Although Malayalam cinema so far this year hasn’t been able to match the quality of films it produced in 2024, three out of the top five highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time — Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra, L2: Empuraan, and Thudarum — interestingly hit the screens in 2025, highlighting the industry’s growing box office pull. Nonetheless, while 2024 saw several good movies achieving box office success and entering the Rs 100 crore and Rs 50 crore clubs, that hasn’t been the case so far this year, with several films ending up as average grossers at the box office.
For instance, Hridayapoorvam, which currently ranks as the fourth-highest-grossing Malayalam film of 2025, reportedly lags far behind the third-highest grosser, Thudarum (Rs 234.5 crore), in terms of worldwide gross, at Rs 76.25 crore, highlighting how the industry hasn’t managed to emulate last year’s success.
Among the biggest hits of 2025 is director Jithu Ashraf’s Officer on Duty, starring Kunchacko Boban, Vishak Nair, and Priyamani in the lead roles and penned by Shahi Kabir. According to a statement issued by the Kerala Film Producers’ Association (KFPA) in March — revealing the budget of Malayalam movies released in February and the share of revenue each generated from theatres in the state — Officer on Duty was reported to have been mounted on a budget of Rs 13 crore.
Its theatre share from Kerala alone stood at a whopping Rs 11 crore, and the film was still continuing its successful run at the box office when the report was released in mid-March, suggesting that its final figure would have been higher than that. According to industry tracker Sacnilk, the movie ended its theatrical run with a worldwide gross of Rs 53.01 crore, while registering an India nett collection of Rs 30.74 crore.
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However, actor Kunchacko Boban later claimed that the figures mentioned in the KFPA report were inaccurate. “The production cost of the film is not Rs 13 crore, it’s significantly higher. The producers did not recover just Rs 11 crore; they have earned at least double or more. The Rs 11 crore mentioned by the association representatives likely refers to the share the producer received from Kerala theatres alone. Even then, the actual figure is higher than 11 crore. Their figures are neither accurate nor transparent. If numbers are being presented, they should be precise,” he said in conversation with Onmanorama.
When asked if the film has entered the Rs 50 crore club, he said, “The concept of a ‘crore club’ is based on a film’s total revenue, which includes the theatre share, taxes paid to the government, and other earnings. In Kerala alone, our film has collected around Rs 30 crore so far. It has also performed well outside Kerala. Considering those earnings, the film has undoubtedly surpassed Rs 50 crore. One thing I can say for sure: during the film’s production itself, nearly three-fourths of the investment was recovered. By the third day after release, the film had entered the profit zone.”
However, despite making good money from theatres, Officer on Duty turned out to be one of the most controversial films of the year and opened to significant criticism from sections of the audience, with many slamming it for its problematic portrayal of sexual assaults and the glorification of a protagonist — a police officer, for that matter — who clearly did not deserve any sympathy. Besides the film’s extremely graphic depiction of violent crimes, it also faced backlash for its unfiltered use of revenge rape and revenge porn as mere plot devices, without considering real-life survivors who may find it triggering to watch and relive those moments. In SCREEN’s review of the film, we also criticised the movie for its blatant use of the “women in refrigerators” trope, while not even attempting to be subtle about it.
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Renowned psychiatrist Dr CJ John also tore into Officer on Duty for its excessive violence. In a social media post, he reportedly stated that the movie should not be made accessible to minors, even on OTT platforms. Calling it an “anti-social film,” he remarked that Officer on Duty weaved highly unrealistic revenge and crime narratives into an equally unbelievable storyline.
