'L2: Empuraan' box office collection day 6: Mohanlal's film falls on 1st Tuesday, blockbuster actioner re-censored after controversy

Mollywood thespian Mohanlal's latest film L2: Empuraan has seen a fall in its daily India collections on its sixth day at the box office. The film's daily box office numbers dropped below ₹10 crore for the first time ever since its theatrical release.

The film raked in ₹21 crore on its opening day, ₹11.1 crore on its first Friday, ₹13.25 crore on its first Saturday, ₹13.65 crore on its first Sunday, ₹11.15 crore on its first Monday, and around ₹9 crore on its first Tuesday. With this, Empuraan's total India box office collection stacked up to ₹79.15 crore as of Tuesday. 

The film's Malayalam shows logged an overall occupancy of 51.35 per cent whereas its Telugu shows had an occupancy of 12.28 per cent on April 1. L2: Empuraan's Tamil and Hindi logged an overall occupancy of 17.46 per cent and 9.04 per cent, respectively, acccording to film trade portal Sacnilk. 

Meanwhile, the film's makers have made 24 "voluntary cuts" totalling 2.08 minutes after strong and sustained backlash from the audience over the sequences that appeared to depict the 2002 Gujarat riots as well as its 'anti-Hindu' ideology. 

The re-edited version of the film has been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) regional officer and was first released on Tuesday night. As per the re-censor certificate, changes made to the film include changes in the name of the character Balraj aka Baba Bajrangi, the antagonist who leads a mob.

This was seen as a reference to the Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi who was sentenced to life imprisonment for being the mastermind of the Naroda Patiya massacre in 2002. The character has been renamed as Baldev in the re-censored version. 

Moreover, the display card mentioning the time of events as 'India 2002' to 'a few years ago'. 

The visuals of vehicles in front of a religious structure, scenes of violence against women, and dead bodies during the riots have been cut from the film. Additionally, a conversation between young Zayed Masood (played by director Prithviraj Sukumaran) and his father during the riots was removed.

References to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which portrayed the ruling party targeting political opponents, were also eliminated, along with audio muting of any NIA mentions.

Directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran, L2: Empuraan is the sequel of the 2019 blockbuster Lucifer. The film focuses on the journey of Stephen Nedumpally, a man who is leading a double life as Khureshi Ab'raam, an enigmatic leader of a dangerous crime syndicate. 

Besides Mohanlal and Prithviraj Sukumaran, the film features Tovino Thomas, Manju Warrier, Indrajith Sukumaran, Kishore, Sachin Khedekar, and Nikhat Khan in pivotal roles.