Madhubala delivered 1st Horror Blockbuster registering 1552% Profit & 200+ Crore Lifetime at Collection at 15 – SRK.does it now
Madhubala delivered 1st Horror Blockbuster registering 1552% Profit & 200+ Crore Lifetime at Collection at 15 – SRK.does it now
Going by records it was the yesteryear heroine Madhubala
the first superstar to deliver B’wood’s first blockbuster, giving a 1552% +200 crore Lifetime business. Not ross Shah Rukh Khan.
Madhubala had given Bollywood’s First Horror Blockbuster In 1949 With Mahal, Which Made A Gross Profit Of 1552% & 200 Crore Lifetime Business
As of now, Bollywood is all about numbers and clubs. Currently, Shah Rukh Khan claims the throne of the Box Office king, breaking every record that existed with the Jawan Box Office.
However, it was not always the same. The film industry has always managed to gain numbers, the only difference being the talk. Earlier, numbers were not talked about and celebrated,
Earlier celebrating Halloween was cool and films like Nuns and Exorcist ruled the Indian Box Office, Madhubala was the OG horror queen who delivered the first horror blockbuster of the Hindi Cinema in 1949.
We all remember her singing Aayega Aanewala. Lata Mangeshkar‘s haunting voice and Madhubala’s raw and petite self walking through the hallways of a palace. The actress was just 15 when she was cast in the film starring Ashok Kumar.
Madhubala nailed the role of Kamini, and the film, which was Kamal Amrohi’s debut as a director, worked like magic.
Mahal was produced by Bombay Talkies, and was made on a budget of 9 lakh. Almost 12-14 crore if adjusted according to the inflation.
Mahal went on to collect a whopping 70 lakh net at the Box office and was the third highest-grossing film of 1949 after Barsaat and Andaz. The film collected almost 200+ crore gross in today’s age.
If inflations are put to an approximation, then Mahal, with a 200+ crore gross box office, earned a staggering profit of more than 1500%. This was the first and probably the most profitable horror film in Bollywood.
Notably, the film established both Lata Mangeshkar and Madhubala in the industry. Many themes of the film were repeated several times in various films, one of them being Shah Rukh Khan’s Om Shanti Om as well.
Before the box office hurricane of films like Pathaan, Jawan, Gadar, KGF, Pushpa, RRR, and others, Mahal was among the top 100 highest-grossing films of the Indian Cinema till 2020.
However, the box office got a major boost in the last few years, with Indian movies dominating numbers globally.
Mahal, in 1949, made on a budget of a mere 9 lakh and earned 1.25 crore gross.
The film was made at a time when Bombay Talkies was struggling, and the film struggled with its basic cost, with director Kamal Amrohi using props from his personal collection.
News Edit K.V.Raman
