Diwali has arrived and with it two hit Bollywood films ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ and ‘Singham Again’ have also hit the theatres. Kartik Aryan plays the lead role in ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ and the original Manjulika i.e. Vidya Balan returns with him. Madhuri Dixit and Trupti Dimri will also play important roles in the film.
On the other hand, the cast of ‘Singham Again’ is almost half from Bollywood. Bollywood’s popular names Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Tiger Shroff and Arjun Kapoor are playing important roles in the Ajay Devgan-starrer film. Apart from these, stars like Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan will make a cameo in ‘Singham Again’.
‘Singham Again’ was earlier scheduled to release on Diwali, but due to a delay in shooting, the release date of this film was changed and came before ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’, which was already releasing on Diwali. From trade experts to people who have a good opinion of the industry, everyone believes that two such important films should not have been released together. But now that the clash is happening, a big challenge also awaits Ajay and Karthik’s films at the box office.
Diwali hits don’t become best movies of the year
Be it ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ or ‘Singham Again’, the makers of both the films were not willing to change the date of their film again because the Diwali festive weekend has the power to generate huge profits for the films. But the problem is that this strength has not been visible in the last 17 years.
The clearest indicator of whether a film has been successful is if it is the highest-grossing film of the year. In such a situation, the role of holiday weekend becomes very important. But there is also evidence that in the last 17 years, not a single film released on Diwali has become the biggest film of that year.
If we look at it from 1990, Shahrukh Khan’s film ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’, which released on the occasion of Diwali in 1995, was a box office hit. This turned out to be the most profitable film of 1995. The following year, in 1996, Aamir Khan’s film ‘Raja Hindustani’, released on Diwali, also turned out to be the biggest film of that year. But ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’, which released on Diwali in 1997, could not do wonders. But then two films repeated this feat for two consecutive years. Shahrukh’s ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ in 1998 and Salman Khan’s ‘Hum Saath-Saath Hain’ in 1999 were the biggest films of their respective years.
This feat occurred only twice in the new century and both times it was accomplished by Shahrukh’s films. In 2004, his Diwali release ‘Veer Zaara’ became the biggest film of the year. And in 2007, ‘Om Shanti Om’ was the last Diwali release that became the biggest hit of the year. Since then, films released on Diwali have not become the most profitable of the year.
Will two films together break the record of ‘Stree 2’?
The record for the biggest Bollywood film of 2024 is still held by Rajkumar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor starrer ‘Stree 2’. This film, which generated a net collection in India of Rs 627 crore, is not only the highest-grossing Hindi film of this year but also of all time.
Both ‘Singham Again’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ will release on the same day. Both films have the potential to make a lot of money at the box office. Ajay Devgan’s film is expected to earn better than ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’. While it is expected from Karthik’s film that with the kind of screen it is getting, it will definitely turn out to be a hit instead.
However, both films don’t seem to have the strength to leave ‘Stree 2’ behind on their own. Still, it will be interesting to see whether the two Diwali releases of this time together can earn more than the biggest film of the year, ‘Stree 2’, or not.
