Riteish-Genelia Deliver A Blockbuster With Ved, Avatar 2 Consolidates Its All Time Blockbuster Status

It's raining blockbusters at the box office, and that too across languages. If Drishyam 2 is already a certified blockbuster from Bollywood, there is Avatar: The Way of Water from Hollywood which is already a bonafide all time blockbuster. Now Marathi film industry has joined the party as well as Ved is fast emerging as a blockbuster in the making.

Let's talk about the newest entrant to the party first, Ved. When the film was gearing up for release on the last Friday of last year, there wasn't much of hullabaloo made around it. Of course, in the Maharashtra belt there was good curiosity building around the film due to the coming together of Riteish Deshmukh and Genelia D'Souza and also the fact that former was turning director with it. However, outside this segment of audiences, not many were aware about it, more so since Ved wasn't carrying a fancy 'pan-India' tag.

In hindsight, one wonders why the film didn't arrive in Hindi as well since in Marathi it has been doing roaring business with 33 crores mark been crossed in 10 days flat. The film started well in the last weekend of the year and then continued to collect well during the weekdays as well. Post that it had started becoming clearer that the second weekend would be fabulous as well since Thursday collections in the first week were greater than that of the opening day, and then second Friday was even better. This is what happened as well and the results are there.

The film is now on track to go past another blockbuster that Riteish Deshmukh has delivered in Marathi, Lai Bhaari, which had collected 40 crores in its lifetime. That number will be crossed working this week itself, and then there would be a lot more added to its lifetime. While the film will certainly cross half a century mark, something that's a rare sight in Marathi cinema (especially due to very low ticket prices in predominantly interiors where these films do well), a final haul in upwards of 70 crores is there for the taking.

Meanwhile, Avatar: The Way of Water is not slowing down. It collected around 18 crores* more in the fourth weekend and that's a fabulous number for a film which has already entered the 300 Crore Club. Most of the films manage to reach this far towards the end of their lifetime run and here the Hollywood biggie has hit this mark when it's still in its prime. This pretty much ensures that there is so much steam left in the film and a lot more will come in over and above 362 crores* which have already been accumulated.

In fact quite a few milestones are now waiting to be surpassed in days to come. First in line is the lifetime number of Avengers: End Game which had gathered 364 crores in India, hence turning out to be the highest Hollywood grosser in the country. However, Avatar: The Way of Water will go far beyond that and once 375 crores mark is comfortably surpassed, it would be the journey towards 400 Crore Club that would be closely observed.

As for Drishyam 2, it is now inching closer towards 245 crores lifetime. It was a special weekend for the film as it celebrated 50 days at the box office. However, it wasn't one of those ornamental celebrations where the feat takes place at a select theatre in a show or two. In case of Drishyam 2, it has happened in the old fashioned manner where hundreds of screens saw the film completing 50 days at number of multiplexes and single screens, and that's gladdening indeed since that's the sign of a genuine blockbuster.

The film collected around 2 crores over the weekend gone by and currently stands at 239 crores*.

*Estimates. Final numbers awaited