive reviews and a good word of mouth will boost the film’s business.  In a conversation with Bollywood Hungama, trade analyst Taran Adarsh argued, “The buzz is low and there’s not much hype about it. But I guess this is a word-of-mouth film. The casting of Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal is an interesting one. They are coming together after a long time.” 

Akshay Kumar’s last few movies Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Mission Raniganj, OMG 2 and Selfiee have underperformed at the box office. As per Sacnilk, Mission Raniganj minted ₹ 2.8 Cr at the domestic box office, while Selfiee opened to a decent ₹ 2.55 Cr. For a decent box office run, Sarfira will have to deter completion from the Kamal Haasan starrer Indian 2 which will also release on the same day. Additionally, the film also poses a challenge from Kalki 2898 AD which stars Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Disha Patani and is going strong at the box office. 

What is Sarfira about? 

The film is inspired by the life of G. R. Gopinath, the founder of the Indian low-cost airline Simplifly Deccan. Gopinath served in the Indian Army as a captain and fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971-1972. He co-founded Deccan Aviation, a charter helicopter service, with two friends from the Indian Air Force in 1997. In 2003, he founded Air Deccan, a low-cost airline that later merged with Kingfisher Airlines in 2007. In the film, Akshay portrays G. R. Gopinath, a role originally played by Suriya in the Tamil film Soorarai Pottru.