Riteish Deshmukh’s Raja Shivaji is continuing its strong performance at the box office even in its third week. The film collected an estimated Rs. 1.25 crore on its 3rd Monday. This was around a 20 per cent drop compared to its 3rd Friday collection, showing that the movie is still managing to attract audiences to theatres.
With the latest collection, the total box office gross of Raja Shivaji has reached Rs. 99.35 crore in India. The movie is now very close to entering the Rs. 100 crore gross club and is expected to achieve this milestone by the end of the day. This will be a major record for Marathi cinema because no Marathi film has crossed the three digit mark before.
The Riteish Deshmukh starrer has already become the highest grossing Marathi film by going past the collections of Sairat and Baipan Bhari Deva. However, there is an important difference in the performance of these films. Sairat and Baipan Bhari Deva earned most of their collections from Maharashtra, while Raja Shivaji has received a good share of business from outside the state as well.
Reports suggest that Raja Shivaji may still remain behind Sairat and Baipan Bhari Deva in Maharashtra collections alone. Maharashtra is considered the core market for Marathi films, and expectations were very high for Raja Shivaji in the state. Films like Tanhaji and Chhaava had performed exceptionally well in Maharashtra, with Tanhaji adjusting to nearly Rs. 250 crore in today’s value and Chhaava crossing Rs. 300 crore. Raja Shivaji is not expected to touch Rs. 100 crore from Maharashtra alone.
The box office collections for Raja Shivaji in India are as follows:
Week 1 – Rs. 61.75 crore
Week 2 – Rs. 28.00 crore
3rd Friday – Rs. 1.60 crore
3rd Saturday – Rs. 3.00 crore
3rd Sunday – Rs. 3.75 crore
3rd Monday – Rs. 1.25 crore (est.)
Total – Rs. 99.35 crore