Kabir Khan’s biographical sports drama 83 is now on course to be the biggest disaster in the history of Hindi cinema.  

The film was released on December 24 and received rave reviews, but the audience decided to stay away from it.  

The film, that was made on a reported budget of Rs 260-270 crore, could only collect in the range of Rs 95 crore at the box office.  

It is now crawling towards the Rs 100 crore mark but that won’t make much of a difference to the film’s box office status.  

According to a report in Box Office India, 83 will suffer the biggest loss any film has seen in the history of Hindi cinema. So much that the losses incurred by 83 will be even higher than the big disaster that was Anurag Kashyap’s 2015 film Bombay Velvet starring Ranbir Kapoor.  

© Fox Star Studios

Bombay Velvet had lost around Rs 70 crore at the box office and now, 83 in its final run, will entail losses in the range of Rs 80 crore.  

According to the report, 83 will have a recovery of Rs 80 crore from its theatrical run, Rs 50 crore from OTT platform Disney+ Hotstar and Star Network for digital and satellite rights, Rs 30 crore from Netflix for digital rights and around Rs 20 crore from music and regional satellite rights. This means the total recovery will be Rs 180 crore. 

© Reliance Entertainment

The budget of the film is a massive Rs 240 crore with additional Rs 20 crore from P&A. The makers also had to pay interest costs due to delays in release but that was counteracted by the rebate offered by the UK.

Unlike other recent films that had a 4-week release deal with OTT platforms, 83 couldn’t get the same and hence the losses are higher. 

© Reliance Entertainment

In comparison, Rohit Shetty’s Sooryavanshi, which was made at a much lesser cost, has a recovery of around Rs 300 crore. 

This is due to the huge box office collection and better digital, music and streaming rights deals.

View the full article