Ten Years On: Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham

There may not be a big blockbuster release this Friday but Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was released on this Friday exactly ten years ago and it smashed all opening records across the world. In UK it actually featured amongst the top three openers of the week including all Hollywood releases.

Despite scepticism in the trade as to whether it will work outside big centres, the film opened to around 6 crore nett collections on its first weekend (a collection which only 5-6 films till then had managed in the whole week) in India with the week finishing around 13 crore nett.

The domestic opening week collections were 70% higher than the previous record and never before had opening records been smashed by such big margins, infact even till now opening records have never been smashed by such huge margins. In Delhi city its opening week collections were touching 2 crore nett while the previous record was just 1.05 crore nett and it was five years later that any film got close to 2 crore nett in Delhi city again.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham also set record new records for second and third week business by grossing 10.50 crore nett and 8 crore nett respectively. It went on to be amongst the top five domestic grossers of all time and the second biggest grosser in its year of release 2001.

In the Overseas it was a phenomena and is still probably the biggest hit ever in the Overseas market even though films today are crossing $20 million while Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham did around $8 million in 2001. The big difference is print count, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham release on around 125 prints while today films are releasing on 5-6 times more prints and in many more territories. Infact this year, the two big Overseas grossers, Ra.One and Bodyguard have done just 5-10% more business in Overseas than Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham with much bigger releases. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham is one of the true Worldwide blockbusters of Hindi cinema.