Box office: Holi release Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar needs to carry forward the momentum that...

Writer-producer Luv Ranjan's 'Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar', starring Ranbir Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia, among others, releases in theatres on March 8, 2023. (Screen shot/T-Series)

Pathaan set a new box-office record for the all-time highest grossing Hindi film this year. Before this, the Hindi version of Baahubali: The Conclusion (2017) had held the record for almost six years with earnings of Rs 511 crore in theatres.

While no Bollywood movie was even coming close to that, things went further downhill between 2020-21 when the pandemic struck and no new films were arriving. Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi revived the industry in late 2021 as it almost ended up scoring a double century, while 2022 saw the release of Brahmastra, The Kashmir Files and Drishyam 2 - the last of these made it into the 200 Crore Club. From south, the dubbed Hindi version of RRR was a double century maker too and the only film which seemed like it could come close to Baahubali: The Conclusion's record was KGF: Chapter 2 which had its Hindi version going past the Rs 400 crore mark - it eventually close at Rs 434.70 crore.

In a way this worked well for the entire film industry as it gave confidence that audiences were willing to step out of their houses if there was something truly cinematic in the offering. Towards the close of 2022 when James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water scored a huge triple century with collections going past Rs 365 crore, the stage was set for Pathaan to take forward the momentum.

Thankfully that did happen with the film currently standing at around Rs 535 crore in India with just the Hindi version going past the Rs 516 crore mark. This is a new record that has been created and the people who have made it possible are Shah Rukh Khan, Siddharth Anand, Aditya Chopra, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone as well as the composers Vishal-Shekhar with chartbuster songs like ‘Jhoome Jo Pathaan’ and ‘Besharam Rang’.

So where does the film head from here? Well, currently in its sixth week, the film has had a great run already and could well have come to a tipping point a few days back itself had Selfiee and Shehzada worked. Since they didn’t, Pathaan has managed to keep collecting quite well right till Sunday and it’s going to stay the same on Monday and Tuesday as well due to no new competition.

On Wednesday, March 8 (Holi) Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar is arriving and would be massive competition, the holiday factor means footfalls would still be generated for Pathaan - it seems likely the film will cross Rs 545 crore in earnings from India alone, and might even shoot for Rs 550 crore in ticket sales.

As for Ranbir Kapoor, he now has a job at hand. His last film Brahmastra had crossed the Rs 250 crore mark after the major disappointment of Shamshera and had brought him back on the map of being one of the youngest superstars around. The good news is that so far, everything about Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar has worked with the audience. The promo has been loved by its target audience, youth (the trailer alone has been viewed 65 million times), while each of the songs (courtesy, Pritam), has gained good traction. There is good curiosity to check out the revenge romcom.

Of late, first-day earnings over Rs 10 crore have become difficult to come by. However, industry insiders say Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar will need to cross Rs 15 crore in ticket sales on Day 1 if it is to carry forward the momentum that has been set by Pathaan.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources