"Barfi' movie poster
"Barfi' movie posterReuters

Anurag Basu's "Barfi" continued to set cash registers ringing at the box office window in the third weekend and is expected to breach the ₹1 billion mark on Gandhi Jayanti which is celebrated on Tuesday.

"Barfi" had a good start at the box office and recorded a further jump in collections in its first weekend. The presiding weeks also turned out to be fortunate for the film's makers at collection centres.

The Ranbir Kapoor starter is highly expected to rack up ₹1 billion mark on the domestic front. The film has already racked up ₹1 billion in collections worldwide.

The third week collection of "Barfi" stood at ₹963 million. The film's collection dropped on Friday owing to new releases but maintained a steady pace at the box office over the weekend.

According to Taran Adarsh, bollywood critic and trade analyst, "Barfi" collected ₹17.5 million on Friday, ₹35 million on Saturday and ₹39 million on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Madhur Bhandarkar's "Heroine" failed to strike it rich at the collection centres. The film was anticipated to run stupendous business but failed to meet the expectations laid out by trade prophesiers, though it had a promising start.

In its second weekend "Heroine" raked in a total of ₹406,million with no signs of registering a jump in business in the coming days. On Friday it collected ₹10 million, ₹12.5 million on Saturday and no rise in collections the following day, said Adarsh.

Meanwhile, Salman Khan's "Ek Tha Tiger" fell short of achieving its ₹2 billion feat in the Indian market, with total collections estimated at ₹1.993 billion.

"Ek Tha Tiger", released on Aug 15, had a record-shattering first weekend and its bullish trend continued for at least four weekends. But the collections dropped significantly following the releases of "Raaz 3" and "Barfi".

"Ek Tha Tiger" was expected to break the record of Aamir Khan's movie "3 Idiots", which collected ₹2 billion in the domestic market alone. Despite the shortcoming, the spy-thriller is considered to be an all-time blockbuster.