Deepika Padukone in a still from Piku.
The weekend took the film's earnings at home and abroad to a little over Rs 100 crores. Trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted:
#Piku [Week 3] continues its victory march. Fri 1.35 cr, Sat 2.40 cr, Sun 2.75 cr. Grand total: ₹ 71.72 cr. India biz. SUPER HIT!
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) May 25, 2015#Piku Overseas total: $ 5.36 million [₹ 34.09 cr]. Worldwide total [India + Overseas] crossed ₹ 100 cr. FANTASTIC!
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) May 25, 2015Piku stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan Khan in a slice-of-life story set in Delhi's Chittaranjan Park and Kolkata. On Facebook, Mr Bachchan exulted:
FB 977 - 'PIKU' world wide 100 cr .. !! Wow !! never expected this from the film. Thank you all, you made it happen ..
Posted by Amitabh Bachchan on Monday, 25 May 2015
FB 977 - Yeh khushi aap sab ke naam ... aap sab na hote toh ye na ho paata .. PIKU ki saphalta ..
Posted by Amitabh Bachchan on Monday, 25 May 2015
In addition to Piku's tremendous success is the just-released Tanu Weds Manu Returns with its opening weekend business of Rs 38 crores and Akshay Kumar's Gabbar Is Back which revived the comatose Bollywood box office some four weekends ago. Industrywallahs will be singing hallelujahs to the reversal of fortune after the first quarter of the year ended on the gloom and doom of zero hit movies.
The hurrahs may need not die down any time soon. Zoya Akhtar's star-packed Dil Dhadakne Do releases in June and Salman Khan's Bajrangi Bhaijaan in July. The last quarter of 2015 is positively bursting at the seams with high-profile films - October has Aishwarya Rai Bachchan's Jazbaa, Salman returns with Prem Ratan Dhan Payo in November which also has Deepika Padukone and Ranbir Kapoor starring in Tamasha, and December brings with it Deepika (again) in Bajirao Mastani which also stars Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra. Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol star in Dilwale which releases on Christmas, hopefully ending 2015 with an Aamir-like bang.
