DNA (January 10, 2017)

Aamir Khan sets records and then breaks them himself. He is pretty much competing with himself when it comes to delivering all-time blockbusters and that, too, in record time. Two years ago, he opened the Rs 300 crore club with PK, which went on to net Rs 340.80 crore. Now with Dangal, he has managed to surpass that feat as well by collecting Rs 345.30 crore* already. With Rs 31.79 crore* more coming over the third weekend, it has now emerged at the top of the list and gone past PK. It has managed this feat in 17 days while still in the running at almost all credible theatres screening Hindi films across the country.

There is another interesting factoid attached to the film. With Rs 344 crore* in 17 days, the film has also managed an average of Rs 20 crore-plus per day, something that is truly unbelievable. That’s because in 2016, just three films had an opening day of over 20 crore (Sultan: Rs 36.54 crore, Dangal: Rs 29.78 crore, M.S. Dhoni The Untold Story: Rs 21.3 crore) and here, Dangal has managed this as an average for its entire run so far!

This pretty much indicates that the Nitesh Tiwari directorial’s lifetime run of around Rs 375 crore is a definite possibility. This also opens up the doors to the next big record to be scored by a film in the near future, that of opening the Rs 400 crore club. All eyes would now be on Aamir Khan’s next Thugs of Hindostan that releases on November 7, 2018. The film is still almost two years away and by that time, there would be a substantial increase in number of screens as well.

Currently, the maximum that a film has stretched is towards the 5,000 screens mark. In fact, Dangal opened in far fewer (at 4300 screens). Since Thugs of Hindostan also stars Amitabh Bachchan, has Yash Raj Films backing it and has Vijay Krishna Acharya (who gave a Rs 284 crore all-time blockbuster with Aamir Khan), a release in over 5,500 screens is guaranteed. Now that should well open the floodgates for the film and rest assured, if Thugs of Hindostan turns out to be as good an entertainer as any other Aamir film since the arrival of 3 Idiots, an entry in the Rs 400 crore club is not really far away.

The question, though, is — Just like every major club so far, be it the Rs 100 crore club (opened by Ghajini), Rs 200 crore club (3 Idiots) or Rs 300 crore club (PK), will Bollywood have to rely on Aamir again for theopening of the Rs 400 crore club (with Thugs of Hindostan)? Or will there be another actor who would be taking the plunge as well? It is up to them to rise and shine. There are quite a few major releases in 2017 and all eyes are on whether this record would be possible in months to come before Aamir strikes again on Diwali in 2018.

Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources