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Salman Khan ‘Kick’, others’ box office collections spark race to Rs 300 cr mark

Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, others in race, but who will turn into Rs 300 cr czar?

For Salman Khan-starrer ‘Kick’ to Ajay Devgn’s ‘Singham Returns’, Rs 100 crore box office collections mark has been become passe, while Rs 200 crore has suddenly turned the coveted new ‘in’ thing – as a benchmark of success. This applies today.

However, what has grabbed everyone’s attention is the near future is the Rs 300 crore mark in the domestic box office. This mammoth figure is pretty much going to be the talk of the town in the coming few months with release of biggies like Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’ (October), Aamir Khan’s ‘PK’ (December 19) and Hrithik Roshan’s ‘Bang Bang’ (October 2).

With records being broken left, right and center, releases being planned around holidays, each of the Bollywood superstars delivering a century at will, new kids on the block making it seem like a child’s play (pun intended) and greater milestones being set, the films are pretty much expected to be ‘designed’ for that ‘One Big Show’.

No one really placed the bets this high until 2008. That was the landmark year when India got its first Rs 100 crore hit in ‘Ghajini’. A ‘100 crore club’ was pronto formed.

The man behind it all? Aamir Khan.

Results started to show as well. Salman Khan made an entry into the club with Dabangg. Ajay Devgn got his own with Golmaal 3 and Shah Rukh Khan struck soon after with Ra.One. The very next year the rest of the superstar lot made it big too, what with Hrithik Roshan (‘Agneepath’) and Akshay Kumar (‘Housefull 2’) managing one each too. Abhishek Bachchan plucked one in with ‘Bol Bachchan’ and ‘Ranbir Kapoor’ did with ‘Barfi!’

Though Saif Ali Khan made a tad belated entry with ‘Race 2’, others like Farhan Akhtar (‘Bhaag Milkha Bhaag’) and Ranveer Singh (‘Ram Leela’) made their presence count too. Oh yes, there was an unusual entry in the form of Riteish Deshmukh (who had been a part of multi-starrer set up ‘Housefull 2’ before along with John Abraham), Vivek Oberoi and Aftab Shivdasani too with ‘Grand Masti’ but no one really minded that.

However, when Arjun Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra struck with ‘2 States’ and ‘Ek Villain’ respectively, it was time for Bollywood to rejoice.

The cycle was complete, and from Aamir Khan to Sidharth Malhotra, each one of them had found his own place under the sun. It was time to explore greater frontiers now.

After Ghajini, Aamir Khan went on to construct the Rs 200 crore club of his own too with ‘3 Idiots’ the very next year. It hasn’t been easy for many to match up pace with double century in box office collections. Shah Rukh Khan did it with Chennai Express and Hrithik Roshan soon followed with ‘Krrish 3’.Salman Khan, after coming precariously close to the mark with ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, has now managed it with style, courtesy ‘Kick’. On the other hand, Ranbir Kapoor exceed expectations with ‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ and the film chugged along, only to fall short by a mere Rs 11 crore.

Also, Akshay Kumar has an interesting 2015 ahead while and Ajay Devgn has never ceased to surprise, his ‘Singham Returns’ being the recent example.

This pretty much leads to the equation that when Rs 200 crore would become a norm by 2015 end, what is left for the existing superstars to achieve and set the bar higher?

Will Aamir Khan turn out to be the founder of the Rs 300 crore club as well just like the Rs 100 crore and the Rs 200 crore club. Or Shah Rukh get there first with ‘Happy New Year’!

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First published on: 22-08-2014 at 12:33 IST
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