The first Indian film to earn Rs 1 crore at the box office was released way back in 1943
The 100-crore club was established in the late-2000s with Ghajini and 3 Idiots crossing Rs 100 crore net in the domestic market. Now, the Rs 1000-crore mark is the benchmark for films doing well, barely a decade-and-a-half later. So it should not be surprising that for years, Rs 1 crore was considered a good amount for films to earn. And the first film that broke this barrier released even before the Independence
1. Bollywood’s first blockbuster
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Gyan Mukherjee’s Kismet, which released in 1943, is widely regarded as the film that began the concept of blockbusters in India. The film was the first major box office success in Indian cinema and galvanised the country with many golden jubilee runs
2. India’s first Rs 1-crore hit
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Kismet was the first Indian film to hit Rs 1 crore in gross earnings in the country. Up until then, a handful of Indian films had breached the Rs 20-30 lakh mark but anything beyond only happened rarely. Kismet changed that and emerged as an all-time blockbuster
3. All about Kismet
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Starring Ashok Kumar, Mumtaz Shanti, and Shah Nawaz, the film was considered bold for its time, showing an unmarried girl pregnant and introducing the anti-hero concept. It was released on a budget of Rs 2 lakh and went on to gross Rs 1.6 crore worldwide
4. How Kismet made Ashok Kumar a star
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Up until the early 1940s, Ashok Kumar was one of the many young, promising stars alongside Karan Dewan and Shyam. But Kismet catapulted him to the top. Many feel that he was India’s first superstar, a tag he held till the rise of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor in a few years
5. Kismet’s box office record
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Kismet held on to the record of being the highest-grossing Indian film almost through the entire 40s. It was challenged by Tamil film Chandralekha in 1948 but it couldn’t surpass it. Eventually, Raj Kapoor’s Barsaat broke through, earning Rs 2 crore in 1949
6. Kismet’s legacy
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Kismet was a modern film for its time. One of its biggest legacies in Indian cinema is giving agrey hero, who is not always morally correct. The concept paved the way for the stardom of Amitabh Bachchan and gave Shah Rukh Khan his first hits in Bollywood
