So far, 2022 has been full of surprises. The box office finally turned around, with many films making the cash registers ring. The first quarter’s highlight is still The Kashmir Files. The film, according to director Vivek Agnihotri, has changed a number of things. When you consider that it was made on a budget of Rs. 15 crore and has already surpassed Rs. 200 crore, it has achieved a profit of over 1,000%. “It revived single-screen markets even in C and D centres. There is a huge demand for it in villages, so we are doing the screenings in balloon theatres,” he tells us.

Trade expert Atul Mohan is elated with the revival of theatres: “It’s been a great quarter. But the figures still are in the range of Rs. 375-400 crore, which is nearly half of what each quarter used to be in 2019 or 2018. We used to have a box office of Rs. 700-750 crore on an average every three months.”

Another success story has been that of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Gangubai Kathiawadi. Joining the Rs. 100 crore club, it was actor Alia Bhatt’s show all the way. But actor Akshay Kumar’s Bachchhan Paandey failed to meet expectations, and similar was the fate of actor Prabhas’ Radhe Shyam.

Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 Multiplex and Maratha Mandir cinema, says the dependence on south films dubbed in Hindi should reduce: “RRR and Pushpa: The Rise - Part 01 (2021) were zabardast, and humein un pe depend rehna pada. KGF 2 is coming up. But we hope Bollywood also makes films that we can depend on.”

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh’s opinion of this quarter is “you win some, you lose some”, but he remains hopeful for the post-pandemic future of box office.

(All figures as per Bollywood Hungama, pan-India collections for Hindi releases)

- THE KASHMIR FILES - Rs. 238.28 CRORE

- RRR - Rs. 132.59 CRORE

- GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI - Rs. 128.50 CRORE

- BACHCHHAN PAANDEY - Rs. 49.88 CRORE

- RADHE SHYAM - Rs. 19.30 CRORE