Bollywood asianculturevulture vibes: ‘Coolie’ and Tamil superstar Rajinikanth lead the way
It is wet in Mumbai with the monsoon rains, but August is all about the festive spirit and there are two big hits and Bollywood titan Salman Khan’s huge TV show is off and running earlier than in previous years, as our Mumbai box office sleuth tots up the numbers…
By Rodrigues C
IT’S THE BEGINNING of the festive season in Mumbai. The city, which is celebrating its biggest festival, Ganesh Chaturthi, is decked up and there is devotion in the air.
Bollywood stars visit Ganpati celebrations across the city as well as the homes of friends to offer prayers.
Many stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Sonu Sood, Tusshar Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, welcome Ganpati at their home.
Salman Khan shared a video on Instagram of his family’s Ganpati festivities featuring his father Salim Khan, mother Salma Khan, brothers Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan, sisters Arpita Khan and Alvira Khan Agnihotri, brothers-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, and friends Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia Deshmukh among others.
The rain Gods have been generous on Mumbai, at least in the second half of August; the city witnessed a deluge just last week with some areas getting flooded up to the waist level. Homes of Ajay Devgn and Kajol, Aditya Chopra and Rani Mukerji and the Deols were flooded.
Others such as Malaika Arora and Vijay Varma posted pictures of the flooded streets outside their apartment blocks.
Two of the year’s biggest releases Rajinikanth’s ‘Coolie’ and ‘War 2’ with Hrithik Roshan and NT Rama Rao hit screens on August 14 anticipating the August 15 holiday rush.
August 14, 2025 also marked Rajinikanth’s 50th year in the film industry.
On day one, the former, with a budget of £33 million raked in £5.5 million. On day two the collections fell to £4.5m, day three it was £3.3m and day four it stood at £2.9m. Worldwide the film has grossed more than £42m (₹500 crore).
‘Coolie’ is now the third Indian film of 2025 to breach the ₹500 crore mark after ‘Chhaava’ and ‘Saiyaara’.
It is also the fastest Tamil film to cross ₹100 crore (£8.4m), ₹200 crore (£16.9m) and ₹300 crore (£25.4m) worldwide.
The Lokesh Kanagaraj actioner also become the biggest Tamil opener of all time earning £12.7m worldwide.
This record was earlier held by ‘Leo’ which had minted £12.5m worldwide on its opening day.
‘Coolie’ also stars Nagarjuna Akkineni, Shruthi Haasan and Aamir Khan in a so called special role.
The second big movie of the month, ‘War 2’ opened to a £4.4m haul followed by £4.8m, £2.8m and £2.7m over that long weekend.
The Ayan Mukerji directorial, which is budgeted around £27.5m has so far raked in about £30m worldwide.
August 1 saw the release of Ajay Devgn’s ‘Son of Sardaar 2’. Made on a massive budget of £12.7m, which is huge when we are talking of a comedy, the film opened to a meagre £614,000. Its first week collections stood at £2.8m. Its box office run has ended at £5.08m.
Mohanlal’s fourth offering of the year ‘Hridayapoorvam’, after back to back hits ‘L2: Empuraan’ and ‘Thudarum’, and Kannappa, arrived in theatres on August 28. The movie, which is budged around £2.5m, collected £275,000 on its opening day which is the third biggest opening of 2025 in Malayalam cinema.
On day 2 its collection stood at a modest £211,000.
Sidharth Malhotra and Janhvi Kapoor starrer ‘Param Sundari’ hit theatres on August 29 and had collected £1m so far.
Arguably, the biggest show on television ‘Bigg Boss’ launched on the small screen on August 24, much earlier than the usual September or October period.
And its star attraction is Salman Khan, who only appears during the weekends.
The show used to be earlier shot in Lonawala, which is about 100km from Mumbai but now it’s located within Mumbai’s suburban district of Goregaon at the Film City studio.
The location was changed purely because Khan resides just a few kilometers away from Goregaon. Though he appears only during weekends, Khan is the soul of the show and the reason behind its massive popularity. The whole nation will be now glued to their TV sets in the night for the next few months.
September will see movies such as ‘Jolly LLB 3’ with Akshay Kumar and Arshad Warsi, ‘Baaghi 4’ with Tiger Shroff and Sanjay Dutt, and the AR Murugadoss directorial ‘Madharaasi’ with Sivakarthikeyan and Rukmini Vasanth.
In terms of big fare beyond the above, there isn’t much in store for the next month. Let’s wait and watch who wins race. We shall be back when the monsoon rains relent…
