Even as Padmaavat is making a fortune for itself at the box office thanks to all the publicity it got through various controversies, I do wonder if that would have been the case if PadMan and Aiyaary hadn't budged. As you know, Padmaavat, after going through various delays, finally got a release date on January 25. However, Akshay Kumar's PadMan and Sidharth Malhotra's Aiyaary were also clashing with each other during the same period. it was Aiyaary who bowed out of the race first, before Akshay Kumar held a press con to announce he is giving free rein to Padmaavat by releasing two weeks later. And the rest is history!

Padmaavat became the biggest hit in the careers of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and its stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, earning more than Rs 270 crore at domestic and Rs 540 crore globally.  In simple words, it is a profitable blockbuster!

On the other hand, both PadMan and Aiyaary are struggling, especially the latter. Aiyaary, released last week, turned out to be the biggest box office disappointment for both Sidharth Malhotra and director Neeraj Pandey (the latter earning his first flop). The movie collected just Rs 14.29 crore, overshadowed by its Hollywood Friday competitor, Black Panther.

Despite running on huge hype and good marketing tactics, PadMan broke Akshay's Rs 100 crore streak, as the movie underperformed in its first week and is now struggling to recoup its budget at the domestic box office. The movie has earned Rs 74.65 crore till now.

Now Padmaavat, even in its fourth week run, is still managing to upstage both PadMan and Aiyaary. Here's its latest box office collections

As you can see Padmaavat has managed to beat Aiyaary on Monday and Tuesday. It has even beaten PadMan on Monday, and has made the same amount of money on Tuesday. So among the Bollywood releases, it is Padmaavat who definitely stands tall.

With two more Bollywood releases this week, Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety and Welcome To New York, it will be quite an uphill task for both Aiyaary and PadMan to sustain ahead.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 21, 2018 08:14 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).