This could very much be a scene out of his latest blockbuster.
On Eid day, as his fans decided to make Bodyguard the biggest ever in terms of opening, their superstar — their Bhai — was undergoing an elaborate eight-hour gamma knife surgery for his facial nerve disorder, trigeminal neuralgia.
Salman Khan doesn’t need to be in town anymore when his movie releases. The Bhai has struck the deal with his followers: he does his bit and they do theirs. He had given them the dialogues: “Mujh par ek ehsaan karna ki mujh par koi ehsaan naa karna” is this year’s “Ek baar jo maine commitment kar di uske baad toh main khudh ki bhi nahin sunta”. He had given them the music videos: Teri Meri, Meri Teri is this year’s Tere Mast Mast Do Nain. He had given them the joygasmic shirt moment: this time it was the jet stream of gushing water from a water pipe that tore it up.
Yes, Bhai made them a blockbuster, the fans just had to make sure it becomes one.
And boy, did the fans live up to their end of the bargain. Hurricane Bodyguard has smashed all existing records. It has bagged the biggest first-day collections, the biggest first-weekend collections, and also the first-week collections.
Let’s number crunch now. According to www.boxofficeindia.com, Bodyguard’s first week (nine days since it released on August 31, a Wednesday) tally stands at: Rs 114.47 crore Following its lead are: Dabangg (81 crore), 3 Idiots (80 crore), Ready (68 crore), Ghajini (64 crore), Golmaal 3 (62 crore), Raajneeti (52 crore), Singham (50 crore), Tees Maar Khan (48 crore), My Name Is Khan (47.5 crore).
In terms of all-India first day collections, Bodyguard with 21 crore bypassed Dabangg’s 14.35 crore bounty. Bodyguard also becomes the fastest film to reach the Rs 100 crore club. Here’s a look at the other 100-crore babies: 3 Idiots (202 crore), Dabangg (145 crore), Ready (120 crore), Ghajini (115 crore), Golmaal 3 (108 crore), Singham (100 crore).
Is your head reeling? Can you keep up with the blockbuster? It’s the new monster in town. The producer unleashes it on a Friday or if he’s getting a holiday-friendly week, he can unleash it a couple of days ahead of schedule. The screens are then carpet-bombed with enough movie prints so that everybody can get a first-day ticket (Bodyguard stormed 2,600 screens across 70 cities). Thus by the time its Sunday, everybody has already seen it. Will they remember much of what they have seen is relative but hey, since this is the business of eyeballs and numbers, who cares about anything else? Will Bodyguard run for 830 weeks like 1995’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, which is still going strong at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir? It doesn’t need to. It has recovered its investment in first three days itself, everyone associated with the film is already super-rich.
As Salman brings back the formula to the fore and star power reaches its zenith, the film has become a slave to the blockbuster. It’s not just a release; it’s an event now. Superstars have their turfs. Salman has Eid, SRK has Diwali and Aamir has Christmas.
The word on the street is also changing. These days people don’t ask picture kaisi hai? They want to know chalegi ya nahin?
The critics can argue about the merit of a film but the public just wants to be entertained. So they smell out the blockbuster from the promos and make sure by the time the weekend is dusted off, they have seen it. And enjoyed their popcorn and Coke. As an unapologetic Salman with his tongue held firmly in cheek said in a post surgery- post Bodyguard release interview, “The collections prove that the entire country has liked the film. It’s only those five- six people who haven’t liked it. That’s okay.”
On the other side, Anurag Kashyap, the patron saint of indie cinema, publicly announced that he just needs 6.5 lakh tickets to sell for his latest That Girl In Yellow Boots — a figure that is yet to be conquered. The latest Kashyap- Kalki collaboration may not be the filmmaker’s best offering but clearly, the majority of our film-going public would rather watch Salman do his thing rather than watch Kashyap do his. In the superstar versus super director fight, the star once again has the edge. You might not even know the name of Bodyguard’s director — it’s Siddique, by the way — but you have seen his film. Because it starred Salman.
The hero is back on the Indian screens, more powerful than ever and his superpower is the blockbuster. You just can’t escape it.
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