Tag Archives: Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania

Streaming Video News: February 21, 2023

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It’s last call for a bunch of Dharma Productions titles on Amazon Prime and Netflix, which will also lose a ton of Balaji Motion Pictures films this week as well. Here’s what’s leaving when, and why this may not be cause for panic.

First of all, thanks to CinemaRare on Twitter for listing the movies on the way out. One thing to notice immediately is that some of the titles on CinemaRare’s list are currently available in India but not the United States. This is because streaming rights are negotiated on a regional — and sometimes country-specific — basis between the company that owns the film’s rights and the streaming service interested in licensing them. These contracts cover a specified time period, after which the rights holder can renegotiate a new contract or shop their content elsewhere.

That’s likely what’s happening with Dharma and Balaji now. There’s every chance that they will simply sign a new contract with the same streaming companies for another few years. Balaji did that in late 2020 with Netflix. If that’s the case, then the titles may only be unavailable for a short window. I’m going to wait a week or two before removing the links to the expiring titles from my Netflix list and my Amazon Prime list just in case the films are renewed.

However, there is a chance that the Dharma Productions titles may not return to Netflix. Karan Johar and Dharma have a deal with Amazon Prime to bring their newest theatrical releases to Prime and to create new streaming content for the service. I won’t be shocked if they want to make the back catalog exclusive to Prime as well. If you subscribe to Netflix but not Prime, you may want to prioritize watching the expiring Dharma titles listed below this week.

Here are all of the Dharma Productions and Balaji Motion Pictures titles expiring from Netflix and Amazon Prime in the next week (note that the last day to watch is the day before the expiration date):

Expiring from Netflix February 27 (Balaji Motion Pictures titles)

Expiring from Netflix February 28 (Dharma Productions titles)

Expiring from Netflix March 1

Expiring from Amazon Prime February 27 (Dharma Productions titles)*

*The Amazon Prime Dharma list looks small by comparison to the Netflix list because some of the films are available on Eros Now instead of Prime, while others have already expired from Prime. Keeping track of all this stuff is no joke!

[Disclaimer: my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Streaming Video News: April 3, 2020

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with more than a dozen Indian titles added in the last two days, including the new Hindi series Panchayat, which looks kinda good. Newly added 2020 releases include:

I also updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix because Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is now available for streaming. (Thanks for the alert, Courtney!) And check out my post “New Indian Movies & TV Series on Netflix: March 2020” at What’s on Netflix, just to make sure there’s nothing you missed last month. 🙂

Netflix released the trailer for its new dark comedy series Hasmukh, which stars Vir Das as a comic who resorts to murder to overcome his stage fright. Hasmukh debuts on Netflix April 17. It’s worth watching the trailer below just to see Manoj Pahwa’s ridiculous wig.

[Disclaimer: all of my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Streaming Video News: April 1, 2020

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with loads of newly added Indian content. In addition to the Hindi film Paharganj, the 2020 Tamil releases Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal and Sethum Aayiram Pon are now available for streaming. A bunch of animated kids movies and series in Hindi were also added: Akbar Birbal, Bal Ganesh, Chhota Bheem and the Curse of Damyaan, Mighty Raju Rio Calling, and Punyakoti (Sanskrit). But the big news is the new batch of movies from the Dharma Productions catalog that are now available for streaming:

I also updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with lots of newly added Indian titles, including the following 2020 releases:

[Disclaimer: all of my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Split Screen Podcast, Episode 28: The “Dulhania” Franchise

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At long last, Shah Shahid and I reunite for another episode of the Split Screen Podcast, this time comparing the films Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Badrinath Ki Dulhania. We were inspired to tackle the “Dulhania” franchise in Episode 28 because of how wildly the two films differ in their representations of gender equality in romantic relationships. In short, everything great about the main characters and their relationship in Humpty goes straight down the crapper in Badrinath. Shah and I also discuss what differentiates Bollywood franchises from true sequels.

