Jawan: A Rollicking Record-Breaking Year Continues For The Indian Film Industry

Remember the names. Shah Rukh Khan, Rajnikanth, Sunny Deol and... Shah Rukh Khan. These are the superstars breathing life back into the film industry business across the country, especially since the huge post-pandemic box office blips. It all began this year with Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathaan’ notching up unbelievable numbers across the board and then last month Rajnikanth’s ‘Jailer’ and Sunny Deol’s ‘Gadar 2’ saw records being broken and new ones created as audiences ventured into cinemas more than ever before. If we thought August was the icing on the cake, then Shah Rukh Khan with ‘Jawan’ has again created unparalleled hysteria, and September has just started.

It is highly unlikely the Indian film industry will witness any other blockbuster year like this, especially the Hindi film industry, many within hope this becomes a regular feature. And as we all know, hope is a good thing. By Wednesday evening, hours before the next day’s early morning 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. shows were about to begin, the advance booking for Shah Rukh Khan’s multi-lingual ‘Jawan’ had crossed 13 lakh advance tickets. This would mean it would rake in a mammoth number of over Rs 33 crore itself in advance figures and easily beat his own ‘Pathaan’ in terms of opening-day numbers. A late night surge in advances, also given the fact the next day was also a holiday due to Janmashtami, stretched it to over Rs 41 crore (gross) only in advance collection itself. The advance figures for the second day (Friday) had touched Rs 22 crore (gross/all languages) with reasonably good trends for remaining days of the weekend. A phenomenal feat by any yardstick.

Industry trade analysts were putting up figures between the Rs 60-70 crore range for the film (in all languages/India) as the probable actual numbers it could garner. However, by early morning on release day this estimate swelled further, cementing the fact that Khan would easily beat his own ‘Pathaan’s opening day numbers (Rs 55 crore) by a comfortable margin and go on to record the highest opening day ever for a Hindi film.

The pre-release hype on social media, especially on X and Instagram for the film, was electric with #JawanTsunamiTomorrow trending at the number one spot. Also if you were not aware, yesterday (Sept. 7) was also formally announced as ‘Jawan Day’ by Khan fan clubs across the globe. Well, why not, the film has stuck true to predicted numbers. As early reports indicate, it has collected Rs 75 core domestically on its opening day with business from the Hindi version totalling Rs 65 crore (approximately), followed by around Rs 10 crore from the other Tamil and Telugu versions. All over these are new records and if the film holds up well over the extended weekend period and continues to do so during the weekdays then possibilities are immense for this Tamil director Atlee’s actioner. Here, we have not even talked about the collections from overseas yet, where many markets are slated to open ‘Jawan’ from Friday onwards.

Trade analysts are pegging the foreign collections for the film for the first day to be in the same range as the domestic one, meaning an overall Rs 150 crore (approximately) just from the first day only. The craze for Khan’s Jawan hit the roof as die-hard fans of the star enthusiastically propped themselves as one of the on screen incarnations the star plays in the film, all trundled up in swathes of scrappy bandaged loops, battered, bloodied and bruised as they trooped into cinemas. Eerily, an avatar that actually mirrored the state of the Hindi film industry just this past year.

Jawan, a perfect collaboration between the Hindi and the Tamil film industries, has also witnessed never-before-seen craze even in Kerala, too, where it saw record openings for a Hindi film, pulling in around Rs 3.60 crore, beating Pathaan's numbers by a huge margin on Thursday. Shahrukh Khan easily has the best fan following for a Hindi film star in the south and as a testimony to that, hysterical fan clubs from Kerala and Tamil Nadu held premier shows of the film in Mumbai’s iconic Maratha Mandir from early morning onwards on Day 1. Jawan has released on a total count of approximately 5,500-6,000 screens in India, of which almost 1,000 are slated to be from the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala itself, with another large chunk of screens going to the eastern region especially West Bengal where Shah Rukh Khan is the ultimate king.

With a majority of the main cast and crew drawn from the Tamil industry that includes Nayanthara, a superstar in her own right; Vijay Sethupathi, Priya Mani and young music composer wizard Anirudh Ravichander, apart from director Atlee, the film saw early congratulatory tweets pouring in for Shah Rukh Khan from various leading lights from the southern film industry. And this will how it will be, with more industry alliances in the pipeline where producers and directors look to mix and match assorted stars across industries to gain that elusive pan-Indian reach for their future ventures.

With Prabhas from the Telugu film industry going on to become a true blue all India star with his Baahubali series followed by Yash from Kannada (KGF 1&2), many are increasingly looking to cross borders for more fruitful creative partnerships. Sanjay Dutt, Aamir Khan and Jr. NTR (War 2 with Hrithik Roshan), Bobby Deol, Ajay Devgn and Jyothika are some of the stars who will be seen in some of the early projects among others. All this will eventually mean glad tidings at the box office if the ultimate product delivered is good enough. With Jawan the unprecedented opening tides in well with the all-important word of mouth, early reviews and initial reports that suggest the film is set for a long run at the cinemas. Importantly, the film has almost a clean full month in September to rake it in with Salaar starring Prabhas being postponed and only Vicky Kaushal’s The Great Indian Family Movie and Excel Entertainment’s Fukrey 3 to contend with, both releasing only at the fag end of the month.

Jawan is made on a publicised budget of Rs 300 crore (approximately), which may be a tad on the higher side, given there have been no foreign locations and that a majority of it has been shot in studios, the major costs incurred would be on the fee of Khan, Atlee and the VFX. The way the film has opened and holding well (expected to collect about Rs 45 crore on the second day), it is easily looking at shoring up profits for the producers Gauri Khan, Gaurav Verma and Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment way before the end of the first week itself. 

Anand Mathew is based in New Delhi and writes on popular culture, entertainment and contemporary issues. He is currently working as director, communications and marketing for a private entity.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.