Salman Khan’s ‘Radhe’ gets bumper opening in UAE cinemas

Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s Eid entertainer ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’, which opened mostly to negative reviews, enjoyed a bumper box office opening in UAE cinemas according to its distributors.

As per the figures revealed by the local distributor Phars Films, ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’ saw 42,930 admissions over its opening weekend.

These numbers also include the guests that were invited for its premiere on the night of May 12 across UAE cinemas; the film went on general release the following day.

“Salman Khan’s ‘Radhe’ has overtaken Hollywood film ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ in the number of admissions [this year]. We are thrilled. This is our biggest opening of a film in the last two years. Its success has proved that ‘masala’ entertainers are always popular for those who love Bollywood films. They love Salman Khan films for his action, romance, and comedy,” said Ahmad Golchin, chairman of Phars Films, in an interview with Gulf News.

Close on the heels of ‘Radhe’s UAE footfall numbers, films such as the trilingual ‘Darbar’ (2020), ‘Bad Boys For Life’ (2020), and Vijay’s Tamil film ‘Master’ (2021) have done brisk business in this market.

While ‘Godzilla Vs Kong’ saw 42,889 admissions according to Phars Films, ‘Darbar’, which released in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, saw 39,539 admissions.

Hollywood film ‘Bad Boys For Life’ saw 31,572 admissions, while ‘Master’ saw 30,808 admissions, Phars Films added.

These figures couldn’t be independently verified.

Directed by Prabhu Deva, ‘Radhe’, also starring Disha Patani, Randeep Hooda, and Jackie Shroff, sees Khan back as a larger-than-life police officer.

Khan plays the title role and is on a mission to expunge the drug cartel eating away the youth of Mumbai.

While the movie has been largely panned, Khan’s devoted fans seem to have enjoyed the film and relished seeing their favourite hero in action.

The UAE is one of the select regions in the world that had a theatrical release of ‘Radhe’. In India, due to the savage second wave of COVID-19 its makers decided to opt for a digital platform release signalling a new path for cinema distribution amid the pandemic.

As soon as the film released in the cinemas and the streaming platform in India, Khan urged his fans not to watch the pirated version of his Eid release and warned everyone that strict action would be taken those who break laws.

According to reports, the movie was leaked online almost immediately after its streaming premiere.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises, the producer of ‘Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai’, confirmed on May 17 that it had filed an official complaint with the cyber cell of the police.