The popular saying ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ which means do not judge the value of something beforehand, only by its outward appearance, often does not hold true for the Indian audience. We have a tendency to prejudge things and are often proved wrong. A recently released film, Commando 2: The Black Money Trail has impressed everyone with its box office performance. The movie once again pointed out that how wrong it is to assume that a film won’t work just because it does not boast of a star cast. Box Office figures of the first weekend collection of the film indicate that star cast is not enough to keep a film running— if it is good, people will watch it irrespective of how famous the actor or the actress is!

Commando 2: The Black Money Trail, which hit theatres on 3rd March, has been directed by Deven Bhojani. The action drama stars a two-film-old Vidyut Jammwal, who is trying to create a niche for himself as an action hero in Bollywood and Adah Sharma, a popular face in south films, who has acted in just a couple of Hindi films. The film has surprised everybody by performing way beyond it was expected to do and has grossed over Rs 15 crores at the box office!

Vidyut Jammwal-Adah Sharma starrer Commando 2 turns out to be a surprise performer at the end of its opening weekend!
Vidyut Jammwal-Adah Sharma starrer Commando 2 turns out to be a surprise performer at the end of its opening weekend!

Commando 2 has outshone several films, which released in the past few months, on the basis of its opening weekend collection. These include films, which boast of a star cast like Rangoon, OK Jaanu and Irada, as well as those starring relatively fresh faces like Running Shaadi. The Vidyut Jammwal starrer is also providing a stiff competition to Deepika Padukone’s debut Hollywood flick xXx: Return of Xander Cage, which boasted of Vin Diesel’s name as her co-star. That’s stunning!

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FilmDate Of ReleaseCastDirector 1st Weekend Collection
OK Jaanu13th January, 2017Shraddha Kapoor, Aditya Roy KapurShaad Ali13.80 Cr
Haraamkhor13th January, 2017Nawazuddin SiddiquiShlok Sharma01.01 Cr
xXx: Return of Xander Cage13th January, 2017Vin Diesel, Deepika PadukoneD.J. Caruso15.85 Cr
Running Shaadi16th February, 2017Taapsee Pannu, Amit SadhAmit Roy00.60 Cr
Irada16th February, 2017Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah, Divya DuttaAparnaa Singh00.57 Cr
Rangoon24th February, 2017Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Kangana RanautVishal Bhardwaj18.25 Cr

Not just films, which have released this year, Commando 2 has grossed a lot better than several films of last year, which performed way below expectation. Shockingly, the list includes names of much-awaited sequels like Rock On 2, Kahaani 2, Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive, Great Grand Masti and Jai Gangaajal, which feature names like Farhan Akhtar, Vidya Balan, Arjun Rampal and Priyanka Chopra among others. Commando 2 also did better than some films, about which expectations were sky-high. Katrina Kaif starrer Fitoor and Baar Baar Dekho, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan-Randeep Hooda starrer Sarbjit definitely falls in this category. Despite critical acclaim and with actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Naseeruddin Shah, films like Aligarh, Raman Raghav 2.0 and Waiting put up a disappointing show at the box office last year.

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FilmDate Of ReleaseCastDirector 1st Weekend Collection
Saala Khadoos29th January, 2016R MadhavanSudha Kongara Prasad05.25 Cr
Fitoor12th February, 2016Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, TabuAbhishek Kapoor14.11 Cr
Tere Bin Laden Dead Or Alive26th February, 2016Manish Paul, Pradhuman Singh, Sikander Kher, Piyush Mishra, Rahul SinghAbhishek Sharma02.00 Cr
Aligarh26th February, 2016Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar RaoHansal Mehta01.50 Cr
Jai Gangaajal4th March, 2016 Priyanka Chopra, Prakash JhaPrakash Jha19.25 Cr
Rocky Handsome25th March, 2016John Abraham, Shruti HaasanNishikant Kamat16.12 Cr
Sarbjit20th May, 2016Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda, Richa ChadhaOmung Kumar13.95 Cr
Waiting27th May, 2016Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin ShahAnu Menon01.25 Cr
Phobia27th May, 2016Radhika AptePavan Kripalani01.25 Cr
Do Lafzon Ki Kahani10th June, 2016Randeep Hooda, Kajal AggarwalDeepak Tijori03.25 Cr
Raman Raghav 2.024th June, 2016Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky KaushalAnurag Kashyap05.08 Cr
Great Grand Masti15th July, 2016Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab ShivdasaniIndra Kumar08.00 Cr
Madaari22nd July, 2016Irrfan Khan, Jimmy ShergillNishikant Kamat08.00 Cr
Baar Baar Dekho9th September, 2016Sidharth Malhotra, Katrina KaifNitya Mehra21.16 Cr
Banjo23 September, 2016Riteish Deshmukh, Nargis FakhriRavi Jadhav05.92 Cr
Rock On 211 November, 2016Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal, Shraddha Kapoor, Purab KohliShujaat Saudagar07.01 Cr
Kahaani 22nd December, 2016Vidya Balan, Arjun RampalSujoy Ghosh16.97 Cr

As we have said time and again that nobody, perhaps including the almighty, can predict what is going to happen at the box office, Commando 2 proved us true and how! The film which took a great start on its first day and dropped a little on its second, only to recover on its third day has definitely taken all by surprise— especially those who unfortunately tend to judge a film only by its star cast. It’s time they take Commando 2 as a learning lesson.

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