Is Salman Khan the undisputed No 1?

His last failure was way back in January 2010. Since then, Salman Khan has relentlessly delivered back-to-back blockbusters.

• Dabangg – 140 crores
• Ready – 121 crores (non-festive release)
• Bodyguard – 145 crores
• Total – 406 crores (average of 135 crores per film)

Those are staggering numbers, but what those figures don’t tell you is that, Salman Khan has been lucky enough to get the ‘perfect release’ for each of his films including the upcoming Ek Tha Tiger, which releases during an extended weekend of 6 days (including the holiday for EID on Monday)

To add to the ‘perfect release’, there is no denying the fact that Salman Khan has played it safe. In a recent interview, Khan, talking about his position as the numero uno star in the country, said “It’s a very dangerous position to be in. I don’t know what to do in my next film. If the script is full on action, I think, again an action film. If it is romance, I wonder if it will do well right after an action film.”

With action-masala films all the rage at the box-office, Salman has persisted with that genre and that’s unlikely to change in the future too – apart from Sooraj Barjatya’s next which is likely to release in 2014.

His films are faring better than the rest, but to say Salman is way ahead of the rest , would be wrong. Infact, his contemporaries, aren’t too far behind.

• Aamir Khan – 3 Idiots surpassed the 200 crore mark, when no other film (apart from his own Ghajini of course) had even touched 100 crores. The 202 crore figure still stands tall. Like Salman said recently “It’s a shame that no film has managed to beat 3 Idiots in 3 years”. The blind faith that the audience have in ‘brand Aamir’ plays a major role too. With Dhoom 3, every standing record will be broken and probably the 250 – 300 crore mark too.
• Hrithik Roshan – The dark and gory Agneepath broke the Bodyguard record and managed 120 crore+ even though it didn’t hold much appeal towards the family audience. As for those crediting Katrina Kaif’s item number for the success of Agneepath, wait for Krrish 3!
• Shahrukh Khan – A rejected film like Ra One, which dropped even before the end of it’s first weekend, did business of 120 crores+ (including hindi version). Don 2, with limited appeal towards single-screen audience, did close to 115 crores. Give SRK a well-made film, with universal appeal and the 3 Idiots record will be in danger. And we aren’t even talking about overseas business here.
• Akshay Kumar – Rowdy Rathore did 131 crores – 10 more than Ready, which had a similar release and 10 short of Bodyguard, without an extended weekend release. Akshay isn’t too far behind, is he?

The point of the article is not to say, Salman isn’t the top star in the industry today. He is. Just that, the other names mentioned above are all equally capable of delivering a ‘festive blockbuster’ with a perfectly timed release.