Here’s how Bollywood films performed at the box office in February.
February has been a great month for many Bollywood films. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat may have released on January 25 but it continued to rake in the moolah at the Bollywood box office. Having minted a total of Rs 288.43 crore till now, Padmaavat is 2018’s first film to cross the Rs 200 crore mark.
Trade analyst Girish Johar predicts that Bhansali’s period drama should remain rock-steady in the coming days as well. Padmaavat’s glorious success doesn’t really come as a surprise considering the humungous hype around the film. It’s a classic case of controversies working well for a film! While Karni Sena and CBFC made things difficult for Bhansali, the indefinite postponement of Padmaavat’s release date had a prominent effect on other Bollywood releases, mainly Padman and Aiyaary.
Akshay Kumar’s social drama Padman has earned a total of Rs 80 crore till now and chances of it crossing the coveted Rs 100 crore mark are pretty slim, considering the onslaught of new releases in the coming days. However, as Girish Johar remarks, PadMan is the kind of film that goes beyond box office numbers. It talks about a subject which has been considered a taboo in the Indian society for far too long.
As far as Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee’s political drama Aiyaary is concerned, its performance has been as lackluster as its critical reception. Aiyaary managed to collect a tedious sum of Rs 17 crore, despite being the solo Bollywood release on February 16.
Releasing on the same date, Marvel’s first all-black superhero movie Black Panther was all kinds of impressive. Black Panther was a global success and it even managed to collect Rs 43.28 crore at the Indian box office.
Akshay Kumar’s Padman was based on the life of social entrepreneur Arunachalam Muruganantham and banrolled by Twinkle Khanna.
Other Hollywood offerings, however, didn’t manage to pull in as many viewers. February saw a number of Oscar nominated movies hitting the screen including Daniel Day-Lewis’ Phantom Thread, Frances McDormand’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missourie and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water. Christian Bale’s Hostiles and Maze Runner: The Death Cure didn’t gain much traction as well.
February’s dark horse has to be Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety. Coming from the Pyaar Ka Punchnama trio, expectations from this romantic comedy were fairly low. But director Luv Ranjan worked his magic yet again. SKTKS has earned a total of Rs 68.05 crore in less than two weeks.
Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety stars Nushrat Bharucha, Sunny Singh and Kartik Aaryan in the lead.
“The box office performance of SKTKS has been fabulous. It didn’t carry any big names and yet, it managed to connect with the audiences. It has been doing especially well in the northern sections of India. SKTKS’ success reiterates the fact that if filmmakers bring good content to the table, audiences are bound to react positively,” said Johar.
Chances are SKTKS will rake in big numbers in the coming weeks as well, considering the lack of big-ticket releases in the first half of March.
For all the latest Entertainment News, download Indian Express App
