Kamal Hassan's Indian 2 drops to Rs 3.15 crore, somehow passed 'Monday Test'

S. Shankar's long-awaited vigilante film, "Indian 2," starring Kamal Haasan as Senapathy Verma, exemplifies the concept of the 'Monday test.' Films often open big due to star power and scale, maintain momentum over the weekend, but falter on Monday if reviews are negative. According to Sacnilk, "Indian 2" is such a film.

On its first Monday, "Indian 2" saw a significant drop, earning ?3.15 crore nett, based on early estimates. The film had already been on a steady decline over the weekend. It collected Rs 15.35 crore on its third day, down from Rs 18.2 crore on Saturday, which was a drop from its opening day collection of Rs 25.6 crore.

The majority of the collection comes from the Tamil market, followed by the Telugu market (where the film is titled "Bharateeyudu 2"), with the smallest share from the Hindi version (titled "Hindustani 2"). The language-wise distribution for Monday's collection hasn't been determined yet. Given the relatively low earnings on the first day of the week, "Indian 2" is likely to see further declines throughout the week.

"Indian 2" is the sequel to the 1996 cult film "Indian," also directed by Shankar. The sequel is seen as a comeback for Shankar, who faced a downturn after the death of writer Sujatha in 2008.

The Shankar-Sujatha duo produced many hits in the Tamil film industry, with "Enthiran," starring Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai, being a pinnacle. Their other hits include "Indian," "Mudhalvan," "Boys," and "Sivaji: The Boss." Shankar co-wrote the script for "Indian 2" with B. Jeyamohan, Kabilan Vairamuthu, and Lakshmi Saravana Kumar.

In the film, Kamal Haasan reprises his role as Senapathy, affectionately called 'Indian Thatha' by fans, fighting corruption using the ancient Indian martial art, varma kalai. The original film's music was composed by A. R. Rahman, while Anirudh Ravichander scored the sequel. "Indian 2" is produced by Lyca Productions and Red Giant Movies, and features Siddharth, S. J. Suryah, Bobby Simha, Gulshan Grover, and the late Nedumudi Venu.