'The Kashmir Files' inches closer to Rs 200-crore club as unstoppable box office run continues

"The Kashmir Files" has received widespread government backing as well.

In a shocking turn of events, an Akshay Kumar starrer has seen fairly less takers while audiences storm theatres to watch Vivek Agnihotri’s "The Kashmir Files". "Bachchan Pandey" is a film that has all the elements for it to be a big hit. For starters, it has megastar Kumar, whose movies have seldom bombed at the box office in the recent years. It is a big action drama replete with songs and a star cast – a complete package for a Bollywood masala movie buff.

"The Kashmir Files" is a movie that didn’t have large scale promotions or publicity or even big stars such as Kumar and yet is all set to enter the Rs 200 crore club, surpassing all expectations. The film has no songs or comic relief and still has catapulted into an unstoppable phenomenon.

The drama is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1990 and has minted over Rs 190 crore (till Tuesday) since its release on March 11. Actors Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher and Pallavi Joshi lead the cast of the emotional drama.

According to trade observer Himesh Mankad, the film, which had a modest release across 600 screens on its opening day, added 1,400 more screens by the end of the first weekend. As of Monday, the film was running to packed houses across 4000 screens in the country, news agency PTI quoted him as saying.

On the online ticket booking platform BookMyShow, "The Kashmir Files" has crossed 5 million ticket sales. Ashish Saksena, COO Cinemas, BookMyShow, described the film as an "unexpected underdog" which has become the "big hero of the season". "The blockbuster has crossed a whopping 5 million in ticket sales on BookMyShow within less than two weeks, making it the second fastest Hindi film to reach this mark (following that of the mega-movie 'Dangal'),” Saksena was quoted by PTI.

BookMyShow has seen a flurry of online ticket sales from Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chennai.

The movie has received widespread government backing as well and has been made tax-free in several BJP-ruled states. In a rarity, even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other politicians publicly endorsed the film. Not just that, the euphoria around the movie is all over social media, newspapers and TV channels.

"The Kashmir Files" has overshadowed not just "Bachchan Pandey", but Prabhas-starrer "Radhe Shyam" too. It remains to be seen if SS Rajamouli’s long-awaited "RRR" starring NTR Junior, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn will also bear the brunt of "Kashmir Files" unstoppable run.