You can subscribe to the Split Screen Podcast at iTunes, or you can listen to Episode 28 in your browser on this page at Shah’s website, Blank Page Beatdown. Every episode of the Split Screen Podcast can be found here, including Shah’s take on the recent Hollywood reboot of Power Rangers. I’m featured in the following episodes:

Bollywood Box Office: March 10-12, 2017

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Badrinath Ki Dulhania posted the second best opening weekend of the year for a Bollywood movie in North America. From March 10-12, 2017, the romantic-comedy earned $858,623 from 170 theaters for a per-theater average of $5,051 (also second best for the year). That total is just $23,720 less than what Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania — the first film in the Varun Dhawan-Alia Bhatt franchise — earned from its entire 2014 North American theatrical run ($882,343)!

Before I move on from Badrinath Ki Dulhania, I’ll address in more detail something regarding theater counts that I plan on adding as an addendum to weekly box office posts from here on. My main source for box office information is Rentrak, a company that independently collects information from theaters across the country. Access to Rentrak’s raw data is expensive, so I rely on the Rentrak data as reported by Bollywood Hungama. For some reason, during a film’s first weekend of release in North America, Bollywood Hungama routinely includes Canadian theaters in the US theater count. So, when data from the two countries is added together, Canada’s theaters get counted twice. While I normally can’t verify this without direct access to the Rentrak data, I can confirm it when a film appears on Box Office Mojo, as their theater totals are always accurate. However, I can’t use Box Office Mojo as my main source because they rely on individual distributors to report results to them, and as a result, only four of the thirteen Hindi films released here this year are listed at Box Office Mojo. So, even though I am reasonably sure that Bollywood Hungama misreports theater information in a film’s opening weekend, using their information gives me a complete and consistent data set, enabling me to compare movies fairly. This is my long way of saying that Badrinath Ki Dulhania‘s true theater count is 152, making for a per-theater average of $5,649.

Only one of last weekend’s two new releases stuck around for a second weekend (and it wasn’t Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai). Commando 2 earned $4,172 from 13 theaters ($321 average), bringing its total North American earnings to $75,355. Despite Commando 2‘s business dropping about 90% from its first weekend to its second, its total earnings are close to double the amount it earned is its opening weekend, meaning that the film fared really well from Monday, March 6 – Thursday, March 9. That’s not reason enough to keep it around for a third weekend, mind you, so see it while you can, if you’re interested. The same can be said for the other Hindi films showing in North America:

  • Rangoon: Week 3; $5,815 from 15 theaters; $388 average; $502,014 total
  • The Ghazi Attack (all languages): Week 4; $4,836 from 11 theaters; $440 average: $762,917 total
  • Hind Ka Napak Ko Jawab — MSG Lion Heart 2: Week 1; $1,862 from one theater; $1,862 total

Sources: Box Office Mojo and Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama

Streaming Video News: October 12, 2016

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Two bits of streaming video news today, both involving the loss of content. Netflix is set to lose two Bollywood films from 2014 in the next few days: Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania on October 15 and Bhoothnath Returns on October 17. Humpty is worth prioritizing not only because it’s good but because its sequel — Badrinath Ki Dulhania — is scheduled to release next year.

In other news, Amazon Prime dumped nearly a quarter of its free Indian films last week. Unfortunately, the 22 movies that were lost were many of the best Bollywood titles available on the service, including Kai Po Che!, Siddharth, and Wake Up Sid.

Though this is obviously just the result of a batch of contracts reaching their termination date, it feels like a sign of lean times ahead at the service. Amazon Prime rarely adds Bollywood content to its free library, and the movies that are available are older or of little renown. Amazon Prime offers just three titles released since 2014, and the lone 2015 film isn’t even listed at IMDb. Point being, the Indian films available for free with Amazon Prime are a nice perk but not reason alone to sign up for the service.

Streaming Video News: October 15, 2015

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with some new additions to the catalog. 2014’s Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania is now available for streaming. I thought it was really cute.

The big news is that Netflix just added three Hindi-language TV shows to its catalog. The crime dramas Adaalat and C.I.D. are now available to stream, as is the historical drama Maharana Pratap. The twenty-six episodes of each of the crime dramas plus more than fifty episodes of Maharana Pratap add up to 50+ hours worth of entertainment. That helps to offset the pain of Netflix’s ever-dwindling Bollywood movie catalog.

Since we’re on the topic of TV shows, let me throw out links to two of my favorite Korean TV shows on Netflix: Boys Over Flowers and You Are Beautiful. Both shows are fantastic.

For everything else new on Netflix, check Instant Watcher.

