March 4th Week Releases: How Has Bollywood Performed At The Box Office In The Past 10 Years?

Koimoi takes a journey down memory lane, reminiscing about Bollywood films which have rocked and bombed at the box office in the fourth week of March in the past 10 years.

The recently concluded cricket series between India and Australia was surely a controversial one with Australian cricketer Brad Hodge questioning Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s ethics for not playing the most vital series decider match against Australia and later on apologising to him. On the other hand, eight coaches of the Jabalpur-Nizamuddin Mahakaushal Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, injuring at least 22 persons. That was March 4th week in a nutshell.

But what is B-Town doing? While Karan Johar took his surrogate twins Roohi and Yash home finally, TV actress Shilpa Shinde of comedy serial Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain fame has accused the show’s producer Sanjay Kohli of sexual harassment and filed an FIR against him.

On the film front, Anushka Sharma’s Phillauri, which hit theatres last week, has been dominating the box office and has grossed over Rs 22 crores! The Anushka Sharma-Diljit Dosanjh starrer rom-com has done good business, especially in North India due to the presence of the Punjabi pop-star, who is extremely popular in the region. Another release, Swara Bhaskar starrer Anarkali of Aarah had also opened to good reviews but failed to rake in moolahs.

How does Bollywood normally perform at the box office during this time of the year? We recollect films released during the 4th week of March, which have rocked and shocked the box office in the last 10 years.

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Year	Films Released In March 4th Week	Release Date
2017	Phillauri	24th March
2017	Anarkali of Aarah	24th March
2016	Rocky Handsome	25th March
2015	Barkhaa	27th March
2014	Dishkiyaoon	28th March
2014	O Teri	28th March
2014	Station: The Film	28th March
2014	Youngistaan	28th March
2013	Rangrezz	21st March
2013	Aatma	22nd March
2012	Agent Vinod	23rd March
2011	Happy Husbands	25th March
2011	Monica	25th March
2010	Hum Tum Aur Ghost	26th March
2010	It's a Man's World	26th March
2010	Mittal v/s Mittal	26th March
2010	My Friend Ganesha 3	26th March
2010	Prem Kaa Game	26th March
2010	Well Done Abba	26th March
2009	Aa Dekhen Zara	27th March
2009	99	27th March
2009	Ek: The Power of One	27th March
2008	One Two Three	28th March
2007	The Namesake	23rd March

Sriram Raghavan’s Agent Vinod turns out to be the highest grosser in the fourth week of March in the last 10 years! During this time of the year, Bollywood has delivered critically acclaimed films like Mira Nair’s The Namesake, based on a Jhumpa Lahiri novel by the same name but not many films have had the opportunity to be called a hit. Seems Anushka Sharma’s Phillauri will turn out to be the only hit movie released during March fourth week. Let’s have a look at the progress of the films released during this time.

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Films	Director	Cast	Box Office Collection (In Crores)	Verdict
Phillauri	Anshai Lal	Anushka Sharma Diljit Dosanjh Suraj Sharma Mehreen Pirzada	21.03	(Still Running)
Anarkali of Aarah	Avinash Das	Swara Bhaskar Sanjai Mishra Pankaj Tripathy Ishhtiaq Khan	00.47	(Still Running)
Rocky Handsome	Nishikant Kamat	John Abraham Diya Chalwad Shruti Haasan Nishikant Kamat Sharad Kelkar	26.41	Flop
Barkhaa	Shadaab Mirza	Sara Loren Taaha Shah Priyanshu Chatterjee Shweta Pandit Raashul Tandon	00.98	Flop
Dishkiyaoon	Sanamjit Singh Talwar	Sunny Deol Harman Baweja Ayesha Khanna Aditya Pancholi Prashant Narayanan Anand Tiwari Sumit Nijhawan	06.00	Flop
O Teri	Umesh Bisht	Pulkit Samrat Bilal Amrohi Sarah-Jane Dias Mandira Bedi	03.75	Flop
Station: The Film	Saad Khan	Sameer Kevin Roy Siddhanth K.S. Hardik Sha Kanika Batra Vivek Shah	N/A
Youngistaan	Syed Ahmad Afzal	Jackky Bhagnani Neha Sharma Farooq Sheikh Kayoze Irani	06.75	Flop
Rangrezz	Priyadarshan	Jackky Bhagnani Priya Anand Rajpal Yadav Amitosh Nagpal	06.00	Flop
Aatma	Suparn Verma	Bipasha Basu Nawazuddin Siddiqui	08.00	Flop
Agent Vinod	Sriram Raghavan	Saif Ali Khan Kareena Kapoor Prem Chopra Adil Hussain Ram Kapoor	44.06	Average
Happy Husbands	Saji Surendran	Jayaram Jayasurya Indrajith Bhavana Samvrutha Sunil Vandana Menon Rima Kallingal Suraj Venjaramoodu	00.36	Flop
Monica	Sushen Bhatnagar	Divya Dutta Ashutosh Rana Rajit Kapur	00.20	Flop
Hum Tum Aur Ghost	Kabeer Kaushik	Arshad Warsi Dia Mirza Boman Irani Sandhya Mridul	05.09	Flop
It's a Man's World	Saurabh Sengupta	Mohsin Akhtar Mouli Ganguly Ranjeet Jha Mikhil Chindaramani	N/A
Mittal v/s Mittal	Karan Razdan	Rohit Roy Rituparna Sen Gupta Suchitra Krishnamoorthi Gulshan Grover	00.20	Flop
My Friend Ganesha 3	Rajiv S. Ruia	Rahul Pendkalkar Baba Sehgal Eva Grover Sayaji Shinde Himani Shivpuri Makarand Anaspure	00.23	Flop
Prem Kaa Game	Ashok Kheny	Salman Khan Arbaaz Khan Tara Sharma Malaika Arora Madhuri Bhattacharya	N/A
Well Done Abba	Shyam Benegal	Boman Irani Minissha Lamba Ravi Kishan Sammir Dattani	03.74	Flop
Aa Dekhen Zara	Jehangir Surti	Bipasha Basu Neil Nitin Mukesh Rahul Dev Sophie Choudry	06.16	Flop
99	Raj and D.K.	Kunal Khemu Boman Irani Soha Ali Khan Cyrus Broacha Mahesh Manjrekar Vinod Khanna	10.78	Flop
Ek: The Power of One	Sangeeth Sivan	Bobby Deol Shriya Saran Nana Patekar	06.00	Flop
One Two Three	Ashwni Dhir	Sunil Shetty Tushar Kapoor Paresh Rawal	27.00	Average
The Namesake	Mira Nair	Tabu Irrfan Khan	06.62	Flop

* Average: Film which only recovers investment

That was surely disappointing! Isn’t it? Not a single film from the above list has made it to the category of a hit, let alone being a super-hit. But the way Anushka Sharma’s home production Phillauri is performing seems the movie is all set to break this jinx and set a fresh record! Swara Bhaskar’s power-packed performance in Anarkali of Aarah was lauded by critics but the audience probably chose to watch Phillauri in theatres. Two films are hitting theatres this week— Manoj Bajpayee-Taapsee Pannu starrer Naam Shabana, a spin-off from Akshay Kumar’s 2015 movie Baby and Rahul Bose’s Poorna, a biopic on Poorna Malavath, the youngest girl to have summitted the Mount Everest.

Let’s see how these two perform at the BO!