Yearender 2022: How underdogs like Kantara, The Kashmir Files and Love Today triumphed over Bollywood's Goliaths

The year 2022 was a rather unusual one for the Indian film industry. For the first time ever, two films – RRR and KGF Chapter 2 – crossed Rs 1000 crore at the worldwide box office. On the other hand, biggies like Laal Singh Chaddha, Samrat Prithviraj, and Acharya failed to even recover their investments. But in the middle of these two were several unheralded films that nobody gave two thoughts to when they released. And yet, by the time they ended their run, they were among the most profitable films of the year. This was the year of multiple Davids, all of which proved too much for the Goliaths around them.

Kantara and The Kashmir Files decimated existing formulae of success

One of the best and loudest examples of these underdog films came in the first quarter of the year, as Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files was released in theatres in March. The film, with a budget of Rs 15 crore and no stars in the cast, was at one time the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year. It earned Rs 341 crore globally, one of the best profit ratios for any Hindi film ever. Towards the end of the year, Kannada film Kantara replicated this success. Set in coastal Karnataka, the tiny film grossed over Rs 400 crore, with the Hindi dubbed version raking in over Rs 100 crore alone. It was a legit pan-India success, the kind that many have aspired to be.

But what made these films so different? In a time when it was being said that the audiences wanted cinematic experiences and larger-than-life feel in the theatre, how did these films succeed so ‘illogically’? Trade experts say that a number of factors and some good-old cinematic wisdom is what contributed to these underdog success stories.

Word of mouth triumphed marketing campaigns

Film trade analyst Atul Mohan says it was the content that triumphed in the case of films like The Kashmir Files. With the case of that particular film, he says it was the right kind of content at the right time. “The way the audience perceives patriotism and realism have changed. Hard-hitting films are no longer niche. The Kashmir Files came out at the right time when the tone that the film takes is something the audience is not averse to. And it connected with people. That led to good business, which is all that matters in the end,” he says.

In today’s time, most big films have huge marketing budgets that involve weeks-long marketing campaigns plastering their stars’ faces all over TV, print, and social media. But these underdogs have reverted to the age-old formula of promotion – word of mouth. The Kashmir Files, Kantara, and Tamil film Love Today (Rs 85 crore gross on Rs 5 crore budget) all succeeded via word of mouth. “You have to offer the audience something new. Post-pandemic, the old formulae are not working. You have to have something in the content that brings the audience. And word of mouth is working like never before. None of these films had great opening days like RRR or KGF but they grew steadily by word of mouth,” says trade analyst Ramesh Bala.

Slice-of-life films from regional cinema punched above their weight

In the south industries as well, many smaller films succeeded even if all of them did not reach the heights of Kantara. Love Today grossed Rs 85 crore. Telugu adventure film Karthikeya 2 earned Rs 118 crore on a reported Rs 15-crore budget. Even a slice-of-life romantic comedy like Thiruchitrambalam earned Rs 110 crore when people had begun to write obituaries for the genre. At least, Thiruchitrambalam had the star power of Dhanush. The Malayalam hit Hridayam did not have that advantage either. Produced on a budget of Rs 7 crore, the film grossed Rs 80 crore, twice as much as Mammootty’s big-budget action film Rohrschach. Kannada film 777 Charlie, tale of a man and his dog’s companionship, earned over Rs 100 crore. Punjabi romantic film Saunkan Saunkne, too, broke several pandemic-era records for the industry despite a meagre Rs 8-crore budget.

But one must not make the mistake of assuming this is a trend that would continue. “It’s not about big or small. Content will work. But many big films are dependant a lot on marketing and publicity rather than sound content. If they deliver that, there’s no reason they won’t work,” says Atul Mohan. In fact, the films defied the notion that only large-scale larger-than-life films would be able to draw audiences to theatres post-pandemic. Ramesh Bala explains, “It’s about good presentation of content and not the scale.”

The bottom line is that small films, with budgets ranging from just Rs 5 crore to a little over Rs 25 crore, raked in 10-20 times their investment at the box office alone. Add their satellite and digital rights and these movies proved to be the most successful cinem projects of 2022. If this year was crucial to Indian cinema’s survival after the blows of Covid-19 and lockdowns, it was these films that helped the industry survive and stay afloat. The RRRs, KGFs and the Brahmastras will walk away with the highest grosses but these underdog fighters were the real winners of 2022.