What a turnaround it has been for the year since the release of Gabbar Is Back. Ever since the Akshay Kumar starrer went on to take the biggest opening of the year, ‘achche din‘ have returned in Bollywood. Gabbar Is Back, Piku, Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Dil Dhadakne Do, ABCD 2 – quite a few films have brought back the audience to the theaters. This isn’t all as several Hollywood films have done fantastic business too in last 2-3 months. Furious 7, Avengers – The Age of Ultrons and Jurassic World have been three huge hits.
Now add Telugu film Bahubali to the list.
While the film is doing fantabulous business in various languages down South, it is a hit already in the Hindi circuits as well. No one, just no one, would have expected the film to take anything more than just a decent start. At maximum, a lifetime business of 25-30 crore was on the cards. However, the film is now slated for much more than that. After a superb weekend of 22 crore, the S.S. Rajamouli film went on to have solid weekdays as well which were better than the Friday collections. A rare feat indeed. As a result, over 45 crore have come in for the film, hence giving it a HIT status.
Given the kind of popularity it is enjoying and growing word of mouth, the film would have certainly taken a shot at the 100 crore mark just in the Hindi version. However, it has hit a huge speed blocker ahead in the form of Bajrangi Bhaijaan which has taken up over 90% of the screens all over (except for South). As a result, Bahubali will take a sudden dip in collections.
It is akin to what happened with Jab We Met when it was followed immediately by Om Shanti Om. However, the Imtiaz Ali directed film had managed to find its standing from the third week onwards. The same is expected from Bahubali too.
On the other hand, I Love NY has turned out to be the biggest ever disaster of Sunny Deol and Kangana Ranaut since one can remember. The film has folded up at just a little over the 2 crore mark and is no longer running at any centers.