Has CE actually earned that much? - Rediff

August 29, 2013 16:46 IST

Is Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Chennai Express the biggest hit of all time? Has it really beaten Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots, which has been the record-holder till date?

All sorts of box office figures have been thrown about, so we decided to investigate the matter.

Some trade analysts claim the 3 Idiots record of Rs 202.46 crores has been broken, while others say Chennai Express touched the Rs 200 crore mark only on August 28.

"Chennai Express has managed to collect Rs 201.15 crores till August 28. That's just a crore short of the record held by 3 Idiots," says trade analyst Amul Mohan. "It's just a matter of time before the film becomes the new benchmark."

The Chennai Express team, meanwhile, claimed the film had broken the 3 Idiotsrecord on August 24 itself.

Shah Rukh Khan, in a tweet, called Chennai Express the number one film in the history of Hindi movies, while trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted that Chennai Express headed the list of the biggest grossers in Hindi cinema.

According to Adarsh, Chennai Express raked in Rs 216.86 crores till August 28.

While discussing the box office figures of the two films, it's useful to keep in mind that while Chennai Express released in more than 3,500 screens in India and charged higher ticket prices, 3 Idiots released in approximately 1,800 screens, nearly half the number of the former.

Despite making repeated attempts Shah Rukh's publicist remained unavailable for this report while an official from co-producer UTV-Disney refused to divulge the official box office figures. Media professional and industry observer Abhijit Mhamunkar claims that Chennai Express has earned Rs 201 crores so far. "Chennai Express will surely beat 3 Idiots' s record. But why are the makers of the film in a hurry to announce it?" he asks.

This makes us ask: Whose box office figures does one go by?

Consider this: In the first week of the film's release Taran Adarsh had tweeted thatChennai Express collected Rs 100.42 crores during the opening three-day weekend, while Amul Mohan had tweeted the collections as Rs 90.75 crores.

Shah Rukh's publicist claimed the film had collected Rs 156.70 crores in its first week while Amul Mohan put the collections at Rs 147 crores.

Amul Mohan says box office figures can often vary. "There are many instances when the box office collections provided by the production house do not match the actual collections. Take, for instance, Ek Tha Tiger. The film did business worth Rs 187 crores, while Yash Raj Films claimed it collected Rs 199 crores. It was the same case with Barfi!, which collected Rs 106 crores; UTV said it collected Rs 122 crores."

While minor differences are normal, a trade analyst who didn't want to be named says, "The absence of a central data collection agency compels the media to rely on the distributor and the producers of the film. It is difficult to authenticate the data."

Ye lo ji. Aa gayi nautanki 😆

Jokes. Don't murder me Shreya

And what did you do just now? Light aggarbattis in front of Amul Makhan's photo. 😉

😆

Anyway, Shreya. Just admit it. If you're weren't a SRK fan. You'd have your full doubts too.

I'd admit that.

Considering I follow BOI which gave 186cr total figure for ETT!!!

Nope I wouldnt. Did you ever see me questioning that ETT is the second biggest hit or that YJHD was the third biggest hit. I challenge you to find any post of mine doing so. I trust two people-BOI and TA and they both confirmed these and thats enough for me. I can understand if you dont want to accept that CE is bigger than 3I as BOI is yet to certify it but creating thread upon thread questioning all the collections of the film from any random guy shows how badly you are taking it. The least you can do is accept it graciously. Salman and the rest are doing so.

PS: Anyways whether you trust Amul Makkhan, Taran or BOI...Express ne toh Tiger ko kuchal dala. 😛