There was one line of dialogue mouthed by the late Avtar Kishan Hangal in Ramesh Sippy's classic Sholay (1975) which has become iconic. The line goes: “Itna sannata kyun hai bhai [Why this deathly silence, bro]?" The line, which has become fodder for many a meme over the years, could well be directed at the nine (yes, nine!) Hindi films that were released last weekend. Not one of them has let out even a whimper at the box office.
Of the entire lot, only Saif Ali Khan-starrer Laal Kaptaan, Vikram Bhatt's Ghost and P Se Pyaar F Se Faraar managed collections that could be reported, but that's the best you could say about them. You can well imagine what the plight of the rest must have been like.
After an opening of just Rs50 lakh nett, Navdeep Singh's Laal Kaptaan finished the first weekend with Rs1.75 crore nett. Ghost made Rs1.35 crore nett in its first three days. P Se Pyaar F Se Faraar took third place with a mere Rs60 lakh nett.
The poor showing of the new releases has been good news for War, starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. The film has now surpassed the Shahid Kapoor-starrer Kabir Singh’s lifetime collection of Rs276.34 crore nett at the domestic box office. With Rs12.50 crore nett on its third weekend, War is now the highest grosser of the year with Rs283.88 crore nettt and counting.