On its release, The Kerala Story brushed aside competition from Hollywood's Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 by recording more than double of its first week collections.
Then it sprung a surprise: Not only was it strong during the weekdays, it went on to have strong weekdays too.
As a result, the film collected Rs 81.07 crore (Rs 810.7 million) on Week One.
The second week was even bigger.
While the opening weekend itself was quite powerful at Rs 35.44 crore (Rs 354.4 million), the second weekend brought in more, at Rs 55 crore* (Rs 550 million).
The film has stands at Rs 136 crore (Rs 13.6 billion) today, and the second week is expected to take it way past the Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) mark.
That's excellent for a film that has been made at a cost of under Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) and just like The Kashmir Files, it's going to reap great returns for its makers.
Producer Vipul Shah's last big hit was the Akshay Kumar starrer Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty in 2014.
The Kerala Story is also the fourth century maker of 2023 after Pathaan, Tu Jhoothi Main Makkaar and Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan.
It's the second fastest of the year to achieve this feat as it managed to go past the Rs 100 crore mark -- in just nine days.
There were a few Hindi releases last week, including IB 71,Chatrapathi and Music School.
In IB 71, actor Vidyut Jammwal made sure he connected with the audience, and that allowed a fair opening of Rs 1.67 crore (Rs 16.7 million). It would have opened bigger if not for The Kerala Story wave.
The overall weekend collections came to Rs 7.50 crore* (Rs 75 million).
Chatrapathi saw the Telugu star Sai Srinivas Bellamkonda's Bollywood debut opposite Nushrratt Bharuccha, and earned Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) over the weekend.
The Shriya Saran-Sharman Joshi starrer Music School brought in a weekend collection of Rs 50 lakh (Rs 5 million).
*Estimates. Final numbers awaited.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources.
