Boney Kapoor says Aditya Chopra had predicted box office will ‘explode’ after pandemic: ‘This prediction requires some intelligence’

The post pandemic slump was wiped out with Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan, which became the first Hindi film to cross Rs 500 cr nett mark. The Aditya Chopra backed film ended its lifetime at Rs 545 cr. Boney Kapoor told indianexpress.com that Aditya had predicted this a long time ago.

“You will be surprised, but after the pandemic, sometime before things fully opened up, I met Adi Chopra. Surprisingly, he told me, ‘Boney ji you have no idea what will happen at the box office– it will explode. Films will do business of more than Rs 500 cr.’ I want to meet him to remind him that he is the one who had told me this. There are all kinds of films and situations, but to predict that this is how it will be post pandemic, it requires some intelligence.

“That is the reason why he has been able to do so much. He is a son who has done better than his father (filmmaker Yash Chopra). Of course, the goodwill was there but there are so many other sons who have not surpassed what their fathers did. He is amongst the few, rather the only one,” he added.

Since Pathaan, three more Hindi films went on to cross the Rs 500-cr benchmark, starting with Gadar 2 (Rs 525 cr), Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan (Rs 640 cr) and Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal (Rs 556 cr).

Boney Kapoor is now awaiting the release of his next production, Maidaan. The Amit Ravindernath Sharma directorial is a biopic based on the life of football coach Syed Abdul Rahim, played by Ajay Devgn. The film is set to release on April 10 and have a box office face off with Akshay Kumar-Tiger Shroff starrer Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.