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1/11/2026 // SUBJECT: Nayakan (1987) financial performance Processing: 1m 10.9s
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#Q ORIGINAL QUESTION

Regarding the film Nayakan (1987), how much did the film make at both the box office and after (detail breakdown), and how did that compare to its budget?

#M ANNOTATED LLM RESPONSE

I'll search for specific information about the box office performance and budget of Nayakan (1987).

Let me search for more specific box office collection numbers for Nayakan.

Let me search for more detailed financial information about Nayakan's box office performance.

Based on my research, here's what I can tell you about Nayakan's (1987) financial performance:

Budget

The initial budget was ₹60 lakh (US$500,000 in 1987), but time and cost overruns increased the budget to beyond ₹1 crore (US$830,000 in 1987).

More specifically,

according to an interview with director Mani Ratnam, he budgeted 65 lakh for the film and its expenditure doubled to 1.33 crore.

Box Office Performance

Unfortunately, specific detailed box office collection figures for Nayakan are not readily available in reliable sources. While

the film became a critical and commercial success, running for over 175 days in theatres

, and

the film has been acclaimed for being a box-office success whilst being a critical success

, the exact box office numbers—including breakdowns by domestic earnings, theatrical collections, and post-theatrical revenues—are not documented in contemporary records.

Summary

The film's financial trajectory clearly shows that despite the budget escalating from ₹60-65 lakh to ₹1.33 crore (approximately doubling), the film was a commercial success that justified its costs through its 175+ day theatrical run. However, the specific earnings figures, day-wise collections, and detailed revenue breakdowns that modern films regularly publicize were not systematically recorded or publicized for Tamil cinema films in 1987, making a precise comparison between budget and box office collection difficult to establish with certainty.

#F CORRECTION FEED (CLICK TO SEARCH)

[1] Producer Muktha Srinivasan confirmed in a 2012 interview that the initial budget estimate was ₹60 lakh.
[2] Multiple sources, including the producer and director, confirm the final budget exceeded ₹1 crore due to delays and reshoots.
[3] Mani Ratnam mentioned in interviews that the budget increased from ~60 lakh to 1.33 crore.
[4] Verified that no specific total gross figures (e.g., '10 crore') are available in reliable trade records for this 1987 film.
[5] The film had a Silver Jubilee run (175 days) in 4 theaters and 100 days in 43 theaters.
[6] The producer Muktha Srinivasan explicitly stated he did not make a profit because the budget doubled. The 'commercial success' benefited the distributor (GV Films) who bought the rights, not the original producer who bore the cost overruns.

#O MISSED POINTS & OVERSIGHTS

Medium
Producer's Financial Loss

The summary misses the key irony that while the film was a hit, the producer lost money (or made zero profit) because the budget doubled. This directly answers 'how did that compare to its budget'.

Low
Kamal Haasan's Salary

Kamal Haasan was paid ₹17.5 lakh, which was a significant portion (approx 20%) of the original budget.

#C RELATED QUERIES

#01 Did the producer of Nayakan make a profit?
#02 What was Kamal Haasan's salary for Nayakan?
#03 Who distributed Nayakan 1987?

#S SOURCES

wikipedia.org

#R ORIGINAL AI RESPONSE

#A DIRECT ANSWER (VERIFIED ANALYSIS)