Box Office India Records

Pathaan has breached the £4 million mark in United Kingdom as it sits on around £4.3 million till date and there is a little more to come. This number was just unthinkable before the release of Pathaan as the biggest films were just getting over the £1 million.

It was believed within the UK market that if Shahrukh Khan delivered a good film then the records of Dhoom 3 and Bajrangi Bhaijaan should be in danger and maybe even the £3 million mark. The expectations should have been higher as films were crossing £2 million 15-20 years ago but the market was just not the same as as before.

United Kingdom has always been the main overseas market for Hindi films since the last ten years when it diminished. The circuit has a long history of Hindi releases since the 50's and it was in the mid 60's that releases became regular. Below is the evolution of the United Kingdom market for Hindi films from £100k to £4 million

£100k - Do Raaste (1970) - The first film to break the £100k as it did a share of 9 lakhs and a gross of a little over £100k in United Kingdom. The music of the film was a rage.

£250k - Purab Aur Paschim (1971) - A historic BLOCKBUSTER in UK which was a golden jubilee hit running for over 50 weeks in London. The shows were weekend shows only but this film had a show every week for 50 weeks. The share in United Kingdom was an insane 25 lakhs and the film grossed around £285k.

£500k and £1 million - The Purab Aur Paschim record was finally broken 23 years later with the release of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) which took the market to another level. The market had deteriorated due to video and it was this film that bought the audiences back again and Hindi films started to being consumed in cinemas as well rather than at home. Kum Aapke Hain Hain grossed £1.05 million in United Kingdom.

£1.5 million - After £1 million being breached it was not long that £1.5 million came along as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) crossed  the mark the very next year. It was the landmark film which made Shahrukh Khan a huge megastar in United Kingdom and overseas. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge grossed £1.58 million in United Kingdom.

£2 million - This mark was hit in 2001 with Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) which was a rage and remained the biggest grosser for 9 nine years and still probably has the highest number of footfalls for a Hindi film in the modern era in United Kingdom. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham grossed £2.5 million

£3 and £4 million - Pathaan(2023) did the job on both these benchmarks as it takes the business in United Kingdom to another level. It is the biggest blockbuster in UK since Kabhi Khush Kabhie Gham and it is only Shahrukh Khan who can break this record and even target the next benchmark which is £5 million. Pathaan will probably end up with around £4.4 million mark.

Note - There were films like Bobby (1973), Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974) and Dharam Veer (1977) which went close or had a similar share to Purab Aur Paschim but the grosses were lower. It was all rentals then and post the insane success of Purab Aur Pashchim recovery became faster. Dharam Veer had a record initial of £50k in just 23 shows in 5 cities driven by the blockbuster music with two Mohammad Rafi solo's becoming a rage. Even in those days it was the music which could take a film to another level in UK and its pretty much the same today.

This day thirty one years back saw Dil and Ghayal release on the same day on 22^nd June 1990 and both films proved to be BLOCKBUSTERS. It was one of the rare occasions that two films released together both emerged BLOCKBUSTERS.

Ghayal was the action film but it was Dil that took the lead at the box office from the first day and it remained that way for the first six months. The music of Dil was huge and it was a youth love story for the mass audience. The business of Dil was better than Ghayal by around 20% in all circuits by the end of 1990 except for CP Berar and the South circuits.

The Ghayal story did not finish in 1990 and went on and on. The film had its first repeat run in Mumbai on 27th September 1991 and the response was earth shattering as despite being one year old the film was competing with new blockbuster films.

Ghayal started to catch Dil up in 1991 with strong repeat runs as Sunny Deol consolidated the action image. The business of Ghayal remained lower than Dil in Delhi / UP and East India but in other circuits it caught up and went ahead. It became the highest grossing film of 1990 in early 1992 as it collected almost 1 crore nett in a huge repeat run in Mumbai circuit.

In this repeat run the film collected more in the first week that the first week of the original run and that too when the first run itself had taken a big start. the second week in this run saw an insane 20% increase in collections as they released more prints. Ghayal is the only film to have such high collections in repeat run in any city in one week (not counting some old films released in colour). The film had the better occupancy than all films released in August, September, October and November in 1991 barring Saudagar and Phool Aur Kaante. The repeat run first week was even better than a big film like Lamhe (10.74 lakhs and 82%).

