Bhoothnath Returns

<p>The story continues from the . Kailash Nath, also known as Bhoothnath, enters the , where he is mocked and questioned about his abilities as a ghost as he was unsuccessful in scaring any children. To redeem himself, he returns to India, where he tries his best to scare children but is unsuccessful with his attempts as the children have become strong physically, mentally, and verbally. However, a boy named Akhrot can see him in his true form. Akhrot is not scared of Bhoothnath but helps him scare a few children; in return, he asks Bhoothnath to act scared of him and to run away from a haunted house while he chants mantras in front of the children, so that they can accept him on their team. Bhoothnath decides to help Akhrot further by helping him earn money by giving ghosts living in under-construction high rises peace by fulfilling the wishes they were still staying back on Earth as ghosts for; in the process, they come to know why the ghosts died and help their families get insurance money by scaring corrupt insurance officers, further learning in this process about Bhau, a former criminal who is now a corrupt politician. Seeing the amount of , and encouraged by Akhrot, Bhoothnath decides to contest the upcoming elections. Soon, the rivalry between Bhoothnath and Bhau heats up, to the extent that Bhoothnath sacrifices his powers to win. One day before the elections, a rally is to be held by Bhoothnath to encourage a high turnout on election day. Bhau’s men threaten to kill Akhrot unless he prevents the rally from happening, but Akhrot refuses and is ready to face the consequences. On the day of the rally, Bhau’s men injure Akhrot grievously for his non-compliance, which causes Bhoothnath to leave his rally to attend to Akhrot in the hospital. He goes to the and begs for Akhrot’s life. They tell him that if Bhoothnath wins the election, they will spare Akhrot’s life. Meanwhile, Bhau uses Bhoothnath’s absence at the rally to his advantage and tries to influence the audience to vote for him. However, on election day, the majority of the public votes for Bhoothnath. The next day, Bhootnath sees Akhrot’s heartbeat rising and realizes that he won the election. The film ends with Akhrot regaining consciousness and everybody celebrating the success of Bhoothnath. The film score was composed by Hitesh Sonik while the songs featured in the film were composed by , and . also composed one promotional song for the film which marked his first collaboration with . Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave the movie 3.5 stars and said that ” is made with noble intentions and the message it conveys resonates in the second hour”. Suprateek Chatterejee from called it “a must watch for kids” and found that its “shamelessly manipulative moments are tempered with deliberate humour”. A reviewer found that the “strength of this film is in its writing” and praised for his performance whilst giving the movie 3 stars. Rohit Khilnani of , gave the movie 3.5/5 stars and said, “There is no doubt that will entertain cine-goers. It’s entertainment, Bachchan style!” Bhoothnath returns collected (equivalent to 48 crore or US$5.7 million in 2023) domestic and (equivalent to 3.2 crore or US$380,000 in 2023) overseas(as of 20 April 2014). Satellite rights of the film is sold to for (equivalent to 34 crore or US$4.0 million in 2023); made it a good profitable venture for producers. The film that released in over 1,300 theatres saw a “grand” opening of 93% collecting (equivalent to 5.2 crore or US$610,000 in 2023)— (equivalent to 5.6 crore or US$660,000 in 2023) on its first day with stiff competition from the film . With a growth of 60% over its first day collection, it collected (equivalent to 8.8 crore or US$1.0 million in 2023) on its second day. After the completion of the films’ first weekend, it managed a “fair” collection of (equivalent to 26 crore or US$3.1 million in 2023). It collected around (equivalent to 6.4 crore or US$760,000 in 2023) and (equivalent to 2.8 crore or US$330,000 in 2023)— (equivalent to 3.2 crore or US$380,000 in 2023) on its first Monday and Tuesday respectively, totalling (equivalent to 36 crore or US$4.3 million in 2023) over the first five days of its release. After a good growth on Monday, it saw a slide in its collections over the next few days to end up collecting (equivalent to 42 crore or US$4.9 million in 2023) in its first week.</p>