Last updated: 10 December 2022

For the first time in the history of Indian cinema in the UK, the total gross from South Indian productions surpassed the total gross from Bollywood productions this year. With several big-budget Hindi productions underperforming at the box office, the total gross of Bollywood productions in the UK was approximately £7M in 2022, a fall of about 30% when compared to 2019.

Films from production companies based out of Chennai have exceeded expectations at the UK box office this year grossing approximately £4M in total, a 100% rise when compared to 2019.

Telugu films have collectively raked in about £3M, a humongous fivefold increase from 2019.

Below are the highest grossing Indian films in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
Ponniyin Selvan 1	£800,116	140	£5,715	£1.34M
K.G.F Chapter 2	£612,327	171	£3,580	£1.14M
Brahmastra	£516,943	217	£2,382	£1.03M
RRR	£693,587	172	£4,032	£977k
Laal Singh Chaddha	£411,189	350	£1,175	£868k

Bollywood

2022 has been a difficult year for Bollywood with a number of big films like Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Shamsera, Hrithik Roshan – Saif Ali Khan’s Vikram Vedha and all four Akshay Kumar films (Bachchhan Pandey, Raksha Bandhan, Samrat Prithviraj and Ram Setu) failing to make an impact at the box office.

Brahmastra and Laal Singh Chaddha raked in £1M and £868k respectively at the UK box office, however the performance of these films is still underwhelming given their high budgets and massive release sizes.

Laal Singh Chaddha opened in a record 350 locations – the largest release for a South Asian film in the UK to date – and yet the average gross per location was just £1,175 in its opening weekend which is below par for an Aamir Khan film. In comparison, the average gross per location for Aamir Khan’s 2013 blockbuster Dhoom 3 – the highest grossing South Asian film in the UK to date – was £9,119 in its opening weekend across just 97 locations, and the average gross per location for Dangal (2016) was £3,957 across 165 locations.

Brahmastra opened in 217 locations – the third largest release for a South Asian film in the UK and its opening weekend site average was better than Laal Singh Chaddha with £2,382 per location but lower than Sanju (2018) – £3,901 per location or Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) – £4,642 per location.

The Kashmir Files is the most profitable Bollywood film in the UK this year with a total gross of £440k. The Vivek Agnihotri-directorial released in just 18 locations in its opening weekend, which then expanded to 52 locations in its second weekend and 78 in its third following strong word of mouth.

Below are the highest grossing Bollywood films in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
Brahmastra	£516,943	217	£2,382	£1.03M
Laal Singh Chaddha	£411,189	350	£1,175	£868k
Gangubai Kathiawadi	£243,848	150	£1,626	£712k
The Kashmir Files	£58,635	18	£3,258	£440k
Ek Villain Returns	£128,494	44	£2,920	£428k

Tollywood

Telugu films have witnessed a spike in the footfalls and box office collections in the UK since the release of Pushpa (2021), which attracted not just Telugu speaking audiences but also non-Telugu moviegoers. S.S.Rajamouli’s globally-acclaimed epic RRR, starring N.T.R Jr, Ram Charan, Alia Bhatt, Olivia Morris, Ajay Devgn and Shriya Saran, is the highest grossing Telugu production in the UK this year with £977k (including revenue from dubbed versions in other languages).

Prabhas – Pooja Hegde’s Radhe Shyam and Mahesh Babu’s Sarkaru Vaari Paata grossed over £200k, however the former’s box office performance is disappointing given its wider release size (including in Tamil and Hindi) whilst the latter released only in Telugu and emerged a profitable venture.

