Vivek Agnihotri's latest political drama, The Bengal Files, has earned more than his 2019 film, The Tashkent Files, but it still falls far short of his 2022 blockbuster, The Kashmir Files.
What's Happening
- On Sunday, The Bengal Files recorded only a slight improvement, earning Rs 2.75 crore compared to Rs 2.15 crore on Saturday.
- It opened at a modest Rs 1.75 crore on Friday.
- According to Sacnilk, its total opening weekend collection in India stands at Rs 6.65 crore.
- While this is about three times that of The Tashkent Files, it amounts to roughly one-fourth of what The Kashmir Files achieved during its opening weekend.
Background
The Tashkent Files, which dealt with the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, featured actors like Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, and Pankaj Tripathi.
It earned Rs 2.20 crore over its opening weekend, despite releasing before the pandemic. Its follow-up, The Kashmir Files, went on to surpass expectations significantly.
Based on the Kashmiri Pandit Exodus in the early 1990s, The Kashmir Files starred Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, and Agnihotri's wife Pallavi Joshi, among others.
It opened at Rs 3.55 crore on its first day, a figure higher than The Tashkent Files' entire opening weekend and double that of The Bengal Files' opening day.
The second day's domestic collection for The Kashmir Files stood at Rs 8.50 crore, nearly three times that of The Bengal Files.
The third day's collection of Rs 15 crore was about six times larger. The film's opening weekend totalled Rs 27.15 crore in India, more than four times the Rs 6.65 crore that The Bengal Files earned this past weekend.
The Bengal Files juxtaposes history with the present. Set across West Bengal and present-day Bangladesh, the film focuses on the Direct Action Day ordered by Muslim League founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1946, which led to the Noakhali Massacre and the Great Bengal Killing.
The cast includes Mithun Chakraborty, his younger son Namashi Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, and Anupam Kher, who portray Mahatma Gandhi, among others.
Agnihotri has previously stated that whatever he earned from The Kashmir Files, he fully invested in The Bengal Files, along with borrowed funds, some of which he is yet to repay.
His last directorial, The Vaccine War, which tells the story of Indian scientists' efforts to develop one of the world's most affordable coronavirus vaccines, earned only Rs 3.50 crore in its opening weekend and Rs 10.33 crore over its lifetime at the domestic box office.
The Bengal Files has also faced stiff competition from other films released this past weekend. A Harsha's action thriller Baaghi 4, starring Tiger Shroff and Sanjay Dutt, opened with Rs 31.25 crore in India.
The highest earner of the weekend was Michael Chaves' horror film The Conjuring: Last Rites, which collected Rs 50.50 crore in the same period.