With one film dominating the theatrical landscape in February, Bollywood looks forward to March now for the big bang Salman Khan’s ‘Sikandar’ and things are warming up in more ways than one on the streets of the city of dreams, as our bird in their regular monthly round-up from there, chews over box office numbers…
By Rodrigues C
MUMBAI is getting hotter by the day. Looks like the summer, which usually hits the city after Holi, is upon us and much earlier this year.
Holi will be celebrated in March and Bollywood is gearing up for the festivities.
Continuing with religion, the Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj, which dominated the news here, concluded on Wednesday (February 26).
And many Bollywood celebrities were there to take a holy dip at Sangam, the convergence of the rivers of Ganga and Yamuna and the Saraswati. Bollywood personalities who took a holy dip included Akshay Kumar, Preity Zinta, Vivek Oberoi, Vidyut Jammwal, Anupam Kher, Rajkummar Rao and wife Patralekhaa, Remo D’Souza, Guru Randhawa, Milind Soman, Sunil Grover, Avinash Tiwani, Kabir Khan, Tamannaah Bhatia, Kailash Kher, Boney Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, and Katrina Kaif and husband Vicky Kaushal, who is currently the flavour of the season, thanks to his new blockbuster.
In late January, the makers of ‘Chhaava’ released its trailer. The film celebrates the life of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj, who was the eldest son of Shivaji Maharaj, founder of the Maratha Empire. The trailer featured Kaushal and lead actress Rashmika Mandana performing a dance with the lezim, a traditional instrument which holds immense significance in Maharashtra’s cultural heritage. Soon after, there was a backlash and everybody from ministers to members of parliament and even the chief minister of Maharashtra started speaking against any misinterpretation in the song. There was even a protest in Pune and threats to disrupt the film’s theatrical shows. The backlash led to the removal of the sequence which has Sambhaji Maharaj (played by Kaushal) performing a lezim dance with his wife, Maharani Yesubai (played by Mandana).
They say good publicity or bad publicity is still publicity. And so in the case of ‘Chhaava’ the controversy surrounding the now deleted lezim dance sequence made massive headlines in India and of course provided a heap of free publicity. The first day of the release of ‘Chhaava’ brought in over £3 million at the box office, the highest for an Indian movie in 2025. The next two days, Saturday and Sunday, were even bigger with collections of £3.6m and £5m respectively. The Monday after the weekend, which is crucial when it comes to Bollywood box office numbers, raked in another £2.3m. In fact, the first week’s collection stood at £21.6m. Guess, it was not just the publicity that was helping the film at the box office, the masses were liking the film too. The historical drama’s worldwide collection now stands at a whopping £50.3m; it’s now Kaushal’s highest grossing film. As for Mandana, it’s her third-highest-grosser after ‘Pushpa 2: The Rule’ and ‘Animal’.
Bhumi Pednekar in ‘Mere Husband Ki Biwi‘
Moving on, another factor that could have helped ‘Chhaava’ at the box office was the lack of other quality movies. There was almost no competition. Take for example the February 7 releases ‘Badass Ravi Kumar’ (Himesh Reshammiya and Prabhu Deva) and ‘Loveyapa’ (Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor), both of which collected just about £1.1m and £800,000 at the box office. In fact, the latter received oodles of publicity because it’s Aamir Khan’s son’s debut movie.
The February 21 release ‘Mere Husband Ki Biwi’ (Arjun Kapoor, Bhumi Pednekar and Rakul Preet Singh) has just about collected £700,000. It is now the worst performing movie of Kapoor, Pednekar and Singh. Actor Sohum Shah’s ‘Crazxy’, and Dhanush and Sonam Kapoor’s 2013 drama ‘Raanjhanaa’ will release today (February 28).
For movie goers, March doesn’t have much in store. Salman Khan’s much publicised ‘Sikandar’ with Rashmika Mandana will hit theatres on March 28; it’s an Eid release.
The actioner is helmed by AR Murugadoss, known for hits such as ‘Thuppakki‘ and ‘Ghajini‘. The trailer of the film was released on February 27. Then we have ‘Kesari Veer’ with Sooraj Pancholi, Suniel Shetty and Vivek Oberoi and John Abraham’s political thriller ‘The Diplomat’ releasing on March 14.
So, if you want fare, the place to be is streaming (digital), or OTT, as it is known in India. More movies are released on OTT in February than in theatres. It will be the same story in March as well. Just that small movies release directly on OTT and the ones with big budgets debut later after their theatrical run. Hope this bit of info helps.
Catch you in March… with ‘Sikandar’ updates probably…😉
