American fantasy drama "The Jungle Book" has created history in India. "The Jungle Book" has shattered the lifetime box office collection records of this year's biggest grosser in the country.
"The Jungle Book," directed by Jon Favreau, has shattered the records of Akshay Kumar's "Airlift" to become the highest grosser of 2016 in India. While Akshay's "Airlift" took more than four weeks to earn Rs. 128.1 crore, "The Jungle Book" has earned over Rs.150 crore in just 16 days.
This is the first time a Hollywood movie has overshadowed Bollywood films in India and became the biggest grosser.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted: "#TheJungleBook surpasses the biz of #Airlift... Emerges the HIGHEST GROSSER of 2016 *so far*... Note: Hindi films. India biz. [sic]"
He added: "#TheJungleBook is now aiming for ₹ 150 cr... [Week 3] Fri 3.58 cr, Sat 6.65 cr. Total: ₹ 132.96 cr nett. India biz. BLOCKBUSTER! [sic]"
He also said: "Sunday to Saturday growth in biz of #TheJungleBook is 85.75%, which is HUMONGOUS. India biz. [sic]"
The film completed its two-week run in India with excellent occupancy and also outperformed Shah Rukh Khan's "Fan."
The film was released in India in four languages — English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu — on April 8, a week before its North America release. The film dominated the box office in India and targeted people of all the age groups because of the storyline, which at heart is an Indian story. Also, Bollywood celebrities dubbing for the Hindi version and the "Jungle Jungle Baat Chali Hai" song attracted more audiences towards theatres.
"Each character was treated in a way that we included local cultural relevance in all the dialogue for each character. This has really paid off as the audience feedback on the Hindi language version has been exceptional," Amrita Pandey, vice=president of Studios, Disney India, told Variety.
This song did wonders for the campaign, as it is 23 years old and many have grown up with this song, watching Mowgli and "The Jungle Book Stories" in the 1990s. "The nostalgia value of the song was so high," Pandey said.
[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]
