March 4th Week Releases: How Has Bollywood Performed At The Box Office 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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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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* 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!