Kartik Aaryan says he didn’t know Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 will ‘revive’ Bollywood: ‘Never thought it will cross ₹200 crore’

Actor Kartik Aaryan has spoken about his last release Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 and how the film ‘revived’ the Hindi film industry. In a new interview, Kartik said that he was confident that the film will reach ₹100 crore at the box office but didn’t expect it to enter the ₹200 crore club. He also spoke about how the film did well despite the release of films such as Jayeshbhai Jordaar, Top Gun: Maverick and Samrat Prithviraj. (Also Read | Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2’s box office run unaffected by OTT release)

Anees Bazmee’s Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 released in theatres on May 20 and received positive responses from critics and audiences. The film also stars Tabu, Rajpal Yadav, Sanjay Mishra and Kiara Advani. The movie, produced by Bhushan Kumar-led T-Series and Cine1 Studios, has minted ₹230.75 crore worldwide so far.

In an interview with News18, Kartik said, “I was confident of the content and knew that the film will do at least ₹100 crore at the box office. But I didn’t know that we will be able to revive the industry. We never thought it will cross ₹200 crore mark. It is above our expectations. It was my first theatrical release after the pandemic so I was nervous about the reaction from the audience. There was a lot of buzz in the market that if the film crosses ₹80 to 90 crore, it will be good considering the times that we are in. But like I said, it is doing exceedingly well.”

He also added, “We were confident that family audience will enjoy it as it is an entertaining film. What amazed me was the reaction of kids, like three-year-old children, are singing Hare Ram. It all feels unreal. We never thought it will penetrate so much. Jayesbhai Joradar released a week before us. We had Top Gun a week after us and later we had Samrat Prithviraj. Later Jurassic World Dominion came in which also opened well. We are in our sixth week and the film is running in theatres and is even in the top five on Netflix which is unreal in today’s time.”

Kartik has several projects in the pipeline including Shehzada, directed by Rohit Dhawan. He also has Hansal Mehta’s Captain India and an untitled musical love saga with Sameer Vidwans in the works.