Tanhaji wins the third weekend battle too — as Street Dancer 3D and Panga fail to put up a fight

• Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior has crushed the box office records ever since its release on January 10, with a whopping ₹224 crore collection in three weeks.
  
• Tanhaji is dominating the box office primarily because there are no films to compete against it.
  
• Republic Day also gave a big boost to Tanhaji’s huge growth on its third Sunday — with trade analyst suggesting earnings going up by ₹15 crore.
  

Ajay Devgn’s Tanhaji:The Unsung Warrior crushed the box office records with a whopping ₹224 crore collections in three weeks. It is the first film of 2020 to cross the ₹200 crore club.

The movie which is still running to packed houses, earned ₹5.4 crore on January 24 and ₹9.5 crore on January 25. The film is on the path to become the biggest blockbuster for Ajay Devgn, beating his comic caper hit, Golmaal Again.

Kajol, who also features in the film, took to instagram to express her excitement about Tanhaji’s success. She is now waiting for the box office collection to cross ₹250.


“The collections are lopsided and it's rare for films that are lopsided to become a blockbuster but Maharashtra is simply insane at all its centres,” said Boxofficeindia.

The patriotic movie was declared tax-free in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana after it entered the ₹100 crore club.

Tough competition to Street Dancer 3D and Panga

Tanhaji also owes its success to little competition from new releases. Remo D’Souza’s Street Dancer 3D, released on January 24, failed to woo the audiences. The film received poor reviews — for being ‘boring’.

“Street Dancer 3D Review: Just Watch TikTok Instead,'' wrote Ankur Pathak from HuffPost India. But Street Dancer 3D isn’t the only disappointment as Panga featuring Kangana Ranaut too minted a mere ₹12 crore on its opening weekend.

Tanhaji also beat Deepika Padukone’s Chhapaak which also released on the same day. It earned thrice that of Chhapaak on the release day to clock in ₹50 crore for the weekend. The film is based on the life of Tanaji Malusare, the military leader of Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji army.

The winning formula of patriotism

The Republic Day weekend also gave a big boost to Tanhaji’s footfalls on its third Sunday. For the weekend, it might have earned as much as ₹15 crore, say analysts. According to senior trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the historical plot of the film clubbed with brilliant performances aided its remarkable run.

Patriotism has become a superhit formula for Bollywood. In 2019, Uri: the surgical, based on the fictional account of a covert operation by the Indian army, also earned a whopping ₹342 crore.

Aditya Dhar, director of Uri, believes that patriotic fervour played a big role in its success. “As long as it's a patriotic film and as long as the story is great, it will work,” he told BBC.

Another patriotic film that won the hearts of the audience was Mission Mangal featuring Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. The fictional film is based on India’s ambition mission to Mars, and earned ₹209 crore.

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