One of the biggest openings for a Bollywood film is none other than “Pathaan,” the highly awaited Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback movie from Yash Raj Films, which is being released in over 100 countries all over the world.
Producer Aditya Chopra’s spy universe, which also includes the “Tiger” franchise, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif, and “War,” starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff, Pathaan movie, which also stars Deepika Padukone and John Abraham, is directed by Siddharth Anand.
Vikram Vedha, a Bollywood movie starring Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, and Radhika Apte, was released in more than 100 countries in 2022.
In December 2022, “Pathaan” found itself at the centre of a controversy after Bharatiya Janata Party members in India objected to a song in the movie, leading to the movie’s censorship. However, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi instructed party members to refrain from making “unnecessary comments” about movies in recent days, the movie inadvertently earned a boost.
The Bollywood theatre industry, which suffered in 2022 owing to a string of failures, has also benefited from the reopening of 25 single-screen theatres in northern and western India that had closed as a result of COVID-19 to show “Pathaan.”
Leading multiplex chains in India have also seen strong advance sales, with PVR estimating that about 500,000 tickets have been sold and Inox reporting that about 275,000 have. More than 4000 screens in India are hosting the movie’s premiere.
Based on “compelling advances,” box office analyst Elara Capital projects a first-day take of INR400 million ($5 million) in India alone and lifetime sales of INR2-2.5 billion ($25-30 million) there, “assuming strong reviews and word of mouth exposure ensue.”
The Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu versions of “Pathaan” will be available on January 25. India observes Republic Day on January 26 as a national holiday.
One of Bollywood’s top romantic actors is known as Khan. His most recent movie to be released as a single hero was “Zero” in 2018, yet some of his most recent box office hits have disappointed. Since then, he has made appearances in the movies “Laal Singh Chaddha” and “Brahmastra Part One: Shiva” in 2022.
The joint managing director of PVR Limited, Sanjeev Kumar Bijli, said: “We have a phenomenal opening of “Pathaan,” with advances of close to 5 lac [500,000] admissions for the first long weekend of the movie releasing on 25th January. This will be the first SRK [Shah Rukh Khan] film that will open at 6 am in PVR cinemas. A movie truly made for the big screen experience, we are seeing an increasing preference to watch this movie in our premium formats like IMAX, ICE, 4DX and P [XL]. In addition to South India, where the movie is being released in Tamil and Telugu, it has opened really well in Kerala in its original language of, Hindi. Overall, it has been an absolute encouraging response to out of home entertainment experience to families for this mega blockbuster movie.”
Nelson D’Souza, VP international distribution, at Yash Raj Films, added: “We are very bullish about ‘Pathaan’ and what it can collect from the overseas territories. It should be able to bring the cheer back in the theatrical distribution business at the start of the year.