Mamitha Baiju has a new career-best box-office performer.
Nivin Pauly and Mamitha’s Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has now moved past Vijay’s Jana Nayagan at the worldwide box office, making Girish AD’s Malayalam romantic comedy the highest-grossing film of Mamitha’s career.
According to Koimoi’s Day 36 estimates, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has reached approximately ₹328.07 crore worldwide, including ₹190.42 crore gross from India and ₹137.65 crore from overseas markets. The same tracker places Jana Nayagan’s completed worldwide run at ₹327.2 crore.
That puts just under ₹1 crore between the two movies—but the routes they took to get there could hardly be more different.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit took the slow route to the record
Jana Nayagan arrived as Vijay’s farewell movie and carried the scale, fan anticipation and opening-day rush expected from one of Tamil cinema’s biggest stars.
Bethlehem Kudumba Unit was a far smaller proposition: a Malayalam romantic comedy built around Nivin Pauly, Mamitha Baiju and Girish AD’s familiar strength for relationships, humour and everyday characters.
Yet the movie’s longevity changed the equation.
By Day 32, trade figures cited by Cinema Express already had Bethlehem Kudumba Unit at ₹323.19 crore worldwide, including ₹185.84 crore from India and ₹137.35 crore overseas. It had also become the first film to cross ₹150 crore from Kerala theaters alone.
The film then continued adding collections through its sixth week until it finally moved past Jana Nayagan.
Box-office totals can vary slightly between trade trackers. Earlier Sacnilk-based reports placed Jana Nayagan at around ₹324.59 crore worldwide, while Koimoi lists its closing total at ₹327.2 crore. Either way, Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has now crossed both reported benchmarks.
Mamitha Baiju’s 2026 box-office run keeps getting bigger
The milestone is particularly notable because Jana Nayagan was itself already one of Mamitha’s biggest films.
Her 2026 releases have included Jana Nayagan, Vishwanath & Sons and Bethlehem Kudumba Unit, with Cinema Express reporting that all three crossed ₹250 crore worldwide.
That is a dramatic jump from where her career stood only a few years ago.
Premalu turned Mamitha into one of Malayalam cinema’s most recognizable younger stars and expanded her audience outside Kerala. Her subsequent Tamil projects pushed that visibility further, while Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has now delivered her biggest worldwide total without needing the scale of a major action franchise.
It is also not merely an actress-specific record.
The film had already passed Lokah Chapter 1: Chandra to become the highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time, crossing ₹300 crore worldwide in only 24 days.
A small opening became Malayalam cinema’s biggest total
Perhaps the most interesting part of Bethlehem Kudumba Unit’s run is how little its final number resembles its beginning.
Unlike Jana Nayagan, it was not powered primarily by an enormous first-day collection. Its growth came through sustained occupancy, family audiences and repeat viewing over several weeks.
Co-producer Fahadh Faasil credited the performance to the film’s “honest script,” age-gap romance, humour and Onam release timing, while Nivin Pauly has similarly pointed to the connection audiences formed with the movie’s characters.
That makes the new record more interesting than a simple ₹328 crore headline.
Mamitha Baiju’s previous biggest film was attached to Vijay’s massive farewell event. Her new No. 1 is a Malayalam romantic comedy that simply kept earning until it overtook it.
With Bethlehem Kudumba Unit now entering the final stretch of its theatrical run, the worldwide total may still move slightly higher. Koimoi projects a possible finish around ₹330–335 crore if its remaining shows continue contributing through the seventh week.
Whatever the final figure, one part of Mamitha Baiju’s box-office record is already settled: Bethlehem Kudumba Unit has moved ahead of Jana Nayagan and become the biggest worldwide grosser of her career.
