Here are some of the biggest Bollywood Eid Releases

What does it take for a movie to be successful? Mostly we just think its about a good story, having A-lister stars and a talented director. While all those things are crucial, we can’t ignore the fact that the release date of a film does indeed play a major role in the success of the film. Over the past few years, we have seen stars making a big deal of festivals. While Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan are known for their Diwali and Christmas releases, and no one can top Salman Khan, when it comes to launching films on Eid. Race 3 will be Salman Khan’s twelfth release on the festival of Eid. Next up is Shah Rukh Khan, with five of his films released during this festival. But with all of us being stuck under the lockdown, this time around due to the coronavirus outbreak, we thought about looking back at the films that created a massive buzz as they hit the box-office on Eid.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001)
Director: Karan Johar

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham began breaking records from the first weekend itself. The domestic opening week collections were 70 per cent higher than the previous record. The film became the second highest grosser of 2001 domestically and truly earned itself the tag of a blockbuster. The lifetime collections of the film ended at 55 crores.

The eid release film is probably Karan Johar’s version of the Ramayana. Amitabh Bachchan plays a patriarch and Shah Rukh Khan was his loyal exiled son. The movie saw Hrithik Roshan as the younger son trying to stitch the family back together and Jaya Bachchan as the mother torn between the ego of the men in her life. The mega star cast along with Karan Johar’s directorial brilliance made this eid release a must watch. It is a well known fact that Indians love drama. And this eid release had that aplenty. The scene when Shah Rukh Khan reunites with his mother years after he left his house still manages to bring a tear to your eye regardless of how many times you have seen it earlier.

Interestingly, Karan Johar once mentioned that he would have not ended up making the film if Amitabh Bachchan had refused the role. In an interview with a leading daily, Karan revealed that Amitabh’s character was the backbone of the film and he couldn’t see anyone but him to do justice to the part. He said, “As I wrote the film, I realised that Yashvardhan Raichand is the backbone of the film and I could only see one actor playing the role - Amitabh Bachchan. For the rest of the cast, I had options, but I had no alternative for Amit Uncle. I was clear that I would not make the film if he refused.”

Wanted (2009)
Director : Prabhu Deva

Wanted managed to rake in 130 crores at the box office. It is often regarded as the turning point of Salman Khan’s second coming. Before Wanted, he had a string of films which failed to perform at the box office. But, since this eid release went on to become a blockbuster, he has never looked back.

Wanted was a remake of a Telugu film titled Pokiri. Pokiri was written and directed by Puri Jagannadh. Before Wanted, Prabhu Deva remade Pokiri in Tamil in 2007. After the success of the Tamil version of Pokiri, Prabhu Deva decided to make a Hindi version of the film as well. The eid release starred Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia in leading roles. Although the cast and directors kept shifting in the different version of the eid release, Prakash Raj was a constant. He played the villain in the original as well as the remake and received massive praise for his performance. It seemed that with Wanted, Salman Khan finally cracked the formula for what the audience wants from him. Movies like Dabangg and Bodyguard which released after Wanted, might not be high on content but they do have an entertainment factor.

Salman spoke about the eid. release in an interview with a leading daily during which he mentioned that while keeping the essence of the original, the makers have managed to make this film unique as well. He said, “In this film there is humor, and different kind of action keeping in mind our audiences. It’s not the ditto copy of the Telugu version, but we have our own inputs too, which sets this film apart from the South movie.”

Dabangg (2010)
Director: Abhinav Kashyap

Dabangg had a massive opening at the box office as it became the highest opening grosser of all time with the collections amounting up to 16.5 crores. The film had lifetime collections of 141 crores.

Dabangg was a story about a cop named Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan), who is a fearless but corrupt police officer with a self-assigned title of “Robinhood Pandey”. Chulbul falls with a girl named Rajjo (Sonakshi Sinha) during a police encounter. Chulbul always had a troubled relationship with his family. After his father’s death, his mother got married to Prajapati Pandey (Vinod Khanna), whom Chulbul never accepted as his father. So, Chulbul’s nemesis Chedi Singh (Sonu Sood) took advantage of the situation by using his step brother Makkhi’s (Arbaaz Khan) hatred towards him. Chedi agrees to finance Makkhi’s father's treatment if he delivers a crate of mangoes to Dayal Babu's house, a politician who Chedi Singh wanted out of his way. Unknown to Makkhi, there is a bomb inside the crate, which explodes after he leaves, killing Dayal Babu. After which, Chedi gives Makkhi a task to kill Chulbul. Makkhi accepts it at the time, but reveals everything to Chulbul including the fact that it was Chedi who killed his mother. An enraged Chulbul kills Chedi by suffocating him to take revenge of his mother’s death. The audience fell in love with Salman Khan as Chulbul Pandey and that reflected in the box office numbers of the film as well.

This eid release went on to be such a huge success that the film also saw a sequel released in 2012 which was titled Dabangg 2. And now, we will soon see the third version of the franchise which will release towards the end of this year and will have Wanted director Prabhu Deva helming the project

Ek Tha Tiger (2012)
Director: Kabir Khan

It seems that every Eid release of Salman Khan breaks records and Ek The Tiger was no exception. On the opening day itself, the eid release managed to collect 33.5 crores which over a 40 per cent jump from the previous record holder which was held by Agneepath (2011) standing at 21 crores. The eid release's total collections ended at 188 crores.