The numbers for the first week in original run and repeat run in Mumbai city of Ghayal are as follows. The repeat run numbers were simply phenomenal.

Mumbai City city (Original Release - 22/06/1990)

Metro - 2,02,142 (HF)

Gaeity - 1,21,660 (HF)

Ganesh - 59,355 (HF)

Bijlee - 59,725 (HF)

Bahar - 1,01,327 (HF)

Topiwala - 85,177 (HF)

Sona - 84,410 (HF)

Akash - 49,784 (HF)

Diamond - 55,622 (HF)

Jai Ganesh - 77,916 (HF)

TOTAL - 8,97,118 (All Cinemas Housefull)

Mumbai city (Re - Release 27/09/91)

Minerva - 1,97,564 (HF)

Gaeity - 1,47,531 (HF)

Satyam - 1,50,134 (HF)

Anupam - 86,492 (HF)

Darpan - 87,424

Sona - 84,312 (HF)

Rupam - 1,04,628 (HF)

Basant - 1,13,926

Akash - 49,786 (HF)

Uday - 80,512 (HF)

TOTAL - 11,02,309 (8 out 11 cinemas HF, 99%)

Ghayal set records in repeat runs. No film from the nineties was even close to it in repeat runs and only Sholay has higher business in repeat runs in the history of Hindi cinema. Ghayal contiuned to have more repeat runs as the Sunny Deol action image consolidated through the nineties and eventually went to 3.25 crore nett plus in Mumbai which was an extraordinary total.

Dil and Ghayal were huge blockbusters with both films clocking up over 2.50 crore footfalls which is around 300 crore nett plus today in terms of business today. The biggest achievement of Ghayal was that it became an iconic film in time. Ghayal had actual results post release as huge crowds turned up to watch repeat runs of the film whenever it was released.

The year gone by was a disaster for films and actors with hardly any actors finding appreciation but the one that did was Ajay Devgn for Tanhaji The Unsung Warrior and it turned out to be a one horse race for best actor. The applause that Ajay Devgn got in cinemas of Maharashtra has not been seen in a long time. It could be due to the local flavour of the film but you still have to perform well to get the response.

It was a one horse race in 2020 because of the pandemic but even if the year was normal then still Ajay Devgn would have had a good chance of coming out on top. There may have been some films which challenged the numbers but it would have been tough. The only other actors to get some eyeballs this were Tiger Shroff, Akshay Kumar and Varun Dhawan be it in theatres, OTT or television but it was mid level appreciation and probably mainly from fans. Sushant Rajput also got eyeballs with Dil Bechara which released post his death on Hotstar but the situation was totally different a few months later on television when the film got dreadfull ratings.

Ajay Devgn gave the biggest HIT of the year with Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior and the last time this happened was in 1991 with his first release Phool Aur Kaante which was the biggest HIT of 1991. The difference being that Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior was the biggest HIT and the biggest GROSSER while of 2020 Phool Aur Kaante was the biggest HIT but the second biggest grosser in 1991. Phool Aur Kaante was second to the Subhash Ghai magnum opus Saudagar but Phool Aur Kaante had far lower costs than Saudagar making it a bigger HIT.

The situation was similar to 2019 when Kabir Singh was the biggest HIT while War was the biggest grosser. Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior recorded the highest footfalls ever for an Ajay Devgn film and was his third film to cross 2 crore footfalls after Phool Aur Kaante and Ishq. The film also had the second highest footfalls in the the last two years after Kabir Singh. The biggest BLOCKBUSTER of your career and huge applause for a performance from the audience which stands out made it Ajay Devgns year.

Coincidently Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior and Phool Aur Kaante both clashed with female orientated films which starred the top actresses of the respective times. Phool Aur Kaante clashed with Lamhe featuring Sridevi and Tanhaji - The Unsung Warrior clashed with Chhapaak featuring. Deepika Padukone. Both Lamhe and Chhapaak were huge FLOPS and totally rejected by the public.