AI generated summary, newsroom reviewed
Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju's latest blockbuster romance, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, has officially surpassed the box office record of Kalyani Priyadarshan's Lokah by crossing ₹300 crore.
The film achieved the feat on Sunday, September 13, marking another major milestone in its extraordinary theatrical run. With its worldwide gross now surpassing the reported lifetime collection of ₹302 crore for Lokah: Chapter 1 – Chandra, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has claimed the top spot in the Malayalam box-office rankings.
Actor Nivin Pauly announced the news on X with the caption, "Rewriting History with Love ♥️ #BKU is now the ALL TIME HIGHEST GROSSING Malayalam Movie in Keralam, achieving the milestone in 24 days!"
The film released alongside the Prithviraj-starrer Khalifa, which opened to mixed reviews. Girish is also known for directing the successful Malayalam comedy Premalu (2024), which also starred Mamitha Baiju.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter India, Girish spoke about the age-gap romance that powered the film. In the film, Nivin Pauly is said to be 13 years older than Mamitha Baiju. They play the characters Justin and Ashley respectively. “We were sure it had to be over 10 years between them,” said Girish in an exclusive interview with THR India. “At maximum, she could be 22 years old and that was the upper limit. But he could be much older... as long as he was above 35.“
He added, “But it's also not that it would have worked for any age; he couldn’t have been more than 50! That would have been creepy. It’s a narrow number, actually. The confusion was there. We were torn between making them look good together on-screen, but also for the age gap to be obvious for the conflict to work."