 Upon release "Citizen" received positive reviews from critics and was successful and completed 100-day run at the box office, justifying a relatively large budget of 8 crore.The review from The Hindu labelled it as a "definite milestone in Ajit's acting career", but criticised the synchronisation between the dubbing artiste, Anuradha, and Nagma.The film was later dubbed and released as "Citizen" in Telugu, to mixed reviews.