'Operation Valentine', starring Varun Tej and Manushi Chhillar in the lead roles, is all set to hit the screens on March 1. The real-life events of the Pulwama attack and the Balakot airstrikes inspire the highly-packed action thriller. It shows how the Air Force officers gave it all to avenge the terrorist attacks on Pulwama. We spoke to trade expert and exhibitor Akshaye Rathi for his opinion on the first-day box office prediction of Shakti Pratap Singh's directorial. It is to be noted that 'Operation Valentine' will be released in both Telugu and Hindi.

Akshaye Rathi said, ''It's predominantly a Telugu film and dubbed in Hindi. So, the bulk of the business will be in the Telugu-speaking states which are Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. In Hindi, it has been given a limited release and I hope the content and the appeal of the subject which is still relevant in the minds of the people, will grow and do something respectful in Hindi.''

He added, ''It may start slow and consolidate its position day by day and grow from strength to strength.

When asked if the box office collections of 'Operation Valentine' might get affected as people have seen similar story in 'Fighter', to which Rathi replied, ''Not essentially. We had three movies based on the lives of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh that came on the same day. Two of them really well. While Fighter is a hardcore mass-appeal film, Operation Valentine may be the same but it is told in a very different way and that's why I think it might have an appeal. Also, the predominant market of the film is the Telugu states. Hindi is just the strawberry on top of it. 

Predicting the day 1 box office collection of 'Operation Valentine', he said, ''Telugu version can do anything between Rs 4-5 crore and the Hindi version might do a crore on Day 1.''