Discordant voices within Malayalam film industry over producers’ association publishing partial collection figures

KFPA's partial box-office figures spark controversy among filmmakers, producers, affecting OTT sales and industry perception of film success.

The Kerala Film Producers’ Association (KFPA)‘s act of publishing the box-office collection figures appears to not have gone down well with many from within the industry. Filmmakers and producers whom The Hindu spoke to pointed at the “unfairness” of putting out partial collection figures as the association has published just the producers’ share from Kerala theatres after excluding the overseas revenues, OTT revenues and exhibitors’ share.

“It is not justified if they put out just the producers’ share from Kerala, making even successful films look like failures at the box office. Even when you budget the film, all the possible returns from it, including the overseas revenues and OTT rights are taken into account. Publishing such partial figures would also affect the future OTT sales of these movies. Many within the industry do not agree with such partial publishing of figures,” said a producer on condition of anonymity.

According to the figures released by the KFPA for 17 Malayalam movies released in February 2025, only Officer On Duty starring Kunchacko Boban was a hit, while Daveed and Bromance might break even. The association claimed that the total budget of the movies released in February was ₹75.23 crore. The producers got a total theatrical collection share of only ₹23.55 crore.

Although some of the films in the producers’ list were clearly flops, even Officer On Duty, a hit, is shown to have returned a share of only ₹11 crore for a budget of ₹13 crore, making it seem like not as big a hit as it was made out to be. However, the film had considerable collections from outside Kerala markets and overseas. The film was also sold to Netflix, where it has now started streaming. None of these revenues are reflected in the producers’ list.

When asked about the reason for omitting the rest of the revenue from the list, KFPA vice president G. Suresh Kumar told The Hindu that the producers need to talk only about their share of the collections.

“Let the public know that these movies are collecting only this much money. Some of the collection figures are even lesser than the remuneration of the stars. The actors and others involved should also have a realisation after seeing these figures. The OTT platforms are not picking up Malayalam movies anymore. Only two or three films in the list have been sold to OTT platforms. Platforms such as Amazon have shifted to pay per view instead of purchasing the film. The pay per view has also recently decreased from ₹8 to ₹4,” said Mr. Suresh Kumar.