PK becomes Highest Grossing Bollywood film ever

Bollywood’s most controversial film of 2014, PK, has shattered all box office records.

PK was the fastest film to make it to the ‘300 crore club’ at the domestic box office.

Now the film has become the ‘Highest Worldwide Grosser of All Time’, by grossing Rs. 601 crore (£64 million; $97 million) up to now.

The film has turned out to be a great money generator with a substantial chunk of the revenue, Rs. 150 crore ($24 million; £16 million), made in the overseas market.

Aamir Khan has beat his own record with PK, and overtaken the collection of Dhoom 3, which made a humungous Rs. 542 crore ($90 million, £59 million) worldwide.

PK which is still running successfully had earned a record breaking Rs 263 crore ($42 million; £28 million) in just 13 days, thereby dislodging Dhoom 3 in the box office charts already.

According to the up-to-the-minute available data, PK‘s box office revenue in the international market stands at $23.4 million (£15.4 million; Rs 149 crore). A large chunk of this total, $10 million (£6.5 million; Rs. 62 crore), comes from the USA-Canada region.

Remarkably, apart from PK, the top Bollywood grossers are Dhoom 3 and 3 Idiots. All three of these films in the top 3 slots star Aamir Khan, thus making the Bollywood star indisputably the ‘star of the overseas’ too.

Interestingly, the top three films to have first scored the 100, 200 and 300 crore milestone are all Khan-starrers.

Bollywood trade analyst, Taran Adarsh tweeted: “#Ghajini first *Hindi* film to cross Rs 100 cr. #3Idiots first *Hindi* film to cross Rs 200 cr. #PK first *Hindi* film to cross Rs 300 cr.”

The success of the sarcastic drama film has not been interrupted by local commotion and protests, and PK is estimated to complete the third week successfully as well.

The film is expected to continue to do well, even in its fourth week. However, the recent release of Tevar starring Arjun Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, could result in a fall in box office sales.

Director of PK, Rajkumar Hirani, said of the film’s success: “I had never in my wildest dreams thought this film will cross these numbers. It reinforces faith that content is king.”

He added: “We can continue making films we believe in. The messages I get are overwhelming. People are watching the film over and over again. It’s humbling.” Trade analyst Komal Nahta celebrated the film’s success, tweeting: 

#PK becomes the highest grossing Hindi film ever with a net all-India total of Rs. 276.32 crore in just 2 weeks. O-U-T-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G! — Komal Nahta (@KomalNahta) January 2, 2015

Nahta added: “The 276 crore of #PK is like a slap on faces of frustrated lot. Just like tax-free to PK in U.P. is on face of religious gurus who cried foul.”

PK overseas box office collections (As of January 4, 2015)

• North America (USA and Canada): Rs 62.33 crore (£6.5 million; $10 million)
• United Kingdom: Rs 20.21 crore (£2.1 million; $3.3 million)
• UAE/GCC: Rs 29.26 crore (£3.1 million; $4.7 million)
• Australia: Rs 10.29 crore (£1.1 million; $1.7 million)
• New Zealand: Rs 2.64 crore (£280,000; $425,000)
• Malaysia: Rs 0.32 crore (£34,000; $52,000)
• Total collections (overseas): Rs 148.54 crore (£15.8 million; $24 million)

Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani voiced their worries about the protests. Aamir defended the film stating that it respects all religions.

But the masses have voted with their feet and with their wallets. Not affected by the howls of protest, the Indian people and Bollywood fans overseas have made PK the highest grossing Bollywood film ever!