Boycotts, protests, lawsuits and other legal troubles haven’t been able to stop Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha from soaring at the international box office. Despite a poor run in India, the film has beat Alia Bhatt’s Gangubai Kathiawadi and Anupam Kher’s Kashmir Files to become the highest grossing Hindi language film at the international box office this year.
Though the film is lagging far behind at the local box office — it made INR 480 million in the first six days of its release — for the second week, it sure has picked up the pace internationally. According to Bollywood Hungama, Laal Singh Chaddha broke a significant record at the worldwide box office. With $7.5 million raked in in over a week of release, it surpassed Bhatt’s film that made $7.47 million and Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 which made $5.88 million. However, the film is still far behind Telugu film RRR that made nearly $20 million in the international market.
The film was produced on a reported budget of INR 1.8 billion but unfortunately has been rejected by Indian audiences as they have been campaigning to boycott the film for allegedly disrespecting Hindu sentiments and the Indian army. Since the film hasn’t been doing well in local cinemas, Indian media reported on August 16 that Laal Singh Chaddha was expected to be removed from cinemas as 70 per cent of the shows had been cancelled.
Work on the film began before the pandemic but came to a halt due to the outbreak in India. The movie was then filmed in portions over the last three years.
The film has yet to secure screening in China where Khan is popular and his previous films have been screened. His films Secret Superstar and Dangal were major hits in the country but Thugs of Hindostan, which released in 2018, flopped in China as well.
Laal Singh Chaddha is directed by Advait Chandan and stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Mona Singh and Naga Chaitanya alongside the PK actor. It is touted as the official Hindi remake of Tom Hanks’ 1994 classic Forrest Gump.