Not Jawan or Gadar 2; Sholay is the biggest blockbuster even today

Jawan and Gadar 2 are the biggest hits of 2023. Both the movies have crossed the 500 crore collection and Jawan is all set to break the record of Shah Rukh Khan ’s Pathaan by crossing the 1000 crore collection in a few days. So the general thought across the web is that it is the biggest hits of all time. But it seems the all-time hit movie Sholay continues to reign in the undisputed spot of being the biggest Bollywood hit till now.

When the lifetime business and the number of tickets sold by Sholay were compared with that of Jawan the latter still has a long way to go. Around 100 million tickets of Sholay were sold when the movie was running in the theaters. While Jawan is still in the theaters and is running packed houses, it has sold only 2.5 million tickets which is very low as compared to the response Sholay received. Nevertheless, Jawan will continue to run for many more days and can come close to what Sholay achieved with regard to the sale of the tickets.

However, it needs to be taken into consideration that there is a gap of almost five decades between the releases of the two movies. In those days, there was no social media to promote the film, nor were there other facilities like online booking or multiplexes in every town.

Besides, even the film actors were not aware whether the movie had recovered the invested finances or not for a long time. The figures came after a fortnight but today, with back-to-back events, promotional events, teasers, and trailers there is a constant hammering on the mind of the audience to go and watch the film.

Interestingly, Sholay got a lukewarm response in its first two weeks because of poor marketing and promotional tactics but the movie picked up momentum from the third week onward solely on word of mouth and because the film was indeed very good. On the other hand, in the last few months, SRK has been promoting Jawan in a big way. Apart from promotions, he kept on motivating fans to watch Jawan with short clips and songs.

He enhanced their interest through #Askme sessions on social media. Sholay never had such support but even then to date it is the biggest blockbuster of Bollywood and Jawan has still a long way to go to claim that spot.