As Brahmastra grosses Rs 360 cr worldwide, Vivek Agnihotri asks how did it ‘beat’ The Kashmir Files: ‘With sticks, hockey or paid PR?’

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri does not want to be in the “dumb race” of Bollywood box office. The director has responded to recent reports that Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer Brahmastra has crossed the lifetime collections of his last release, The Kashmir Files.
According to Karan Johar’s Dharma Production’s Brahmastra Part One: Shiva has clocked in Rs 360 cr gross at the worldwide box office since its release on September 9. Brahmastra has surpassed The Kashmir Files, which was the biggest hit of 2022 with a worldwide collection of Rs 340 crore.

Vivek Agnihotri took to Twitter and shared screenshots of several reports with the headlines, ‘Brahmastra beats The Kashmir Files and becomes the number one Hindi film of 2022’. The director wrote he is better off “alone” and laughed at the reports.
“Hahahaha. I don’t know how did they beat #TheKashmirFiles… with sticks, rods, hockey… or AK47 or stones…. Or with paid PR and influencers? Let Bollywood films compete with each other. Leave us alone. I am not in that dumb race. Thanks. #NotBollywood 😝 😝 😝,” his tweet read.
Mounted on a smaller budget, Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files emerged as the surprise blockbuster of the year, despite its controversial theme. The film, however, received strong political support with several states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, declaring it tax-free.

The Kashmir Files, which chronicled the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley during the early phase of the armed insurgency, highly benefited from miners of several states coming out and vocally supporting the movie.
Madhya Pradesh Home Miner Narottam Mishra had announced that policemen would be given special leave to watch the film, while Karnataka, BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal had said he would fund one show per day for a week “so that people can watch it free of cost”.
Recently, Ranbir Kapoor opened up about the budget of Brahmastra after many in the trade put a figure of Rs 410 cr and actor Kangana Ranaut claimed the numbers to be around Rs 650 cr.

In an interview with Dainik Bhaskar, Ranbir said the budget of the film factors in the next two films planned in the trilogy. “These days, we are reading that a lot of people are discussing the budget of the film. That the budget of Brahmastra is this much, recovery is that much. But Brahmastra is something unique, its budget is not just for this one film but for the whole trilogy.
“The assets we have made for this film, be it fire or any other superpower, it will be divided in three films. So the figures (for this film) that are floating around are wrong. The film doesn’t follow the same economics of other movies in the industry. This is a new beast,” Ranbir added.
Brahmastra, produced Star Studios and Dharma Productions, released in 2D, 3D and Imax 3D in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. The film also features Amitabh Bachchan, Mouni Roy and Nagarjuna Akkineni with superstar Shah Rukh Khan making a special appearance.