Marathi cinema has been steadily making significant progress as several native films had been working very well at the ticket counters there. We have a new film to this list in the form of Raja Shivaji.
As the title clearly suggests, this film is based on the life story of legendary Warrior King Chhatrapati Shivaji, who is a cult phenomenon in the Marathi belt. But the problem with the film has been with the fact that the promotional material featuring mainly Riteish Deshmukh invited negative feedback as people felt he did not suit the aesthetic of Chhatrapati Shivaji.
There were several posts on social platforms about how Riteish is not the right fit of Shivaji role and he is a complete misfit to the same. However, this did not affect the opening revenue of this film.
According to the latest box office reports, Raja Shivaji opened on a sensational note at the Marathi box office and on a decent note at the Hindi box office. The film reportedly collected over Rs 10 crore nett in Marathi while it could add ₹3+ crore in Hindi.
Despite the early criticism against the hero himself, Raja Shivaji appears to be banking on the Shivaji sentiment and things are looking hopeful at this point.
The presence of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan might have added a little bit of impetus, but this was more of a surprise so there wasn’t much addition before the release.