Bollywood Box Office: August 8-10

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The distributors of Entertainment didn’t report their complete North American box office figures to either Rentrak or Box Office Mojo, perhaps with good reason. The figures that do exist paint a bleak picture.

According to the Rentrak information posted by Bollywood Hungama, Entertainment‘s opening weekend gross earnings in North America (sans theater count) amounted to $236,257. Among the twenty-five Akshay Kumar releases of the last seven years for which I have opening weekend figures, Entertainment ranks in the bottom quartile, between Thank You ($244,183) and Khiladi 786 ($228,967).

This is a disappointment given the relatively good performance of Kumar’s Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty in June. However, it fits with the overall downward trend in Kumar’s popularity in the United States and Canada.

In its third weekend in theaters, Kick continued to pad its impressive North American tally. From 67 theaters, it earned $89,405 ($1,334 average), bringing its total to $2,331,837.

Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania closed out its fifth weekend of release by earning $1,231 from theaters ($410 average). Its total earnings of $882,343 rank eighth among Hindi movies released in North America in 2014.

The Lunchbox added another $650 to its 24-week total of $4,031,729.

Source: Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama

Bollywood Box Office: August 1-3

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Salman Khan’s Kick held up well in North America, relieving fears that its business could meet the same fate as Jai Ho and drop dramatically in its second weekend in theaters. According to Bollywood Hungama, Kick earned $417,985 from 146 theaters in the United States and Canada during the weekend of August 1-3, 2014. That total is about forty percent of what Kick earned in its opening weekend. By comparison, in its second weekend, Jai Ho only earned about twenty percent of its first weekend total.

[Update: Box Office Mojo reports slightly higher figures for Kick‘s second weekend: $439,304 from 162 theaters for an average of $2,712 per screen. It lists the movie’s total North American earnings as $2,100,041.]

As with Kick‘s opening weekend, there’s an interesting difference between Kick‘s second weekend performance in the U.S. versus Canada. American theaters outnumbered Canadian theaters nearly seven-to-one, but Canada accounted for more than a quarter of the weekend’s total earnings. Note the difference in average earnings per screen (the combined average for both countries is $2,863):

  • Canada: $114,439 from 21 theaters; $5,449 average
  • USA: $303,546 from 125 theaters; $2,428 average

Though Canadian Bollywood fans generally have a greater appetite for action films than American fans, the effect is most pronounced when it comes to Salman Khan’s movies. During Jai Ho‘s first weekend in theaters, the per-screen average in Canadian theaters was nearly double that of American theaters: $7,940 versus $3,994. As with Kick, the disparity became even greater in Jai Ho‘s second weekend: $2,082 versus $887.

Kick‘s total North American earnings stand at $2,038,946. During the week, it will pass 2 States to become the continent’s second highest earning Hindi film of 2014, behind The Lunchbox.

Here’s how other Hindi movies fared in North America over the weekend:

  • Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania: Week 4; $15,671 from 13 theaters; $1,205 average; $876,988 total
  • The Lunchbox: Week 23; $1,201 from two theaters; $600 average; $4,028,062 total
  • Ek Villain: Week 6; $500 from two theaters; $250 average; $771,683 total

Source: Rentrak, via Bollywood Hungama

In Theaters: August 1, 2014

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With studios unwilling to go up against the juggernaut Kick, there are no new Hindi movies opening in the Chicago area on Friday, August 1, 2014. After a terrific opening weekend, Kick carries over for a second week at seven local theaters: AMC River East 21 in Chicago, Regal Gardens Stadium 1-6 in Skokie, MovieMax Cinemas in Niles, AMC Showplace Niles 12 in Niles, AMC South Barrington 30 in South Barrington, Regal Cantera Stadium 17 in Warrenville, and AMC Loews Woodridge 18 in Woodridge.

The only other Bollywood movie showing in the area this weekend is Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania at the South Barrington 30.

Other Indian movies playing at MovieMax this weekend include Run Raja Run (Telugu), Jigarthanda (Tamil), Vikramadithyan (Malayalam), Maaya (Telugu), Sarabham (Tamil), Adavi Kaachina Vennela (Telugu), Drushyam (Telugu), Alludu Sreenu (Telugu), Velaiyilla Pattathari (Tamil), and Bangalore Days (Malayalam).