The industry is shocked. In just two days, The Kashmir Files has netted Rs 12.05 crore just from India. That's pretty much the entire budget of the film, which practically arrived sans any conventional marketing and promotion tools, and that too at a mere 500-odd screens. Yes, there were hopes from the film but on the same level as that of Vivek Agnihotri's last geopolitical drama thriller The Tashkent Files. That film had seen an even smaller release, had opened at Rs 40 lakh, and gone on to collect Rs 3.5 crore in its first week and then ended at Rs 18 crore lifetime.
The Kashmir Files collected Rs 3.55 crore on its first day itself and will comfortably surpass Rs 18 crore in a matter of two and half a days.
So what really happened here? Well, that's something filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, an Indian Institute of Mass Communication alumni and certified from Harvard Extension School, might want to suggest as a topic for a case study for management students.
The film didn't go to The Kapil Sharma Show for promotion, as has been widely publicized already. Instead, the campaign was run on social media, and that too by Vivek Agnihotri himself, as he took the film to various cities globally and then shared videos and tidbits around what happened there. He spoke about the film patiently and then like a protective mother, went on to attack those who attacked his film.
Still, till the evening before release, no one - neither those associated with the film, nor anyone from trade (including myself) - could predict correctly where it was headed. The common refrain was: 'The Tashkent Files started at Rs 40 lakh... Well, The Kashmir Files has a franchise value attached to it now, so it will do Rs 1 crore, may be Rs 1.5 crore at best.' No one, just no one could foresee that there was an audience out there, a silent one at that, which didn't make much noise on social media, waiting to latch on it once the film released in theatres.
The results were there to be seen as the film ended up doing double the best-case scenario predictions. At Rs 3.55 crore, it came close to what a big film like Radhe Shyam [Hindi] did on its first day [Rs 4.5 crore], and now has comfortably surpassed it by leaps and bounds.
In the process, the film has broken quite a few trade myths:
1. Docudrama films don’t work
The film is a docudrama - a retelling of events that happened. There are hardly any filmy elements to make the scenes look stylish. The proceedings are black and white, something that is bound to have polarized reactions, and still, the film is doing well all over.
2. 3 hour long films don’t work
To be sure, a good film can hold your attention for three, even three and a half hours, and a bad film won't hold you for even an hour and a half. Films like Lagaan, Gadar-Ek Prem Katha, Hum Aapke Hain Koun, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham have showed that in the past. Now The Kashmir Files, without songs and dances, and a largely uncomfortable theme, has been going strong even at a three-hour length.
3. Star-less films don’t work
The general consensus is: If a film doesn't boast of a star on the poster, then it is likely to have a limited run. Well, The Kashmir Files doesn't have stars; it has actors. Veterans Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi lead from the front. As for the youth, there is Darshan Kumar, whose claim to fame was being Priyanka Chopra's supportive husband in Mary Kom, Anushka Sharma's nemesis in NH10 and an ISI agent in Manoj Bajpayee-starrer The Family Man. The 35-year-old is playing a 20-something student in the film, and rather convincingly.
4. Release against a big film won’t work
Time and again one has heard a refrain from films that flopped that competition was too mighty in the form of a big release and hence it didn't get adequate screens. In case of The Kashmir Files, there were three major competitors. While new release Radhe Shyam was all over the auditoriums with maximum screens and shows been allocated to it, past releases Gangubai Kathiawadi and The Batman were already doing well. Today, the film is doing more than the combined business of all these films, and the screen count has gone up to 2,000.
5. OTT friendly film in cinemas won’t work
The biggest categorization that has emerged in the last couple of years of pandemic is that of a theatrical vs OTT film. With the advent of a number of digital channels, and a number of films doing quite well there, the films are being bracketed. Films, especially those with no star on the poster and a rather unconventional subject, are typically being put into the OTT category. If one looks at The Kashmir Files, it ticks all the box for such category. Still, it dared to release in theatres, and the results are there to be seen.
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