CAN ‘THE KASHMIR FILES’ BE THE BIGGEST HINDI BLOCKBUSTER EVER? | 15 March, 2022

For some, the question above may seem like a rhetoric. For, it is not often that one sees a more than fourfold increase in number of screens by day 3 of a film’s release. One has also never seen the Monday collections of a film being as good as the Sunday collections — that too, after a phenomenal Sunday. One has never witnessed a Tuesday which is more bountiful than even a super-fantastic Monday! But the film seems poised to close today (Tuesday, March 15) at around Rs. 18 crore (Monday closed at Rs. 15.05 crore)!!

The fourth day’s collection of Uri: The Surgical Strike was Rs. 10.50 crore whereas the fourth day of TKF closed at Rs. 15.05 crore. The fifth day of Uri closed at Rs. 9.60 crore whereas the fifth day of TKF is likely to close around Rs. 18 crore! Going by this analogy, it seems very likely that as against the Rs. 265 crore lifetime collections of Uri: The Surgical Strike, those of The Kashmir Files could go up to Rs. 300 crore!! It just could surpass the total collections of the biggest Hindi blockbuster to-date, Dangal. Yes, it is possible that The Kashmir Files just could end up at more than Rs. 385 crore! For, the film seems to have caught the fancy of the entire nation.

Going merely by return on investment, The Kashmir Files seems poised to become the biggest blockbuster ever in the history of the entire Indian film industry! For, it has cost only Rs. 15 crore to make. If it nets Rs. 200 crore, it would mean 13 times the investment. If it nets Rs. 250 crore, the return would be 16-17 times the investment. And if the film touches the Rs. 300-crore mark, the return would be 20 times!! One doesn’t remember any other film fetching such returns on investment.