Ek Tha Tiger was a romantic spy thriller. It featured Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif in leading roles. Salman Khan plays the role of Tiger, who is a spy working for R.A.W. Tiger is sent to Dublin to observe a scientist of Indian origin, played by Roshan Seth, who is suspected of passing on secrets to the Pakistanis. He falls for his caretaker Zoya (Katrina Kaif), who is learning dance but in reality is an ISI spy. As Tiger spends more and more time with her, he finds the human side of himself, something he felt never existed. When he finds out that she is a Pakistani spy, he realises that the world will never let them be together. What follows is an exciting journey in which two people go to extreme limits to keep their forbidden love safe and save the world in the process.

Chennai Express (2013)
Director: Rohit Shetty

The eid release collected 29 crores on its opening day itself, making it the second-highest opening day collection behind Ek Tha Tiger. The eid release went on to have a successful run at the box office and managed to collect 227 crores overall.

The Eid release starred Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in leading roles. It was originally to be called Ready Steady Po. But to highlight the train sequence, which introduced Shah Rukh Khan’s character, Rahul, to Meenamma (played by Deepika Padukone), the film was finally called Chennai Express and “Ready Steady Po” was relegated to being the tagline. This was also said to be the first film in which an actress’s name appeared before an actor’s in the credits, on Shah Rukh Khan’s insistence.

In the film, Rahul embarks on a journey to Tamil Nadu to immerse the ashes of his late grandfather in the sea near the Rameswaram temple. During his train ride, he bumps into Meenamma. Meenamma tried to flee from her house since her parents wanted her to marry someone she didn’t love. Meenamma takes Rahul along with her to her father and introduces him as her lover. Rahul gets challenged for a duel with Thangaballi, the man who Meenamma’s parents wanted her to marry. However, the two manage to escape the following night. On the road, Rahul and Meenamma grow close to each other and Rahul’s takes the responsively of her well being upon his shoulders. He takes Meena back to her father again and tries to make him understand and honour his daughter's wish. He also confesses for the first time that he loves her too. Rahul tells Thangaballi and his goons that he has come ready for the fight this time. Even though he ends up being severely injured, Rahul emerges as the real winner in his duel with Thangaballi. After which Meenamma’s father accepts that the heart of a common man like Rahul is much bigger than their physical ability and political clout. The film gave us a message that love knows no barriers of region or language.

Don : The Chase Begins Again (2006)
Director: Farhan Akhtar

The film had lifetime collections of 70 crore rupees. This climax paved the way for a second version of the film as well which released in 2011 and titled Don 2. The makers have confirmed that the third part of the popular franchise is in the pipeline as well.

Farhan Akhtar directed, produced and wrote the screenplay of Don starring Shah Rukh Khan in the title role, a remake of 1978 film Don, starring Amitabh Bachchan. The character of Don was already iconic and popular. While Don was technically a remake, the film did have one major factor that separated it from the original. In the original Don, Vijay replaces his lookalike Don, a criminal from the mafia world, who is killed in an encounter with the police officer, the remake until the climax, makes you believe that what is happening is exactly the same as the original.

Later, it is shown that in the hospital Don (Shah Rukh Khan) had overheard the conversation of Vardhan (Boman Irani) with Vijay. And after Vijay’s operation was done Don went to the room where Vijay lay and switched places with him. He also took Vijay off life support which lead to his death. Due to this master stroke, Don had taken Vardhan and Singhania (Rajesh Khattar) out of his way and became the sole leader of the entire Asian drug empire.

Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007)
Director: Priyadarshan

The lifetime collections of Bhool Bhulaiyaa ended at 52 crores.

In Bhool Bhulaiyaa, we see newly weds Siddharth (Shiney Ahuja) and Avni (Vidya Balan) return to the former’s village and stay at their ancestral house despite being opposed by Siddharth's uncles Badri and Batuk as they believe the house is haunted by a spirit of a dancer called Manjulika who was lusted after by Siddharth's ancestor Raja Vibhuti Narayan. The Raja had killed her lover Shashidhar on Durga Ashtami and caged Manjulika to marry him where she hung herself and cursed that her spirit would forever haunt the palace. So, the entire family ends up living together in the palace since they are concerned about Siddharth's safety. Avni had a strange fascination about Manjulika. As time goes by, Avni becomes more and more interested in Manjulika’s past. In fact, she becomes so engrossed in her that she starts thinking that she is Manjulika herself. Siddarth feels helpless in this situation and calls his friend Aditya (Akshay Kumar), a psychologist to help them. Upon arriving, Aditya discovers that Avni is suffering from a split personality disorder which is why she was behaving like Manjulika at times. Eventually, he manages to treat her and Avni and Siddarth return back to the U.S. The highlight of Bhool Bhulaiyaa has to be Vidya Balan’s performance in the film. It was the first time the audience saw her in such a role and she absolutely owned it. Even though it was a psychological thriller, Akshay managed to bring humour in the film which made it an entertaining watch.

During the release of the film, Akshay spoke to a leading daily, and shared his thoughts as to what separates Bhool Bhulaiyaa from a normal Bollywood thriller. He said, “From a filmic perspective, I feel we have done a wonderful job of creating something that will appeal to faithful and regular cinemagoers, as well as drawing audiences who are interested in seeing how the film opens the floodgates to a whole new dimension of thought and rationale about the human condition and psyche. It challenges preconceived notions about sensitive issues and brings into question society's perceptions of faith, superstition, science and reasoning.”