Kabir Khan's sport-drama 83, which stars Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev, has been the talk of the town ever since it was announced. The film was released in theatres on December 24 but the box office business suffered due to the surge in COVID-19 cases and its new variant Omicron. Due to the increase in cases, restrictions on theatres were imposed. Delhi Government shut its theatres completely and other states went back to the 50% occupancy rule.
Speaking about this to a Bollywood website, Kabir has now said that there was indeed a ‘sense of disappointment’, as his film had become a ‘huge victim’ of the third wave. He said that the day the film released, two states announced night curfews. By day two, six states had cancelled the night shows and by the fourth day, Delhi had shut down the theatres. He acknowledged the adverse effect it had on the film and understood the paranoia of the audience as the cases were increasing. “…there’s a sense of disappointment that our timing was all wrong,” he said.
“I still believe that had conditions been alright, even with lesser marketing, we would still get the numbers. I hate to say myself because it’s my film, but the word of mouth of this film is unbelievable… But that word of mouth will really not be able to lead to anything unless there is access to theatre," he further said.
83 is produced by Reliance Entertainment, Phantom Films, Vibri Entertainment, KA Productions, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment and Kabir Khan Films. It stars Deepika Padukone, Pankaj Tripathi, Boman Irani, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Jatin Sarna, Chirag Patil, Dinker Sharma, Nishant Dahiya, Harrdy Sandhu, Sahil Khattar, Ammy Virk, Addinath Kothare, Dhairya Karwa and R. Badree in important roles.
(Source: Bollywood Hungama)
