New Delhi: Actor Fahadh Faasil co-produced Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, and the film collected nearly Rs 300 crore. However, he would get only a small fraction of the gross earnings.
“None of us will get even half of the Rs 300 crore that they are talking about. That is the gross collection,” he said in an interview with Cue Studio.
The film is directed by Girish AD and stars Nivin Pauly and Mamitha Baiju. Joining Faasil in the producer team are Bhavana Studios, Dileesh Pathan, and Syam Pushkaran. Released in August, the film is the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time.
The film revolves around Ashley (Baiju), who moves to Angamaly with her family due to their financial conditions. She has an alcoholic father, and the locality they move to is Kudumban Unit. Nivin Pauly plays a middle-aged bachelor living next door who runs a catering business. The film documents how their age gap becomes the biggest problem in their lives.
Previously, director Girish and producer Faasil collaborated on Premalu (2024), which starred Naslen and Baiju. The film also became a box-office hit, collecting nearly Rs 136 crore against a budget of Rs 9 crore.
Even when a film becomes a box-office hit, there are a lot of variables to account for. Out of the collection, a significant portion usually goes to international agents, exhibitors, and distributors, and only after GST and other deductions do the producers receive the remaining amount.
“The fact that Bethlehem has been a success is something that makes me very happy and proud. It is not just me. There is Girish, Shyam, and Dileesh. I see this as a collective success of all of us. I don’t see it as my success alone,” he said.
How much does the producer make?
While 2025 was not as good as 2024 for the Malayalam industry—six films crossed the Rs 100 crore mark in 2024, including Manjummel Boys, which ended up grossing Rs 240.5 crore globally. In 2025, only three movies managed to earn more than Rs 100 crore: Lokah Chapter 1 (Rs 303.67 crore), L2: Empuraan (Rs 265.5 crore), and Thudarum (Rs 234.5 crore).
The Kerala Film Producers’ Association (KFPA) revealed that less than 10 per cent of the movies that have hit the screens so far in 2025 have turned a profit. Among the 184 films released in theatres, the association revealed that only nine can be labelled as superhits, while six were classified as hits.
At the second edition of Manorama Hortus, producer M Renjith said that if a film makes Rs 150 crore, the producer gets around Rs 55 crore.
“Then there are payments to be made to the government, distributors, and other stakeholders. It’s the gross collection figures that lead to IT raids. Now the officials have come to realise that total collection is not the actual profit,” he said.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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