Punjabi film ‘Carry on Jatta 3’ sets the cash registers ringing

Punjabi film Carry on Jatta 3 has set the cash registers ringing, having made Rs. 13.25 crore at last count, on way to becoming the highest grossing movie in the language post the pandemic within a week. Earlier, the film had clocked in Rs. 4.50 crore on opening day, which is double of what a movie made in the Punjabi industry has managed before with the previous best falling at Rs. 2.53 crore for Honsla Rakh. In several cinemas of Delhi city, the comedy beat the numbers of Kartik Aaryan and Kiara Advani-starrer Satyaprem Ki Katha.

A sequel to the Carry On Jatta 2, the film stars Gippy Grewal and Sonam Bajwa in lead roles with Gurpreet Ghuggi, Binnu Dhillon, Nasir Chinyoti, Jaswinder Bhalla, B.N.

Post the pandemic, Bollywood isn’t the only one affected by the growing penchant for southern cinema across India. Cinemagoers have also been giving a tepid response to films in other regional languages such as Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati and Bengali.

Trade experts say these smaller regional films have been slow in recovery from the pandemic, garnering less than 40% of pre-covid traffic at the box office. Except for a few hits in Punjabi and Marathi in the first half of last year, the second half was witness to more flops.

Also, just a handful of OTT players such as SonyLIV, ZEE5 and Amazon Prime Video are showing any interest in acquiring streaming rights of these films, which in turn is affecting the ability of producers to invest in new productions. Experts feel that the current scenario is making producers go slow in resuming the flow of regular releases as audiences have become more selective.

Regional language film hits have been pretty scattered so far and even regular slate of releases haven’t resumed like pre-covid times, at least in languages like Marathi and Bengali. The last big Punjabi money-spinner, Saukan Saukne starring Ammy Virk made Rs. 22 crore within a fortnight of its release last May in markets like Punjab and Delhi NCR, as per trade website Box Office India.

Marathi cinema too has seen titles like Sher Shivraj, Chandramukhi and Daagdi Chaawl 2 perform decently, but the hits have been few.