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Join UsKoimoi takes a journey down memory lane, reminiscing about Bollywood films which have rocked and bombed at the box office in the third week of March
While both media and social media is abuzz over the latest happenings in Uttar Pradesh (Read over the appointment of its new chief minister Mahant Yogi Adityanath), children are heaving a sigh of relief with school annual and board exams either being completed or nearing completion. What is Bollywood doing? B-Towners mourned the demise of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s father Krishnaraj Rai on Saturday. Meanwhile, comedians Kapil Sharma and Sunil Grover made headlines with their nasty in-flight spat, with a drunken Kapil allegedly slapping Sunil and hitting him with his shoe while hurling abuses at him and Sunil Grover reportedly quitting his show in reply.
On the film front, three movies hit theatres in the 3rd week of March— Abbas-Mustan’s romantic thriller Machine, which marked the Bollywood debut of Abbas’ son Mustafa, Vikramaditya Motwane’s survival thriller Trapped starring Rajkummar Rao and Govinda’s comeback film Aa Gaya Hero, none of which had a decent opening. In fact, barring Trapped, the other two turned out to be an extremely disappointing watch. How does Bollywood normally perform at the box office during this time of the year? We recollect films released in the 3rd week of March, which have rocked and shocked the box office in the last 10 years.
(Please rotate your screen for best viewing)
| Year | Films Released In March 3rd Week | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Machine | 17th March |
| 2017 | Trapped | 17th March |
| 2017 | Aa Gaya Hero | 17th March |
| 2016 | Kapoor & Sons | 18th March |
| 2015 | Dilliwali Zaalim Girlfriend | 20th March |
| 2015 | Hunterrr | 20th March |
| 2014 | Ankhon Dekhi | 21st March |
| 2014 | Gang of Ghosts | 21st March |
| 2014 | Lakshmi | 21st March |
| 2014 | Ragini MMS 2 | 21st March |
| 2013 | Mere Dad Ki Maruti | 15th March |
| 2013 | Jolly LLB | 15th March |
| 2012 | Say Yes to Love | 16th March |
| 2012 | Akkad Bakkkad Bam Be Bo | 16th March |
| 2012 | Zindagi Tere Naam | 16th March |
| 2011 | N/A | |
| 2010 | Idiot Box | 19th March |
| 2010 | Lahore | 19th March |
| 2010 | Love Sex Aur Dhokha | 19th March |
| 2010 | Shaapit: The Cursed | 19th March |
| 2009 | Aloo Chaat | 20th March |
| 2009 | Barah Aana | 20th March |
| 2009 | Firaaq | 20th March |
| 2009 | Lottery | 20th March |
| 2009 | Straight | 20th March |
| 2008 | Race | 21st March |
| 2007 | Hattrick | 16th March |
While March 3rd week surely has delivered some wonderful films in the past 10 years like Kapoor & Sons, Firaaq, Race and Jolly LLB, it also delivered okay-ish and ignorable films which failed to run beyond a week at theatres. Dibakar Banerjee’s Love Sex aur Dhokha, perhaps the first Indian feature film to have the word ‘sex’ in its title was critically acclaimed for being realistic albeit grim. While Bengali filmmaker Anik Dutta’s directorial debut Bhooter Bhabishyat became immensely popular among viewers and critics, its Hindi remake Gang of Ghosts by Satish Kaushik failed to leave a mark. Bhushan Patel’s Ragini MMS 2, the second installment in the Ragini MMS franchise starring Bollywood’s beautiful seductress Sunny Leone was appreciated by the Indian audience and became a super-hit. Let’s have a look at all the films which did or did not leave a mark at the March 3rd week Box Office.
