The Indian film industry has witnessed two big hit movies this Diwali, Shah Rukh Khan's "Happy New Year" and Vijay's "Kaththi", which have ruled the box office.
While the Hindi movie is inching towards the ₹355 crore mark, the Kollywood movie is heading towards grossing ₹110 crores worldwide.
The success of both "Happy New Year" and "Kaththi" has made people measure the success considering a few factors and leaving aside the total collection made by the films till date.
On closely looking at the markets and the collections, one would easily declare that it is ₹110 crore grosser "Kaththi", which is a bigger hit than ₹355 crore grosser "Happy New Year" at the box office.
The first and foremost reason is the fact that Bollywood has a global market comprising South Asian nations, the US, the UK, Australia and France. It gets released in African countries too. Even then, "Happy New Year" is reaching ₹355 crore mark worldwide and is struggling to reach ₹200 crore in India.
On the other end, apart from South Indian states, Tamil films do well only in Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the US. On an average, an A-list Bollywood actor's movie contributes 45% of collection from the overseas. But for Kollywood, it is only 25%.
One has to note that the market of Bollywood has now expanded to ₹500 crore by Aamir Khan's "Dhoom 3", which made ₹355+ crore in India alone. Going by this factor, the success of "Happy New Year" is far lesser than the Bollywood standards. Whereas, in the history of Kollywood, only four movies have crossed ₹100 crore mark and "Kaththi" is one among them.
For Kollywood, Rajinikanth's "Enthiran" remains the highest grossing movie with ₹150+ crore for the Tamil version and the success of "Kaththi" is no less than a big achievement.
Huge Promotions
If the above reasons do not justify the argument, "Happy New Year" was promoted in every nook and corner of India and the world. But "Kaththi" had low-key promotions.
Apart from a few press meets, Vijay's film unit was not seen anywhere. Though Shah Rukh's efforts were higher, the returns are lesser. But for Vijay, it is a little effort and best results.
