The box office is probably heading for a break as far as Hindi films are concerned due to the Omicron threat and probable restrictions to come in many states. Radheshyam is still slated to release on 13th January but whether it actually comes will be known by the end of this week.

This leaves the box office to Spiderman - No Way Home, Pushpa (Hindi) and 83 (Hindi). Spiderman - No Way Home is the biggest blockbuster across India in 2021 and the job is done for that film. The more interesting aspect is what happens between Pushpa (Hindi) and 83 (Hindi)

The reason why its interesting is because one film has the support of what is called FAKE acclaim and love from the media and industry while the other has REAL public acclaim and love in some big states across the Hindi circuits. In this situation the REAL is always going to win as the box office never lies but the game is how quick Pushpa (Hindi) can go ahead of 83 and if can it beat the final total of 83 which would be out of the world as many states just dont have an interest in South dubbed films unless there is some franchise recall value and all said done irrespective of how poor 83 is it is still a huge film.

The collections on Monday morning saw Pushpa (Hindi) get even closer to 83 but 83 still can hold the lead as in evenings it should perform better but its just a matter of time before the Pushpa (Hindi) daily number goes ahead. 

If we compare the collections just from Hindi circuits and not South as Pushpa (hindi) hardly has a release there then it is beating 83 hands down but with the South added for 83 has an edge till now. The Hindi film industry has generally lived on this fake acclaim and love in the covid19 era and the only two films to genuinely do well have been Sooryavanshi and Laxmii but that fake acclaim and love probably came for every other film released since March 2020.  Now 83 got this same fake acclaim and love but the actual results are there for all to see. By chance if this film did not have a theatrical release it would have been another film getting away with fake acclaim and love.

83 is still being called a great film and various excuses are coming out for the box office failure and none really hold any value. The Omicron threat is an issue but Pushpa (Hindi) has the same excuse and it is getting excellent collections on a daily basis. If 83 is a great film then Pushpa has to be the best film ever made in India and a notch above a Sholay or Mughal E Azam. Of course this is not true as Pushpa maybe at best a good to decent film but that is still more than what can be said about 83.

The PR exercise still seems to be going on and and there is still refusal of the truth which has probably never ever happened before as the rejection is clear from whichever angle you look it. On one side the film may suffer the biggest loss ever by a film in the history of Hindi cinema and that will be pretty clear in a week or two. If not the biggest it will be among the top three. Then on one side you have a dubbed Telugu film which released one week earlier doing a job on you within 10-12 days of your release. 

There is no way Pushpa (Hindi) could have done this if lets say Sooryavanshi was on the other side instead of 83 as Sooryavanshi was liked by the public and had their support. Pushpa (hindi) is also running on public support only as there is no support whatsoever from the industry and no fake claims of acclaim and love or that it is a great film. Pushpa (Hindi) has played a good game while 83 has talked a good game. Hopefully after this fiasco the industry understands its all about the public liking your film and not the media or your industry friends or about your tall claims which the audience throws back at you within a day of your release.