Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Bhool Chuk Maaf’ Crosses $8 Million

After days of legal tussles and public controversies, Maddock Films released their new Hindi film Bhool Chuk Maaf in theatres on May 23. Despite the back and forth regarding the platform for its release, the film had a decent opening and went on to make nearly $9 million in ten days at the box office. Directed by Karan Sharma, Bhool Chuk Maaf stars Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi in lead roles.

Bhool Chuk Maaf Earns $9 million in opening week

Bhool Chuk Maaf made an opening collection that crossed the $4 million-mark worldwide in its first weekend, despite the controversies around the release of the film. It managed to post a decent weekend figure at the box office. Rao’s latest social comedy managed to score an average figure at the box office, earning nearly $9 million worldwide in ten days at the ticket windows.

Bhool Chuk Maaf: Box Office Report

In India, Bhool Chuk Maaf scored around $950,000 on the first day at the box office. The collections saw a significant rise over the weekend. The film scored $1.2 million and $1.5 million on Saturday and Sunday in the Indian markets. It managed to cross $500,000 earnings in India on its first Monday. It also scored a similar figure on Tuesday, its fifth day at the box office. Globally, the film made a $1.1 million opening on Friday. The three-day worldwide box office total for Bhool Chuk Maaf stood at $4.09 million.

The collections dropped more than fifty per cent on the first Monday for Bhool Chuk Maaf. Nonetheless, the film managed to maintain a decent graph over the weekdays. It closed the first week in India at nearly $5 million. The ten -day total for the film stood at $8.3 million in India and $8.8 million worldwide.

Bhool Chuk Maaf: Controversy

The drama and chaos began when Maddock Films announced that Bhool Chuk Maaf would get a direct-to-digital release. The announcement came just a few hours ahead of its scheduled theatrical release on May 9. Things soon went downhill with PVRINOX, the Indian theatre chain, seeking a stay on the direct-to-digital release and a compensation of nearly $6 million. After an Indian court ordered stay on the release, the parties reached an agreement and the film was scheduled for a theatrical release on May 23.

The makers of Bhool Chuk Maaf are now left with a small window of two weeks between the theatrical and digital releases. Prime Video will premiere the film on June 16.

Soon after the theatrical release, a social media post by PVR INOX CEO Kamal Gianchandani labelled the film as a genuine hit, slamming those who wrote off Bhool Chuk Maaf for a lack of appeal and riding on discount offers. Gianchandani’s post also declared that theatres and big screens were revived in the month of May 2025, bringing audiences in “big numbers”.

Bhool Chuk Maaf: Review

Karan Sharma (Maharani fame) has directed and written Bhool Chuk Maaf which stars Rajkummar Rao and Wamiqa Gabbi in lead roles. The film also boasts of a stellar cast in supporting roles including Sanjay Mishra, Seema Pahwa, Zakir Hussain, Ishtiyak Khan, and Raghubir Yadav. Tanishq Bagchi (Shershaah, Kesari) composed the music for the film which has lyrics by Irshad Kamil (Tamasha, Kabir Singh).

Set in a small town in northern India, Bhool Chuk Maaf traces the lives of a love-struck couple set to get married. They have reached this point after several hardships they underwent to ensure the groom bagged a government job. However, just a day before the wedding, they are trapped in a weird time loop and the wedding day never seems to approach. How is this possible? What went wrong? How do they break the loop? The answer to these questions forms the crux of the film.

While Rao and the rest of the cast try their best to uplift the film, the writing does not quite live up to the expectations of a social-comedy film. More often than not, Bhool Chuk Maaf turns too preachy for a comedy film. While the comedy is light and fun, especially in the first half, the social issues that the film attempts to highlight appear either forced, or too fluffy. In a story about the obsession for government job for a groom, the vast potential to explore the socio-economic aspects of unemployment remains wasted.

Rao essays the role of the unemployed boy who takes some wrong turns to ensure a government job and get married. He displays his acting charms to his best, but the character itself lets him down. Here is a man who does not want to make any real efforts – not for himself, his own survival, not even for the marriage he so desperately wants. It gets worse when he is lauded as a social worker for deciding to undo all the efforts everyone else made to get him what he wanted.

Gabbi’s role is restricted to playing the cute, completely in control but emotionally out of control middle-class girl who passionately wants to get married to her love without defying her traditional and authoritarian dad. Bhool Chuk Maaf could have been a much funnier and more impactful film than it is. Certainly not among the best among Rao’s filmography.