How Independence Day 2023 turned out to be a landmark event for Bollywood at the box office with Gadar 2 & OMG 2

While Bollywood filmmakers always cash in on festive weekends like Diwali, Christmas and Eid to maximise their box office potential, it is Independence Day which holds the record for giving the highest single-day business to Bollywood films.

Keeping aside _Pushpa 2_, which earned massive Rs 86 crore in its Hindi version on its first Sunday (8 December), as it is not a Bollywood film, Independence Day has always turned out to be a huge boost for Hindi films at the box office.

In 2023, two biggies - Sunny Deol starrer _Gadar 2_ and Pankaj Tripathi-Akshay Kumar’s _OMG 2_ released during the Independence Day weekend. Both the films registered good openings, but on Independence Day (15th August), they went on rampage mode as Anil Sharma’s directorial collected Rs 55.40 crore and the spiritual sequel of OMG raked in Rs 17.10 crore. The cumulative business turned out to be the highest single-day collection of Bollywood with Rs 72.50 crore.

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In fact, the 2024 Independence Day also gave a boost to Bollywood with _Stree 2_ (Rs 55.40 crore), Khel Khel Mein (Rs 5.23 crore) and Vedaa (Rs 6.75 crore). Their cumulative business was Rs 67.38 crore. Interestingly, both sequels - Gadar 2 and Stree 2, which were released in different years, made the exact collections on Independence Day, which is Rs 55.40 crore.

This year, Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR and Kiara Advani starrer _War 2_ is expected to create some records on 15th August. Despite garnering mixed-to-negative reviews, the film has the advantage of its Telugu dubbed version, as the RRR star enjoys a huge fanbase in the Telugu-speaking states.

Unstoppable action, unforgettable entertainment 💥 #War2 in cinemas now in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. Book your tickets today! https://t.co/empQLqeFMr | https://t.co/7d0OKxPnOI@iHrithik | @tarak9999 | @advani_kiara | #AyanMukerji | #YRFSpyUniverse pic.twitter.com/UJ9C84AqlG

— Yash Raj Films (@yrf) August 14, 2025

Directed by Ayan Mukerji of Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Wake Up Sid and Brahmastra: Part 1 Shiva fame, War 2 is bankrolled by Aditya Chopra under the banner of YRF. It is the sixth film from the Spy Universe after Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, War, Pathaan and Tiger 3.