bollywood

Updated: Feb 07, 2019 17:25 IST

Vicky Kaushal’s war drama, Uri: The Surgical Strike, has crossed the Rs 200 crore mark at the domestic box office, becoming the first ever ‘mid-range’ film to achieve this feat. The film took less than a month to make Rs 200 crore at the box office, considered a new benchmark for success after the dilution of the Rs 100 crore mark. The film has made over Rs 300 crore worldwide.

Bollywood’s Rs 200 crore-plus club is dominated by films starring Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan, with the exceptions being Sanju, starring Ranbir Kapoor, Simmba, starring Ranveer Singh, and Krrish 3, starring Hrithik Roshan.

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted the news on Thursday. Uri has made more than Rs 25 crore in its fourth week of release. According to Adarsh, the film crossed the Rs 75 crore mark on its eighth day of release, the Rs 100 crore mark on day 10, Rs 125 crore on day 13, Rs 150 crore on day 17, Rs 175 crore on day 23 and Rs 200 crore on day 28. The film registered the highest ever day 23 and 24 totals, beating the previous records, set by Baahubali: The Conclusion, one of the biggest hits the country has ever seen.

#UriTheSurgicalStrike benchmarks...

Crossed ₹ 50 cr: Day 5

₹ 75 cr: Day 8

₹ 100 cr: Day 10

₹ 125 cr: Day 13

₹ 150 cr: Day 17

₹ 175 cr: Day 23

₹ 200 cr: Day 28

India biz.#Uri will cross ₹ 200 cr mark [Nett BOC] *within one month* of its release... The josh is veryyy high! — taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) February 7, 2019

Watch: Vicky Kaushal on his relationship status | Aur Batao

Taran in an interview to IANS said, "The choice of story as well as storytelling deserve full marks. The surgical attack and how it was executed is brilliantly depicted. Secondly, Uri is all about national pride, power and patriotism.”

The film is based on the Indian Army’s 2016 surgical strike in Pakistan. Its tagline, ‘How’s the josh’ has already entered the pop-culture lexicon, with everyone from Vicky’s Bollywood contemporaries to PM Narendra Modi invoking it. Director Aditya Dhar in an interview to PTI spoke about the origins of the tagline. “I had some friends from Defence background, so with them I used to go to a lot of Army clubs. There was one in Delhi where we used to go for Christmas or New Year parties. There used to be a retired Brigadier who would line up all the kids in front of him and have a chocolate in his hand,” he said. “He would say ‘How’s the josh?’ and we were to respond with ‘high sir!’ The kid who was the loudest got the chocolate. Being a foodie, I used to be the loudest and always got the chocolate.”

Also read: Here is how Uri’s popular ‘How’s the Josh’ line came to life

Uri fended off competition from Kangana Ranaut’s historical epic, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, which has made Rs 80 crore in India, and Sonam Kapoor’s same-sex romance, Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga, which flopped with Rs 17 crore.

“It’s a surreal feeling that audience has accepted our film with open arms,” said Vicky in an interview to IANS.

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