Last month, two of the biggest releases of 2015 went head to head against each other in what can be called the Titanic Clash of the year. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Bajirao Mastani starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra faced stiff competition from Rohit Shetty's Dilwale which starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon. The films clashing caused a huge screen crunch for both, with them releasing in around 3000 screens worldwide each. Although Bajirao Mastani had a little edge over them, it was up to the reception at the box office. And boy, it did wonders!
While BM led the domestic circuit, Dilwale rocked the overseas arena. Eventually, who won the worldwide box office battle? Dilwale or Bajirao Mastani? Here's the lowdown!
Bajirao Mastani:
A poignant story of love, sacrifices and a fallen hero, BM gate-crashed the domestic box office and did the unthinkable. While people initially scoffed off at the idea of Bajirao clashing with Dilwale, eventually the appreciation and the box office reception had a different story to tell. Dilwale might have taken a good lead over the first weekend, a stellar word of mouth helped Bajirao eventually beat Dilwale at the domestic box office. Collecting over Rs 172 crore till date, the film is expected to end its domestic box office lifetime at around Rs 175 crore nett. Overall, the worldwide gross of the film stands at around Rs 335 crore which is phenomenal.
Dilwale:
Despite having a staggering start, Dilwale faced the brunt of bad reviews as people also scorned at the idea of watching the film. Disappointing for the audience, Dilwale failed to collect as much as it was expected to. Even Shah Rukh was left upset with the film's performance at the box office in India. The film could not even touch the Rs 150 crore mark and netted in only around Rs 138 crore till date and is expected to finish around the Rs 140 crore mark. But while the film had a rather dismal performance at the domestic arena, SRK's supreme star power has already made Dilwale his biggest overseas blockbuster till date. The film has taken over SRK's previous record (held by My Name is Khan) and already raked in around $25 million from its key centres abroad. With that, the total worldwide gross has summed up to a huge Rs 360 crore already.
The verdict?
And although the gap between the two films at the domestic box office made us think if BM will eventually outperform Dilwale worldwide, that has failed to happen. Bajirao maintained a fantastic lead at the Indian box office but the gap between Dilwale and Bajirao overseas is so huge that it has compensated for all the loss Dilwale made in India. Eventually, despite having performed better than Dilwale in the domestic circuit, Bajirao Mastani has lost the worldwide battle to Dilwale.
