'The Kerala Story' is unstoppable at box office, crosses Rs 200 crore mark

Sudipto Sen-directorial The Kerala Story has hit another milestone at the box office - the film crossed the Rs 200 crore-mark on its third Monday. The Kerala Story set the cash registers on fire and is estimated to have collected a total of Rs 204.47 crore so far. The Adah Sharma-film collected Rs 81.14 crore in its first week and Rs 90.58 crore in its second week, as per industry tracker Sacnilk.  

The film went onto collect Rs 6.6 crore on its third Friday, Rs 9.15 crore on its third Saturday, Rs 11.50 crore on its third Sunday and is estimated to have minted around Rs 5.50 crore on its third Monday. The film had an overall 15.58 per cent occupancy in Hindi and an overall 17.42 per cent occupancy in Telugu on Monday. The Kerala Story focuses on the true stories of three women from Kerala who were allegedly forcefully converted to Islam and forced to join the terror outfit ISIS. 

The film features Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani in lead roles.  The character played by Adah Sharma gets pregnant and is married off and sent to Syria.

Meanwhile, Sen shared his inspiration to make the contentious film in a recent press conference. He recalled meeting the survivors for the first time some kilometres away from Ernakulam in 2015-16.  

The filmmaker noted these survivors were living without food and electricity for days on end. He further said: "When I went there to interview them, back in 2015-16, there was just the light coming from the gap between the doors. You can understand how people misused their openness and left them in such a condition. That was the inspiration behind making our film." 

Also read: ‘The Kerala Story’ box office collection day 17: Adah Sharma film set to cross Rs 200-crore mark today 

Also read: 'The Kerala Story' box office collection Day 16: Adah Sharma's film inches closer to Rs 200 crore mark