48 films released last week
There is Gully Boy coming up this week and the filmmakers realised that they may not get more screens.
The Indian box office witnessed a rare occurrence on February 8 when 48 films released together albeit in different languages. Hindi language films — Amavas, Dosti Ke Side Effects, The Fakir Of Venice, SP Chauhan, Parking Closed, Jhol, Khandala Night and End Counter, along with a dubbed version of Alita: Battle Angel.
This was followed by seven Marathi movies including Luckee; six Tamil original films including Dhillukku Dhuddu 2 and Podhu Nalan Karudhi and two dubbed versions; five Telugu movies including Yatra and three dubbed versions; four Bengali releases including Prem Amar 2; two in Malayalam — 9 and Kumbalangi Nights; one each in Bhojpuri, Kannada, Chhattisgarhi, Gujarati, Assamese, Odia and Korean and three Hollywood flicks.
“The last two weeks have been rather clean with Uri carrying on to make Rs 200 crore and Manikarnika and Thackeray also benefitting from the clean run. There is Gully Boy coming up this week and the filmmakers realised that they may not get more screens. So, it was inevitable that the small films made a mad rush to the box office,” opines Atul Mohan, editor Complete Cinema. And, guess what! This results in India creating a world record for the highest number of film releases in a week. And, of course, viewers are spoilt for choice.