The Pathaan party refuses to stop. Over five weeks since its release, the Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone and John Abraham-starrer has become the highest-grossing Hindi film. With its domestic figure standing at R513.70 crore, it has surpassed the collections of the Hindi version of Baahubali: The Conclusion to grab the top spot. For Shridhar Raghavan, who wrote the espionage thriller, the mammoth success reaffirms his faith in the audiences’ love for Hindi cinema.

“[The success] is particularly heartening considering the gloomy, doomsday narrative that was projected around Hindi films over the last couple of years. Naysayers claimed that our industry had lost the pulse of the audience, and painted depressing scenarios,” he says. 

Since 2020, Bollywood found itself at the receiving end of unprecedented hate. On one hand, it battled the nepotism debate, which took an ugly turn after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. On the other hand, a damning narrative took shape about how the film industry was anti-national, and the Boycott Bollywood hashtag dominated online discourse. Several stars, including Khan and Padukone, were trolled on social media. It was projected that the public had rejected Bollywood. That several Hindi releases, big and small, sank at the box office last year, only furthered this narrative.

The release of Pathaan too was surrounded by negativity, as its song Besharam rang sparked controversy. However, the movie’s Rs. 50-crore-plus opening showed that social media noise wasn’t echoed by people on ground. Had Raghavan anticipated it to be such a runaway success? “It’s impossible to anticipate such a success, especially at the writing stage. As a writer, you try to make it as taut and emotionally engaging as you can on paper, and hope for magic to happen.”

Many reasons can be attributed to its glorious run — from the enduring appeal of Khan who returned to the screen after four years, to the vision that led to creating a tent-pole actioner. Raghavan hopes that it indicates a brighter future for Hindi movies after the negativity of the past three years. “Hopefully, Pathaan will herald the beginning of a more positive narrative for the industry, and serve as a gentle reminder that whenever anyone makes a film that connects with the audience, they will embrace [it]. Indians love the theatre-going experience, and our cinema is in our DNA.”