Baby John, starring Varun Dhawan in his most dramatic role, was ultimately released in theatres on Christmas Day, December 25. With a special appearance by Salman Khan in the post-climax sequence, the mass commercial action film also stars Rajpal Yadav, Jackie Shroff, Wamiqa Gabbi, and Keerthy Suresh in the main characters. Audiences have given Baby John, an adaptation of Atlee’s 2016 Tamil smash Theri, varying degrees of positive to mediocre reviews. One half has praised Varun’s portrayal, the film’s fast-paced narrative, and its strong action sequences, while the other half has condemned the movie for being too predictable and compared it to a scene-by-scene re-enactment of Theri.
Early projections indicate that Baby John made Rs 12.50 crore on its first day of business. Varun’s biggest opener in the previous five years is this one. On its first day, his 2019 movie Kalank, a multi-starrer starring Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Aditya Roy Kapur, and Sonakshi Sinha, brought in Rs 21.60 crore. Street Dancer 3D (2020), Jug Jugg Jeeyo (2022), and Bhediya (2022), Varun’s most recent theatrical releases, had not had a double-digit opening.
Allu Arjun, Rashmika Mandanna, and Fahadh Faasil’s Pushpa 2: The Rule, which came out on December 5, is a fierce rival to Baby John. The pan-India actioner made Rs 15 crore on Wednesday, Christmas Day, in its third week of operation. Pushpa 2 has already earned over Rs 700 crore net in its dubbed Hindi version.
With the New Year festive season beginning from Christmas, it will be interesting to see how Baby John fares at the box office from now in its extended opening weekend. The Varun Dhawan-starrer is backed by Atlee and Priya Atlee, Murad Khetani, and Jyoti Deshpande under their banners A For Apple Studios, Cine1 Studios, and Jio Studios.
