Vivek Agnihotri’s film The Kashmir Files has taken the box office by storm as it has been breaking records every other day. The craze of the film amongst the audience is such that they are demanding more and more screens for the film. Owing to its content and positive word of mouth, the film that had started with lesser screens and lower promotions, has managed to almost cross the Rs 200 crore mark.
While The Kashmir Files released on March 11, 2022, Akshay Kumar’s Bachchhan Paandey was released on March 18, 2022. However, the film has failed to meet the expectations at the box-office despite the strong star cast of Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Jacqueline Fernandez, Arshad Warsi, Pankaj Tripathi, Prateik Babbar, Abhimanyu Singh and others.
The dominance of The Kashmir Files over theatres is so strong that the mob in Odisha forcibly stopped the screening of Bachchhan Paandey. In a viral video, a mob wearing saffron scarfves can be seen interrupting a screening of Akshay Kumar’s film and clearing out the theatre with threats. Reportedly, the mob forcibly stopped the screening and demanded that the theatre should play The Kashmir Files instead.
Reportedly, many theatre owners are facing this problem. According to a report in Bollywood Hungama, an exhibitor stated that groups of 10 to 100 people are creating brawls on the premises and fighting with the staff, claiming that a scene was missing from the film. The exhibitor told the portal, “How can any theatre manager cut any scene from any film?”
On March 13, Akshay had taken to his Twitter handle to praise the team of The Kashmir Files and had thanked them for bringing the audience back to the theatres.
He had tweeted, “Hearing absolutely incredible things about your performance in #TheKashmirFiles @AnupamPKher amazing to see the audience back to the cinemas in large numbers. Hope to watch the film soon. Jai Ambe.”
For the unversed, Bachchhan Paandey is a remake of the 2014 Tamil film Jigarthanda which was inspired by a South Korean movie A Dirty Carnival. On the other hand, The Kashmir Files showcases the story of Kashmiri Hindus and their miseries back in 1990. While Akshay’s film managed to mint Rs 34 crore on its first weekend, The Kashmir Files has managed to earn Rs 180 crore injust 11 days.
