Bollywood’s Independence Day Weekend: Box Office Analysis

The Independence Day has historically been a huge weekend for the Hindi film industry. The most iconic film of all time – Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay – released on this very day exactly 41 years ago. Even after nearly 4 decades, the lead hero of the film, the evergreen Amitabh Bachchan remains one of the busiest actors in the industry.

In the last 10 years, 12 Hindi films (small films were not taken into consideration) have released during the weekend. Both the biggest grosser and the lowest grosser of the Independence Day weekend belong to Salman Khan. It goes to show the phenomenal rise of the superstar in the last few years. Back then, not only did a film featuring a one-film-old Ranbir Kapoor release on the same day as a Salman starrer, but it held the upper hand and quite easily won the box office clash.

8 year later, Salman is the undisputed biggest star in the industry and even a top star like Shah Rukh Khan had to postpone his keenly-awaited film ‘Raees’ to let ‘Sultan’ take centre stage.

Rustom will be Akshay Kumar’s first success during the Independence Day weekend, his last two films during the same period – Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaara and Brothers – were huge failures at the ticket window.

Chak De India is probably the best and most acclaimed film to release during the ‘freedom weekend’ in the last 10 years. The film did not take a huge start at the box office, but went on to be a blockbuster with incredible word-of-mouth. For a lot of people, it could be the career-best film of Shah Rukh Khan.

Top 5 Independence Day Grossers:

Ek Tha Tiger – 199.6 crore
Singham Returns – 140.2 crore
Rustom – Still running, will take the third film
Brothers – 82.7 crore
Chak De India – 67.7 crore (would’ve more than tripled if it released today)