Tiger Shroff leads the explosive Baaghi 4, while Vivek Agnihotri’s The Bengal Files explores India’s tragic past through powerful performances (Photo: Pinterest)
September of 2025 has welcomed Baaghi 4 and The Bengal Files in an eccentric entertainment clash where box-office numbers tell us something more. They speak of how the cinematic tastes in India are changing now, with mass entertainment and historical telling putting up lines between cinema that entertains and cinema that engages its audience emotionally or intellectually.
Tiger Shroff being the head and A Harsha being the captain of the ship, Baaghi 4 wasted no time granting themselves onto film schedules across the nation. Baaghi 4 with Day 1 collections standing at Rs. 13.20 crore and Rs. 9 crore and on Day 2, it made over Rs. 21 crores.
Packed evening shows in Jaipur, Chennai and Lucknow are guaranteed because of the film's massive Rs. 300 crore scale, explosive stunts and strong casting Sonam Bajwa, Harnaaz Sandhu and Sanjay Dutt.
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The Bengal Files is a historical drama revisiting the largely muted tragedies of 1946 at the Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Riots. Directed by Vivek Agnihotri and featuring Anupam Kher and Mithun Chakraborty it began by collecting ₹1.75 crore on its first day.
Though the storyline has much to offer with subtlety and information and in viewership engagement the story has suffered due to metro limitations almost exclusively in Chennai and Bengaluru.
Occupancy rates do highlight another gap in the reach. Baaghi 4 recorded an average Hindi occupancy of 28.32%, with Jaipur peaking at 53% and Chennai 45% in occupancy.
The Bengal Files have averaged only 21.24%, with Chennai popping up as the surprise front runner in attendance with 64.33%. The difference in viewership can be attributed to genre, access and tempo.
Directed by A Harsha, Baaghi 4 brings Tiger Shroff back as Ronnie this time meaner than ever before and joined by Sonam Bajwa, Harnaaz Sandhu and Sanjay Dutt as the baddie. Following the lineage and the brutality, the movie had been considered ‘A’ by India's censor board.
The Bengal Files by Vivek Agnihotri deals with the hardly spoken of horrors of the 1946 Calcutta Killings and Noakhali Riots. This historical drama tries to educate and engage through unadulterated political storytelling and is expectedly fronted by Anupam Kher, Puneet Issar and Saswata Chatterjee.
The box-office tussle of Baaghi 4 and The Bengal Files is about revenue and it's also a statement about the current cinema goer. The adrenaline filled spectacles are still a people grabber for the masses but history based films have attracted a niche yet thoughtful audience. It will be interesting to watch as both films move forward as to what sustains its momentum and why.
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