(Please rotate your screen for best viewing)
| Films Released In March 3rd Week | Director | Cast | Box Office Collection (Cr) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine | Abbas-Mustan | Mustafa Kiara Advani | 02.50 | (Still running) |
| Trapped | Vikramaditya Motwane | Rajkummar Rao Geetanjali Thapa | 01.94 | (Still running) |
| Aa Gaya Hero | Dipankar Senapati | Govinda Richa Sharma Ashutosh Rana Murali Sharma Makarand Deshpande Chandrachur Singh Harish Kumar | 00.92 | (Still running) |
| Kapoor & Sons | Shakun Batra | Fawad Khan Sidharth Malhotra Alia Bhatt Rishi Kapoor Ratna Pathak Shah Rajat Kapoor | 73.03 | Plus* |
| Dilliwali Zaalim Girlfriend | Japinder Kaur | Divyendu Sharma Jackie Shroff Prachi Mishra Pradhuman Singh | 02.50 | Flop |
| Hunterrr | Harshavardhan Kulkarni | Gulshan Devaiah Radhika Apte Sai Tamhankar | 13.50 | Hit |
| Ankhon Dekhi | Rajat Kapoor | Sanjay Mishra Seema Pahwa Rajat Kapoor | 00.74 | Flop |
| Gang of Ghosts | Satish Kaushik | Sharman Joshi Parambrata Chatterjee Mahi Gill Anupam Kher Meera Chopra J. Brandon Hill Rajesh Khattar Saurabh Shukla Rajpal Yadav Yashpal Sharma Vijay Verma Chunky Pandey Jackie Shroff | 01.70 | Flop |
| Lakshmi | Nagesh Kukunoor | Nagesh Kukunoor Monali Thakur Satish Kaushik Shefali Shah Ram Kapoor Gulfam Khan | 00.18 | Flop |
| Ragini MMS 2 | Bhushan Patel | Sunny Leone Saahil Prem Parvin Dabas Sandhya Mridul Anita Hassanandani Karan Taluja | 47.00 | Super-Hit |
| Mere Dad Ki Maruti | Ashima Chibber | Saqib Saleem Rhea Chakraborty Ram Kapoor Prabal Panjabi Ravi Kishan | 12.50 | Average |
| Jolly LLB | Subhash Kapoor | Arshad Warsi Boman Irani Amrita Rao Saurabh Shukla | 32.00 | Super-Hit |
| Say Yes to Love | Marukh Miraz Beig | Aasad Mirza Nazia Hussain Aditya Raj Kapoor | N/A | |
| Akkad Bakkkad Bam Be Bo | Dweep Raj Kochhar | Mukesh Khanna Dr Ved Thapar Rakesh Bedi Nimai Bali Vijoo Khote Avtar Gill | N/A | |
| Zindagi Tere Naam | Ashu Trikha | Mithun Chakraborty Ranjeeta Dalip Tahil Goldy Supriya Karnik | 00.04 | Flop |
| Idiot Box | Sunanda Mitra | Sushant Singh Hrishitaa Bhatt Milind Gunaji Upasna Singh Surendra Pal Jyoti Gauba Sanghmitra Kumar | 00.03 | Flop |
| Lahore | Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan | Aanaahad Shraddha Das Farooq Sheikh Nafisa Ali Sabyasachi Chakrabarty | 01.05 | Flop |
| Love Sex Aur Dhokha | Dibakar Banerjee | Anshuman Jha Nushrat Bharucha Rajkummar Rao Neha Chauhan | 09.78 | Semi-Hit |
| Shaapit: The Cursed | Vikram Bhatt | Aditya Narayan Shweta Agarwal Shubh Joshi Murli Sharma Nishigandha Wad | 09.48 | Average |
| Aloo Chaat | Robby Grewal | Aftab Shivdasani Aamna Shariff Linda Arsenio Kulbhushan Kharbanda Manoj Pahwa Sanjai Mishra | 04.86 | Flop |
| Barah Aana | Raja Krishna Menon | Naseeruddin Shah Tannishtha Chatterjee Vijay Raaz | 00.63 | Flop |
| Firaaq | Nandita Das | Naseeruddin Shah Sanjay Suri Raghubir Yadav Deepti Naval Paresh Rawal Shahana Goswami Nawazuddin Siddiqui Tisca Chopra | 01.16 | Flop |
| Lottery | Hemant Prabhu | Abhijeet Sawant Sanjay Narvekar Mukesh Tiwari Rucha Gujarati Manisha Kelkar | 00.48 | Flop |
| Straight | Parvati Balagopalan | Daman Baggan Anuj Chaudhary Ketki Dave Siddharth Makkar Gul Panag Vinay Pathak | 01.03 | Flop |
| Race | Abbas-Mustan | Anil Kapoor Saif Ali Khan Katrina Kaif Bipasha Basu Akshaye Khanna Sameera Reddy | 63.00 | Hit |
| Hattrick | Milan Luthria | Paresh Rawal Rimi Sen Kunal Kapoor Nana Patekar Danny Denzongpa | 04.82 | Flop |
*Plus – Film which recovers investment & yields some profit
Average: Film which only recovers investment
March 3rd week was surely a mixed bag with several hit, semi-hit and super-hits in between flops. On the 4th week we have Anushka Sharma’s home production Phillauri, a rom-com which stars her opposite Punjabi pop star and actor Diljit Dosanjh and Swara Bhaskar’s drama Anaarkali Of Aarah. While the beautiful Anushka wins hearts as a friendly ghost in Phillauri, the talented Swara stuns in the avatar of an erotic singer from rural Bihar in Anaarkali Of Aarah. Both the films have opened to good reviews from critics. Let’s see if the audience too shower their love on them!
