Ajay Devgn’s Raid 2 hit theatres on May 1. The crime thriller earned ₹18.25 crore at the box office on its opening day, according to a Sacnilk report. 

The film saw an overall Hindi occupancy of 34.36% across the country. Breaking it down further: morning shows had 21.23% occupancy, afternoon shows went up to 35.76%, evening shows hit 38.45% and night shows peaked at 42%. 

Directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, Raid 2 is the much-awaited sequel to Ajay Devgn’s 2018 hit Raid. Seven years after the original film hit theatres, Ajay returns as IRS officer Amay Patnaik. This time, he is up against Manohar Dhankar, aka Dada Manohar Bhai, played by Riteish Deshmukh.

Raid 2 also features Vaani Kapoor, Rajat Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Supriya Pathak and Amit Sial in key roles.

In the first Raid film, Ileana D’Cruz played Ajay Devgn’s on-screen wife. However, in Raid 2, that role is now played by Vaani Kapoor. Naturally, fans were curious about the change.

At a press meet before the film’s release, when a journalist asked about the casting switch, Ajay Devgn jumped in before Vaani could respond. He said, “That’s true, but the character can change. I mean if you see a lot of Hollywood films also, you know Sean Connery is no more James Bond. It’s the character you follow.”

In an NDTV review, film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave Raid 2 2 out of 5 stars. 

He wrote, “Raid 2, riding on the star power of Ajay Devgn, buttressed by the presence of Riteish Deshmukh as the antagonist, is a maze of facile contrivances. The outcome does not match the film’s ambition and the performances, commendably restrained as they are, fail to offset the drudgery.”

Raid 2 has been bankrolled by Abhishek Pathak, Kumar Mangat Pathak, Bhushan Kumar, Gaurav Nanda and Krishan Kumar Dua under the banners of Panorama Studios and T-Series.