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Join UsMarch is a month of colours! It is that time of the year when we forget everything else and splash ourselves with red, blue, green, purple, yellow, pink, orange and a variety of hues! Yes, March is the season of Holi! Bollywood’s connection to Holi dates back to its beginning with countless films featuring the festival of colours and an ocean of songs being penned on it— Holi Ke Din (Sholay), Rang Barse (Silsila), Aaj Na Chhodenge (Kati Patang), Balam Pichkari (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani), Soni Soni (Mohabbatein) to name a few. But how has Bollywood performed at the box office in March?
What kind of films have released in this month in the past few years? Koimoi takes a journey down memory lane, reminiscing about Bollywood films which have rocked and bombed at the box office in the first week of March in the last 10 years.
| Year | Films Released In March 1st Week | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Commando 2 | 3rd March |
| 2017 | Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai | 3rd March |
| 2016 | Zubaan | 4th March |
| 2016 | Jai Gangaajal | 4th March |
| 2015 | Badmashiyaan – Fun Never Ends | 6th March |
| 2015 | Coffee Bloom | 6th March |
| 2015 | Dirty Politics | 6th March |
| 2015 | Hey Bro | 6th March |
| 2014 | Gulaab Gang | 7th March |
| 2014 | Queen | 7th March |
| 2014 | Total Siyapaa | 7th March |
| 2013 | I, Me, aur Main | 1st March |
| 2013 | Bloody Isshq | 1st March |
| 2013 | The Attacks of 26/11 | 1st March |
| 2012 | London Paris New York | 2nd March |
| 2012 | Paan Singh Tomar | 2nd March |
| 2012 | Will You Marry Me? | 2nd March |
| 2011 | Yeh Faasley | 4th March |
| 2010 | Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? | 5th March |
| 2010 | Hello Zindagi | 5th March |
| 2010 | Road Movie | 5th March |
| 2010 | Rokkk | 5th March |
| 2010 | Thanks Maa | 5th March |
| 2009 | 13B: Fear Has a New Address | 6th March |
| 2009 | Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge | 6th March |
| 2009 | Karma Aur Holi | 6th March |
| 2008 | Black and White | 7th March |
| 2007 | Nehlle Pe Dehlla | 2nd March |
| 2007 | Nishabd | 2nd March |
That’s quite a variety. Right from action to crime to thriller to comedy and romance— March first week has had every possible variety on its palette! Now let’s have a look at where these movies stand. Were these films successful commercially? Did they receive critical acclaim? And most importantly, did the audience like it?
| Films | Director | Cast | Box Office collection | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commando 2 | Deven Bhojani | Vidyut Jammwal, Adah Sharma | 23.00 Cr* (till date) | - |
| Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai | Keshhav Panneriy | Arbaaz Khan, Himansh Kohli, Ashutosh Rana, Manjiri Fadnis, Prem Chopra, Supriya Pathak | 00.50 Cr | Flop |
| Jai Gangaajal | Prakash Jha | Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Jha, Manav Kaul | 38.00 Cr | Plus |
| Zubaan | Mozez Singh | Vicky Kaushal, Manish Chaudhary, Sarah Jane Dias, Raghav Chanana, Meghna Malik | 00.46 Cr | Flop |
| Badmashiyaan – Fun Never Ends | Amit Khanna | Suzanna Mukherjee, Sidhant Gupta, Sharib Hashmi, Karan Mehra, Gunjan Malhotra | 00.69 Cr | Flop |
| Coffee Bloom | Manu Warrier | Arjun Mathur, Sugandha Garg, Mohan Kapoor, Nandini Sen, Ishwari Bose-Bhattacharya | 00.03 Cr | Flop |
| Dirty Politics | K.C. Bokadia | Naseeruddin Shah, Mallika Sherawat, Jackie Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Anupam Kher, Om Puri | 07.00 Cr | Flop |
| Hey Bro | Ajay Chandhok | Ganesh Acharya, Maninder, Nupur Sharma | 01.26 Cr | Flop |
| Gulaab Gang | Soumik Sen | Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla | 14.30 Cr | Flop |
| Queen | Vikas Bahl | Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon, Rajkummar Rao | 61.00 Cr | Super-hit |
