The Diwali season has helped revive the fortunes of actor Salman Khan, who has delivered a hit in ‘Tiger 3’ after a three-year lull. According to film exhibitors and distributors, the four-day box-office collection of ‘Tiger 3’, which released on Sunday, the day of Diwali, has crossed Rs 150 crore in the domestic market, the best for the actor in recent years.
The momentum, says Kunal Sawhney, chief operating officer at CineLine India, which runs the MovieMax chain of multiplexes, is expected to sustain over the next few days as there are no major releases this month from the Hindi or regional movie industries.
However, December, he says, will be a packed month for cine-goers. Among the big movies that will release next month include ‘Animal’ featuring Ranbir Kapoor and ‘Sam Bahadur’ starring Vicky Kaushal, both of which will hit theatres on December 1.
Siddharth Malhotra’s ‘Yodha’ and Katrina-Kaif-Vijay-Sethupati-starrer ‘Merry Christmas’ will release on December 8, Hollywood movie ‘Aquaman’ and the ‘Lost Kingdom’ will release on December 20, while Prabhas-starrer ‘Salaar’ as well as Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Dunki’ will release on December 22.
“‘Tiger 3’ is an action entertainer and part of a successful franchise. Salman is in his element in the film, which has helped it to click with audiences,” says Komal Nahta, film trade analyst and expert.
In recent years, action entertainers, notably, from the south, such as ‘Pushpa’, ‘RRR’ and ‘KGF 2’ have gone on to become huge hits. Taking a leaf out of this manual, Bollywood actors such as Shah Rukh Khan relaunched themselves as action heroes this year (he was regarded as a romantic hero earlier). Both ‘Pathaan’ and ‘Jawan’, starring Shah Rukh Khan, were huge hits at the box office this year.
Salman Khan, on the other hand, who is considered the original action hero among the three Khans, had fallen behind as audience tastes rapidly changed in the post-Covid world.
While 2020 was marred by the pandemic and saw no major releases by any actor, Khan failed to click at the box office in 2021 with ‘Radhe’ (which released on 13 May of that year) and ‘Antim: The Final Truth’ (26 November, 2021).
There was no major release from Khan in 2022 barring ‘Godfather’ (which released on October 5, 2022). It also featured Telugu star Chiranjeevi and had an ensemble cast of actors from the Hindi and south industries. This year, meanwhile, saw Khan deliver a flop in ‘Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan’, which released on the occasion of Eid in April.
On Wednesday, Yash Raj Films, which produced ‘Tiger 3’, said the movie, which also stars Katrina Kaif and Emraan Hashmi, earned 240 crore in worldwide gross collections. They expect the movie to touch 300 crore in gross box office collections in the next two days.
“‘Tiger 3’ has set the tone for the December quarter,” says Karan Taurani, senior vice-president, research at Mumbai-based brokerage Elara Capital. “It has helped Salman Khan to bounce back. The Hindi film industry should also be able to sustain the momentum this quarter given the number of big releases in December,” he says.