Not Ready, Not by a Stretch

The nonsense of Salman Khan being Bollywood’s Number 1

At an event to promote his superhero movie Ra.One early this week, Shah Rukh Khan stood in front of a big banner of the movie and pointed to ‘G.One’ written on it. G.One is the name of his charac­ter in the movie. He said that G stood for Gauri (his wife) and One for his standing in the industry. And then he turned to see if everyone had got the joke. There was the polite laughter, but more than that he knew exactly what would come in terms of public­ity: entertainment channels and reporters dutifully construed it as a dig at Salman Khan being touted as Number One.

Till Dabanng released, Salman had been nowhere in the race for the top. The contention between Aamir and Shah Rukh (Open did a story on it) was all that mattered. Salman’s next movie, Ready, is already being talked of as a superhit, and like a self-fulfill­ing prophecy, this might just come into being.

His ability to deliver such blockbusters notwithstanding, Salman Khan, alas, is not just not number one, but not even close to either Shah Rukh or Aamir. One thing you can notice right away when anyone says “Salman is at the top” is that the only parameter being applied is the maximum business a movie has done. Dabanng has done more than 3 Idiots, which did more than My Name Is Khan. And so, Salman Khan is bigger than Aamir Khan is bigger than Shah Rukh.

Broaden the parameters a little and it becomes clear that for a producer casting Salman, the chances of his sinking the film are greater than delivering a Dabanng. His list of flops in recent times include Veer, London Dreams, Main Aur Mrs Khanna, Yuvraaj, Hello, God Tussi Great Ho. And in the same period, there are just two hits—Dabanng and Wanted.

Compare it to Shah Rukh who has had just one flop, Billu, and Aamir who has had no flops at all since Mangal Pandey in 2005. Salman flops so often because he makes awful movies, and, as the evidence clearly shows, the audience is only willing to accept him playing a particular swashbuckling role. Both Shah Rukh and Aamir, on the other hand, get people to buy tickets no matter what character they play.

And if you still believe Salman is Number One, imagine if all the three actors were floating IPOs of them­selves on the stock market. Who would you put your money on?

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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