Below are the highest grossing Telugu productions in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
RRR	£693,587	172	£4,032	£977k
Radhe Shyam	£197,600	132	£1,496	£226k
Sarkaru Vaari Paata	£190,810	58	£3,289	£210k
Bheemla Nayak	£159,175	45	£3,537	£174k
GodFather	£98,343	49	£2,007	£112k

Kollywood

2022 has been fantastic year for the Tamil film industry with Kamal Haasan minting box office gold with Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram, Dhanush and Siva Karthikeyan shattering the myth that only big-budget epic films work by scoring blockbusters with low-budget romantic dramas Thiruchitrambalam and Don respectively, and the first part of Mani Ratnam’s magnum opus Ponniyin Selvan breaking records to emerge as the highest grossing Indian film in the UK this year.

Vijay’s Beast opened with a massive half-a-million opening weekend gross before fizzling out in its first week due to mixed reviews, nevertheless the film is the actor’s second highest grossing film in the UK and a profitable venture for its distributors.

Below are the highest grossing Tamil productions in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
Ponniyin Selvan 1	£800,116	140	£5,715	£1.34M
Vikram	£425,905	76	£5,604	£831k
Beast	£505,648	153	£3,305	£570k
Thiruchitrambalam	£132,109	75	£1,761	£272k
Don	£86,782	35	£2,482	£176k

Sandalwood

The Kannada film industry experienced its best year to date with several of its productions doing well not just in Kannada but also in other languages.

The much-anticipated K.G.F Chapter 2, directed by Prashanth Neel, starring Yash, Srinidhi Shetty, Raveena Tandon and Sanjay Dutt shattered box office records on its way to emerge as the highest grossing Indian film in the UK with £1.14M earlier this year before Ponniyin Selvan 1 beat that record in October.

Kantara grossed £154k and is the second highest-grossing Kannada production in the UK to date. The Rishab Shetty film had a low-key release in just 6 locations in its opening weekend, enraging the the Kannada diaspora in the UK who protested on social media demanding more shows and trended the hashtag “More Shows For Kantara in the UK”, leading the UK distributor to expand the release size of the film to 22 locations in the film’s fourth weekend and 30 in its fifth.

Sudeep’s Vikrant Rona underperformed at the UK box office grossing just £19,000.

Below are the highest grossing Kannada productions in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
K.G.F Chapter 2	£612,327	171	£5,715	£1.14M
Kantara	£7,791	6	£1,299	£154k
777 Charlie	£14,875	15	£992	£25k
Vikrant Rona	£17,151	32	£536	£20k
Gandhada Gudi	£10,151	22	£461	£17k

Mollywood

Vineeth Sreenivasan’s Hridayam, starring Pranav Mohanlal, Kalyani Priyadarshan and Darshana Rajendran emerged as the highest grossing Malayalam film in the UK with £204,000.

Prithviraj Sukumaran’s Jana Gana Mana and Kaduva were successful at the box office and crossed the £100k mark, however the actor’s much-anticipated latest film Gold, directed by Alphonse Puthren, sank without a trace.

Below are the highest grossing Kannada productions in the UK in 2022 (so far):

Film	Opening weekend gross	Number of locations	Average gross per location	Total gross
Hridayam	£92,327	83	£1,112	£167k
Jana Gana Mana	£53,478	57	£938	£105k
Kaduva	£47,354	69	£686	£101k
Aarattu	£65,091	105	£620	£84k
Rorschach	£15,591	26	£600	£54k

Distributors

2022 has been a successful year for the distributors of Telugu and Tamil films in the UK, but has been a mixed year for Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi language distributors.

Below are the highest-grossing distributers by language in the UK:

Language	Distributor	Total Gross of all distributed films	Highest grossing film
Hindi	Paramount	£1.6M	Laal Singh Chaddha
Tamil	DG Tech	£2.7M	Ponniyin Selvan 1
Telugu	Dreamz Entertainment	£2M	RRR
Kannada	DG Tech	£0.8M	K.G.F Chapter 2 (Kannada)
Malayalam	RFT Films	£0.7M	Hridayam

Note: The above statistics have been derived using a combination of figures supplied by external sources and Cinemania’s analytical models with a small degree of estimation, and may not be 100% accurate.