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Vivek Agnihotri’s latest political drama The Bengal Files may have earned far better than his 2019 directorial The Tashkent Files, but it’s not even a patch on his 2022 blockbuster The Kashmir Files. All three films are a part of his trilogy, but the third part — which is the biggest in terms of scale and scope — hasn’t delivered the opening weekend that was expected at the domestic box office.
On Sunday, The Bengal Files recorded only a minor spike by earning Rs 2.75 crore as compared to Rs 2.15 crore on Saturday. It opened at a meagre Rs 1.75 crore on Friday. As per Sacnilk, its opening weekend at the India box office stands at Rs 6.65 crore. While this is three times that of The Tashkent Files, it’s about one-fourth of that of The Kashmir Files.
The Tashkent Files, revolving around the mysterious death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, starred Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, and Pankaj Tripathi among others. It earned Rs 2.20 crore during its opening weekend, even though it released pre-pandemic. Its follow-up, The Kashmir Files, performed far beyond expectations.
Revolving around the Kashmiri Pandit Exodus in the early 1990s, The Kashmir Files starred Mithun, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, and Agnihotri’s wife Pallavi Joshi among others. It opened at Rs 3.55 crore on the first day, higher than even the opening weekend of The Tashkent Files, and double the opening day figure of The Bengal Files.
Its day 2 domestic box office collection at Rs 8.50 crore is also around thrice of that of The Bengal Files. The third day collection of Rs 15 crore is around six times of that of The Bengal Files. The opening weekend of The Kashmir Files in India was Rs 27.15 crore, thus more than four times than what The Bengal Files earned this past weekend.
The Bengal Files juxtaposes the past against the present. Set in West Bengal/present-day Bangladesh, the film revolves around the Direct Action Day ordered by Muslim League founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah back in 1946, which resulted in the Noakhali Massacre and the Great Bengal Killing. The film stars Mithun, his younger son Namashi Chakraborty, Joshi, and Kher as Mahatma Gandhi among others.
Agnihotri claimed that whatever he earned out of The Kashmir Files, he invested completely in The Bengal Files, in addition to borrowed funds part of which he’s yet to repay. His last directorial, The Vaccine War, revolving around Indian scientists’ quest to come up with the world’s least expensive coronavirus vaccine, also earned only Rs 3.50 crore in its opening weekend and Rs 10.33 crore in its lifetime domestic box office collection.
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Also Read — The Bengal Files movie review: Vivek Agnihotri’s film comes unstuck in its loose, confused stretched-out execution
The Bengal Files has also received major competition from A Harsha’s action thriller Baaghi 4, starring Tiger Shroff and Sanjay Dutt, which registered an opening weekend box office collection of Rs 31.25 crore in India. The highest earning film this past weekend, however, turned out to be Michael Chaves’ horror film The Conjuring: Last Rites, which collected Rs 50.50 crore in India.
