Ajay Devgn shared this image. Ajay Devgn in the trailer. (courtesy: AjayDevgn)
Ajay Devgn's Maidaan made its big-screen debut on April 10. On its second day, the sports drama raked in ₹4.5 crore across all languages, according to a Sacnilk report. In total, the film, directed by Amit Sharma, has amassed ₹7.43 crore, including special previews and day 2 collections (so far). Maidaan is the biopic of Syed Abdul Rahim, who served as a coach and manager of the Indian football team from 1950 to 1963. In addition to Ajay Devgn, Priyamani and Nitanshi Goel also play pivotal roles in the film. Maidaan is jointly supported by Zee Studios, Bayview Projects, and Fresh Lime Films.
Maidaan has clashed with Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff's Bade Miyan Chote Miyan at the box office. During the trailer launch event of his film, Ajay Devgn talked about the clash. The actor said, “I would not call it a clash. If you call it clash, then it means that two films should not be released on the same day. But there are times when you have to do this.”
He continued, “Both films are of different genres. We are all like a family, we are friends. We are not looking at it like a clash, we are looking at it like a big weekend and both the films will do well.” FYI: Bade Miyan Chote Miyan collected ₹ 15.50 crore on its opening day.
In an NDTV review, film critic Saibal Chatterjee wrote, “Maidaan falls back on an array of familiar tics. A woman delivers a pep-talk when a piece of shocking news threatens to break Rahim's spirit. The man takes a tough decision about his son when India's participation in the 1962 Asiad - which constitutes the film's climax - is under a cloud. Crowds in Jakarta turn against the Indians, leading to rioting and sloganeering on the streets and in the stadium. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong for the team.”
“Rahim, being the man he is, takes it all on the chin. The lead actor gets into the skin of the character without breaking a sweat. But the film is seldom that firm-footed. Maidaan tells an overlong, peppered-with-fiction narrative that struggles to balance the real and essential with its unabashed goal of working the audience up into a frenzy,” Saibal Chatterjee added.