Shreya Mukherjee (HINDUSTAN TIMES; August 24, 2020)

Over the last five months, there has been a general air of tension and worry around us due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Add to that, the anxiety of many people losing jobs. And actor Zareen Khan feels that this work-related stress is affecting everyone’s mental health.

The actor is worried about her work, too. “Thankfully, I’m with my family in such stressful times. But I’m also worried about my finances. I’ve to start working. My source of income is a place where nothing is certain. You never know when you’ll get work, more so if you are an outsider. Star kids get everything so easily. I feel bad that I’m not given the chance to show whether I’ve the potential or not,” says Khan.

Opening up about the difficulties she had faced during her initial years in Bollywood, Khan says her challenges aren’t over yet. “It has always been tough. When Veer (2010) didn’t do well, people blamed me. I was new and unpolished. I might have made mistakes but no one understood. I became the soft target. Getting work after that was difficult,” she says, adding that she’s thankful to Salman Khan for making her an actor.

“Salman changed my life. But people think he got me all my films till date. That’s wrong. He just helped with my debut, after that I was on my own. I can’t be a burden on him. In fact, when nothing was working out, he trusted me again with the song Character Dheela (Ready; 2011),” adds the 33-year-old.

Khan says all these things affected her mental state. Things were worse when people compared her to actor Katrina Kaif. “It was both frustrating and depressing, but I never gave up. It backfired because Katrina was active at that time and I was just starting. Somehow, people like such comparisons, Preity Zinta was compared with Amrita Singh, Ameesha Patel with Neelam, but in their cases Amrita ji was done with her career and Neelam had also taken a break,” concludes Khan.

DABANGG 3 just about managed to get 1 crore footfalls despite the failure of the film. This means that Salman Khan had just one miss in the gone decade where only one of his films failed to hit the 1 crore footfall mark, that is, VEER. One crore footfalls is basically a real 100 crore nett value at the box office be it 1970 or 2020. Obviously today 1 crore footfalls means much more than 100 crore nett at the box office and in a few years it will give even more as ticket rates go higher.

One crore footfalls also means reaching a sizeable audience although some films need to reach a bigger audience due to the size of the films and most Salman Khan films come into this category. The one miss was VEER (2010) which was his first release of the decade and became before DABANGG (2010) which established his image of a mass action superstar across India and then films like BODYGUARD, READY and EK THA TIGER rubber stamped this image. VEER actually scored in Rajasthan and Bihar but Salman Khan was not the same star at the time of this release as he was a year or two later.

Basically just one film under 1 crore footfalls through the whole decade means most of his films got an audience irrelevant of content. If we compare, then Aamir Khan had one film which fell under 1 crore footfalls in the 2000-2009 decade but there were just nine releases and Manoj Kumar had one miss in the 1970-1979 decade but only ten films. Limited films had a hand in not missing the 1 crore mark for Aamir Khan and Manoj Kumar.

The Salman Khan films of the last decade are also finding big audiences on television in the Coronavirus lockdown period especially the two TIGER films. As far as OTT goes its being said that these B and C grade web series which have foundations based on sex and profanities rather than story and screenplay are the rage in the lockdown period but just the price paid for Salman Khan starrers which is around 100 crore is enough to tell what has a bigger audience. TIGER ZINDA HAI, RACE 3, BHARAT and DABANGG 3 have all fetched this price or nearabouts it.

The footfalls of Salman Khan starrer in the last decade are as follows. There were sixteen releases in total.
1. Veer (2010) - 73,47,000
2. Dabangg (2010) - 2,50,86,000
3. Ready (2011) - 1,84,52,000
4. Bodyguard (2011) - 2,21,48,000
5. Ek Tha Tiger (2012) - 2,47,39,000
6. Dabangg 2 (2012) - 2,05,28,000
7. Jai Ho (2014) - 1,43,98,000
8. Kick (2015) - 2,41,92,000
9. Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) - 3,54,17,000
10. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015) - 2,22,76,000
11. Sultan (2016) - 3,20,85,000
12. Tubelight (2017) - 1,15,74,000
13. Tiger Zinda Hai (2017) - 3,08,89,000
14. Race 3 (2018) - 1,58,19,000
15. Bharat (2019) - 1,60,68,000
16. Dabangg 3 (2019) - 1,01,63,000

Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 2, 2020)

Singer-composer Wajid Khan, 42, of the Sajid-Wajid duo, passed away around midnight on Sunday following health complications from Coronavirus. He had undergone a kidney transplant last year.

Wajid belonged to a classical music gharana and was trained by his father, Ustad Sharafat Ali Khan, a tabla player. He made his debut with brother Sajid in a qawwali for the Salman Khan and Kajol-starrer Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya. Soon, the brothers became a favourite with the actor and worked with him in films like Hello Brother, Tere Naam, Garv, Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Partner, God Tussi Great Ho, Wanted, Main Aur Mrs Khanna, Veer, the Dabangg franchise, Jai Ho and as a guest composer on Ek Tha Tiger.

In an earlier interview, Wajid had informed that Veer was special for him as a lot of work went into creating tunes from the pre-Independence era. “We went to villages to record sounds of stones and glasses,” he had informed. Director Anil Sharma recalls how one night, Salman called him home and introduced him to Sajid-Wajid. “I was planning to go with multiple composers. When they played the tune of “Surili Akhiyon Wale” on the piano, I decided to go solo with them,” says Sharma, admitting that he’s still wowed by that music sitting.

