However, the 2026 box office report till date has seen some of the biggest hits being A rated films, including the most recent example, Mirzapur The Movie . There used to be a time when filmmakers used to be vary about getting an A certificate for their films, considering it would limit their audience demographic. even international films like The Odyssey and Obsession also didn’t face any limitations While Dhurandhar The Revenge and Jana Nayagan also didn’t seem to get hampered by the A certificate.
“The times are changing and the major section of the film going audience is the youth which are 18+. They have chosen to be braver as it showed that over ₹ 500 crore business is possible and then with Dhurandhar, even crossing ₹ 1000 crore,” he says. Because of its content, take Dhurandhar, the A certificate didn’t change the film’s fate, it worked. Because that is the way the youth today uses it, “There was so much discourse around the foul language and adult scenes in Animal (2023), and I thought that it added about ₹ 100 crore to the collection.
The public knew it was an adult rated film, yet they still went to theatres and made it the biggest hit of Indian cinema. Also, a U certificate isn’t a guarantee for success. It all depends on whether the film is good or not. “The content has to work, that’s the only requisite. Trade analyst Komal Nahta opines that the concern about A certification hasn’t vanished. So, they felt vindicated seeing an A-list actor doing what they do in real life. These days, sometimes an A certificate adds a curiosity value and pushes the audience to the theatres, who wouldn’t have gone otherwise. So, the A-rated films are appealing to them. He asserts that OTT has also contributed to this change. “The makers see that raw and gritty content works on OTT and when they come for certification, this argument comes that if it is allowed there, why not on the big screen. The success of such content on the web has made film makers braver and bolder too. “It has subsided for sure as we have seen some unprecedented successes across languages and genres. It has led to the realisation that there are enough people in every social economic strata to make a film blockbuster, if the content is exciting enough. He credits the boom of A rated successes to Ranbir Kapoor’s Animal. “Only when a certain section of the audience shows enough traction and generates revenue, it encourages filmmakers to push the envelope. That has happened with the success of Animal and resulted in many more A rated films.
Ask trade analyst Taran Adarsh if the A certification has become less of a concern for makers, and he says, “I don’t think there is much issue with that if the film does require such sequences. “But it’s not like the end of the world due to so many films becoming successful,” he says, adding that it does create curiosity within the audience. Trade analyst Atul Mohan insists that A certificate doesn’t give the makers liberty to show “explicit content”, and the makers are also “sensible enough” to know that. They are not ready to compromise on storytelling for a UA certification’s sake,” he says. Akkshay Rathie, Director, Ashirwad Theatres Pvt Ltd, says the business concern has reduced for distributors and exhibitors as well.
He adds that earlier there used to be concerns and distributors would get worried with an A certificate, but now that isn’t the case.
