While it is true that 2022 has been a difficult year for Bollywood at the box office, it has also been a year for regional films making it big, especially Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. This year, several Bollywood films starring A-listers failed to even touch the ₹100 crore mark, while regional films like K.G.F Chapter 2, Kantara, and Ponniyin Selvan I soared high to make as much as ₹1000 crore in domestic gross. There were also films like RRR that not only crossed the ₹200 crore mark, but also bagged several international accolades, joining the Oscar race and grabbing Golden Globes nominations.
In light of this, here we look back at five regional films that have soared past the ₹200 crore-club.
Kantara
Directed by Rishab Shetty and another Hombale Films production, the action thriller film Kantara Shetty, himself as a Kambala champion, who clashes with an honest DRFO officer, Murali (played by Kishore). The film has approximately earned over ₹450 crores within a month of its release and has become one of the highest grossing Kannada films. The film has also crossed films like RRR and K. G. F. Chapter 2 in becoming the highest rated IMDb film.
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Ponniyin Selvan I
Since its release, Mani Ratnamdirectorial Tamil film, Ponniyin Selvan I has been making headlines with its success. The film had already crossed the lifetime collection of this year’s highest grossing Hindi film The Kashmir Files within ten days of its release and has earned approximately ₹500 crores worldwide. Starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Jayam Ravi, Chiyaan Vikram, Trisha, and Shobhita Dhulipala, among othe₹, Ponniyin Selvan: I is the fi₹t of the two cinematic parts based on Kalki Krishnamurthy’s 1955 novel Ponniyin Selvan. Considered to be one of the greatest novels ever written in Tamil literature, Ponniyin Selvan came in five volumes with around 2,210 pages and narrated the story of the early days of Arulmozhivarman, who later became the great Chola emperor Rajaraja Chola I.
KGF Chapter 2
K.G.F Chapter 2, the second instalment of the hit film, K. G. F. Chapter 1, released this year starring Yash, Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Srinidhi Shetty and Prakash Raj. After Rocky establishes himself as the kingpin of the Kolar Gold Fields, the film follows his journey as he retains his supremacy over adve₹aries and government officials, while also coming to terms with his past. With a budget of ₹100 crores, K. G. F. Chapter 2 is reportedly the most expensive Kannada film ever made and it almost touched ₹1200 crores at the box office.
RRR
RRR was one of the biggest box office hits of this year after collecting an estimated ₹900 crores in India. Set in 1920, the film revolves around two real-life Indian revolutionaries, Alluri Sitarama Raju (Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao), and their fight against the British Raj. It also explores the undocumented period in their lives when both the revolutionaries chose to go into obscurity before they began the fight for their country. The film has bagged two nominations for the upcoming Golden Globes awards and is on its way to make it to the Oscars 2023.
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Vikrant Rona
Another Kannada film that crossed ₹200 crores is the Sudeepa and Jacqueline Fernandez starrer action-adventure thriller film Vikrant Rona. The film follows Inspector Vikrant Rona, who arrives at a remote village in the middle of a tropical rainforest. As the film proceeds, he starts witnessing a series of unexplainable supernatural events that take place there. The film collected over ₹200 crores and became the third highest grossing Kannada film.