Writer-director Rumy Jafry reveals that the music of David Dhawan’s Mujhse Shaadi Karogi was to be composed by Anu Malik, with Sajid-Wajid as guest composers. But eventually, they composed the entire album and Anu was left with just one song. He then worked with the duo in his directorial God Tussi Great Ho, which boasted of the chartbuster “Tujhe Aksa Beach”, picturised on Salman and Priyanka Chopra. The song was also supposed to be a part of the Mujhse Shaadi Karogi soundtrack, but since they already had a beach song, “Jeene Ke Hain Char Din” by Anu, Rumi asked Sajid-Wajid to bank it for him and use it in God Tussi Great Ho.

Anees Bazmee informs that the duo composed the title track of Welcome, fronted by Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif, in less than 12 hours. “I was in Dubai and called them during lunch time asking for a title track. In two hours, they had a tune ready for me. Within a day they had the lyrics sorted and had recorded the song which contributed significantly to the film’s success,” admits the producer-director.

The composers gave more hits with Akshay Kumar, including Housefull 2 and Rowdy Rathore. Their other notable scores are Heropanti, Main Tera Hero, Himmatwala and Teri Meri Kahaani. They also recorded the album Deewana (1999), which was Sonu Nigam’s claim to fame with songs like “Ab Mujhe Raat Din” and “Deewana Tera”.

Sukhwinder Singh, who sung the Dabangg title track and “Lagan Lagi” from Tere Naam for the duo, reveals that they were among the very few musicians who didn’t use machines. “Wajid was a natural composer with a classical base who used instruments for sound. They waited 15 days to record ‘Lagan Lagi’ with me, one of Salman’s best,” he exults.

Just a few days ago, Sajid-Wajid’s single, “Bhai Bhai” with Salman was released. Radhe will be among Wajid’s last Bollywood scores. Atul Agnihotri, who is producing Radhe with Salman and Sohail, describes him as a beautiful person. The filmmaker has also worked with the duo in his home production, Hello. “His laughter and music will be missed by the family, in our life and movies. Sajid-Wajid shared a great bond with Bhai and have come up with a killer title track for Radhe. It’s straight from the heart, with lots of passion and goodness,” he signs off.

As told to Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; November 6, 2017)

I started working at the age of 17. I had led a sheltered life till then, but due to certain circumstances, I was forced to suddenly quit studies and take up a job. It was a tough call at the time but in retrospect, I believe that the early exposure to the realities of life made me stronger and helped shape me into the person I am today.

I started out doing odd jobs that required me to interact with different kinds of people. It was imperative that I understand the subtleties of body language and polish up on my communication skills. My first job was at a call centre. I received three months training and was paid Rs 10,000 a month. I was getting quite good at it when I had to leave. I fell seriously ill and had to be hospitalised.

Next up, I wanted to be an air hostess and was prepping up to fly high. But I was a little overweight then and was working on losing some not-needed kilos. Meanwhile someone suggested that I take up promotional jobs as they were pretty lucrative. I was paid around Rs 650 a day. I was usually at the corporate front desk and have worked a lot at the Bombay Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) - NESCO Limited. It’s the largest permanent exhibition in the private sector in India and has hosted several prestigious international trade fairs and exhibitions. It’s located in Goregaon, Mumbai, just 10 minutes from the airport and walking distance from the local train station. I was a part of many trade fairs, working for car brands, clothing brands and the like. On many occasions the companies used my face as an in-house model for their brochures and that helped me make some extra money on the side while giving me a bit of experience in modelling too.

Promotions were fun and I learnt a lot on the job while making enough money to take care of my family. It also made me strong and street smart which is essential when you’re living in a city like Mumbai. I used to take the local train from Bandra to Goregaon. This was the first time I travelled by train and those journeys are etched in my mind.

It’s because I started with these small jobs that today I don’t get easily disappointed when a film fails to work at the box-office. They taught me that no matter how small the job, it’s important to give it your 100 per cent because you never know when another opportunity knocks on your door.

For me, it happened when I went to watch a shoot. Salman Khan was filming Subhash Ghai’s musical family drama Yuvvraaj at a city studio. I met him there as a fan and before I knew it I had landed my first film, Anil Sharma’s Veer opposite Mr Khan. It was a period action drama with me playing a princess and the rest, as they say, is history.

Box Office India Trade Network

The business in January 2014 hit a new high for the month. However, there has been practically no growth in January over the last two years as the major films of the month like RACE 2 in 2013 and JAI HO this year have under performed.

The business of JAI HO has taken January to a new level of 170 crore nett plus but not by much as Jaunary 2012 put up a figure of 160 crore plus as AGNEEPATH did very well at the box office. 2011 saw the 100 crore mark breached for the first time in January.

Below is the total nett business of all films released in the month of January for the last ten years.

January Nett Gross Totals
Year	Total Releases	Total Nett Gross	% Change	Top Grosser
2005	15	44,17,00,000	-	Page 3
2006	9	78,97,00,000	+78.79%	Range De Basanti
2007	9	72,42,00,000	-7.91%	Guru
2008	10	35,96,00,000	-50.76%	Sunday
2009	9	69,04,00,000	+91.99%	Chandni Chowk To China
2010	15	87,89,00,000	+27.30%	Veer
2011	12	1,27,61,00,000	+31.12%	Yamla Pagla Deewana
2012	9	1,60,31,00,000	+25.62%	Agneepath
2013	17	1,59,80,00,000	-0.03%	Race 2
2014	12	1,71,40,00,000	+7.26%	Jai Ho