| Total Siyapaa | Eeshwar Nivas | Ali Zafar, Yami Gautam, Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher, Sara Khan | 06.00 Cr | Flop |
| Bloody Isshq | Arup Dutta | Akash, Shilpa Anand, Tripta Parashar | 0.07 Cr | Flop |
| The Attacks of 26/11 | Ram Gopal Varma | Nana Patekar, Sanjeev Jaiswal, Atul Kulkarni | 11.50 Cr | Flop |
| I, Me, aur Main | Kapil Sharma | John Abraham, Chitrangada Singh, Prachi Desai, Zarina Wahab, Mini Mathur, Raima Sen | 09.00 Cr | Flop |
| Paan Singh Tomar | Tigmanshu Dhulia | Irrfan Khan, Mahi Gill, Vipin Sharma, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Brijendra Kala | 15.09 Cr | Hit |
| London Paris New York | Anu Menon | Ali Zafar, Aditi Rao Hydari | 07.02 Cr | Flop |
| Will You Marry Me? | Aditya Datt | Shreyas Talpade, Rajeev Khandelwal, Tripta Parashar, Mugdha Godse,Celina Jaitley, Muzamil Ibrahim | 00.32 Cr | Flop |
| Yeh Faasley | Yogesh Mittal | Anupam Kher, Pawan Malhotra, Tena Desae | 00.22 Cr | Flop |
| Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? | Ashwni Dhir | Ajay Devgn, Paresh Rawal, Konkona Sen Sharma | 41.12 Cr | Hit |
| Hello Zindagi | Raja Unnithan | Mrunmayee Lagoo, Kittu Gidwani | 00.01 Cr | Flop |
| Road, Movie | Dev Benegal | Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik | 02.23 Cr | Flop |
| Rokkk | Rajesh Ranshinge | Suraj Shukla, Tanushree Dutta, Udita Goswami, Sachin Khedekar | 00.93 Cr | Flop |
| Thanks Maa | Irfan Kamal | Master Shams Patel, Master Salman, Master Fayaaz, Baby Almas, Master Jaffer, Baby Sakshi, Barry John | 00.11 Cr | Flop |
| 13B: Fear Has a New Address | Vikram K Kumar | Madhavan, Neetu Chandra, Sachin Khedekar, Murli Sharma, Deepak Dobriyal, Poonam Dhillon | 07.36 Cr | Flop |
| Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge | Jaaoge, Umesh Shukla | Sonu Sood, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Khemu, Paresh Rawal | 06.29 Cr | Flop |
| Karma Aur Holi | Manish Gupta | Randeep Hooda, Sushmita Sen, Naomi Campbell | 00.17 Cr | Flop |
| Black and White | Subhash Ghai | Anil Kapoor, Anurag Sinha, Shefali Shah, Aditi Sharma | 05.30 Cr | Flop |
| Nehlle Pe Dehlla | Ajay Chandok | Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Kim Sharma | 06.00 Cr | Flop |
| Nishabd | Ram Gopal Varma | Amitabh Bachchan, Jiah Khan | 07.50 Cr | Flop |
Not many films released in March first week have tasted success, but those which have, have turned out to be super-hits like Kangana Ranaut’s Queen, which assigned her the title of Bollywood’s queen or entertainers like Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge, which won people’s hearts with its comic timing. While brainstorming for reasons behind this, I felt perhaps IPL might be a cause. The Indian Premier League has been immensely popular ever since its inception in 2008. The IPL, which happens around this time of the year, attracts not just cricket fans but a lot of youngsters to the stadium, who seem to love cricket in its new format. Also, March is the season of exams. Not just board exams but annual exams in schools across the country also start from February end, which perhaps is a reason why the crowd at theatres gets thinner during this time. Whatever be the reason, a good film never fails to attract movie enthusiasts. As we just saw, a majority of the films listed above were bashed by critics on various grounds.
2017 seems to be lucky for Bollywood as out of the two releases in the first week of March, Deven Bhojani’s action flick Commando 2 has opened to a great response from viewers. Despite casting a two film old action star Vidyut Jammwal and south film actress Adah Sharma (who is also relatively new to Bollywood) in the lead, the film has collected nearly Rs 25 crores till date. Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt starrer rom-com Badrinath Ki Dulhania has hit theatres this week. Let’s wait to see what’s in store for this one!
