Happy Birthday Rohit Shetty! Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express, Ajay Devgn's Golmaal Again - 5 Biggest Hits of the 'Blockbuster' Director
Rohit Shetty, the hit-making director has turned 45 today. On behalf of the entire Latesly desk, we wish the director with the penchant of defying gravity Many Many Happy Returns of the Day!
Rohit Shetty, the hit-making director has turned 45 today. On behalf of the entire Latesly desk, we wish the director with the penchant of defying gravity Many Many Happy Returns of the Day!
Rohit Shetty, the younger son of stunt director MB Shetty, had started off his career assisting Kuku Kohli during Phool Aur Kaante. From hereon began his long association with his favourite actor Ajay Devgn. Later when Rohit made his directorial debut with Zameen in 2003, Ajay Devgn played the main lead along with Abhishek Bachchan and Bipasha Basu. Zameen remains one of Shetty's underrated movies, and it did only an average business at the box office. However, Rohit Shetty broke into the big scene of Bollywood with the 2006 comedy film, Golmaal: Fun Unlimited again with Ajay Devgn. The movie was a huge hit, was liked by critics too, established Ajay Devgn as a comic star and spawned off a successful franchise. Save for a Sunday (again not bad, but underrated), there was no looking back for Rohit Shetty from thereon.
He is also responsible for giving Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Deepika Padukone their first Rs 200 crore movies. In this special birthday feature, let's look at five of Rohit Shetty's biggest hits as a director, based on domestic box office figures from Box Office India.
#1 Chennai Express
Domestic Box Office Collections: Rs 2,07,69,00,000
Rohit Shetty delivered his biggest hit with this quite enjoyable masala entertainer, his first movie with Shah Rukh Khan. It was also Shah Rukh Khan's sole Rs 200 crore movie, as well as Deepika Padukone's first too (Padmaavat is her second).
#2 Golmaal Again
Domestic Box Office Collections: Rs 205.5 crore
After audiences were disappointed with his last movie before this (more on that later), Rohit Shetty won back his fanbase with his return to the Golmaal franchise. This supernatural comedy may lack in consistency when it comes to the flair of the first Golmaal movie, but doesn't fail to deliver on the barrel of laughs it promised. Golmaal Again was also one of 2017's biggest hits and Ajay Devgn's first Rs 200 crore movie.
#3 Singham Returns
Domestic Box Office Collections: Rs 140.15 crore
The sequel to Singham was not as powerful and sharp as the first movie, and it also lacked a charming antagonist as Prakash Raj. However that didn't deter the fans of both Ajay Devgn and Rohit Shetty from making it a bigger hit than the first Singham.
#4 Dilwale
Domestic Box Office Collections: Rs 140 crore
Dilwale is a disappointment, especially considering the fact it came after Chennai Express, brought SRK-Kajol jodi back and had Varun Dhawan for company. But it was not a flop as its detractors proclaim it to be. The movie didn't perform to everyone's expectations but it did made the money. Only its production and marketing costs were quite high which ate into its profits. It made more money overseas than in India.
#5 Golmaal 3
Domestic Box Office Collections: Rs 108 crore
Golmaal 3 had its fun moments (the whole flashback sequence is one of Bollywood's best comic sequences) and was entertaining in most of the portions. Though there is no 'Golmaal' in the movie per se and Tusshar Kapoor's mute Lucky (the franchise's dark horse) is woefully underutilised. the audience gave its thumbs up to the movie at the box office.
Currently Rohit Shetty is making Simmba with Rohit Shetty that is scheduled to release later this year. The movie is an official remake of the Telugu hit, Temper, starring Jr NTR.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2018 01:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).