Antony box office collection Day 1 - Joju George starrer makes a strong opening; mints ₹1 crore

Known for his massy action films, Malayalam director Joshiy’s latest movie Antony, starring Joju George and Kalyani Priyadarshan, released on December 1. The story revolves around Antony (Joju), a violent gangster who unintentionally takes the life of Ann Maria’s (Kalyani) father. She is a college student, who is known for her equally aggressive nature. When they finally decide to reform their ways, things take an unexpected turn due to the arrival of an old enemy. Written by Rajesh Varma, the movie opened to mixed reviews. But despite criticism for its old-school screenplay, the action film managed to make decent numbers at the box office on Day 1. 

Joju George starrer earned ₹1 crore at the box office on opening day

Despite criticism for the lack of a creative screenplay, viewers lauded the lead actors’ performance in the film, calling them the saviours of this Joshiy action flick. The action drama film - starring Joju and Kalyani - managed to earn ₹1 crore on its opening day. The movie witnessed an overall 17.81% ‘Malayalam occupancy’ on Day 1, with the maximum occupancy of 31.33% during night shows. 

Antony movie review - Joju George, Kalyani Priyadarshan flex their muscles in typical Joshiy film 

However, Antony is expected to lure more audiences over the weekend. The film may even overtake Mukesh’s Philip’s and Shine Tom Chacko’s Dance Party at the box office.

Kalyani Priyadarshan on how she prepared for her character in Antony

In a recent interview with OTTplay, the Hridayam actress opened up about her preparation for stepping into the shoes of Ann Maria. “One good thing about Malayalam cinema is that you get three weeks to prepare for a role that requires much more than that. So, for those three weeks, I had intense training. Joshiy sir knew that it wasn’t easy for anyone to learn so much in a limited amount of time, and that helped,” Kalyani said.

The actress described her intense workouts as exhausting, but said that she was impressed by the results. “He scheduled the fights for the end. I don’t know whether he did it keeping in mind that if I do get injured, all the talkie portions would still be over (laughs) or if he knew an extra month would give me more time to get better at the action scenes. Every day after the pack-up, I used to train for an hour and a half. It was exhausting but it came out well,” she elaborated.

Joju George is all set to make his directorial debut 

The Iratta star is all set to foray into film direction with the movie Pani. The project has been officially announced, and it turns out that Joju will be playing the lead role in his directorial debut. Touted to be a thriller, Pani is based on a rivalry between two gangs. 

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