Box office

A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket.

By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a synonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives.

Box office business can be measured in terms of the number of tickets sold or the amount of money raised by ticket sales (revenue). The projection and analysis of these earnings is very important for the creative industries and often a source of interest for fans. This is predominant in the Hollywood movie industry.

Etymology

The term is attested since 1786, presumably from sales of boxes (private seating areas in a theatre). The sense of "total sales" is attested from 1904.

A folk etymology is that this derives from Elizabethan theatre (i.e. late 16th century), where theatre admission was collected in a box attached to a long stick, passed around the audience; comparable to "bottle" in Punch and Judy, where money was collected in a bottle. However, first attestation is about 200 years later, making this highly unlikely.

Anupam Kher

Anupam Kher (born 7 March 1955) is an Indian actor who has appeared in several hundred films and many plays. Mainly working in Hindi films, he has also appeared in acclaimed international films such as the 2002 Golden Globe nominated Bend It Like Beckham, Ang Lee's 2007 Golden Lion winning Lust, Caution, and David O. Russell's 2013 Oscar winning Silver Linings Playbook. Kher has won the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role five times. For his performance in film Vijay he won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He has held the post of chairman of Central Board of Film Certification and National School of Drama in India. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016 for his contribution in the field of cinema and arts.

His wife, actress Kirron Kher is a Member of the Indian Parliament from Chandigarh.

Early life

Kher was born on 7 March 1955 in Shimla. His father was a clerk and he had a modest upbringing. He received education at D.A.V. School in Shimla. In his struggling days as an actor in Mumbai he used to sleep on the railway platform before he found fame and fortune in films. He is an alumnus and a former chairperson of the National School of Drama. Some of his early acting roles were in plays performed at the Himachal Pradesh University.