Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar in the next two days!

The next two days will be hugely exciting if you’re a film buff.

Akshay Kumar is ready with his 4th film of 2015 (after Baby, Gabbar Is Back, Brothers), as Singh Is Bliing releases less than 50 days after ‘Brothers’. This year, no Akshay film has crossed the 100 crore mark and the superstar would be hoping that Singh Is Bliing, under the direction of Prabhu Deva (responsible for giving Akshay his biggest grosser to date), turns out to be a huge hit at the box office.

On the other hand, we have a megastar like Salman Khan. For someone who was down and out for most part of last decade, Salman seems to be unstoppable at the moment.

Back in the mid-2000s, when Akshay was at the absolute peak of his career, Salman wasn’t even one of the Top 5 stars in the industry. His two major grossers during that period were No Entry and the other was Partner, and both were multi-starrers. Yet, films like Welcome and Singh Is King were ahead of Salman’s biggest grossers. Akshay was churning out back-to-back hits during his golden period in the industry.

About a decade later, Salman’s record breaking run of 7 blockbusters in 8 films (Jai Ho being the only exception since 2010) is unimaginably humongous. To give that some perspective, Akshay’s 3 films this year have collected Rs 266 crore (Baby 96 cr, Gabbar Is Back 87 cr, Brothers 83 cr). The combined cost of those three films, without deducting recovery from Satellite and other rights, is around Rs 260 crore.

In comparison, Salman’s one film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, has collected Rs 322 crore against costs of Rs 120 cr for Eros International. So, costs aside, Singh Is Bliing would have to collect 56 crore or more for Akshay’s all four films to beat Salman’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Pan India, the gap between Salman and the rest, bar Aamir, is widening with each film featuring the superstar in the lead. Even a comparison with Aamir would be unfair to Salman at this point in time because, since 2010, Aamir has appeared in just 3 films (Talaash, Dhoom 3 and PK) and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo would be Salman’s 9th releasesince Dabangg in 2010.

The other major event is the trailer release of Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo which marks the reunuion of Salman with the director responsible for his entry into Bollywood. After the record-breaking success of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo is carrying unimaginable buzz. The highly anticipated trailer of the film will release on the internet tomorrow. The first look poster will also be unveiled on the same day.

So the big questions then. Will Singh Is Bliing ensure that Akshay Kumar ends 2015 on a high? He desperately needs a big success, a 100 crore plus grosser to shut his critics. He has the popularity, he has the box office pull, but his films have not been performing at multiplexes. It remains to be seen if that changes with Singh Is Bliing.

For Salman, it’ll be a case of carrying on the good work that he has been doing in the last few years. Whatever he has touched has turned into box office gold, but the outstanding performance of Bajrangi Bhaijaan has also increased the expectations from PRDP, both among the audience and in the trade. So it remains to be seen if Salman and Barjatya can take the buzz of PRDP to an all-time high with a good theatrical trailer.

Lots to look forward to. Stay tuned to Indicine for updates.