Rewind - Thirty Five Years of Mard

The legendary BLOCKBUSTER Mard is celebrating 35 years as it released on 8th November 1985. The film was the big Diwali release of 1985 and till date remains the only film in the history of Hindi cinema to record cent per cent collections in the pre Diwali period.

The pre Diwali hit is worst in Delhi / UP, East Punjab, Rajasthan and CI but the figures of this film made it look that pre Diwali does not affect box office collections. It all came with a record release in these circuits and the highest print count ever across India

The film released on Friday and Diwali was on Tuesday but even on Diwali day the film was recording housefull numbers even in Delhi city and East Punjab where Diwali day hardly sees people come to theatres. There had been huge BLOCKBUSTERS prior to Mard like Seeta Aur Geeta (1972) and Muqaddar Ka Sikander (1978) which had pre diwali releases but these films could not not see 100% collections all over like Mard despite very good openings as some cinemas recorded under capacity.

There have been big releases post Mard which had a pre Diwali release but they have always had that pre Diwali lag and fired post Diwali. The craze of the film on release was such that it can be claimed to be the biggest initial in history considering it came pre Diwali. Obviously films released after have had bigger numbers but that is all down to bigger releases and inflation.  

In Mumbai and Delhi / UP circuits the film broke the records of Coolie which released in 1983 and in East Punjab it broke the long standing record of Dharam Veer (1977). The records in Punjab came despite no film opening well for the previous 18 months due to an insurgency in the state and Mard came to shatter all records even on pre Diwali.

The film eventually scored huge with business of around 450 crore nett in todays terms. The year saw 2 huge blockbusters with Mard and Ram Teri Ganga Maili and though Mard was behind Ram Teri Ganga Maili in Mumbai circuit by around 1 crore nett  it did higher numbers than Ram Teri Ganga Maili in the North and East. The film was also the biggest solo blockbuster of Amitabh Bachchan.