MUMBAI: History has been rewritten by Shah Rukh Khan starrer ‘Chennai Express’, which has broken the box office record held by Aamir Khan’s ‘3 Idiots’, to become the highest collecting Bollywood film, EVER!

As we had reported, last week itself, the Rohit Shetty directorial had crossed the stupendous Rs 2 billion (Rs 200 crore) threshold in style, in a mere 16 days. (SEE FULL BOX OFFICE REPORT HERE)

But now, all hell has broken loose, as the film, produced by UTV Motion Pictures and SRK’s Red Chillies Entertainment, has struck pure box office gold, and rewritten history by doing so.

The third weekend figures were astounding, with Saturday’s numbers standing at approximately Rs 34.4 million (Rs 3.44 crore) net, while Sunday raked in Rs 46.9 million (Rs 4.69 crore) net. Such figures are very impressive, considering it was the third weekend.

The 18 day total stands at a whopping Rs 2.08 billion (Rs 208.39 crore) net.

This has overtaken the previous benchmark set by Aamir Khan’s ‘3 Idiots’ (directed by Rajkumar Hirani) which was the highest collecting film earlier, standing at an unbelievable lifetime box office collections at Rs 2.02 billion (Rs 202 crore) net. (READ HERE)

As we have been tracking the incredible box office journey of SRK’s magnum opus, it is safe to say that Shah Rukh Khan has set several records tumbling in the process of achieving this mammoth feat.

The frenzy began when ‘Chennai Express’ generated the highest revenues at paid previews (Rs 67.5 million or Rs 6.75 crore) on Thursday, 8 August, 2013. Then came the fact that it did the highest ever business on Day 1 (at Rs 330 million or Rs 33 crore), beating Salman Khan’s record of Rs 320 million (Rs 32 crore) net. Incredibly, ‘Chennai Express’ crossed the Rs 1 billion (Rs 100 crore) mark by opening weekend, which was the fastest ever.

Since then, the film has been unstoppable at the box office, demolishing its competition ‘Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbaai Dobara’ which released in subsequent weeks.