Gadar 2, starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel, is absolutely destroying the Bollywood box office and truth be told, nobody's surprised. The film set expectations high even before it released with massive advance bookings and reality is matching up – unlike the Adipurush story, Gadar 2's ticket sales are on the uptick. The film raked in over Rs 55 crore on August 15, reported trade analyst Taran Adarsh - the biggest number notched up by an film so far on Independence Day. Gadar 2 has raced past the 200 crore mark on Day 5; its earnings at the end of Tuesday were over Rs 228 crore.
Gadar 2 released last Friday with Akshay Kumar's OMG 2 – partly why it faced capacity issues on Tuesday. "The demand is clearly more than the supply," Taran Adarsh wrote in his report. While Gadar 2 is the clear winner in this box office clash, OMG 2 has also performed exceptionally well – both films could have made more with solo releases, according to Mr Adarsh.
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PVR Cinemas has credited Gadar 2 as well as OMG 2, Rajinikanth's Jailer and Chiranjeevi's Bhola Shankar with crafting a record weekend in the century-long history of Indian cinema.
Two decades ago, the original Gadar: Ek Prem Katha also clashed with another big film and prevailed. Aamir Khan's Lagaan released on the same day and went to the Oscars eventually but made about half as much as Sunny Deol's film. Gadar's lifetime earnings were a little over Rs 76 crore, Lagaan's were a little under Rs 34 crore. As with Gadar 2 and OMG 2, both films in the 2001 clash did well – one, however, outdid the other.
Gadar 2, less than a week in, may well outstrip Pathaan as this year's biggest film.