RDX Kerala box office collection set to trump King of Kotha’s worldwide gross, heralds new dawn for action films

Debutant filmmaker Nahas Hidayath has scored a clear winner with his action-thriller RDX : Robert Doney Xavier. The movie, starring Shane Nigam, Antony Varghese and Neeraj Madhav, has already managed to outperform its Onam counterparts – Dulquer Salmaan’s King of Kotha and Nivin Pauly’s Ramachandra Boss and Co – and is set to create a new record for action movies in the industry.

Having already won over the youth audience since its release on August 25, the film covered good ground to beat King of Kotha, which had a massive pre-release buzz and wide release, and benefited from it.

Also read: RDX movie review: Shane Nigam, Antony Varghese's film rides high on pulsating action scenes 

RDX trumps Dulquer Salmaan’s gangster drama

While King of Kotha still held the edge over RDX after the first week, the Nahas Hidayath film is now all set to trump the gangster drama’s worldwide box office gross of Rs 40 crore. RDX, which completed two weeks since its release, has managed to collect Rs 40 crore from Kerala box office alone and has extended its worldwide earnings to Rs 75 crore, with it opening in more countries such as Ireland from this week.

While RDX might not breach the Rs 100 crore mark in Malayalam cinema with Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan now running in over 300+ screens in Kerala and other theatres across the country, it’s still a massive feat for a movie to hold its own during an Onam release that saw films with two stars along with Jailer that also had a decent number of theatres in the State.

The movie’s success at the box office would also give a lot of confidence to directors to make action films mounted on a bigger scale - something that Malayalam cinema has rarely attempted. The film has also won praise from all quarters, with actors such as Udayanidhi Stalin and Keerthy Suresh lauding its making.

Also read: RDX actor Babu Antony: Action movies were considered ‘cheap’ by some people in Malayalam film industry in the past 

RDX set for OTT release on Netflix

RDX marks its producers’ second consecutive Netflix release . The movie was backed by Minnal Murali producers Weekend Blockbusters, which had released the Tovino Thomas film directly on the streaming platform. While the makers are yet to officially reveal the film’s OTT release date, it’s expected to release on Netflix in October.